Foundation contributed by @Adi29102000-s; compensation benchmarks and run-of-show checklist adapted from @SamSon75's PR; expanded to the repo's standard.

• Engagement rate, not follower count (a rough floor: ~1–3% is healthy on IG/TikTok at scale; higher for nano). Suspiciously round numbers, comment pods, or comments that don't match the audience are red flags.
• Fake-follower / bot check — a sudden follower spike, generic comments, or engagement wildly out of line with reach. Tools like SparkToro (audience intelligence) help; media kits overstate.
• Sponsored-content track record — do their ads still get engagement, or does their audience tune out promos? Ask for past campaign results.
• Brand safety — scroll their last ~3 months. Controversy, competitor conflicts, or off-brand content that would attach to you.
• Authenticity of fit — have they mentioned your category unprompted? A genuine user is worth several cold partners.

• Flat fee — standard for awareness; you pay for the placement regardless of result.
• Performance / CPA — pay per click or conversion. Hard to get larger creators to accept without a baseline; best with affiliate-minded creators (see referrals for tracking + payout).
• Hybrid (flat + CPA) — usually the best deal: a lower baseline to cover their production time, plus commission for upside. Aligns incentives.
• Gifting / seeding — free product, no obligation. Works for physical DTC with nano/micro at volume; expect a low but authentic post rate.

• Content usage rights (crucial) — the right to repurpose their content as paid ads (whitelisting / dark posting / "creator ads") for a defined window (commonly 3–6 months). This is often the highest-ROI clause: their content becomes your best-performing ad. Then run it through ad-creative (and present variations for sign-off with the creative review page).
• Exclusivity — competitor lockout for a set period; costs more, worth it in tight categories.
• Format & specifics — dedicated video vs. a 60-second integration; number of posts; stories vs. feed; posting window; approval rights; how long it stays up.
• Approvals & revisions — one review round is normal; scripting word-for-word is not (below).

• Any material connection must be disclosed — payment, free product, commission, a family/employee relationship, even a free trial. Gifting is not a loophole; a gifted post still needs disclosure.
• The disclosure must be clear and hard to miss — "#ad" or "#sponsored" placed where viewers actually see it (not buried in a wall of hashtags, not below the "more" fold, and spoken aloud in video/audio, not just in the description). "#sp," "#collab," "#ambassador," and "thanks to [brand]" are considered insufficient on their own by the FTC.
• Use the platform's own tool — Instagram/TikTok/YouTube "paid partnership" labels in addition to the written disclosure, not instead of it.
• You're responsible for your creators. Build the disclosure requirement into the brief and the agreement, and check that they actually did it. Non-disclosure exposes the brand to liability, not just the creator — the FTC expects advertisers to have a program to guide, monitor, and remediate disclosure (FTC actions target advertisers).
• No fabricated claims. Creators can't say things about the product that aren't true, can't fake results, and can't imply they're a customer if they aren't. Give them what's true and let them speak it in their voice.
• International + platform rules vary (e.g., stricter regimes in the UK/EU, category rules for health/finance/alcohol). When the campaign is regulated or cross-border, route to legal.

• The "why" — the core problem your product solves (the one sentence).
• Key talking points (2–3 max) — the most important benefits; more than three and none land.
• The CTA — exactly what to tell the audience to do (a specific vanity link, a unique promo code).
• Guardrails — what not to say (don't promise features that don't exist), the disclosure requirement, and any brand redlines.
• Creative freedom — explicitly grant it. The integration should live inside their normal content style.

• Unique promo codes (e.g.,

  CREATOR20

  ) — the easiest direct-conversion tracker, and essential for podcasts/video where links aren't clickable.
• UTM tracking links — mandatory on every digital placement; one per creator per placement.
• Vanity / dedicated landing pages —

  yourdomain.com/creatorname

  with a personalized welcome; lifts conversion and attributes cleanly.
• Post-purchase survey — "How did you hear about us?" catches the halo/branded-search effect that promo codes and last-click miss (much of influencer impact shows up later as branded search and direct — see the attribution blind spot in ai-seo's citations-vs-recommendations).
• Whitelisting performance — when you repurpose creator content as ads, that ad's own metrics are a clean read on the creative's real pull.

1. Define the tier(s) and the ask — e.g., 2 posts/month + 1 event; keep it light enough to sustain.
2. Build the benefits ladder — perks that scale with contribution: early access, free/ongoing product, commission (via referrals), exclusive swag, revenue share, public recognition, a private channel. Meaningful beats "early access to features."
3. Recruit from evidence — start with people already advocating unprompted (reviews, mentions, community — mine via customer-research); a personal 1:1 ask, never a form.
4. Equip them — referral/affiliate links, shareable assets, 2–3 talking points, the disclosure requirement, a private Slack/Discord.
5. Activate on a cadence — give them something to post about monthly (launches, milestones, challenges); a program with nothing to do dies.
6. Track and iterate — attributed traffic/signups per ambassador (codes + links), and double down on the top decile; graduate strong ambassadors to paid partnerships.

• Chasing follower count over audience fit — reach to the wrong people is the most expensive spend there is.
• Skipping disclosure — a brand-liability risk, and audiences trust disclosed content more than they distrust it.
• Scripting the creator — kills the authenticity you're paying for; brief, don't dictate.
• Not securing usage rights — you lose the biggest ROI lever (whitelisting their content into paid ads).
• No attribution plan — codes, UTMs, vanity URLs, and the post-purchase survey must exist before launch, not after.
• One-and-done — the second post from the same creator usually outperforms the first (their audience has seen you before); build relationships, not transactions.
• Judging on EMV / reach — measure cost per qualified outcome.
• Ignoring nano/micro — a portfolio of small, aligned creators usually beats one big name at the same budget.

• Define the ICP overlap you're looking for, not just follower count
• Shortlist 10–20 creators across at least two tiers (weight toward micro + nano)
• Check engagement rate and comment quality for each; run the fake-follower check

• Personalize outreach with a specific reference to their content
• Agree deliverables, timeline, and compensation type in writing
• Lock usage rights (paid-ad whitelisting window) and exclusivity terms
• Put the disclosure requirement in the agreement

• Send a brief with the "why," 2–3 talking points, the CTA, and what to avoid
• Set up tracking (unique code, UTM, or vanity URL) before content goes live
• Review the draft if you have approval rights — without over-scripting
• Confirm the disclosure actually shipped where viewers can see it

• Pull performance against the goal set upfront (cost per qualified outcome)
• Share results with the creator — it builds the relationship
• Decide: one-off, repeat, or move to a retainer / ambassador program

• referrals — affiliate/commission tracking and payout rails (the performance side of creator deals)
• community-marketing — community-led advocacy and the unpaid advocate program
• ad-creative — repurpose creator content into paid ads (whitelisting); creative review page for sign-off
• cold-email — the creator outreach itself (personalization, deliverability, follow-up)
• customer-research — find existing advocates and ground the talking points
• ai-seo — the branded-search/direct attribution blind spot that hides influencer impact
• social — organic content strategy the partnerships plug into