1. Start with the objective, because it sets the budget split
Awareness, engagement and conversions call for different creators and different spending. As a starting point:
| Objective | Creator fees | Paid boost | Production | Held back |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awareness | 55% | 25% | 12% | 8% |
| Engagement | 70% | 12% | 12% | 6% |
| Conversions | 60% | 22% | 10% | 8% |
So on a ₹1,00,000 engagement campaign, about ₹70,000 goes to creators. At ₹14,400 a reel, that buys about 4 reels from 30,000-follower creators, or about 1,08,000 expected views before audience overlap. The campaign budget calculator works this out for any budget.
2. Where to look
- Competitors' tagged posts and paid partnerships. Creators who have already made this kind of content, and an audience already interested in the category.
- Your own followers and customers. Someone who already uses your product makes the most believable content, at the fairest price.
- Hashtags and location pages. Slow, but free, and excellent for city-level campaigns.
- YouTube search. Search the problem your product solves, then look at who is explaining it.
- Discovery tools and marketplaces. Faster at volume. We compare them in this guide to platforms in India, including where our own app does and does not fit.
3. Vet every creator before you talk money
A fair rate on an audience that is not real is still a waste of money. Check, in this order:
- Reel views against followers. Bought followers do not watch anything. An account with 2,00,000 followers averaging 4,000 views is telling you something quite loudly.
- Engagement against their size. Compare with the bands below, not with a global average.
- The comments themselves. Real sentences about the content, or fire emojis from empty accounts?
- Likes across recent posts. Real posts vary widely. A flat, identical number is the fingerprint of a purchased package.
- Audience location. Ask for an Insights screenshot. A Lucknow campaign needs a Lucknow audience.
| Followers | Investigate below | Typical | Unusually high above |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10K | 2.5% | 6.0% | 14% |
| 10K to 50K | 1.8% | 4.0% | 9% |
| 50K to 2.5L | 1.2% | 2.8% | 6% |
| 2.5L to 10L | 0.8% | 1.9% | 4% |
| 10L+ | 0.5% | 1.3% | 3% |
Run the shortlist through the fake follower checker. It is free and takes a minute per creator. Treat the score as a reason to ask better questions rather than as a verdict on a person. If someone quotes ₹40,000 and about 35% of the audience looks unreal, that is a conversation about ₹26,000 and a look at story-view screenshots, not necessarily a rejection.
4. Pay on views, not followers
A quote is defensible when it maps to expected views at a sane cost per view. Here is what you pay per thousand impressions on creators against paid ads in India. Creators cost more per view because you are buying content and trust as well as reach.
| Platform | Influencer CPM | Paid CPM | Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShareChat / Moj | ₹113 | ₹45 | 2.5× |
| Snapchat | ₹282 | ₹65 | 4.3× |
| ₹329 | ₹90 | 3.7× | |
| ₹517 | ₹120 | 4.3× | |
| X | ₹1,034 | ₹150 | 6.9× |
| YouTube | ₹1,880 | ₹90 | 20.9× |
| ₹2,820 | ₹450 | 6.3× |
See the full rate tables for fees by tier, and treat these as market priors rather than a quote.
5. Put it in writing
At minimum: deliverables and format, posting dates, number of revision rounds, usage rights and their term, exclusivity and its term, the amount and when it is paid, and who handles disclosure. If you want to run the content as an ad, say so and pay for it. A creator asked after the fact is entitled to be annoyed.
6. Stay compliant, because it is partly on you
Under ASCI's guidelines the advertiser is responsible for making sure a post follows the code, and it can ask the influencer to edit or delete a post that does not. Under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, advertisers can also be fined for misleading advertisements. Read the disclosure rules, and do not give creators claims you cannot back up. Expect TDS and GST on invoices as well: here is how they work.
7. Measure what you bought
Agree the metrics before posting, and ask for screenshots after. Track cost per thousand views and cost per engagement against the numbers above. For sales, give each creator a unique code or tracked link. Then rebook the ones who over-delivered.