Industry terms

Influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a brand working with creators to reach their audiences, paid in money, products or both.

Also called: creator marketing, influencer campaign

By Aulto · Last reviewed 23 Oct 2026

How do brands choose creators?

By audience fit first, then engagement and content quality. A small creator whose followers trust them often beats a big one with a loose audience.

ASCI's guidelines require clear disclosure of paid or gifted content, for example with a paid partnership label or a visible #ad.

Reach and engagement for awareness; clicks, codes and sales for results. Tagged links and discount codes show which creator drove what.

A D2C brand runs 20 micro-creators with unique discount codes and finds three of them drive most of the sales.

Barter collab
A barter collab is a creator collaboration paid in products or services instead of money: the brand sends something, and the creator posts about it.
Rate card
A rate card is a creator's price list for brand work, with a price for each format, like a reel, story or post, plus extras like usage rights.
UGC
UGC (user-generated content) is content made by customers or fans rather than the brand or artist, like reviews, unboxings or reels using a song.
UTM parameters
UTM parameters are short tags added to the end of a link that tell your analytics where a click came from, such as Instagram, WhatsApp or an email.
D2C
D2C (direct to consumer) is a brand that sells straight to customers, usually through its own website and social media, instead of through shops or marketplaces.
EPK
An EPK (electronic press kit) is an artist's digital press pack: bio, photos, music, videos, press quotes and contacts in one place for media, promoters and brands.