It works because the message comes from someone the audience already knows and trusts, not from a traditional ad. In this guide we explain how influencer marketing works, when it makes sense, and how to get off to a good start.
What does influencer marketing mean?
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing in which a brand pays, or otherwise rewards, someone with a social media following to talk about a product, a service or a cause.
The content is posted on the creator's own profile, in the creator's own voice, to the creator's own followers.
The key is distribution. With influencer marketing you are not just buying a video or a photo. You are buying access to an audience and to the relationship the creator has built up over months or years. That relationship is what makes a recommendation land.
These days the word influencer is often replaced by creator, because the profiles that work best rarely just show off a product. They make entertainment people choose to watch.
We use both words, but we always think content first. You can read more about that on our page about creator marketing.
Why does influencer marketing work?
Most of us scroll past an ad before it gets to the point. Influencer marketing gets round that problem, because the content looks like everything else we choose to watch in our feed. Four mechanisms make the difference:
Borrowed trust
People buy from people. A recommendation from someone you follow carries more weight than a message from a brand you have no relationship with.
It fits the feed
Content made by a creator is built for the platform. It has the right pace, the right sound and the right tone, so it doesn't stick out as advertising.
A precise audience
Every creator has an audience with particular interests, ages and habits. Choose well and you reach exactly the people you want to talk to.
Conversation and social proof
Comments, shares and duets turn a post into a conversation. When others react, you get social proof that an ad rarely earns on its own.
That doesn't mean influencer marketing works automatically. It works when the match, the idea and the format are right. If the content feels too staged, it loses its effect, and you end up paying for an ad that someone else simply filmed.
Types of creator partnership
Influencer marketing isn't one thing. The format depends on what you want to achieve and how much time you have. These are the types of partnership we most often see work:
Sponsored post
One or more creators make content about your product for their own profile. Good for launches and campaigns with a clear start and end.
Ambassador programme
A longer partnership in which the same creator comes back to the brand several times. The repetition builds credibility and recognition.
Challenges and trends
A dance, a sound or a format the audience can pick up themselves. When it works, it spreads far beyond the creators who started it.
Events and activations
Creators are invited to a premiere, a shop or a production day and share the experience. It connects the digital with the physical.
Product seeding
Selected profiles receive the product with no obligation to post. It can create genuine buzz, but gives you the least control over the result.
The size of the creator is a choice in itself. Smaller profiles often have a closer bond with their followers and a more niche audience, while big profiles deliver broad reach quickly. It isn't about choosing the biggest profile, but the right one.
Which platforms work best? TikTok, Instagram and YouTube
The same idea doesn't work the same way on every platform. Each channel has its own culture, and content has to be made for the channel it will live on.
- TikTok: Entertainment, trends and sound drive everything. The algorithm shows content to people who don't follow the creator, so even a new brand can reach a long way. See our guide to TikTok trends.
- Instagram: Reels are similar to TikTok, while stories and posts are strong for building an ongoing relationship with followers. Read more about Instagram content.
- YouTube: Longer formats leave room for in-depth walkthroughs and reviews, and Shorts compete directly with Reels and TikTok. See our guide to YouTube marketing.
- Twitch: Livestreams build a close community around gaming and live entertainment. It can be a strong choice if your audience games.
Choose your platform based on where your audience actually spends its time, not where your brand usually shows up. Many of our clients took their first steps on TikTok with us, precisely because that was where the young audience was.
How to get started with influencer marketing
A good campaign follows roughly the same six steps, whether the budget is small or large.
Set a clear goal
Should the campaign build awareness, shift an attitude, drive traffic or sell? The goal decides everything from your choice of creator to how you measure. Our page on campaign strategy goes into more depth.
Define audience and platform
Describe who you want to reach and where they are. A campaign aimed at sixth-formers looks completely different from one aimed at parents of young children.
Find the right creators
Look at the audience, the tone and the quality of the creator's content, not just the follower count. Ask yourself whether it will feel credible for this particular person to talk about your product.
Write a brief that leaves room for freedom
Make the message, the call to action and the few things that mustn't go wrong crystal clear. Then let the creator decide how to tell it. They know their audience best.
Agree clear terms and label it as advertising
Agree deliverables, deadlines, approval and usage rights. In Denmark, commercial content must be clearly labelled as advertising under the Danish Marketing Practices Act.
Track and evaluate
Follow views, engagement, clicks and sales while the campaign runs, and gather the learnings afterwards so the next campaign is sharper. It's part of good campaign management.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Most campaigns that disappoint fall down on the same points. Avoid them and you're already well on your way.
- Choosing a creator on follower count alone rather than on how well they match your audience.
- Controlling the script so tightly that the video sounds like an ad the creator is reading out.
- Using the same content on every platform without adapting format and tone.
- Packing in several messages at once, so the audience doesn't know what to remember or do.
- Forgetting a clear call to action when the goal is clicks or sales.
- Measuring vanity metrics that have nothing to do with the goal the campaign was set up for.
- Stopping after one campaign without taking stock of what worked.
Case: Trade unions on TikTok
How do you get young people interested in collective agreements and union membership?
That was the brief when the Danish Trade Union Confederation (Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation) wanted to raise awareness of dinfagforening.dk, where young people can find the union that suits them.
The case shows the core of influencer marketing: the goal wasn't to explain what a trade union is, but to get the right audience thinking this was something worth a closer look. The same approach runs through the rest of our cases.
How does it relate to UGC and creator marketing?
Three terms are often used interchangeably. In short, influencer marketing is about distribution through a creator's profile, while UGC is content the brand owns and uses in its own channels and ads.
Creator marketing is the umbrella term, with the content at its centre.
Want to know more about content you own yourself? Read what UGC is. Unsure which to choose? We've written a whole guide on UGC vs influencer marketing.
Frequently asked questions
The price depends on the creator's size and demand, the number of videos, the platform, the scale of production and how long the brand may use the content. A small campaign with a few creators can be run on a modest budget, while large campaigns with many profiles and paid media cost more. The most important thing is to set the budget against the goal, so you pay for the effect you need and not just for reach.
Yes. In Denmark, commercial content must be clearly labelled under the Danish Marketing Practices Act, so it's obvious that it is advertising. The Danish Consumer Ombudsman recommends that the label sits at the start of the post and is easy to see. This applies both to paid posts and to partnerships where the creator receives products or other benefits. Responsibility lies with both the brand and the creator, so agree the labelling in advance.
There's no magic number. A smaller profile with an engaged audience in exactly your target group can deliver more value than a big profile whose followers aren't interested in your product. Look at who follows the creator, how much they engage, and whether the creator's tone suits your brand. On TikTok even smaller creators can reach a long way, because the algorithm shows content to people who don't follow them.
Start with the goal. If the goal is awareness, measure views, reach and how many people watch the video to the end. If the goal is action, measure clicks, traffic, discount codes and sales. Use trackable links and codes, and ask the creators for screenshots of their stats. Then compare results across creators, so you learn which profiles and angles work best next time.
In practice the words are often used about the same people. Influencer puts the emphasis on the person's influence over their followers, while creator puts it on the content they make. Many of the profiles that work best for brands see themselves as creators, because they make entertainment rather than ads. For you as a brand, what matters isn't the title, but whether the person can make content your audience actually wants to watch.
Yes. Influencer marketing works in many industries, as long as the idea suits the platform and the audience. For example, we helped the Nanoscience degree programme with a TikTok campaign featuring 11 creators that delivered more than 2 million views, and the number of students admitted doubled compared with previous years. We've also run campaigns for Ford and the Danish trade union movement, among others, which aren't classic influencer industries.
