Influencer Marketing 101 for Creators

Everything I'm sharing here is based on my personal experience and perspective. These views are mine alone and do not represent any current, former, or future employers.

My intention and hope in writing this is to offer a more thoughtful perspective than can fit in an unpaid short form post from somebody who has been on nearly all sides of the sponsorship conversation, including the creator side. This post is the culmination of 10 years in the creator space, more than half of it on the industry side.

The post ahead is very very long but it covers incredibly useful information and has four main sections:

There is surely something you will disagree with in this post and I want to be clear that this represents a singular perspective: mine. And if I could be so bold to offer you some instruction: simply take this post for what it is (my perspective) and leverage it against your own experience, knowledge, and opinions.

I've put up a subscribe with email to read further because I want this information to reach people who are genuinely interested in learning about the business side of creator partnerships. I don't post frequently to this blog and I'm not trying to monetize anything – feel free to unsubscribe after you read. I ask that you do not repost or repackage this content into other formats.

Note: All examples are made up and are fictional, but are representative of many instances over the years.

They're just out here to screw you over and get you to do free work—well no, but kinda yes. Every marketing department is told to do as much as they possibly can to hit outrageous goals with as little budget as possible. Marketing has gone through a bit of a reckoning with an overreliance on Big Data to make decisions that caused a shift from storytelling to performance-driven marketing tactics. I have faith that non-marketers will come back around to understanding that marketing is both science and art, realizing that it cannot be distilled down to singular performance-driven tactics. Nike already has, they were a powerhouse of marketing for years, the platonic ideal of a marketing team. They hired a CMO that was all about Big Data and their sales went down... they're making a u-turn back to storytelling but it'll be a while before they recover (you can learn more on the interwebs, smarter folks than I have analyzed it). Though, much to my and others' chagrin, marketing is still likely to continue to have to fight for a seat at the table earlier in planning to achieve success.

Unfortunately for creators, most influencer marketing is all about Big Data. This means all of the conversations about "creators are more than their numbers" are hurting you because at the end of the day it is all about the numbers and ROI. Even if the person you're working with on the brand or agency side thinks you are a perfect fit and your content would go well with the campaign, if the numbers don't work they won't be able to move forward in partnering with you. We'll come back to this in more depth shortly.

When a brand (e.g., consumer product, game studio, etc.) decides they'd like to do an influencer marketing campaign (organic or paid), they're looking at the importance of that particular moment, the overall budget they have for the year, and the targets they need to hit. To keep it simple and most relevant to the audience I believe will be reading this, let's use games.

A game has many beats over the course of the campaign (hopefully, lol) leading up to launch and a fixed limited budget. A lot of truly independent (no publishers or investors) game studios with small teams are run on limited budgets (unless they've had a breakout success before) and set aside as little as $5,000-$10,000 total for all of their marketing. These games rely heavily on organic influencer marketing, creators covering their game because they want to or they find it interesting, not because they're paid to. Some of these studios may decide that if they can get one unicorn of an influencer that is good at moving their audience (a few large creators get cited A LOT) that it will be enough to drive success.

What about game studios with publishers? There are a lot of different models for how publishers support games, including doing the marketing for them in-house, but for the sake of this post let's focus on publishers who let the game studio handle their own marketing and instead give them a budget. That budget is often unlocked over time and connected to specific milestones that the studio has to hit. This means when they launch a game demo it is very likely there is no budget tied to that marketing beat, which is why you get a lot of emails asking you to check out the demo with your community. It's a milestone where they can collect feedback and get market validation. If the demo doesn't perform as well as the publisher expects it to, it can impact how much more investment (budget) the publisher puts into that game.

Not to mention the most important marketing moment for many game studios is launch, and so many (if not most) spend most of their budgets around launch because that's the only time they'll be able to start recouping some of their expenses and making money. In the section on improving your odds of sponsorship, I'll explain later on how you might leverage this knowledge into being sponsored.

So when it comes to deciding when to lean into influencer marketing and when to spend budget, it's often tied to a lot more complicated metrics unrelated to you, and the idea that if a game studio really wanted to work with you they'd be able to unlock more budget is narrowly true in some cases. Most of the time there is a set amount of budget for marketing for the whole year and every dollar spent in one place is a dollar not spent in another.

For non-gaming brands, it depends on if the product is a high margin product (low cost to make and sell), whether it's considered "upscale" or luxury, if the brand has a notable reputation (i.e., they're highly desired), and where in the marketing cycle that product is at.

Now that you've got a high-level understanding of how decisions are made, let's dive into budget allocation and ROI. When an influencer marketing budget is set aside it usually comes with a set of goals. To illustrate the point, here are two fictional influencer campaign overviews that might exist for a game's marketing beat:

Example Campaign Overview One 

Example Campaign Overview Two 

What is the target goal they're explicitly tracking based on those campaign overviews?

While those are clear goals they're trying to reach for those campaigns, what KPIs (key performance indicators) will they use to determine if they will get an ROI (return on investment)?

What's a good number for each of those KPIs based on the budget? Well that's a little bit of a complex answer because you also need to take into consideration the TAM (total addressable market) aka how wide of an appeal the game has.

With a well-optimized ad on the right platform you could be able to get the cost per wishlist down to 25 cents. That's what you are ultimately competing against when we're discussing ROI, optimized ads. If the same amount of money could be spent in other places, would it perform better or worse? Don't worry, I don't think we should throw influencer marketing out with the baby and bath water, we'll talk about how to prove you have ROI down below.

Now that you have all of that context for those two campaigns, how would you break up that budget? How would you determine what to pay each creator? How would you decide on an upper limit for a single creator? All of those are great questions and have many different answers that all start with "it depends," so instead I'm going to outline a few possible scenarios.

Scenario One 

Given that creators are notorious about responding to emails timely and being communicative enough, that means you have to research MORE creators than you need and email them all because you know not everyone will say yes, read your email, or even respond. So you email 100 creators in hope of locking in the number of creators you need to hit your goals within the budget and you ask them what their rates are and you begin the fun game of budget tetris in spreadsheets.

Scenario Two 

Talent Agency A has a good amount of creators who could be a fit for the campaign so you reach out, share a campaign brief, and ask Talent Agency A to suggest the creators they think would be a great fit, within budget, and would help you reach your goals.

Scenario Three 

Brand hires an agency, either a talent agency with a brand marketing entity or a brand-only influencer marketing firm. The same budget is available but now the agency needs to be paid for their work, so the brand can decide to pay the agency fee on top of the spend or they may say that's the whole budget and your fee needs to come out of the total budget. And then the agency they've hired goes back to consider scenario one or two.

Now to be fair, influencer marketing budgets range and are sometimes higher for some brands and games, but those Barbenheimer budgets are not as plentiful as you might think. I'm using Barbenheimer as an example to pick on because I saw the perfect tweet from a marketer when it happened: "Was their marketing plan amazing or did they just have a massive budget?" I know, I know... a big budget and a bad marketing plan is still a bad marketing plan, but the best marketing plans are hindered by their budgets (or lack thereof).

Pro-tip: The best ROI comes from evergreen searchable VOD content (long or short form).

Once a brand has set aside a budget they're likely to engage a marketing agency, even if they have an in-house individual who manages their influencer programs, and the reason for this is because influencer marketing takes A LOT of time. When you engage an agency they usually have a dedicated team for your account, existing relationships, understand success metrics and systems in their workflow to reduce time where it's possible. As well as, they're doing this work every day—they're watching trends, looking at new creators on the rise, and also know which creators might have a brand risk. Honestly, it's deep internet culture shit.

The amount of time influencer marketing takes is also why you are getting emails that are relevant to you but not uniquely written specifically for you. If you email 100 creators you have to set parameters, research potential creators, look at each individual channel for brand risk, fit, etc., narrow it down to 100, and then you have to email them. Before you even get to writing an email you might spend hours even with tools, and that's because tools only get you so far before a human review is needed.

Some tools try to help with this by using AI to determine something that happened recently in your content, which is why you'll get "I loved when xyz-thing happened during your stream" and it's only partially accurate. I prefer to go the route of sharing how I selected creators. For example, I might include a line in my email that says, "We looked for creators who have played x, y, and z and have not played a."

I don't have a strong opinion on if a brand decides to manage in-house or leverage an agency. I've done campaigns in-house and have worked at an agency—in the spirit of transparency I'm at an agency now.

MYTH: A brand working with an agency has a big budget.

REALITY: Agencies also have to work with the budgets they're given and often take work below their standard rates because not every client is going to have the budget or be in a market where their currency goes further.

Ultimately the brand should do what works best for them to achieve the results they're looking for, but from my perspective a creator getting a deal through a marketing agency creates an opportunity to build a relationship with an agency that does deals all the time, and might remember you for future deals.

So ultimately, yes, brands (and their agencies) are trying to do everything they can to meet their goals within budget, but no they aren't specifically looking to take advantage of anybody. In fact, most influencer marketing managers I know feel the best about their work when it's a win-win situation.

A common rhetoric on social media is that the only type of partnership is the one where you’re paid – I would counter that if that is the only consideration then that is just contract work. Now to be fair, most influencer marketing campaigns are simple contract work with very straight forward deliverables with very little collaboration for a fee. However, that is not the only type of partnership that exists and you can leverage different types of partnerships to build your portfolio and business.

What it is: A brand sends you their product for free in exchange for coverage, whether that's a post, review, or mention. This includes game keys, unboxing kits, and customized items just for you.

Why you might benefit from participating: If you're just starting out, this gets products in your hands to create content around without upfront costs and it helps build your portfolio. It's also useful when you genuinely want to try something and share your honest take with your audience without the pressure of a paid contract.

Red flags: Brands expecting extensive deliverables for just products. If they want multiple posts, stories, reels, and full production value for a $30 item or even an item that’s more expensive that’s not a fair collaboration. Also watch for brands that get pushy about what you say or demand approval rights like you're being paid.

What it is: Instead of monetary payment, a brand provides you with an experience – a trip, event access, a meal at a restaurant, tickets to something, a spa day – in exchange for content coverage. The experience itself is the compensation.

Why you might benefit from participating: If it's something you'd genuinely want to do and it aligns with your content, you're getting real value while creating authentic material for your audience. It can open doors to experiences you couldn't access otherwise or wouldn't prioritize spending money on. When the experience is substantial and relevant to your niche, the content practically creates itself and feels natural rather than forced. And not to mention, exclusive experience content performs well. 

Red flags: Brands that expect extensive deliverables for a mediocre experience that's not worth your time. Companies that oversell what they're offering – promising luxury but delivering basic. Experiences that come with a lot of strenuous strings attached(specific posting schedules, excessive approval processes, mandatory talking points). And watch for situations where you're expected to cover your own travel, lodging, or other costs to access the "free" experience.

What it is: You share a unique link or code, and you earn a commission when someone makes a purchase through it. Payment is performance-based, not upfront. 

Why you might benefit from participating: This works well for products you already use and recommend. There's potential for passive income if you're talking about these products anyway, and it can be more lucrative than flat-fee posts if your audience converts well. It is also good practice in learning how to convert your audience which helps you build out provable ROI (especially if you have a smaller audience). 

Red flags: Terrible commission structures (like 2% on low-ticket items), brands that want you to commit to posting minimums without guaranteed compensation, or companies with shady tracking that "loses" your conversions. Also be wary of promoting products solely because the commission is high rather than because you believe in them.

Note: Hybrid based fee + performance based programs exist where you get a minimum lower fee for a minimum number of posts but you’re also paid out on performance. 

What it is: Your compensation is tied to business results like sales growth, new customer acquisition, or revenue targets – but isn't just clicking an affiliate link. You're being measured on real campaign performance, market impact, or business outcomes that go beyond simple link tracking. They may not include an initial upfront fee but instead a MG (minimum guarantee paid out at a future date).

Why you might benefit from participating: When you know you can move the needle, this structure lets you earn based on the real value you're bringing rather than just content. It aligns incentives properly – the brand is motivated to give you what you need to succeed, and you're rewarded for impact. If you're confident in your ability to drive results, the upside can be significantly higher than flat fees.

Red flags: Performance metrics that are unrealistic, poorly defined, or that you have no real ability to influence. Brands that aren't transparent about how they're tracking results. Deals where all the risk is on you (low or no base payment) but they maintain all the control over factors that affect performance like pricing, inventory, or marketing support. Companies that move goalposts mid-campaign or don't provide you with real-time data to optimize your approach.

What it is: You and a brand create content together where both of your names/brands are prominently featured. Think joint campaigns, collaborative content series, or co-hosted events where it's clear you're working together as partners rather than just being hired talent. These can be a paid or unpaid collaboration.

Why you might benefit from participating: This positions you more as a peer to the brand rather than just a contractor. It can elevate your credibility, expose you to their audience while they tap into yours, and often involves more creative collaboration than standard sponsored posts. Plus, it looks better on your media kit than a one-off sponsored post.

Red flags: Brands that want equal billing but expect you to do all the heavy lifting on content creation. Partnerships where they get to use your name and association but you have no say in the final output. Deals that give them all the upside (like owning all the content) while you're just getting "exposure" in return.

What it is: A brand uses your name, likeness, or intellectual property to create and sell products – think your own product line, a collection with your name on it, or limited edition items. This goes beyond content creation into product development and sales.

Why you might benefit from participating: This is real business building. You're creating tangible assets that can generate ongoing revenue through royalties or profit-sharing. It adds legitimate credentials to your portfolio, gives you something concrete to point to beyond social posts, and can open doors to bigger opportunities. When done right, you're building equity in something, not just trading time for money.

Red flags: Brands that want your name and audience but give you zero creative control over what's being made or how it's marketed. Contracts that don't include fair royalties or profit-sharing – if they're making money off your name, you should be too. Companies that are clearly just slapping your name on existing inventory with no collaboration. Deals that give them all the rights to use your likeness in perpetuity across any product they want without additional compensation. And watch for brands that want to lock you into exclusivity across entire product categories while keeping all the upside for themselves.

What it is: A brand pays you a flat fee to create content featuring their product or service. This is the standard influencer campaign with clear deliverables, timelines, and talking points.

Why you might benefit from participating: Direct payment for your work, plain and simple. When the rates are right and the brand aligns with your content, it's a solid income stream that values your audience and creative skills.

Red flags: Brands that won't let you redline the contract or negotiate terms, campaigns that require you to make claims you can't verify, or rates that are insultingly low for highly complex creative work they're requesting.

Note: Many contracts are boilerplate and include a clause about likeness rights in perpetuity; the red flag is if the brand refuses to budge. In my experience, many legal teams push for this to be included as a CYA and marketers are not specifically looking to use your content in perpetuity so just redline the agreement when you get it. That isn’t to say there are not shady individuals and companies out there so definitely redline it. 

What it is: An ongoing relationship where you regularly represent a brand over an extended period, usually several months to a year. This typically includes multiple posts, exclusive partnership terms, and sometimes events or other appearances.

Why you might benefit from participating: The value exchange should feel balanced – your sustained advocacy and audience access in return for their sustained investment in you, whether that's through payment, product, exclusive access, or other meaningful support. When it's a brand you love, you get to build a genuine narrative with your audience over time rather than one-off posts. 

Red flags: Programs where the value exchange is completely lopsided – exclusivity clauses that block you from working with entire categories of brands while they're barely compensating you, ambassador programs that are really just affiliate schemes dressed up with a fancy title, or brands that want ongoing access to you and your audience but offer no real value to you.

What it is: You receive ownership stake in a company or product line in exchange for your involvement, whether that's promotion, creative direction, or ongoing representation. This means you own a piece of what you're building.

Why you might benefit from participating: This is wealth building, not just income. If the company or product line grows, you grow with them. You have skin in the game and a seat at the table, which often means more creative control and strategic input. For the right opportunity, this can be life-changing money and set you up long-term in ways that paid posts never will.

Red flags: Equity that's so diluted it's essentially worthless, or ownership in an LLC with no real path to liquidity. Vesting schedules designed to make it nearly impossible to realize value. Deals where you take on significant risk and work but have zero control over business decisions that directly affect your equity value. Companies that aren't transparent about their cap table, valuation, or financial health. 

Ultimately what types of partnerships you choose to accept is up to you and only you. Be wary of individuals telling you what you should or shouldn’t do for your business who do not have to live with the consequences.

There are a lot of factors that determine whether or not you're picked for a campaign. There's a saying: "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity," and the best thing you can do is prepare yourself and your business (content) for when brands go looking for creators. I hope the above context, along with the following insights, helps you make the best decisions for you and your business.

First and foremost, I think many creators don't think of their content creation as a business—and that's fine—but if you're looking to monetize your content and make more money, both from brands and in general, you should consider reframing how you think about it. The first step to building a successful anything is mindset.

With that in mind, let’s dive in.

Look, I get it, calling yourself a "brand" can feel gross and corporate when you're just trying to make content you care about. But here's the thing: whether you think of yourself as a brand or not, other people already do. Brands looking for partnerships are evaluating you as a business partner, and the creators who understand this stand out (it shows in how they show up).

Thinking like a business doesn't mean losing your authenticity or turning into some soulless content machine. It means understanding that your content has value, your time has value, and that making strategic decisions about what you create and how you present yourself can open doors. The mindset shift from "I'm just making videos" or “I just play video games” to "I run a content/media business" can be the difference between creators who struggle to monetize and creators who build sustainable income streams.

Your brand is more than just your content, it's what you stand for, what your audience expects from you, and how you show up consistently over time. Are you the person who does deep dives on indie games? The one who's brutally honest about products? The comfort streamer people come to when they've had a shit day? Whatever it is, knowing your lane makes it easier for brands to understand if you're a fit for their campaigns. And more importantly, it makes it easier for you to say no to deals that don't align with who you are.

Consistency doesn't mean doing the exact same thing every day, it means your audience knows what they're getting from you and brands can predict what working with you will look like. 

If you're building a business around your content, there's real value in keeping your primary channels clear of clutter that distracts from what you do.

I'm not saying you can't share personal opinions or aspects of your life, but there's a difference between occasionally sharing something that resonates with your brand and using your platform as a diary for every thought, drama, or argument. When a brand is evaluating your channel, they're trying to understand what your content is about. If your last 10 posts are a mix of content, subtweets, personal rants, and random hot takes, it muddies the water.

Using your platform for what you believe in is absolutely part of your brand, the only consideration is how you deliver the message. There's a difference between thoughtfully addressing issues that matter to you and rage cussing up at the news. Both are taking a stance, but one feels intentional and the other feels reactive.

Some creators keep a separate personal account for the messy stuff. This isn't about hiding who you are; it's about creating a strong brand. Your channels are your portfolio.

Do all successful creators do this? No. Plenty are messy on main and do fine. But until you reach a critical mass where brands need your audience enough to overlook potential risk, it can be a hindrance. When brands are evaluating 50 creators for 10 spots, they're de-risking every decision. Two creators have similar stats, but one has a clean, focused feed while the other is half content, half drama. Who are they picking?

I'm not saying this is fair or that you should change who you are fundamentally. But if you're serious about getting brand deals, consider whether every impulse post needs to live on your main channels. The choice is yours, but it has consequences for your business. 

And unfortunately, in my experience this impacts those from historically excluded or marginalized groups the most.

When brands are evaluating whether to work with you, they're asking themselves one question: "Can I picture our product fitting naturally into this person's content?" If they can't easily see where they'd fit, they're moving on to the next creator.

Brand-ready content isn't about selling out or making everything advertiser-friendly to the point of being bland. It's about creating natural entry points for brands to be involved. If you stream on Twitch, are you regularly clipping highlights and posting them? Do you review products even when you're not being paid to? Do you make recommendation videos for games, gear, or experiences? Do you post content hyping up a game you're playing just because you love it? Do you make unboxing videos for products you buy to get in the practice and prime your audience for the content? When a brand looks at your content, they should be able to imagine themselves fitting in somewhere without it feeling forced or completely out of left field for your audience.

Here's what I mean: if your whole channel is you playing games with friends and you never mention products or games by name, a brand can't picture how a sponsorship would work. But if you regularly do "games I've been playing this month" videos or you talk about why you love certain indie titles or you show off your setup, suddenly brands can see exactly where they'd slot in. You've already created the template, they're just filling in the blank with their product instead of whatever you organically talked about. 

Remember, you're competing against ads. Brands are constantly deciding whether to spend money on traditional advertising or influencer marketing. How you talk about products, even when you're not paid, can help or hurt how brands picture working with you. If you're thoughtful in your own way when discussing games or products you love, brands think "okay, they could do that for us too." 

Pro-tip: The best strategy if you stream is to find natural conversation points to bring these topics and clip it. Post those clips to your channels.

Not all content is created equal when it comes to sponsorships, and understanding the difference can help you make strategic choices about what you create.

Evergreen content (stuff that stays relevant for months or years) is gold for brands. A video about "best indie games for cozy gaming" from six months ago can still drive value today. Timely content like "reacting to today's drama" might get great views right now, but it has a short shelf life. Most brands prefer evergreen because they're paying for content that continues to work for them long after you've posted it.

VOD (video on demand) content almost always performs better for sponsorships than live content, and I know that's going to sting for a lot of streamers to hear. Here's why: VOD is searchable, it's discoverable months later, and brands can see exactly what they're getting. A YouTube video titled "I tested 10 gaming chairs so you don't have to" will get searched for and watched repeatedly. A live stream where you mention a gaming chair once gets buried in your VOD library and is hard to find. This doesn't mean you can't get sponsored streams, you absolutely can, but understand that VOD content is typically going to command higher rates because the ROI is better.

This is exactly why it's important to build out your content business across platforms: short form, VOD, and live streaming. When you have an audience on multiple platforms, you can leverage each platform's qualities and offer brands different types of packages depending on what they're trying to achieve. If you only exist on one platform, you're limiting the types of deals you can offer.

Brands aren't finding you the same way your viewers do. They're using massive databases that index a ton of information to narrow down what they're looking for, they can sort by audience size, past games played, hashtags, topics, audience demographics, and more. Your job is to make sure the data these tools are scraping reflects what you do.

Twitch does the best job of indexing gaming-related content, but that's basically it. If you're a variety streamer, make sure you're playing the types of games you'd like to be discovered for playing similar ones. If you want strategy game sponsorships, stream strategy games. If you want cozy game sponsorships, stream cozy games. Twitch's category system works in your favor here, use it intentionally.

For TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms, the difference is that Twitch requires you to index your content by selecting a category, whereas other platforms don't let you neatly label what game your video is about, with the exception of YouTube. For YouTube, always select the game in the video details if it's related to one. For platforms like TikTok where there's no game tagging system, say the name of the game in your post text somewhere. A video titled "this game made me cry" with no game name in the description or caption means brands searching for creators who cover emotional narrative games won't find you. You don't need to be robotic about it, but "this game made me cry [Game Name]" or mentioning it in your caption makes you discoverable.

For non-gaming content, if you talk about products, gear, travel, food, or anything else on stream, create clips and post them to other platforms. Brands aren't watching your six-hour VODs hoping you mentioned their product category. They're searching TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter for creators who talk about what they sell. If you spent 20 minutes on stream talking about your favorite keyboards, clip that, post it, and make sure "mechanical keyboard" or "gaming keyboard" is somewhere in the text.

Talk about the things you want to be sponsored by, not just specific companies, but product types. If you want audio sponsorships, talk about microphones, headphones, and audio interfaces. If you want food and beverage sponsorships, talk about your coffee setup or the snacks you're eating. Brands are searching for creators who already create content in their category because it means a sponsorship will feel natural to your audience.

Here's the hard truth: brands care about your numbers more than they care about how great your content is. I know, I know, "creators are more than their numbers", but when a brand is deciding where to spend their budget, they need proof that working with you will deliver results. Your job is to make that case as easy as possible.

The good news is you can build proof of your value even if you've never had a sponsorship. You just need to get creative about demonstrating that you can move your audience to take action.

Building Proof Without Sponsorships

Charity streams are one of the easier ways to showcase you can move your audience to action, but most creators don't track any data. Create a Bitly link for your charity donation link and track how many unique viewers you had that stream, how many unique link clicks you got, and how many unique donators contributed. That alone gives you an opportunity to showcase CTR (click-through rate) and conversions. This is real data brands care about.

Playing a new game on stream? Create a Bitly link and track how many unique viewers watched that stream compared to how many unique link clicks you got while actively promoting the game. Use a chat command like !game or set up a timed message so people know where to go (Steam, Epic Game Store etc). Now you've got CTR data for a game recommendation, which is exactly what game studios want to see.

You can do the same with a single short form content post. Create a new Bitly for a game, post a clip of you recommending it, and encourage people to click your link. That's more CTR data. Also track how well that content performed after 30 days because brands want to know if your content has legs or if it dies after the first 48 hours.

To prove that content syndicated across all of your channels performs well and that brands should buy a content bundle, promote the same Bitly link across your stream, YouTube, short form, and posts. Track each post's performance individually and calculate your final CTR across all platforms combined. This shows brands what they could get when they invest in a multi-platform package from you.

Steam Next Fests are an excellent opportunity to build out data and potentially do your own outreach to developers to pitch them.

Are you doing a Steam Next Fest stream or YouTube video? Create a unique Bitly link for each game you play. Promote the links while you're playing on stream and include them in your YouTube video description. This gives you individual performance data for each game instead of one generic link that doesn't tell you anything useful.

After the stream and YouTube video have been up for a bit, reach out to the developers. Share the number of clicks you got, share any excitement you saw from your community about the game (screenshot comments, chat reactions, whatever you've got), and say that you'd love to find a way to partner together. Don’t immediately just offer your rates, start a conversation with the developer.

Understand that a lot of the devs you'll be emailing are indies, so think about how you might build out indie packages or if you'd be open to something more unique like a developer interview, a giveaway, or an ongoing series as the game develops. Some of these relationships won't turn into paid deals immediately, but they can turn into long-term partnerships as the developer's budget grows. Plus, you're building your portfolio of case studies either way.

For products you've bought but love, make an unboxing or recommendation video, use a Bitly link, and encourage people to click it. Track the content performance after 30 days. Same process, same valuable data.

The goal is to understand how good you are at moving your audience to action and save all of that information. Create a spreadsheet where you track every time you do this. Get an average CTR for your audience based on platform (or if you syndicate the link across all platforms, track that too). Include other data like views and engagement rate.

This type of information is something nearly no creators, even with talent agents, are try to provide. And if you do sign a contract for a sponsorship deal, always include in the contract that you want relevant data for yourself to understand how well the campaign performed. Not all brands will volunteer this, but if it's in the contract, they have to share it. That data becomes your next case study.

PS: Don’t tell your community in private to help you over inflate your numbers, honesty is the best policy in proving your ROI.

Track Your Performance in a Spreadsheet

If you're not tracking your performance in a spreadsheet, start now. You don't need anything fancy, just something that captures the basics.

For every piece of content where you're testing your ability to drive action, track: date, platform, content type (stream, video, TikTok, etc.), unique viewers/views, Bitly link clicks, CTR percentage, conversions if applicable (purchases, donations, wishlists), and engagement rate. If you did this for sponsored content, also track the deliverables, rate, and any overperformance.

Over time, you'll be able to say things like "my average CTR on Twitch is 8% when I recommend games" or "my YouTube videos average a 12% CTR with an average of 50K views over 30 days." That's the kind of data that makes brands sit up and pay attention because most creators can't, don’t, or won’t provide it.

Media Kits

Media kits are a nice thing to post on social media and a brand might see it, but they're usually missing the best data. Most media kits just show your follower counts, platforms, and maybe some logos of brands you've worked with. The problem is brands can already find your follower counts and platform stats through the discovery tools they're using, and logos don't tell them much about what working with you actually accomplished. The logos of brands you've worked with in the past aren't as helpful as showcasing the sponsored content with content and results.

The other issue with traditional media kits is the format. A static PDF isn't easy for brands to pull information from when they're working in spreadsheets and tech tools to build the internal case for why they should work with you. My recommendation is to use your media kit more as a simple introduction, but consider sharing the data that brands are most interested in. 

If you want to stand out: share your engagement rate, your average CTR, and impact data. If you've worked with game developers, Steam now has more real-time data available, so you can work with devs to understand how you impacted their wishlists. After working with 5 or 6 developers on wishlist campaigns, you might be able to say "I help devs grow their wishlists by an average of 500." That's specific, outcome-based data that most creators aren't providing.

Consider creating a free Google Site to showcase your case studies. When you email a brand, you can link them to your case studies site. If you do this, each case study needs the content embedded, summary of the results, and a short blurb about the goals of the campaigns. Marketing agencies do this when they pitch brands, and there's no reason you can't do the same. It's more work upfront but having a live site you can update with new case studies is more useful in the long run.

Pricing is one of the most asked questions in the creator space and unfortunately there's no magic formula. What I can tell you is that pricing is part art, part science, and part "what can the market bear."

Industry Standards

Before we can talk about industry standards, let's define some terms you'll see thrown around:

Cost Per Viewer Hour (CPVH) – This is commonly used for Twitch streamers and calculates the rate based on how many hours your viewers watched. For example, if you streamed for 4 hours with an average of 100 concurrent viewers, that's 400 viewer hours. If you're charging $1 CPVH, that stream would cost $400.

CPM (Cost Per Mille) – Cost per thousand impressions or views. If your video gets 50,000 views and the brand is paying a $25 CPM, that's $1,250. This is common for YouTube and short form content pricing.

CPA (Cost Per Action/Acquisition) – You get paid when someone takes a specific action like making a purchase, signing up, or downloading something. This is performance-based, not a flat fee.

CPC (Cost Per Click) – You get paid for each click on a link. Similar to CPA but the action required is just clicking, not converting.

Flat Rate (or cost per content deliverable) – A set fee for the deliverable regardless of historical performance or upcoming performance. This is the most common structure for sponsored content deals.

A lot of people like to say that the industry standard for live streams is $1-2 per viewer hour, but in reality it ranges from $0.50 to $3. It also isn't a hard and fast rule because (one) you might consider indie rates or seasonal rates and (two) the brand may need to hit a specific metric . And remember how I said I'd come back to knowing most budgets are locked up in launch? You can do multi-beat contracts for the demo, some social posts, and bundle it with launch (though keep in mind you might not get paid until the final deliverable is done, so negotiate 50% now and 50% later).

For YouTube it really depends on the niche, but brands usually want to aim for somewhere around $25-50 CPM. You can always push that up if your engagement rate is way above average or you have past campaigns that show you can do really well for a brand.

Short form content often has much lower CPMs because the conversion rate from viewing content to action is lower (unless you can prove otherwise).

A creator with 50K subscribers who gets 100K views per video is going to command different rates than a creator with 500K subscribers who gets 20K views per video. Engagement matters. How well your audience converts matters.

Want to get better at pricing your content to brands? Start with $1.50 CPVH and $35 CPM and see how brands react. Keep a spreadsheet and track the deals you close, deals you turn away, and deals that were negotiated up or down. This will help you build real data points around your pricing. Make sure to track the dates and deliverables.

Content Bundles and Package Deals

Bundling content makes sense for everyone involved. Brands get more touchpoints with your audience at a better overall rate, and you get a bigger check for work that often has overlapping effort.

Remember earlier when we talked about evergreen VOD content having better long-term ROI for brands? This is where that knowledge becomes useful for pricing. If you're primarily a streamer, bundling your stream with clips or highlights posted to YouTube can help you close deals because you're offering brands that evergreen searchable content they're looking for alongside the live community engagement.

A bundle might look like: 1 sponsored stream + 1 highlight clips posted syndicated across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts + a social post from the stream for $X instead of pricing each piece individually. The bundle rate should be less than buying everything à la carte (maybe 15-20% discount), but you're making more overall and the brand feels like they got a deal.

Remember how I said earlier that most game studio budgets are tied up for the launch? You can leverage that knowledge by offering a multi-beat package that includes coverage during demo phase (at a lower rate since there's often no budget there), social posts leading up to launch, and then a dedicated stream or video at launch when they have budget unlocked. I recommend structure the payment as 50% upfront and 50% on completion of final deliverables so you're not waiting months to get paid.

Create packages that are easy to say yes to. Give them names if it helps you—"The Indie Package" includes X, Y, Z deliverables focused on reach and costs $X. "The Wishlist Package" includes different deliverables focused on driving action and costs $Y. When brands can just pick a package instead of negotiating every detail, deals close faster.

Pro-tip: Stream teams or close groups of friends can also offer group rates for content to help close a deal.

The key is understanding what brands want (evergreen content, proof of ROI, multi-platform reach) and structuring your bundles to deliver that while making it worth your time.

Price Per Client

This is tricky and I have no hard and fast rules to give you a clear roadmap, but the thing to remember is being flexible lets you earn more money over time. Not all clients can pay the same rates, and understanding this can help you make decisions about what work you take. Please do not fall for the people on the internet telling you to ghost brands, be rude, or to just send your rates and no conversation. That is not how you build relationships.

Remember that not all agencies were given a big budget (I promise, lol). Sometimes big brands have their teams do influencer stuff without dedicated budgets, and sometimes there is a lot of budget to spend. The reality is you often can't tell just by looking at who's reaching out.

The key is to be flexible, build relationships (because people move around in this industry), and never be afraid to negotiate. 

Hint: Talent agents do this.

How you communicate can be the difference between getting deals or being remembered poorly. Responsiveness and professionalism matter but remember you’re building relationships. You want to be remembered the next time that person works on a campaign. 

Responding To Outreach

You don't need to respond to brand emails within an hour, but you should respond within 24-48 hours if you're interested. Brands are often working on tight timelines and if you take a week to respond, they might have already moved on to someone else.

This is your first professional touchpoint. How you respond sets the tone for the entire potential partnership. Respond in complete sentences with complete thoughts. Don't just fire back "My rates are $X" with nothing else—that's not a conversation, it's a transaction, and it makes you look either inexperienced or difficult to work with. 

Be ready to engage in a conversation and potentially a negotiation. What brands care about in your replies: that you read their email (don't ask questions they already answered), that you're interested and professional, that you can clearly communicate your rates and what they get for that rate, and that you're willing to discuss details.

If the brand isn't a fit, say so. Don't leave people on read. A simple "Thanks for thinking of me, but this brand/product isn't a fit for my audience" or "These deliverable asks don't align with what I'm currently offering" or "I'm not taking on new deals right now, but I appreciate you reaching out" goes a long way. I still remember creators who took the time to respond with a thoughtful no, it left a good impression and I thought of them for future opportunities that were better fits.

Ask questions, especially with game developers and smaller companies. If you're getting an email from a game studio or indie developer, don't just send your rates and wait. Ask about their budget, their timeline, what success looks like for them. If they don't have budget now, ask if they'll have budget in the future or if there are other ways to work together. Some of the best long-term partnerships start with "we don't have budget right now, but here's what we're planning for Q3." Being collaborative and curious makes you memorable.

Cold Pitching Brands

Cold pitching can work, but it's not about mass emailing brands asking if they want to sponsor you. It's about finding the right person at the company and reaching out to build a relationship.

Finding the right contact matters. You can use sales cold outreach tools to find people's emails at companies. There are plenty of free trial options that'll help you track down emails for marketing managers, community leads, or whoever runs influencer campaigns. Look for titles like Marketing Manager, Community Manager, Influencer Marketing Lead, or Brand Partnerships. Sometimes smaller companies don't have dedicated roles, so you might be reaching out to a founder or a general marketing email.

What to include in a cold email:

Understand that sometimes there isn't an active campaign or budget right now. That doesn't mean the outreach was pointless. If a brand responds with "we don't have budget at the moment" or "we're not running campaigns right now," ask if they'd be willing to send product for coverage and to keep you in mind for future paid opportunities. Getting product in your hands gives you something to create content around now, and staying on their radar means you might be top of mind when the budget does open up.

I wish I could tell you that if you just make great content and work hard, the brand deals will come. That's partially true, but there are some structural realities that are going to affect your opportunities regardless of how good your content is.

Macro-Economics and Seasonal Timing 

Marketing budgets are tied to the economy, and when the economy is struggling, marketing is one of the first things companies cut. If we're in a recession or companies are tightening their belts, there are fewer brand deals for everyone.

Q4 (October-December) is typically feast time because brands are spending the rest of their annual budgets and pushing for holiday campaigns. Q1 (January-March) is typically famine because budgets reset and companies are being conservative with spending until they see how the year is shaping up. Knowing this won't change it, but you can change how you price your content based on the season.

Why Brands and Agencies Default to the Same Creators

Brands and agencies work with the same creators over and over because it's lower risk (and less work). They already know what that creator's audience looks like, they know the creator will deliver on time, they know the content quality will be good, and they know the creator won't say something wild that gets the brand in trouble.

Breaking into that rotation is hard because you're asking brands to take a chance on an unknown. This is why case studies and proof matter so much—you're reducing the perceived risk of working with you.

Relationships compound over time. A creator who's done five successful campaigns with an agency is going to get thought of first when that agency has a new client with a similar campaign. It's not fair, but it's human nature. The good news is that once you're in, it gets easier to get more work. The first deal is always the hardest to land.

Why Brands and Agencies Typically Go For Larger Creators

Larger creators get more opportunities because the math is simple: if a brand has $20,000 to spend, they can either hire 20 micro-creators at $1,000 each or 2 larger creators at $10,000 each. The second option is way less work to manage and they're hitting their goals faster.

Discovery Tools

Brands are using influencer discovery platforms (SaaS, 🥲) to find creators. These tools scrape public data and use algorithms to match creators with campaigns based on keywords, demographics, and performance metrics.

The problem is these tools are only as good as the data they can access and the parameters brands set. If your content isn't properly tagged, titled, and described, these tools might not surface you even if you'd be perfect for a campaign. 

Do you need a talent agent to make money as a creator? No. Can they make it easier for you? Yes. In fact, in the first section I've already shown how they might make it easier for you.

Before we go any further, here's the most important thing to understand: talent agents are a service to you and they are paid based on how well they perform this service for you (get and close deals).. You should still be driving the car. They work for you, not the other way around. If you're handing over complete control of your business decisions to someone else, you're setting yourself up for problems.

The core goal of a talent agent is to negotiate the highest possible rate for any deal that comes through the door. That's it. That's what they're optimized for because they get paid on the deals they close.

There are a few reasons why you might want a talent agent:

And honestly, that's really it. (Again, in my opinion)

In the gaming creator space, a lot of creators conflate agents with managers and they're not the same thing. A manager should be invested in your long term success, not just deal by deal campaigns. They'll help you analyze your content, spot trends, give you feedback, and look for opportunities to expand your brand. They should bring real value and help you grow your whole business, not just manage your inbox. Creators of a certain size probably need both an agent and a manager.

I'm not anti-talent agency. There are agents I really like working with because we can have frank conversations and work out deals where everyone wins. This is one reason some brands prefer working with talent that has agents. I've gotten on calls with agents and been honest in ways I wouldn't be with a creator directly because I don't have to worry about it ending up as content later. I know it's considered pro-creator to "out" brands on social channels, but one unintended side effect is that brands are more cautious about what they share, even when their intentions are good.

So it sounds great, right? Someone whose whole job is to bring you money? Well, yes, but since that's their only job, it can sometimes work against you.

Talent Bundle Requirements

Some talent agencies require brands to book a minimum number of creators for any deal or pay a premium to work with just the one they want. I've always wondered, do creators agree to pass on money if other creators at the agency aren't also picked? I have no idea, but it's always felt like the creator who was the right fit gets screwed because the brand doesn't want to book additional creators they don't need. This likely negatively impacts women and historically marginalized groups the most. 

Note: Talent bundling often works in your favor when it's optional and the brand can decide if they'd like to go that route. I'm specifically talking about agencies that require it as a condition of working with the creator the brand wants.

Having a Roster TOO Big to Effectively Represent

In an ideal world you want your talent agent to have a good grasp on your goals, types of things you'll do for money, your creative hopes (with brands), and who you don't want to work with. If a talent agent or company's roster is massive, they're not digging into you and your content in a way that really helps sell you to brands. And the last thing you want is to be a line item on a massive spreadsheet that the agent shares with the brand and no notes on who's the best fit for an activation.

Free Stuff Getting Missed 

Some talent agencies delete free stuff that comes your way that you might be interested in. If the only email brands can reach you at is managed by your agent and the only thing that matters to them is paid deals (that’s how they get paid), you're probably missing opportunities to build relationships that could lead to paid collaborations later. Some creators specifically ask their agents to filter this stuff out and that's fine, but I know from experience that things don't always make it to creators even when they might want to see them.

You're probably wondering why influencer marketing managers don't talk more openly about their experiences with talent agencies. The reality is that people move jobs all the time and relationships are the most important thing for success in this field.

There are incredible talent agencies out there, but they're not all great. The best way to protect yourself is to seek transparency and review your inbox regularly. Ask for a regular report that shows how many deals came in, the rates offered, free products or game keys, and how many closed or were passed on. You should see the whole picture of what's coming your way and what you're turning down.

You Really Only Need Inbox Management 

If what you're looking for is just inbox management, consider hiring a virtual assistant for a few hours a week to organize your inbox, draft email responses, and help you track deliverables. It'll cost you less and you'll maintain full control over your business decisions.

If you made it all the way through, thank you. I know this was long. This has been on my mind for a while and I hope it helps you have a deeper understanding of the industry and how to navigate it for your own business.