Influencer Marketing Glossary

Plain-language definitions of every term you'll meet in influencer marketing and the creator economy — from UGC and rate cards to CPM, whitelisting, and FTC disclosure.

Workflow & Operations

Advocate vs Ambassador

A brand advocate is an unpaid customer who recommends a brand voluntarily; a brand ambassador is a contracted paid creator promoti…

Affiliate Marketing

A performance-based arrangement where a creator earns commission on every sale driven through their unique link or code.…

Beauty Influencer Agency

A specialist UK agency that sources, briefs and contracts beauty creators — cosmetics, skincare, fragrance, K-beauty, men’s groomi…

Brand Ambassador

A creator under a long-term contract to represent a brand — typically 6–12 months, with recurring deliverables and category exclus…

Brand Deal

A paid partnership between a brand and a creator where the creator produces content featuring the brand.…

Briefing

The document a brand sends a creator before content production outlining requirements, do’s, and don’ts.…

Content-Led Marketing

A go-to-market approach where content (blog, video, podcast, social) does the lead-generation work that paid ads or outbound sales…

Creator Economy

The global market of independent online content creators and the platforms, marketplaces, and brands that pay them.…

Creator Fund

A platform-run program that pays creators directly from the platform’s ad revenue — separate from brand partnerships.…

Deliverable

A specific unit of content the creator owes the brand under the booking — e.g. one Instagram Reel, one TikTok video, one carousel …

Escrow

A third party holds the brand’s payment until the creator delivers approved content — protecting both sides.…

Food Influencer Agency

A specialist UK agency that sources, briefs and contracts food, restaurant and pantry-vertical creators on behalf of brands, in ex…

Gifting

Synonymous with product seeding — sending free product to creators without a posting requirement.…

Influencer

An influencer is a content creator with an engaged, trusting audience whom brands pay to publish sponsored content — the brand buy…

Influencer Marketing Management

Influencer marketing management is the operational discipline of running influencer campaigns end-to-end (discovery, contracts, co…

Influencer Marketing Strategy Agency

A specialist UK agency that shapes brand-level influencer strategy ahead of execution — messaging architecture, sales-cycle attrib…

Influencer Outreach Explained

Influencer outreach is the brand-side process of identifying, contacting, and negotiating with creators for paid campaigns or gift…

Influencer PR (Influencer Relations)

Influencer PR (also: influencer relations) is the brand-side discipline of cultivating relationships with creators as media and cu…

Influencer Relations Agency

A PR-framed specialist agency that runs long-form creator relationship management — ongoing nurture, PR-package programmes, ambass…

KOL Management

Key Opinion Leader management: the brand-side discipline of cultivating long-term relationships with creators who hold sustained c…

Media Kit

A creator’s portfolio document showing audience demographics, past campaigns, content style, and pricing.…

Paid Amplification

Running paid social ads using a creator’s content as the ad creative — usually under the brand’s ad account.…

PR Package

A PR package (also called a PR box) is product plus branded packaging plus a short personalised note that a brand sends a creator …

Product Seeding

Sending free product to creators in the hope (but not contractual obligation) that they’ll post about it.…

Product Seeding Explained

Product seeding is when a brand sends free product to creators with no contract obligation, hoping for organic content in return.…

Sports Influencer Marketing Agency

A specialist UK agency that sources, briefs and contracts sports creators — athletes, fan-creators, fantasy-league commentators, s…

Legal & Compliance

Brand Risks (Creator Campaigns)

Risk categories a brand faces in creator campaigns: regulatory (ASA/FTC/AGCom non-disclosure), reputational, commercial (fake-foll…

FTC Disclosure

The legal requirement to clearly disclose any material connection between a creator and a brand in promotional content.…

Paid Partnership

Instagram’s and Meta’s native disclosure label for sponsored creator content — both the regulatory disclosure and the platform fea…

Social Media Etiquette

Social media etiquette is the set of norms governing how creators, brands, and users behave on public social platforms — disclosur…

Usage Rights

The legal terms governing how, where, and for how long a brand may use content produced by a creator.…

Whitelisting

The practice of a creator granting a brand permission to run paid ads from the creator’s own social media handle.…

Metrics & Analytics

CPA for Content Creators

Cost per acquisition: the cost a brand pays to acquire one customer through a content creator referral (sale, signup, or lead). Br…

Engagement Rate

The percentage of a creator’s followers who interact (like, comment, share, save) with a typical post.…

Impressions

The total number of times a piece of content appeared on screen, including repeated views by the same user.…

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

The specific, measurable metric a campaign is being judged against — reach, engagement, sales, app installs, etc.…

Organic Reach

The number of unique users who see a post through unpaid distribution (the algorithm’s native feed), not boosted ads.…

Posting Cadence

The frequency a creator publishes new content — daily, weekly, or multiple times per day. Brand vetting signal: cadence-collapse p…

Reach

The number of unique users who saw a piece of content at least once during the measurement period.…

ROI (Return on Investment)

The ratio of revenue generated by a campaign to the campaign’s total cost.…

Pricing & Compensation

CPC (Cost per Click)

The cost paid per click on a tracked link in a creator post — a conversion-focused pricing metric.…

CPE (Cost per Engagement)

The cost per like, comment, share, or save on a creator post — the engagement-focused complement to CPM.…

CPM (Cost per Mille)

The cost per 1,000 impressions — the standard reach pricing metric in influencer marketing and paid media.…

Pay-per-click (PPC)

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a digital advertising pricing model where the advertiser pays a fee each time their ad is clicked, rather t…

Rate Card

A creator’s published list of services and prices — typically per platform, content type, and deliverable count.…

Audience Tiers

Macro-Influencer

A creator with 100,000 to 1 million followers — high reach, more polished content, costs an order of magnitude more than micros.…

Micro-Influencer

A creator with roughly 10,000 to 100,000 followers — small enough to maintain high engagement, large enough to drive measurable ca…

Nano-Influencer

A creator with under 10,000 followers — typically the highest engagement rate per follower and the most affordable to work with.…

Content Types

UGC (User-Generated Content)

UGC (user-generated content) is creator-made video or photo a brand commissions and publishes on its own channels — bought for the…

Influencer Marketing Glossary

Workflow & Operations

Advocate vs Ambassador

Affiliate Marketing

Beauty Influencer Agency

Brand Ambassador

Brand Deal

Briefing

Content-Led Marketing

Creator Economy

Creator Fund

Deliverable

Escrow

Food Influencer Agency

Gifting

Influencer

Influencer Marketing Management

Influencer Marketing Strategy Agency

Influencer Outreach Explained

Influencer PR (Influencer Relations)

Influencer Relations Agency

KOL Management

Media Kit

Paid Amplification

PR Package

Product Seeding

Product Seeding Explained

Sponsored Post

Sports Influencer Marketing Agency

Legal & Compliance

Brand Risks (Creator Campaigns)

FTC Disclosure

Paid Partnership

Social Media Etiquette

Usage Rights

Whitelisting

Metrics & Analytics

CPA for Content Creators

Engagement Rate

Impressions

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)

Organic Reach

Posting Cadence

Reach

ROI (Return on Investment)

Pricing & Compensation

CPC (Cost per Click)

CPE (Cost per Engagement)

CPM (Cost per Mille)

Pay-per-click (PPC)

Rate Card

Audience Tiers

Macro-Influencer

Micro-Influencer

Nano-Influencer

Content Types

UGC (User-Generated Content)

Influencer Marketing Glossary

Workflow & Operations

Advocate vs Ambassador

Affiliate Marketing

Beauty Influencer Agency

Brand Ambassador

Brand Deal

Briefing

Content-Led Marketing

Creator Economy

Creator Fund

Deliverable

Escrow

Food Influencer Agency

Gifting

Influencer

Influencer Marketing Management

Influencer Marketing Strategy Agency

Influencer Outreach Explained

Influencer PR (Influencer Relations)

Influencer Relations Agency

KOL Management

Media Kit