Campaigns · Hire influencers
Hire influencers, with the hiring done for you
Hiring an influencer yourself means finding them, writing the first message, agreeing a fee, writing a contract, chasing the draft and paying them. With Sup our team and our AI agents do that. We find the creators, agree each fee inside your budget, contract them, check each draft and pay them when the post is live. You say yes or no at each step.
- $0 a month, and you pay a creator when their post is live
- Every fee is agreed inside your budget and approved by you
- Each creator signs a contract before they post
- 350M
- creators searched live on Instagram and TikTok
- 6 hours
- from your brief to a shortlist of creators
- 4 days
- after the post is live, the creator is paid
The pool a live search runs across.
You say yes or no to each one.
The median in our campaigns. You pay Sup once.
Finding them
Creators chosen for your buyers, by a person
A marketplace shows you the creators who signed up to it. We search Instagram and TikTok live, across 350 million creators, so the search is as wide as the platforms. A filter finds accounts by subject, place and size, and a person on our team watches each creator’s recent posts before you see a name. 58% of the creators we drop at that step are dropped for brand fit, not for their numbers.
- Any niche, in any place
- Followers, views and engagement read at the time of the search
- A shortlist within 6 hours of your brief
Katie Blood
@katie_b · Instagram · 362K followers
The fee and the contract
The fee agreed inside your budget, and a contract for each creator
You set the budget. We write to each creator you approve, ask for their price and agree it inside your budget, and bring it to you. Nothing is signed until you approve the fee. Each creator then signs an agreement that states the posts, the dates, the fee, the rounds of changes and how long you may reuse the content. Half of our creators sign within a day of getting the link.
- You approve every fee before it is signed
- Usage rights as a length of time: 60 days organic and 60 days paid are the usual terms
- 99% of our agreements allow 2 rounds of changes
The post and the payment
Every draft checked, every live post found, every creator paid by us
When a creator uploads a draft, our AI agents watch the video and read the caption against the brief, and you approve it or ask for a change. When the post goes live we find it, check the ad label and the tags, and track its views. Then we pay the creator, from the balance you added, by bank transfer. You never send money to a creator yourself.
- Each draft is checked against your brief before you see it
- The live post is found and tracked for you
- The creator gives their own bank details on a secure page
How it works
From a brief to a live post
- 01
You send a brief
The product, who buys it, what the post is for and your budget.
- 02
You pick from a shortlist
It comes back in 6 hours. You say yes or no to each creator.
- 03
You approve each fee
We agree a price with each creator inside your budget. Each one signs.
- 04
You approve the draft
The post goes live, we find it, and we pay the creator.
The difference
Hiring an influencer yourself, or through Sup
Finding the creator
On your own
Searching Instagram and TikTok by hand, or a marketplace of creators who signed up
With Sup
A live search of both platforms, then a person who watches each creator’s posts
The first message
On your own
You write it, and follow up when there is no reply
With Sup
We write it, follow up and answer the replies
Agreeing the fee
On your own
You ask, the creator names a price, and you go back and forth
With Sup
We agree each fee inside your budget and you approve it
The contract
On your own
A template, or an agreement in a chat
With Sup
An agreement for each creator, with the rights as a length of time
The draft
On your own
Watched by you, against your own notes
With Sup
Checked against the brief by our AI agents, then your yes or no
Paying the creator
On your own
An invoice from each creator, paid one by one
With Sup
One balance with Sup. We pay each creator after the post is live
Both ways end in the same post. The difference is who does the work between the brief and the live post, and how many people you pay.
The detail
How to hire an influencer, step by step
An influencer is a creator paid to post about your product to their own audience. Hiring one well has six parts: the aim, the search, the checks, the fee, the contract and the payment. The rest of this page gives the four ways to do it, how a creator is vetted, how the fee is agreed, what a creator signs, who does what when we run it, and the mistakes to avoid.
The choice
Four ways to hire influencers
Each way puts the finding, the negotiating and the paperwork on someone. The right one depends on how many posts you need and how much of the work you want to do.
| Who finds the creator | Who agrees the fee | What you pay on top of the creator | Suits | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yourself | You, by searching Instagram and TikTok | You, in direct messages | Nothing, except your time | One or two posts, when you already know the creator |
| A marketplace | You, from the creators who listed themselves | Mostly fixed by the creator’s listing | A monthly plan, a fee on each order, or both | A quick single post from a creator who is already on it |
| An agency | The agency, from its own contacts | The agency, with a margin on each fee | A retainer or a project fee, with a minimum | A large campaign with a large budget |
| Sup | Our team and our AI agents, from a live search of both platforms | We agree it inside your budget, and you approve it | Nothing. $0 a month. We take our fee from creators | Any number of posts, with the work done for you and your yes at each step |
For a longer comparison of a platform, an agency and Sup, see how Sup compares. For the paid post itself, and what one includes, see influencer posts.
The checks
How to vet an influencer before you hire them
Five checks, in the order we run them. The first three take a minute each with a free tool. The last two take a person.
Real followers
A share of every account’s followers is fake or inactive. A high share means the reach you pay for is not there. Our free fake follower check reads any public account.
Engagement in line with size
Likes and comments for each post, divided by followers. A rate far below accounts of the same size is a warning, and so is one far above it. Our engagement rate calculator gives it.
Where the audience lives
A creator in your country can have most of their followers elsewhere. Ask for the audience countries from their own analytics, or let us read them.
Past brand posts
Read their last sponsored posts. Did the followers answer them the way they answer the creator’s own posts? Has the creator posted for a direct rival this year?
Brand fit
Would your buyer trust this person with your product? No tool answers it. A person on our team watches each creator’s posts, and 58% of the creators we drop are dropped for this reason.
The free tools: the fake follower check, the engagement rate calculator and the influencer analytics report. To find creators by subject and place, try the influencer search tool, or read how our live search builds a shortlist from a brief.
The money
How an influencer’s fee is agreed
Every creator sets their own price, and it varies with their audience, the platform, the number of posts and the rights you want. These are the parts of a fee, and how we agree one inside your budget.
The posts
A Reel, a Story, a TikTok, or a set. Each one is priced, and a set of three usually costs less than three singles. The brief says which, so the creator quotes for the right thing.
The rights
Reusing the post on your own channels, or running it as an ad, costs more than the post alone. Agree it at the start: adding paid use later means a second negotiation. 60 days organic and 60 days paid are our usual terms.
Your budget
You tell us the budget for the campaign. We ask each creator you approved for their price, agree it inside the budget, and bring it to you. You approve every fee, and nothing is signed before you do.
Sup costs $0 a month. You pay each creator’s approved price when their post is live, and we take our fee from creators, so the price you approve already holds it. To see what a campaign of a given size costs, use the campaign cost calculator. For what creators of a given size tend to charge, the influencer rate calculator gives a range.
The agreement
What an influencer signs
A post without an agreement is a post you cannot ask to change, cannot reuse and cannot count on by a date. These are the terms in our own creator agreements. Yours are set in your own.
60 days of organic use
The usual term for reposting the content on your own channels. For running it as an ad, 60 days of paid use is the usual term. A longer term is agreed before the creator posts.
2 rounds of changes
In 99% of our creator agreements. A round is one set of notes from you and one new version from the creator.
Net 30 payment
The usual payment term. The creator is paid by us after the post is live, so you send no payment to a creator yourself.
The agreement also names the posts, the dates, the ad label the law requires, and who owns the content: the creator keeps ownership and gives you a licence to use it. The full text of our creator agreement, clause by clause, is on the contracts page. To write your own, use the free influencer contract template.
Done for you
Who does what, from the brief to the paid creator
Every guide to hiring influencers lists these steps and leaves them all to you. This is the split when we run it.
- 01
Set the aim and the budget
What the post is for: sales, trials, launches or reach. One aim for each campaign, and the budget it has.
- Who:
- You
- You:
- Tell us the product, the aim and the budget
- 02
Find and vet creators
A live search of Instagram and TikTok, then a person who watches each creator’s posts.
- Who:
- Our team and our AI agents
- How long:
- A shortlist in 6 hours
- 03
Write to the creators
The first message, the follow-ups and the replies. Each creator you approved is asked for their price.
- Who:
- Our team and our AI agents
- 04
Agree the fee and the rights
Each fee is agreed inside your budget and brought to you. The rights and the rounds of changes go in the agreement.
- Who:
- Our team
- You:
- Approve each fee
- 05
Brief, draft and approve
The brief goes to the creator. Each draft is checked against it, and you approve it or ask for a change.
- Who:
- You
- You:
- Approve the draft
- 06
Find the post and pay the creator
The live post is found, checked and tracked. We collect each creator’s bank details on a secure page and pay them from your balance.
- Who:
- Our team
What goes wrong
Six mistakes when hiring influencers
The guides that rank for this search warn about the same six. Each one has a step in our process that deals with it.
| The mistake | What it costs | The step that stops it |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring on follower count | Reach that is partly fake, or an audience in the wrong country | Followers, engagement and audience checked before the shortlist |
| No written agreement | A post that is late, cannot be changed and cannot be reused | An agreement for each creator, signed before they post |
| Forgetting usage rights | A second fee when you want to run the post as an ad | The rights are in the agreement, as a length of time |
| A full script | A post that sounds read out, and followers who skip it | A brief of points to cover, in the creator’s own words |
| Paying up front | Money gone when the post never comes | You pay when the post is live, and we pay the creator |
| No tracking | No way to tell which creator worked | Every live post found and tracked, with its views |
To write a brief now, use the free brief builder. For the paid post itself, and what a campaign of them looks like, see influencer posts.
Written by
Matt Greenwell, Co-Founder and CEO of Sup
Matt started Sup in 2024 with Hassan Munir. Before Sup he co-founded Storefront, the marketplace for booking pop-up retail space. Before that he worked at Goldman Sachs.
The terms and the shares on this page are from our own creator agreements, shortlists and payments, and no creator is named. The four ways to hire describe each route in general and name no company. Updated 5 October 2026.
FAQ
Questions about hiring influencers
How do I hire an influencer?
Decide what the post is for, find creators whose audience matches your buyers, check their followers and engagement, agree a fee and the usage rights, put both in a contract, approve the draft, and pay when the post is live. On Sup our team and our AI agents do each step, and you say yes or no to the creators, the fees and the drafts.
How much does it cost to hire an influencer?
Each creator sets their own price for a post, and it depends on their audience, the platform, the number of posts and the rights you want. We do not publish creator fees. On Sup you set a budget, we agree each creator’s fee inside it, and you approve every fee before anything is signed. Sup costs $0 a month, and you pay a creator’s approved price when their post is live.
How do I find influencers for my brand?
The usual ways are a search of Instagram and TikTok by hand, a marketplace where creators list themselves, your own customers and followers, or a service that searches for you. Sup searches both platforms live, across 350 million creators, and a person on our team watches each creator’s posts before you see a name. You can try a small part of it in our free influencer search tool.
How do I know an influencer is real?
Check that the followers are real accounts, that the engagement is in line with the follower count, and that the audience lives where your buyers live. Our free fake follower check and engagement rate calculator do the first two for any public account. On a Sup campaign every shortlisted creator has been through these checks before you see them.
What should an influencer contract include?
The posts to make and when, the fee and when it is paid, how long and where you may reuse the post, how many rounds of changes you get, the ad label the law requires, and who owns the content. In our agreements 60 days of organic use and 60 days of paid use are the usual terms, 99% allow 2 rounds of changes, and Net 30 is the usual payment term.
Do I need a contract to hire an influencer?
Yes. Without one you have no agreed date, no right to ask for a change, and no right to reuse the post. On Sup each creator signs an agreement before they post, and you can read the full text of it, clause by clause, on our contracts page.
How are influencers paid?
By bank transfer, after the post is live. On Sup you add a balance, approve each creator’s price, and we pay the creator from it once their post is live. The creator gives their own bank details on a secure page. Our creators are paid a median of 4 days after their post goes live.
Should I hire micro-influencers or large accounts?
It depends on what the post is for. Smaller accounts usually cost less for each view and their followers know them, so they suit sales and trials. Larger accounts suit reach. Most of the creators we hire have between 10,000 and 150,000 followers, and a campaign often mixes the two.
What is Sup?
Sup is a done-for-you influencer marketing service. You send a brief, and our team and our AI agents find the creators, agree the fees, write the contracts, check the drafts and pay the creators. You approve each step. It costs $0 a month, and you pay a creator’s approved price when their post is live.
Related
Where to go next
Influencer posts
Paid Reels, Stories and TikToks from creators, run for you.
Ambassador programs
The same creators, posting for you every month.
Hire UGC creators
UGC creators found, briefed, contracted and paid for you, with the rights to run the videos as ads.
Creator search
How a shortlist is built from a brief, with a real example.
Contracts
The agreement our creators sign, clause by clause.
Payments
How and when creators are paid.
Need influencers and no time to hire them?
Send a brief. A shortlist comes back in 6 hours, every fee is agreed inside your budget, and you pay when the post is live.
Book a call