The definition
Influencer marketing is a brand working with people who have a following on social media to promote a product to that following. The brand pays a fee, sends free product, offers commission, or combines all three, and the creator posts about it on their own account. What the brand is really buying is distribution plus trust: the post reaches people who chose to follow that creator, in a voice they already listen to.
Campaigns range from one sponsored post by a celebrity to hundreds of gifted packages sent to nano influencers. The economics change with follower count, but the mechanism is the same: borrowed attention, disclosed as a paid partnership.
How it differs from UGC
With influencer marketing the creator's audience is the point, so fees track follower count and engagement. With UGC, the brand mostly buys the video itself to run as an ad from its own account or the creator's handle, so the creator's following matters far less than their on-camera skill. Many briefs now combine the two: one post to the creator's audience plus extra files licensed for paid use.
Pricing reflects that split. Influencer posts are priced on reach; UGC deliverables are priced per video plus usage rights. The rates guides break down both.
What to check before paying
Look past follower counts. Check recent engagement, whether the audience lives in the countries you ship to, how many other sponsored posts the creator ran this month, and whether past brand content still looks like the creator. A smaller account with a focused audience often beats a larger one with a scattered one.
Agree the basics in writing: deliverables, posting dates, disclosure, exclusivity, and who can reuse the content in ads and for how long.
How it's used
We are moving budget from one macro creator to twenty micro creators, because the smaller accounts had better engagement per dollar.
This is an influencer deal, not a UGC deal: we are paying for her audience, so the post must go on her main feed.