Influencer Marketing Checklist

The marketing manager documents the ideal customer profile, primary persona, target geos, and the funnel stage this campaign serves (TOFU awareness vs. MOFU consideration vs. BOFU conversion). Tie the persona to a documented audience in your CDP or ad platforms so lookalike and retargeting work later.

Pick 2-3 primary KPIs (e.g., engagement rate, CPM, CPA, attributed pipeline) and the threshold that means the campaign worked. Set a hard ceiling on creator fees plus paid-amplification (whitelisting) spend so the budget doesn't drift mid-flight.

If the brand operates in a regulated vertical (pharma, financial services, alcohol, supplements, health claims), flag now so legal review is scheduled before any creator content goes live. Substantiation files for material claims must exist before publication per FTC Endorsement Guides and the Lanham Act.

Pull candidates from your influencer platform (Aspire, Grin, CreatorIQ, Tagger) plus organic discovery (branded-hashtag scrapes, competitor mentions, listening tools). Tier candidates as nano (<10K), micro (10K-100K), mid (100K-500K), or macro (500K+) — engagement rate typically inverts with follower count.

Run each shortlisted creator through HypeAuditor, Modash, or your platform's authenticity score. Flag bot-follower percentages above 15%, sudden follower spikes, and engagement pods. Check audience geo, age, and gender against the persona — a creator with 80% off-target audience is a no even if engagement looks good.

Scan the creator's last 90 days of posts for content that conflicts with brand values, prior controversies, and competitor partnerships within an exclusivity window. Document any prior #ad disclosures — sloppy disclosure history is a real liability for the brand under FTC Endorsement Guides.

The marketing manager and brand lead sign off on the shortlist before outreach. Attach the vetting summary (engagement, authenticity, audience match, brand-safety notes) for the audit trail.

Reference a specific recent post — generic templated outreach gets ignored or screenshot-mocked. State the campaign window, deliverable count, usage rights ask, and that compensation is on the table; leave the dollar figure for the negotiation step.

Lock the deliverable count (e.g., 1 in-feed Reel + 3 Stories), exclusivity window, whitelisting / paid-amplification rights, and usage term (90 days vs. perpetual). Whitelisting rights are routinely under-negotiated and add real value when you boost the creator's post from their handle.

Contract must spell out FTC disclosure requirements (#ad at top of caption, Paid Partnership tag), exclusivity terms, kill fee, content-approval workflow, and morality clause. Counter-signed PDF stored in the contract repository — Slack or DM approvals are not a record.

Brief covers: campaign hook, must-include talking points, do-not-say list, hashtags, @-mentions, FTC disclosure language, tracked link with UTM parameters, and submission deadlines. Pull logo lockups and product imagery from the DAM (Brandfolder, Bynder, Frontify) rather than emailing files around.

Verify FTC disclosure is at the top of the caption (not buried in 30 hashtags), Paid Partnership tag is enabled where the platform supports it, claims are within substantiated language, and the tracked link uses the correct UTM convention. If regulated, route to legal for sign-off before approving.

Send consolidated, specific edit requests in one round — not a trickle of comments. Reference contract language for any FTC or claim issues so the creator understands these are non-negotiable, not stylistic preferences.

Test each tracked link end-to-end: UTM source / medium / campaign matches the team convention, GA4 fires the expected events, the landing page renders the correct variant, and any pixel respects consent state via the CMP. A misconfigured UTM ruins attribution for the whole campaign.

Confirm the publish date and time per creator. Brief the social and customer-care teams so replies and DMs get handled within the 4-hour window after launch when engagement is highest.

Pull reach, impressions, engagement rate, saves, shares, link clicks, and view-through counts from each platform's native analytics plus your influencer platform. Cross-check link clicks against GA4 sessions on the UTM — discrepancies above 20% usually mean a tagging issue.

Posts above the engagement-rate benchmark go into Meta or TikTok Spark Ads as paid amplification from the creator's handle. Set frequency caps and brand-safety blocklists; remember that pause-and-cancel doesn't always stop spend immediately, so lower bids to floor as a backstop.

Compile a final report: spend, total reach, weighted engagement rate, attributed conversions and pipeline, CPA, ROAS, and qualitative audience-sentiment notes from listening tools. Compare each creator's performance against the KPI threshold set in the brief and document who to re-book.