Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is partnering with creators who recommend your products to their followers – often tracked with discount codes and links.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is marketing where an online store partners with creators – on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or blogs – who recommend the store’s products to their followers. Instead of advertising directly, you borrow the creator’s credibility and relationship with an audience. Partnerships range from one-off paid posts to long-term ambassador deals where the creator earns a commission on the sales they drive.
Why does influencer marketing matter?
For an online store, influencers reach a targeted, engaged audience that paid social often struggles to reach organically. Recommendations act as social proof and shorten the path from discovery to purchase. The format resembles affiliate marketing: you can agree on a flat fee, a commission per sale, or a mix – tying the spend to real results rather than mere exposure.
Common use cases
- A discount code per creator. Give each influencer a unique code (e.g.
EMMA20) so you can track sales directly in Shopify. - Tracking links with UTM. Tag links with UTM parameters so traffic and conversions can be attributed in your analytics.
- Product launches. Seed products to creators ahead of a launch to build buzz and content.
- Repurposing content. Reuse the creator’s UGC in ads and on product pages – secure written usage rights first.
Shopify perspective
Shopify Collabs is Shopify’s own app for finding creators, managing partnerships, and paying commissions, and it ties codes and sales directly to your order data. Create a unique discount code per influencer and keep UTM tagging consistent so results stay comparable. Track ROAS for the channel, but always check the contribution margin afterward – high revenue from discount codes can hide a thin margin.