Creator Marketing 101: Building a Creator Marketing Strategy

From YouTube tutorials to TikTok trends, the creator economy has empowered everyday people to shape what we watch, buy, and trust. Valued at $250 billion in 2023 and estimated to hit $480 billion by 2027, according to Goldman Sachs Research, the creator economy represents a growing ecosystem where individuals build audiences and monetize their content.

It’s also become a major opportunity for brands hoping to extend their reach with the help of social media content creators. According to YouTube’s 2024 Culture and Trends Report, 65% of Gen Z identify themselves as video content creators. For brands, this shift has given rise to creator marketing, a strategy where businesses collaborate with creators to produce content aligned with their marketing goals.

This guide explores creator marketing, including how it differs from influencer marketing, why it matters to brands, and how to build a successful creator ads strategy.

What is creator marketing?

Creator marketing refers to brands strategizing how to sell their goods and services with the help of digital creators. After deciding on a jointly beneficial strategy, they work hand-in-hand to produce content in line with the brand’s marketing goals. Unlike traditional advertising, these partnerships leverage the creator’s unique voice and audience to build trust and engagement.

Creator marketing includes different types of relationships between creators and brands:

• Affiliate partners earn a commission on sales and other conversions of the products they promote, tracked through unique affiliate links or codes.
• Ambassadors foster a long-term partnership with a brand, leveraging their built-in community and including the brand in a consistent, evergreen way. They may also represent the brand at in-person events.
• Creative collaborators co-develop projects, with both brand and creator contributing to the content or campaign. 
• UGC creators share authentic user-generated content about the brand, often as everyday customers or community members, valued for its relatability and straightforward messaging.

These models give brands flexibility, whether they’re looking for one-off promotions, ongoing advocacy, or authentic user-driven storytelling.

Influencers vs. content creators

Both content creators and influencers earn money from their work, but the way they operate has some differences. Influencers usually have large followings, with micro-influencers typically starting at around 10,000 followers. Regardless of industry, they create content that promotes their lifestyle and typically comes with a call to action (CTA) prompting their audience to do something.

Follower count matters less when it comes to content creators. Their strength lies in their industry-specific expertise and skills, and audiences engage with them because of that authority. Creator content often has educational or entertainment value. Consistent content creation builds credibility over time.

Both influencers and content creators use social media platforms to share their work, and while most now have accounts across multiple platforms, they often build their base on one or two core platforms. However, you can find both types of creators on almost any platform you’re interested in. For example, even though content creators can be known for long-form content on YouTube or, more recently, in newsletter platforms like Substack, plenty of them make use of shorter-form, trend-driven platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

For instance, TikTok creator Leeza Edmundson Smith (@myinjectorleeza), a beauty-industry professional, documented her hair progress using the Jolie shower filter.

Reasons to use creator marketing

• Cost-effective partnerships
• Skilled creative professionals
• Authentic connections
• Engaged niche communities

There are a few reasons why you may want to utilize a creator marketing approach, including:

Cost-effective partnerships

Depending on the content required and the follower count of the creator, budgets can be flexible. Smaller content creators are especially suitable for affiliate marketing, where they earn only when their unique code or link leads to a sale or conversion. This performance-based model keeps costs predictable for brands—and it’s growing fast, with US affiliate marketing spend reaching nearly $11 billion in 2024, according to eMarketer.

Skilled creative professionals

Creators bring industry-specific knowledge in their field and often produce and edit their own content, maintaining consistency without the aid of a production staff. Beyond technical ability, this consistency builds a recognizable style that strengthens both their personal brand and their partnerships. Many creators also experiment with new tools and formats—whether that’s AR filters, editing techniques, or platform-specific trends—helping brands stay relevant in an evolving digital landscape.

Authentic connections

Audiences increasingly distrust influencers who feature too many ads—61% of 13- to 39-year-olds say the more branded content ads influencers do, the less they trust them, according to market research agency YPulse. Similarly, an EnTribe study found that 40% of people who purchased something recommended by influencers were disappointed.

By contrast, creators’ specific skills and industry knowledge help their content maintain credibility over time. They often reinforce authenticity by creating shared experiences—whether that means teaching in-person classes, organizing niche screenings, or hosting unique community events. For example, culture and business writer Emily Sundberg’s partnership with Rothy’s included a pizza-making event, reflecting her emphasis on community-building and live experiences.

Engaged niche communities

Micro-influencers and content creators are especially effective at cultivating active, loyal niche communities. SproutSocial notes that accounts in the 10,000 to 100,000 follower range tend to interact more with fans, creating relationships that audiences value. However, larger creator accounts can also maintain niche appeal. For instance, chef Thomas Straker—with 2.6 million followers on Instagram and 2.5 million on TikTok—built a following around his butter series. That niche grew into a product line (All Things Butter) and a cross-industry collaboration with Gen Z-focused fashion brand Remass for a line of butter yellow garments.

How to build a successful creator marketing strategy

1. Do your homework
2. Choose your platforms and tactics
3. Write a clear brief
4. Create collaboratively
5. Measure performance

Building an effective creator marketing strategy requires the right mix of partnerships, platforms, and creative direction, all anchored by clear goals and performance measurement. The following steps outline how brands can set up campaigns that drive both authenticity and results:

1. Do your homework

When establishing a creator marketing campaign, the most important factor is selecting a creator that aligns with and supports your brand. Beyond niche creators and micro-influencers, talent scouting involves looking at both creator type (industry expert, tastemaker, professional content creator, celebrity), tier (by follower count), and their chosen industry or area of expertise.

A good example of alignment is wellness creator Tallene Hacatoryan (@pcos.weightloss), who specializes in creating content about polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) symptom management and collaborates with Theralogix to promote its supplement, Ovasitol. The partnership works because it connects a health-focused product with a creator whose content and audience are directly centered on women’s wellness. Tallene promotes the product on her social media pages as well as on her website.

2. Choose your platforms and tactics

Each platform has its own strengths, and while many creators maintain accounts across multiple social media channels, they may perform best on one. Short-form social platforms like Instagram and TikTok are great for frequent, quick updates and require less scripting or production value. By contrast, long-form platforms such as YouTube, newsletters, or podcasts allow for more detailed storytelling and higher production quality. Determine which platforms work best for your purposes and partner with a creator adept at those platforms.

For example, Mina Le, a content creator who talks about pop culture and fashion history, specializes in long-form content. She has a large following across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and her short-form social media posts naturally differ from her long-form videos. When creating content for her collab with sock company DoubleSoul, she tailors it to fit the platform—demonstrating how creators adapt the same partnership for different formats.

Many social media content creators now bring this kind of multiplatform expertise, giving brands the flexibility to reach audiences through the marketing channels best suited to their goals.

3. Write a clear brief

A strong creator marketing campaign brief ensures consistency without stifling creativity. Share your brand guidelines to communicate preferences on tone, visual style, and messaging, and provide prompts that help creators integrate the product or service naturally into their lives. Once those details are ironed out, secure your partnership with a contract that clarifies rights and usage. As the industry matures, creators are increasingly protective about how their content is repurposed, so contracts now often include terms safeguarding their work.

4. Create collaboratively

When partnering with a creator, balance the creator’s unique voice with your brand’s identity. For example, creator Jenny Walton partnered with lifestyle brand Hill House in 2023 for its holiday collection, styling the pieces in her signature retro-inspired, maximalist way. The collaboration worked because the brand allowed her to showcase its products through her authentic perspective.

5. Measure performance

Once a campaign goes live, look beyond raw counts of likes, comments, and shares. These actions provide surface-level engagement data, but they don’t show how effectively a creator reaches and activates their target audience. A more useful metric is engagement rate—the percentage of a creator’s audience that interacts with content—which serves as a quick gut check on whether branded partnerships are likely to resonate.

Brands should also track conversions, such as completed purchases tracked through affiliate links or discount codes, which are among the most important metrics to measure.

To supplement platform data, marketers often use third-party measurement tools like CreatorIQ, Captiv8, and Whalar, which provide deeper marketing analytics. Shopify merchants can also rely on the platform’s built-in reporting and analytics to track creator-driven sales and performance.