Content creators have become central to social media marketing strategies. The creator economy has reshaped how people discover and buy products, lending credibility and authenticity to the brands they associate with.
According to the 2025 Sprout Social Index, 25% of consumers credit influencer and creator collaborations as a key reason they remember certain brands. This, in theory, means a quarter of your potential customers are more likely to remember you because of the company you keep on social media. In crowded feeds, that kind of brand salience is valuable.
Below, learn about the types of content creators you can partner with, how to identify the right fit for your brand, and how to build and manage those relationships over time.
What are content creators?
Content creators are individuals who create entertaining or educational material like images, videos, social media posts, online courses, or podcasts for public consumption. They often create content about a specific topic on which they have expertise, whether that’s a wide field like skin care, comedy, or personal finance, or a narrower interest like watercolor painting or dog grooming.
A successful content creator builds a personal brand on one or more social media platforms, fosters a loyal community, and generates income through sponsored content, brand deals, digital content sales, and affiliate commissions. For more than two million people, content creation is a full-time job.
Content creators vs. influencers
Both content creators and influencers create engaging content on their social media accounts. The difference comes down to purpose and monetization. Content creators make content with the intention to entertain or educate, and earn income from subscriptions, digital products, paid partnerships, and ads.
Influencer content focuses more directly on shaping or influencing followers’ decisions and purchases. An influencer is a type of content creator who primarily earns income by promoting products on behalf of brands.
Why are content creators important for ecommerce?
TikTok reports that creator ads drive a 70% higher click-through rate (CTR) and 159% higher engagement rate than non-creator ads for the same cost per thousand impressions (CPM). TikTok attributes this performance to the fact that creator content feels culturally relevant to different niches, and audiences are likely to listen to someone they trust on a personal level. Olive oil brand Graza, for example, sent bottles to dozens of home chef creators ahead of its 2022 launch. The resulting organic posts helped the brand sell out in its first week.
Content creators can also directly drive traffic and conversions through affiliate links, discount codes, and giveaways. Using the Shopify Collabs Affiliate Tiers feature to distribute discount codes and referral links to its ambassadors, travel goods company Solgaard generated more than $50,000 in sales.
Types of content creators ecommerce brands can work with
Explore the most common types of content creators you might work with on your next campaign.
Influencers
Depending on follower count, these creators can help you meet your brand awareness or conversion goals. Macro- and mega-influencers (500,000 to one million followers or more) have a broad reach and can drive traffic to your brand, while nano- and micro-influencers (500 to 100,000 followers) tend to have highly engaged audiences.
UGC creators
UGC creators are customers or community members who share user-generated content (UGC) about your brand, like unboxing videos or product reviews. An Emplifi report found that UGC posts drive 10.38 times higher conversion rates than non-UGC social posts.
Niche creators
Micro-influencers are defined solely by their audience size, while niche creators are defined by their specialized expertise. Despite limited reach, these creators can help build your following amongst different niches in specific communities.
Affiliate partners
Affiliate partners earn revenue by promoting products through trackable links, with commission on the sales they drive—a strong fit if your goal is a high return on investment (ROI). Different platforms for this include Upfluence, Awin, and Shopify Collabs.
Brand ambassadors
Brand ambassadors are long-term partners who consistently promote your brand across social media channels, blogs, newsletters, and YouTube videos in exchange for products, perks, flat fees, monthly retainers, affiliate bonuses, or equity. On Shopify Masters, Scout Brisson, CEO of nonalcoholic aperitif brand De Soi, describes building a brand ambassador program made up of “true De Soi superfans.” She says the “people who genuinely love the product sell it better. That energy and credibility change everything.”
How to work with content creators effectively
- Select relevant creators
- Choose the right collaboration model
- Write up a brief and a contract
- Track performance
Follow these steps to make the most of your content creator partnerships.
1. Select relevant creators
Your brand goals shape the type of social media content creator you might work with. If you’re trying to reach a specific demographic, like millennials living in Texas or stay-at-home parents, partner with a niche creator who already speaks to that audience.
Platforms like Shopify Collabs, Superfiliate, and Archive can help you find the right creators, streamline social media management, and track campaign performance.
2. Choose the right collaboration model
The collaboration model you choose depends on your business goals. For example, if you’re looking for a scrappy way to get noticed, seeding or gifting campaigns can lead to creators promoting your content for free. “We give out as much product as possible to people who genuinely want it,” says Kara Brothers, president of Starface, on Shopify Masters. “Then those fans of the brand, those who resonate with it, amplify it for us by wearing it and sharing pictures, and we just go right back and repost them and spread that love back to them.”
If you want greater control over the content creation process, paid posts allow you to set specific deliverables, like the number of Instagram posts or talking points for YouTube videos. Paid posts can cost anywhere from $5 to over $50,000, but allow you to track performance by providing your creators with unique UTM links.
3. Write up a brief and a contract
The backbone of a successful content creator partnership is a clear creative brief. Include campaign goals, target audience, deliverables (number of posts and platforms), key talking points, brand assets and guidelines, the content approval process, and payment details.
Alongside the brief, consider drafting a contract that covers required disclosures and FTC guidelines, content licensing, and compensation. Make it clear if you’re going to pay creators for the right to repurpose their photos or video content however you’d like, such as in paid ads, on your landing page, or in your email marketing.
Set clear expectations that leave room for creative collaboration. “We invite the influencer to the table as the creative director of the partnership. So rather than dictating, ‘This is our narrative, this is the campaign,’ we ask them how to interpret it,” says Julianne Fraser, president and CEO of consulting agency Dialogue. “They're the best at socially native content, and there’s no one better than an influencer to dictate what will go viral or not.”
4. Track performance
Look beyond vanity metrics like follower count and likes. They’re often misleading and don’t translate into concrete business results. Focus instead on metrics that more directly measure performance and purchasing behavior, like referral traffic to your site, revenue attributed to creator campaigns, and conversion rates from affiliate links.
The metrics you track reflect your brand goals. If you’re trying to increase average order value (AOV), for example, dig into orders placed with a creator’s affiliate link or discount code to see what those customers spent.
Content creators FAQ
How do ecommerce brands work with content creators?
You can work with content creators in a variety of ways that promote your brand, such as gifting or seeding programs, affiliate partnerships, paid campaigns, or long-term brand ambassador relationships.
Are content creators the same as influencers?
Though both create content, they’re typically distinguished by purposes and monetization. Digital content creators post videos and materials designed to entertain or educate, earning income from subscriptions, digital products, paid partnerships, and ads. Influencers are a type of content creator, focused more directly on shaping followers’ decisions and purchases, and primarily earn income by promoting products on behalf of brands.
Are content creators worth it for small businesses?
Content creators can offer small businesses something traditional ads often can’t: authenticity, trust, and access to engaged communities. UGC posts and creator ads consistently generate higher conversions and engagement than ads without them. You don’t need a big influencer marketing budget to work with content creators, especially if you opt for a low-cost approach like gifting products or partnering with a micro-creator who has a small but dedicated community.
