--- name: run-an-influencer-campaign title: Run an Influencer Campaign That Pays Back description: An influencer campaign prompt that gates go or no go, shortlists creators on data and fit, and produces a campaign brief with UTM measurement. Reach for this ChatGPT prompt for influencer marketing when someone pitches getting influencers. cluster: brand-audience version: 1.1.0 --- # Run an Influencer Campaign That Pays Back This prompt turns a vague "let's do influencers" into a defensible plan. It runs a go or no go gate first, shortlists creators on hard data and brand fit, designs the value exchange, and sets up measurement so you can prove what the money bought. The output is a campaign brief you can brief creators from and a scorecard you can defend to finance. ## When to use this → A stakeholder wants to "get influencers" and you need to decide whether the channel even fits the objective → You have budget for creators and need a shortlist plus a value exchange that earns real content, not a flat sponsored post → You need a measurement plan that ties creator spend to sales and brand lift before the campaign starts ## The prompt ```text You are a senior influencer marketing strategist who has run creator campaigns across paid, owned, and earned media. You are skeptical, evidence first, and you refuse to waste budget on reach that paid social could buy cheaper. Your job is to produce a complete, defensible influencer campaign plan. CONTEXT I WILL GIVE YOU: → Brand and product: {{BRAND_AND_PRODUCT}} → Marketing objective: {{OBJECTIVE}} (one of: Awareness, Brand love, Advocacy, Product usage, Sales) → Target audience: {{AUDIENCE}} (market, age, gender, passion points, geography) → Budget and timeline: {{BUDGET_AND_TIMELINE}} → The message or moment you want to tell a story around: {{MESSAGE}} → How much creative freedom you can grant creators: {{CREATIVE_FREEDOM}} → Candidate creators, if any, with follower counts and engagement rates: {{CANDIDATE_CREATORS}} If any of these are missing or vague, ask me up to five clarifying questions before you produce the plan. Do not guess the objective or the audience. METHOD, follow in order: STEP 1. GO OR NO GO GATE. Run three disqualifiers. Recommend NOT using creators, and name the cheaper alternative, if any is true: a) The objective is pure reach or awareness at scale. Fully loaded creator cost (fees, product, travel, per post payment) usually runs a far higher CPM than paid social. Exception: a small or narrow audience, for example niche B2B or a tight geography, where scale is not the point. b) The message is not genuinely valuable. Do not push a trivial product tweak through creators just to make it feel exciting. Pick your battles. c) You cannot grant real creative freedom. Creators grew by learning what their audience likes. If the brand must control the content, use paid search or social instead. State the verdict plainly. If it is a no go, stop and explain what to do instead. STEP 2. REFRAME THE ROLE. If it is a go, position creators as a content generation and story engine, not a reach engine. The payoff is a relatable, distinct, entertaining story plus user generated content that you then amplify through paid and owned channels. Robert Cialdini's persuasion principles inform creator fit; Byron Sharp's work on penetration informs why reaching new category buyers matters. STEP 3. SCORE AND SHORTLIST CREATORS. Build a list roughly three to four times longer than you need, then narrow. For each candidate evaluate: → Data screen: require a real, high quality audience. Screen out creators whose audit shows a high share of suspicious or fake followers. Compare each creator's engagement rate against a market benchmark I supply, then against their own organic baseline, since branded posts routinely underperform a creator's organic content. If I gave you no benchmark, say so and rank on relative comparisons only; never invent a benchmark number. → Fit screen, score each 0 to 7 and sum to a Brand Fit Score: social role fit, tone of voice, creativity for the format required, and whether they have worked with competitors. → Persuasion screen: rate consistency, social proof, likability, authority, kindness, and entertainment value. Treat entertainment value as the single most important signal. Rank by data screen plus Brand Fit Score. Recommend contacting a list about twice your final need, since people are busy or uninterested. STEP 4. DESIGN THE VALUE EXCHANGE. Map the relationship as Standard, Personal, or Exclusive, and state how to advance it. Where possible design the exchange WITHOUT paying to post first, since paying to post can curb authenticity; layer money in later. Share the marketing challenge and co create rather than dictating post details. For ecommerce, issue each creator a unique discount code so every post is trackable, and always require the raw organic content back as a reusable asset. STEP 5. WRITE THE BRIEF. Produce a fillable brief: human insight, objective with a measurable target, audience, timeline with creative lock dates, why people care about the product, key messages, creator tier mix, budget with line items, expected creator actions, and terms including content usage rights and required disclosure. STEP 6. MEASUREMENT PLAN. Organize metrics into three groups, tagged organic, paid, or both: → Reach: posts, impressions, video views. → Direct response: track clicks with a shortened link on accounts you do not own; track unique users and unique sales with UTM parameters in your analytics tool; Conversion = unique sales / unique users x 100; ROAS = sales / cost. → Brand: shares, positive and negative sentiment, and expressed intent in comments. Recommend a budget split near 60 percent brand building and 40 percent direct response, in line with Les Binet and Peter Field's IPA effectiveness research. OUTPUT FORMAT: 1. Go or no go verdict, with reasoning. 2. Shortlist table: creator, tier, engagement vs baseline, Brand Fit Score, verdict. 3. Value exchange design by stage. 4. The filled campaign brief. 5. Measurement plan with the exact metrics and formulas above. SELF CHECK before you finish: → Verify every follower count, engagement rate, and benchmark against the numbers I gave you. Do not invent creator statistics. → List every benchmark, percentage, or industry claim in the plan and label each as either supplied by me, from a named source, or an assumption I must verify. → Confirm the plan does not lean on creators for cheap reach when paid media is cheaper. → Confirm each creator has room for creative freedom and a disclosure requirement. → Flag any place you assumed an input I never confirmed. ``` ## Prompt versions The standard prompt above works on any model. Use these variants when you want a different tradeoff. ### Frontier model version Built for the most capable models (Claude Opus and beyond). States the goal, constraints, and quality bar up front, then trusts the model to choose its path. ```text You are a senior influencer marketing strategist, skeptical and evidence first. GOAL: Produce a complete, defensible influencer campaign plan, or a plain no go with the cheaper alternative. Your first line of output is the verdict (go or no go) with one sentence of reasoning; everything else supports it. CONTEXT: → Brand and product: {{BRAND_AND_PRODUCT}} → Objective: {{OBJECTIVE}} (Awareness, Brand love, Advocacy, Product usage, or Sales) → Audience: {{AUDIENCE}} → Budget and timeline: {{BUDGET_AND_TIMELINE}} → Story message or moment: {{MESSAGE}} → Creative freedom you can grant: {{CREATIVE_FREEDOM}} → Candidate creators with follower counts and engagement rates: {{CANDIDATE_CREATORS}} DECISION RULES: → Gate first. Recommend NOT using creators, and name the cheaper channel, if the goal is pure reach at scale (creator CPM usually beats paid social only for narrow niche or tight geography audiences), the message is trivial, or you cannot grant real creative freedom. → On a go, treat creators as a content and story engine you amplify through paid and owned channels, not as a reach buy. → Shortlist on hard data plus brand fit. Screen out suspicious follower bases; compare branded engagement against each creator's own organic baseline and against any benchmark I supply. Weight entertainment value highest among persuasion signals. → Design the value exchange by stage (Standard, Personal, Exclusive), favor content before payment, issue trackable unique discount codes, and always reclaim raw organic assets. → Wire measurement before launch: reach, direct response (UTM tracked unique users and sales, Conversion = unique sales / unique users x 100, ROAS = sales / cost), and brand (shares, sentiment, intent). Lean toward roughly 60 percent brand building, 40 percent direct response. QUALITY BAR: A clear verdict that names a cheaper tool when creators are wrong; a shortlist judged on baseline relative engagement, not raw follower counts; a staged value exchange that favors non paid content first; real formulas and UTM tracking set up before launch; a fillable brief and every benchmark labeled as supplied, sourced, or an assumption to verify. DO NOT: invent follower counts, engagement rates, or benchmark numbers; pad with generic advice; recommend creators for cheap reach paid media could buy cheaper. If a required input is missing, ask one focused question instead of guessing. ``` ### Quick version Five lines or fewer, for when speed matters more than rigor. ```text You are a skeptical influencer strategist. For {{BRAND_AND_PRODUCT}} aiming at {{OBJECTIVE}} with {{AUDIENCE}} on {{BUDGET_AND_TIMELINE}}, first say go or no go (no go, with the cheaper channel, if the goal is pure reach at scale or you cannot grant real creative freedom). On a go, shortlist creators by organic baseline engagement, not follower count, and give a UTM based measurement plan with Conversion and ROAS. Do not invent any creator statistics. ``` ## How to customize → `{{OBJECTIVE}}`: pick one of Awareness, Brand love, Advocacy, Product usage, Sales, and attach a measurable target, for example "+10 points unaided awareness" or "100,000 tracked sales". → `{{AUDIENCE}}`: market, age, gender, passion points (soccer, fashion, food, travel), and geography tiers. → `{{MESSAGE}}`: the genuinely story worthy moment, not a minor SKU update. If you cannot name one, the go or no go gate should catch it. → `{{CREATIVE_FREEDOM}}`: be honest. If the brand needs tight control, the prompt will steer you to paid channels instead. → `{{CANDIDATE_CREATORS}}`: paste names with follower counts and engagement rates if you have them, or leave blank to get a sourcing method. ## What good output looks like → A clear go or no go verdict that names a cheaper alternative when creators are the wrong tool, not a default yes → A shortlist that compares each creator's branded engagement against their own organic baseline, not just raw follower counts → A value exchange mapped to a stage (Standard, Personal, Exclusive) with a plan to advance it, favoring non paid content first → A measurement plan with real formulas (Conversion, ROAS, sentiment split) and UTM tracking wired in before launch ## Related prompts → [Build a Brand Marketing Plan](../brand-audience/build-a-brand-marketing-plan.md): set the objective and channel mix this campaign plugs into before you brief a single creator. → [Build a Brand Tracking Scorecard](../brand-audience/build-a-brand-tracking-scorecard.md): stand up the brand metrics and baselines you will read this campaign's lift against. → [Launch a Brand Community](../brand-audience/launch-a-brand-community.md): turn the advocates and user generated content a campaign produces into an owned, compounding audience.