You don’t need a list of ‘final talent’ to vet an Influencer Marketing agency.

📣 You don’t need a list of ‘final talent’ to vet an Influencer Marketing agency.

Something I’ve seen many brands do: ask for a final list of influencers to see if the agency (or even influencer marketing itself) is worth considering.

Quite frankly, that’s a waste of time. For the brand, for the marketing agency, AND for talent managers.

A list of ‘final talent’ isn’t something you should be asking for if you’re in an exploratory or discovery phase.

Which influencers could be a good fit for your campaign depend on SO many factors
– Your Objectives
– Your Target Audience
– Your Budget
– Your Timelines


Unless you have these confirmed, it’s impossible to have a FINAL list.

You can ask for a sample, or examples of influencers who have worked for close competitors.

But take these with a pinch of salt too. Those same influencers may not offer the right deliverables you’d need for your objectives, may not be affordable, or may not even be available when you decide to run a campaign. And an agency isn’t going to waste their time finding out about these unless they know you’re committed to spending SOMETHING.

Besides, if you’re hoping to assign a budget based on a few cherry picked influencers you like in an abstract initial list, forget about ever meeting your objectives or understanding the full potential of Influencer Marketing,

Effective influencer marketing is about assigning a budget based on your objectives and THEN selecting influencers that bridge that gap between objectives and affordability.

And if you’re trying to compare costs, just ask the agency, straight up, what their margin is. Or be really specific about the kind of CPMs you’re expecting (as long as they’re realistic to industry standards).

There are plenty of other ways to vet an agency, and plenty of other things you should be looking at beyond an abstract ‘final’ list.