Buyer's guide
How to choose an influencer marketing agency.
Nearly every agency answers the same way when you ask what they do. They separate the moment you ask for three things in writing: where each creator's price comes from, the agency fee unbundled from the creator payment and the paid media, and how they will measure the result against your business KPI. The one that cannot answer all three is selling reach.
The 10 questions, and what an agency that doesn't measure says instead
| Criterion | Ask for it in writing | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| How price is set | Each creator's price, and where that number comes from. | A rate card, or a package price with no per-creator breakdown. |
| Unbundled fees | Agency fee, creator payment and paid media, on separate lines. | A single “all-in” number. |
| Benchmark | The reference CPM for your vertical, and where it came from. | “It depends”, or benchmarks pulled from a survey rather than closed campaigns. |
| Per-creator tracking | A unique link, promo code and UTM for every creator. | A report of reach, impressions and engagement. |
| Business KPI | CPA, CPI or CAC per creator, not the campaign average. | Campaign metrics only, none from the business. |
| Attribution | Integration with your MMP or analytics (AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch). | Screenshots of the agency's own dashboard. |
| Optimisation | What happens to a creator who doesn't convert, inside the same campaign. | A plan locked on day one. |
| Real audience | Country, age and gender split for each proposed creator. | Follower count. |
| Usage rights | What content you can run as paid media, on which channels, for how long. | Not in the contract. |
| Retention | Day 7, 30 and 60 retention, not just installs or sign-ups. | The report ends at the click. |
The first three rows usually settle it. An agency that answers those well almost always answers the rest.
Network size is not a criterion
“We work with 50,000 creators” tells you how many an agency can email, not how many convert for your product. What decides the outcome is whether it measures each creator's real views before making an offer, and whether it can move budget away from the creators who don't convert without waiting for the next campaign.
Why price per post can't be compared
Two creators charging the same can differ 3× in what they cost per thousand real views. A price per post only becomes comparable once you divide it by the views that creator actually delivers, measured across their recent posts rather than the best one of their career. That number is CPM, and it is the only stable price floor this channel has.
How Ramped answers each one
Every offer is priced from the creator's real measured views multiplied by the campaign's target CPM, never from the rate card. Fees are unbundled. The benchmarks are published: The Ramped Index shows medians by vertical and market with the sample size in plain sight, across 174 closed campaigns with measured CPM. Every deal ships with its own promo code and UTM, and results are reported as CPA per creator. Programs start at $15,000 a month.
The cases with the full numbers: MODO (CAC of $13.67 held for 12 months), Flo Health (CPA from $79.53 to $28.51 inside a single campaign) and Newry (CPM down 28% across three consecutive campaigns).
Frequently asked
What should an influencer marketing campaign cost?
It depends on the vertical and the market, and the number that matters is CPM. Across real closed campaigns, median CPMs run from $5.29 in iGaming (Argentina and Chile) and $5.53 in fintech (Argentina and Mexico) up to $25.71 in wellness and $30.03 in dating (United States). The full table, with ranges and samples, is in The Ramped Index.
How do I know whether an agency actually measures?
Ask for a unique link, a code and a UTM per creator, plus integration with your analytics. If the report can't tell you what a conversion cost on creator number 14, it isn't measuring. It's describing.
How much budget do I need to start?
Ramped programs start at $15,000 a month. Below that floor there aren't enough active creators for optimisation to learn from: you buy two or three posts and there's no sample left to decide who to re-book.
Should I pick the agency with the most influencers?
No. Network size tells you how many creators an agency can contact, not how many convert for your product. It's the most quoted criterion and the one that predicts the result least.