A practical, no-fluff framework for picking an influencer marketing agency that actually moves your numbers, not just your follower count.
The Indian influencer marketing space has matured fast. There are now hundreds of agencies promising "creator-led growth," and most of them sell the same playbook with different decks.
If you are about to spend serious money on a campaign, here is the framework we use when we audit prospective partners.
1. Ask for results in absolute numbers, not percentages
"+300% engagement" sounds great until you realise the baseline was 200 likes a post. Ask for absolute numbers: total reach, total leads, total revenue, ROAS, CPL. If they cannot or will not share, that is your answer.
2. Look for category fit, not size fit
A "big" agency in beauty is often a "small" agency in fintech. The brands they have run for matter more than the size of their team. Their creator network in your category matters even more.
3. Demand transparency on creator economics
Ask exactly what the agency is paying creators vs. what they are charging you. The mark-up is fine. Opacity is not. Strong agencies do not flinch at this question.
4. Look at their creative process, not just their reporting
Most agencies obsess over post-campaign decks. The leverage is upstream: in briefs, hooks, and the first 3 seconds of every piece of content. Ask to see a brief, not just a report.
5. Make them describe a campaign that failed
Every agency that has been around long enough has at least one. The good ones tell you about it without prompting, name what went wrong, and walk you through what they changed.
We built GetZokko around exactly these signals. If you would like a brutally honest audit of an agency you are considering, reach out. We will tell you what we would do.
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