3 Ways to Do Influencer Marketing

There is more than one way to run influencer marketing. The right one depends on how many creators you need, how much you can spend, and how much time you have. Here are the three main ways, with what each one costs and who it suits.

1. Software

Influencer software lets you search a large database of creators, build lists, check their analytics and send outreach emails from one place.

Pros

• Very useful when you need to find many creators at the same time
• You can build a list and contact many of them by email in one go
• Everything is in one dashboard

Cons

• Subscription pricing, usually monthly, and annual contracts are common on the mid-range and higher plans
• Prices go from a few hundred to several thousand dollars a month, and the cheapest tools often have limited data
• You have to learn the dashboard, and you pay every month, even in months when you don't check any creator

Best for: teams that check and contact creators every week.

2. Agency

An agency does the work for you: it finds creators, analyzes them, contacts them and manages the campaign.

Pros

• Little work on your side
• Experience with contracts, briefs and reporting

Cons

• It is the most expensive way. Agencies are paid in different ways: a monthly retainer, a project fee, or a percentage of what you spend on creators. Commissions usually range from 10% to 30%, and one 2026 industry study found an average of 30% of influencer spend going to the agency
• Monthly retainers can run from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands
• The agency fee usually doesn't include what you pay the creators

Best for: brands with a large campaign budget and no time to run it.

3. Do it yourself, with reports from Gabija Media

If you need one or two creators, or up to five now and then, you don't need a subscription or an agency. Creators reach you in two ways.

You find them.

• Search hashtags and locations related to your business
• Ask customers and partners for recommendations
• Look at the creators who already follow you, tag you or write to you

They find you. As your business grows, creators start writing to you: "I'm a huge influencer. Hire me, or send me your product." Some are a great fit. Others are not. And the numbers they send you are often picked or edited to look their best, so you can't rely on them.

Either way, the hard part is knowing whether you can trust the creator. A profile page doesn't show how many followers are real, where the audience lives or whether people really react to the posts. You don't have to guess, and you don't have to trust the data the creator sends you.

That is where we come in. We pay for the professional influencer analytics software, so you don't have to. You send us the handle of a creator, and we check it with the same analytics you would get from the software, straight from the source and not from the creator's own screenshots. You get a report you can actually use, instead of pages of data you don't know how to read. It has our verdict, worth it, maybe, or skip, and the reasons why, so you know what to do next.

It sits between the two other ways: more than doing it blind, much lighter than software, and far cheaper than an agency.

Pros

• No software to buy or learn, no monthly subscription, no annual contract and no retainer
• The same analytical data you would get from the software, checked and explained by us
• No need to trust the numbers a creator sends you
• A clear yes or no, with the reasons, not just a plain report
• You pay only for what you need: one report when you have one creator to check, or a pack of 5, 10 or 20 for a set of creators
• Check a first set of creators today and another set in three months, with nothing running in between
• A clear answer in 24 hours

Cons

• You choose the creators and handle the conversation. We check the data and give you the verdict

Best for: small businesses, startups, consultants and anyone new to influencer marketing who needs a few influencer reports without software or an agency.

Side by side

How to choose

• Checking and contacting many creators every week? Software may pay off.
• Large budget and no time? An agency can take it off your hands.
• A few creators now and then, or a creator who just wrote to you? Ask us for a report on each one.

Ready to check a creator?

Send us the handle. We'll tell you in 24 hours if it's worth it, maybe, or a skip.

Sources: Kolsquare, "How influencer agencies price" (2026), citing the Association of National Advertisers' Influencer Marketing Agency Compensation report (February 2026); Favikon, "How much influencer marketing agencies charge"; Influencer Fee, "Influencer Marketing Agency Cost 2026"; Kolsquare, "Influencer marketing platform pricing guide" (2026).