Work with creators your customers already trust and follow.

Influencer marketing is a partnership between a brand and content creators who have engaged audiences on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Creators feature products or services in their own content, reaching people who follow them because they value their opinions and style. It can build awareness, credibility and sales, and it produces content that brands can often reuse in advertising. Partnerships range from gifted products to paid campaigns, long-term ambassador programmes and affiliate arrangements based on the sales each creator drives.

An influencer marketing agency plans and manages creator partnerships on your behalf. At Vertical that covers strategy, creator discovery and vetting, outreach, negotiation, contracts, briefing, content review, gifting and seeding, whitelisting, paid amplification and reporting. Because we also run paid social, creative and email, we can make sure the best creator content is used across your marketing rather than living only on the creator's feed, and that results are measured fairly alongside your other channels. That makes it far easier to decide where the next pound should go.

We start with your customers and goals, then search for creators whose audiences match in age, location and interests and whose content and values suit your brand. We check engagement quality, audience authenticity, posting consistency and previous brand partnerships, including any with direct competitors. We also look at the tone and quality of their content to judge whether they will represent you well. The result is a shortlist of creators chosen for fit and credibility, not simply for follower numbers.

Both have a place. Smaller creators often have closer, more engaged communities, lower fees and content that feels personal, which can make them effective for driving sales and building credibility in specific niches. Larger creators bring reach and can create a moment around a launch, but cost more and engagement can be less personal. Many brands get the best results from a mix, using a broad base of smaller creators alongside a few larger partnerships for scale, visibility and launch moments.

Costs vary widely depending on the creator's audience size, platform, engagement, the content required, usage rights and exclusivity. Gifting programmes cost the product and shipping, while paid partnerships range from modest fees for smaller creators to significant budgets for well-known names. Usage rights for running content as ads usually add to the fee. We recommend a budget based on your goals and help you spread it sensibly across creators, content and paid amplification to get the best return, then adjust it as results show which partnerships work.

We track each partnership using unique links, discount codes, platform insights and your own sales and analytics data. That shows reach, engagement, traffic, sign-ups and sales by creator. For awareness campaigns we also look at branded search, follower growth and audience sentiment. Because some influence is hard to track directly, we look at overall trends alongside individual results. Reporting is clear and regular, showing which creators to work with again and how the programme compares with your other marketing channels.

Whitelisting, sometimes called creator licensing or partnership ads, is when a creator gives a brand permission to run paid ads using their content and handle. The ads appear as if they come from the creator, which tends to feel more trustworthy than a standard brand ad, while the brand controls the targeting, budget and placement. It combines the credibility of the creator with the scale and precision of paid social. We agree whitelisting terms, including duration and spend, clearly in each creator's contract.

Yes. In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority require creators to make clear when content is advertising, including gifted products and affiliate arrangements. Disclosures such as labelling a post as an advert must be prominent and upfront. Brands share responsibility for compliance. We include disclosure requirements in every brief and contract, check content before it goes live and make sure partnerships follow the current rules on each platform. Getting this right protects both your brand and the creators you work with.

A focused campaign with a small group of creators can usually be planned and launched within a few weeks, allowing time for discovery, outreach, negotiation, shipping products and content creation. Larger campaigns, launches with many creators or programmes involving high-profile talent need more lead time. Always-on gifting and ambassador programmes run continuously once established. We agree a realistic timeline at the start and build in time for content review so nothing is rushed out before it has been checked for accuracy and brand fit.

Yes, if usage rights are agreed in advance. Creator content often performs very well in paid social ads, on product pages, in email campaigns and on your own social channels. We negotiate the rights you need, including the channels, duration and whether paid usage is included, as part of each contract. Agreeing this upfront avoids disputes later, treats creators fairly and means you get far more value from every piece of content you commission, long after the original post has gone live.

We use AI agents to help screen creators for audience fit and engagement quality, track posts and deliverables, gather performance data and draft briefs and reports. That lets us review many more creators and spot the strongest partnerships much sooner. Every creator we approach, every agreement and every piece of content is reviewed by our team. Relationships with creators are personal, so people handle every conversation, while AI takes care of much of the research, admin and tracking behind them.