One big influencer or many small creators: which works better for a sales campaign?

Big and small here don’t mean a fixed follower count but how the budget is split: does one account get almost all of it, or do many share it? Neither § 5a UWG nor the guidelines of the German state media authorities distinguish accounts by follower count, and terms like micro or macro influencer don’t appear in them.

With 20 creators the work sits in two places. First they have to post, and in the same period: an affiliate programme or a platform where creators can pick your products brings no posts on its own. Many partners in a programme never become active, and the creators you most want rarely post without a reason. Afterwards you need to see who sold, most easily with a separate link or code for each creator.

Then there is billing: up to 20 invoices instead of one, some without VAT, because sales by creators who are Kleinunternehmer (small business scheme) are VAT-exempt within the limits of § 19(1) UStG. How to bill with a Gutschrift (self-billing credit note) instead of collecting invoices is covered in the guide on campaigns with many creators.

• Goal: if a new product needs to reach a very large number of people within a few days, one big account fits. If you want orders at predictable costs, many smaller creators paid on results fit better.
• Product: with a niche product such as running gear or houseplants, what counts is how many people in the community care about exactly that topic. Several smaller creators from that very niche may reach more interested people than one big account with a broad audience.
• Price point: a fee has to pay for itself through contribution margin, meaning what you keep from the net price of each order after goods, shipping, payment fees and returns. At €8 contribution margin, a €20,000 fee needs 2,500 orders after returns; at €80, only 250.
• Audience: if your audience is broad, one big account reaches many people who fit your product at once. If it is narrow, check if the communities of several small creators overlap, or you will reach the same people several times.
• Time and coordination: a single big post packs demand into a short window, and your stock and shipping have to cope. 20 creators can be spread over weeks. For that you need time to get them posting in the period you planned, check their posts and evaluate each one.

The assumptions: each order after returns earns you €25 contribution margin before campaign costs. Option A is one big account with a €20,000 flat fee for one reel and a story series, plus one sample at €40 including shipping. In option B, 20 creators get €10 per order after returns, capped at €20,000 in total, plus 20 samples costing €800 in total. The order numbers are made up and are not a benchmark. Result means the contribution margin of all orders minus campaign costs.

Option A breaks even at 802 orders (€20,040 divided by €25), option B at 54 (€800 for samples divided by the €15 left per order after paying the creator). If things go well, A catches up: from 1,925 orders the fee is cheaper, and at 2,000 the cap in B is reached. Settle before the start what happens after that: you raise the cap, or payments end.

Both columns use the same number of orders. So the table shows what the payment model does, not which option brings in more orders, one big account or 20 smaller ones. Only a test tells you that. With A, a single post decides what the fee achieves. With B, strong and weak creators partly balance each other out, but only if they post: a creator who doesn’t post costs you just the sample, yet their orders are still missing.

A may also carry the Künstlersozialabgabe (artists’ social security levy). According to the Künstlersozialkasse (KSK), payment for advertising with self-made photos or videos is part of the assessment base if it goes to the creator as a person rather than to a GmbH (limited company). As a brand advertising itself, you are liable according to the KSK once fees for such and other work by self-employed artists and writers add up to more than €1,000 in a calendar year (threshold from 2026). Then 4.9% is added (2026 rate), that is €980, and break-even rises to 841 orders. According to the KSK, commission from affiliate partnerships is not part of the assessment base, because it pays for embedding links. The KSK does not say if that also covers B when creators make their own videos for it. Check that with the KSK or your tax adviser.

1. Work out the break-even point: fee plus samples and, where it applies, the Künstlersozialabgabe, divided by the contribution margin per order after returns. In the example that is 802 orders, or 841 with the levy.
2. Ask for their in-app insights, not just the follower count: reach of recent posts in the format you are booking, and the share of the community in Germany and in your age group. If you compare engagement rates, check what they were divided by: followers or reach. The two figures are not interchangeable.
3. Divide the break-even point by the expected reach. If the reel and story series together reach 150,000 accounts, for example, 0.53% of them would have to buy and keep the product. Compare that with what you know from earlier campaigns.
4. Offer a hybrid: a smaller fee plus commission per order after returns. That way you pay even a big account partly on results, and your break-even point drops. Getting the account to agree is a matter of negotiation.
5. Settle usage rights if you want to reuse the post as an ad: which use, for how long, where. If the contract doesn’t name each type of use explicitly, the purpose both sides based it on decides what the rights cover (§ 31(5) UrhG, the German Copyright Act). If the creator appears in the post, also settle their consent to distributing their image for that purpose (§ 22 KUG, the German Art Copyright Act).
6. Agree what happens if the post is dropped or goes live late: a new date, a reduced fee or the right to cancel.

In Germany, anyone who receives or is promised payment or something similar from another business in return for a post has to make the commercial purpose clear, unless it is directly apparent from the circumstances and leaving it out could lead someone to a transactional decision they would not otherwise have taken (§ 5a(4) UWG, the Act against Unfair Competition). It is presumed that something was given in return unless the account can credibly show otherwise. The provision sets no follower threshold, and the guidelines of the German state media authorities (Medienanstalten, May 2025) don’t distinguish by reach either. According to the guidelines, a mention based on a partnership is always advertising, and products sent for free can already count as something in return.

In practice, this means more checking: one post with a big account, every post with 20 creators, and according to the guidelines every promotional story slide too. A checklist for many posts is in the guide on campaigns with many creators.

With wyrld Boost you put your budget behind creators who feature your products, starting right away. You set the products, KPIs and time frame, for example sales, clicks, watch time or reach, and many creators can take part at once, in their own videos and in their storefronts. That gives them a shared reason to post in the same period. The creators decide for themselves if they join, so how many there will be is not fixed in advance. Creators label Boost campaign videos as advertising.

The pool goes to the creators according to the KPIs achieved. How it is split is agreed with wyrld before the start; the worked example above is not a Boost offer. You also decide where people buy: only in your shop, on Amazon or with price comparison across the shops that stock your product. After the campaign you see which creator delivered which results, and for the next one you know who to keep working with.

With the brand and shop subscription you see every day which creators feature your products and who actually sells: clicks per creator, plus purchases where the shop reports them. If you run an affiliate programme with one of the large affiliate networks, wyrld shows up in it as a single partner, even though creators can usually pick your products through it already. With strong creators you can set up your own terms. wyrld has hundreds of creators, mainly in fashion, beauty and interiors with a young audience. Prices for the subscription and Boost are available on request. Which way of working together suits your campaign, through your affiliate programme, the subscription or Boost, is something to discuss with wyrld.