How do I run a campaign with 20, 50 or more creators at the same time?

Before you can manage 50 creators, 50 have to want to post. An affiliate programme, a listing on a network or a platform where creators can pick your products does not, on its own, get anyone to post. Most partners in a programme never become active, and the creators you most want don’t post without a reason. Paid per sale only, they carry all the risk. A sample, a fixed fee or a budget with a set time frame makes it easier to say yes, and still some will decline, or agree and then not post. With 50 creators, the real work therefore comes down to two things: getting many of them to post at the same time, and then seeing who sells.

With two creators you sort out questions as they come up. With 50, the same question quickly arrives 50 times: does a returned order count? What happens at the cap? Can I move my date? Anything you don’t settle before the start, you end up negotiating one by one.

Billing becomes a topic of its own. Some creators are Kleinunternehmer (small business scheme): their turnover is VAT-exempt (§ 19(1) UStG), so their documents show no VAT. Others do charge it, and some are based abroad. Instead of collecting dozens of invoices, you can bill yourself with a Gutschrift (self-billing credit note), provided this was agreed with the creator in advance. If a creator objects to a credit note, it no longer counts as an invoice (§ 14(2) UStG). Between businesses in Germany, the e-invoicing rules apply to credit notes too, with transition periods until the end of 2026 and, for some businesses, the end of 2027 (§ 27(38) UStG). Exceptions include billing for the VAT-exempt turnover of Kleinunternehmer and invoices with a total of up to €250: these can always be sent without an e-invoice format (§ 33 and § 34a UStDV). The checklist on campaign terms shows how a credit note works for Kleinunternehmer and for creators abroad.

1. Set the ground rules before you approach anyone: total budget, cap per creator, what you pay for, how long after the last post orders still count, when a sale counts as confirmed, the time frame and what happens when a creator hits the cap. Everyone gets the same rules in writing.
2. Write one brief for all: products, no more than three key messages, no-gos and the exact disclosure wording. Agree format, tone and posting day with each creator so the posts still sound like them.
3. Ask more creators than you have slots, in person and with the ground rules attached. Anyone who agrees gets a fixed posting date. Having your products in an affiliate programme is no substitute for this request.
4. Give each creator a separate link or discount code and test before the start that clicks and sales come through separately. Without that split you won’t know later where the budget should go.
5. Start with a test wave and part of the budget, for example just under half. Spread the posting dates over two to three weeks so stock and disclosure stay checkable. The guide on test campaigns explains how to set up a test on a small budget.
6. The day before each posting date, check stock, variants and links. If a product is running low, move the date or swap the link. Under German law, a trader offering goods to consumers at a set price must say so if it has good reason to expect it cannot supply them, or equivalent goods, at the stated price in reasonable quantity for a reasonable period (UWG annex to § 3(3), no. 5). If the sale happens in your own shop, that means you.
7. Check each published post within a day, save a screenshot and enter the result in the tracking sheet. If the disclosure is missing, ask for a correction straight away.
8. Evaluate after a fixed period, not the day after the last post. For online purchases, consumers in Germany usually have a 14-day right of withdrawal, which for goods starts once they arrive, and once they withdraw they have up to 14 days to send the goods back (§ 312g(1), § 355(2) and (3), § 356(2), § 357(1) BGB, the German Civil Code). § 312g(2) BGB lists exceptions, for example sealed hygiene products that were unsealed after delivery. With two to three days of shipping each way, that comes to just under five weeks after the last order that still counts.
9. Shift the remaining budget: higher caps for creators with confirmed sales, a second try with a revised brief for those with clicks but few sales, a pause for those without results. The rule for this is already in the ground rules from step 1.

The sheet has two tabs. In the first, each post gets its own row because disclosure is checked post by post: a creator who posts one Reel and five Story frames has six rows. You fill in the second tab per creator only after the evaluation period. It is only there for the decision on the next wave. Net revenue and other figures belong in the campaign report. Columns are separated by semicolons: save the text as a CSV file and open it in your spreadsheet, or split it after pasting with “Text to Columns”.

Creator;Channel;Format;Link or code;Planned date;Published on;Stock checked day before;Disclosure checked on;Disclosure OK;Corrected on;Screenshot saved
[Name];[Instagram, TikTok, YouTube];[Reel, Story frame 1, video];[link or CODE];[DD.MM.];[DD.MM.];[yes/no];[DD.MM.];[yes/no];[DD.MM.];[yes/no]

Creator;Wave;Cap;Cap reached on;Clicks;Confirmed sales;Total cost incl. sample;Cost per confirmed sale;Next wave
[Name];[1];[€];[DD.MM. / no];[number];[number];[€];[€];[higher cap / second try / pause]

Campaign: [name] by [brand]
Wave 1: [date] to [date]
Products: [name, variant, link]

How you’re paid: [amount] per confirmed sale through your link or code. Orders count up to [number] days after your last post. A sale is confirmed if it has not been withdrawn or cancelled [number] days after delivery.
Your cap in wave 1: [amount]. If you reach it, we’ll let you know and [raise it / pay nothing beyond it].
Evaluation: on [date]. After that we split the remaining budget for wave 2 by confirmed sales.

Disclosure: “Werbung” or “Anzeige” (German for advertising) as the first word and on every Story frame. In a video where the product plays the lead role: “Werbung” on screen for the whole video. An * on the affiliate link with a short explanation, and “Werbung” right next to the code.
Please send us the link to each post on the day it goes live.
Billing: by [self-billing credit note / invoice], [date]
Questions to: [name, email]

The assumptions behind the table: €15,000 for payouts and samples, €10 per confirmed sale, 20 creators in wave 1, each with a €300 cap and a sample worth €40 including shipping. That ties up at most €6,800 in wave 1. The sales figures are made up and are not a benchmark.

When you pay per sale, each sale costs €10, no matter who made it. The differences come from fixed costs: the €280 for samples sent to creators with no sale is carried by the others. And for the five creators at the cap, you don’t know how much they would have sold without it. So what happens to sales above the cap has to be settled in advance.

The wave model also needs lead time. Say posts go out over two to three weeks, late orders count for one more week and the evaluation comes just under five weeks after that: wave 2 then starts roughly eight to nine weeks after the first post. If you are working towards a fixed date such as Black Friday, wave 1 has to run that much earlier. Or you plan wave 2 on provisional orders and only pay out after the period, accepting that some of those sales may still be returned.

1. Remaining budget: €15,000 minus €2,940 leaves €12,060.
2. The five creators at the cap get a €900 cap: up to €4,500.
3. The eight with few sales get a revised brief and a €150 cap: up to €1,200.
4. Five new creators start on the wave 1 terms: 5 × (€300 + €40) = up to €1,700.
5. The seven with no sale pause. €4,660 is left for a third wave or for higher caps if wave 2 goes well.

Under § 5a(4) UWG, the German Act against Unfair Competition, a post has to make its commercial purpose clear if that purpose is not obvious from the circumstances and hiding it could lead to a business decision that would not otherwise have been made. For a post that promotes another business, there is no commercial purpose if the creator neither receives nor is promised payment or a similar consideration for it, and the law presumes that consideration was given unless the creator can credibly show that none was received. In a campaign like the one above, every creator gets a sample and the prospect of a payout, even those who end up selling nothing. According to the German media authorities, letting creators keep products sent to them can also count as consideration.

For your brand, § 8(2) UWG matters: if employees or agents commit an infringement within a business, claims for injunctive relief and removal also lie against its owner. Competitors and registered associations, among others, can bring such claims (§ 8(3) UWG). A creator may or may not count as your brand’s agent; that depends on the circumstances of the case. The guide on brand liability goes into more detail.

According to the German media authorities’ guidelines, a general note for the whole account is not enough. The advertising post itself has to be labelled, including every Story frame in an advertising context, and the label must be visible in the app and in a browser without scrolling or expanding. With 50 creators posting several times each, that quickly adds up to 100 checks or more. Check these points on each post:

• “Werbung” or “Anzeige” at the start, ideally as the first word of the caption, or clearly visible in the image if the post has no text
• every Story frame on its own, not only the first
• a video with the product in the lead role: “Werbung” on screen for the whole video
• an affiliate link with an asterisk and an explanation right at the link, a discount code with “Werbung” or “Anzeige” next to it
• no “ad”, “AZ”, “sponsored by” or “PR sample” as the only label
• the platform’s own label as the sole label only if it reads “Werbung”, “Anzeige” or “bezahlte Werbepartnerschaft” and is otherwise easy to see, for example without scrolling
• a collab post with your brand: disclosure on the creator’s channel too, even if they only accepted the invitation

With wyrld Boost you put your budget behind creators who feature your products. You set the products, KPIs and time frame once for everyone, and many creators can take part at the same time, in their own videos and storefronts. That gives them a reason to post that an affiliate programme alone does not. Taking part is each creator’s own decision, so the number who join is not fixed in advance. KPIs can be, for example, purchases, clicks, watch time or reach. Clicks are measured through the links, the shops report purchases, and creators upload watch time and reach from their own stats.

You agree with wyrld before the start how the pool is split according to the KPIs reached, just like the ground rules in step 1. You also decide where people buy: only in your shop, on Amazon, or with price comparison across the shops that carry your product. After the campaign you see which creator delivered which results, which gives you the basis for the next wave. Creators label their Boost campaign videos as advertising, and you can use the checklist above on Boost posts too.

Even if creators can usually already pick your products through an affiliate programme with one of the major networks, wyrld appears there as a single partner. The brand and shop subscription shows you which creators behind it feature your products, who drives clicks and who sells, where the shop reports sales. With those creators you can set up your own terms or plan a Boost campaign, for example as a test wave. Prices for the subscription and Boost are available on request, and you set the campaign budget.