What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is when a brand works with people who have an engaged online audience, called influencers or creators, to promote its products. The creator might post about the product, review it, or share a discount code. This glossary covers the terms you will meet in briefs, contracts and reports.
Types of influencers
Tiers are usually based on follower count, but the exact cut-offs vary between agencies, so treat these as rough guides.
- Nano influencer: a small following, often under around 10,000, usually with a close-knit audience.
- Micro influencer: a mid-sized following, often in the tens of thousands.
- Macro influencer: a larger following, often in the hundreds of thousands.
- Mega influencer or celebrity: a very large following, often a million or more.
- Brand ambassador: someone who represents a brand over a longer period rather than for a single post.
- Content creator: someone who makes content, who may or may not have a large audience.
Performance and measurement terms
- Reach: how many unique people saw the content.
- Impressions: the total number of times it was displayed.
- Engagement rate: interactions such as likes, comments and shares compared with followers or views. Platforms and agencies calculate it in different ways, so ask which formula is used.
- Click-through rate (CTR): the share of people who click a link.
- Conversion: a viewer taking a desired action, such as buying.
- Promo code or affiliate link: a unique code or link used to track sales from a creator. Affiliate arrangements are explained further in network marketing terms.
- CPM: cost per 1,000 impressions.
- KPI: a measure used to judge whether a campaign worked.
Deal and contract terms
- Brief: the document describing what the brand wants. Creators may reply with a proposal; see business plan vs business proposal.
- Deliverables: the posts, videos or stories the creator agrees to produce.
- Media kit: a creator’s summary of their audience, rates and past work.
- Flat fee: a fixed payment for the work.
- Gifting: providing free products without payment, sometimes in return for a post.
- Exclusivity: a clause stopping the creator from working with competitors for a period.
- Usage rights: permission for the brand to reuse the creator’s content, for example in ads.
- Whitelisting (or partnership ads): the brand running paid ads through the creator’s account.
Content and social media terms
- UGC (user-generated content): content created by customers or fans rather than the brand. Some brands also pay creators to make “UGC-style” content.
- Story, reel, short: short-form formats used on social platforms.
- Sponsored post: content a brand has paid for or otherwise supported.
- Collab post: a post shared by two accounts.
- Niche: the specific topic or community a creator focuses on.
- Handle and hashtag: a username, and a # tag used to group posts. For more social terms, see internet marketing terms.
Disclosure and trust terms
- Disclosure: clearly telling the audience that a post is an ad or involves a free product or payment. Rules differ by country and platform, so creators and brands should check the guidance from their local advertising and consumer regulators.
- Authenticity: the sense that a recommendation is genuine, which is why audiences often react poorly to undisclosed or obviously scripted promotion.
- Fake followers: accounts that are bots or inactive. Brands often check audience quality before signing a deal.
The “4 R’s” and other frameworks
There is no single standard “4 R’s of influencer marketing”. Some sources use ideas such as relevance, reach, resonance and relationship. If you see the phrase, check how that author defines it. Whatever the list, the common thread is choosing creators whose audience fits your customers, not just those with the most followers.
Related glossaries
For the wider vocabulary of online promotion, see internet marketing terms.