What makes or breaks any influencer marketing program is the ability to execute TWO tasks at a high level:

Otherwise, any brand or operator running an influencer marketing program will fail miserably and claim the channel doesn’t work for them.

Lucky for you, I’ve ranked every category of influencer so you can get a head start on researching ideal creators to partner with.

This cheat sheet will also help you hit the ground running and not burn through your budget throwing cash in every direction just to see what sticks.

Here's how I'd rank every tier of creator and their effectiveness for influencer marketing:

S Tier: Mid-level creators

Big enough for real reach, but still small enough that your deal still matters to them.

Nobody fights over these creators, because the giant brands chase celebrities and small brands chase micro-influencers, so partnership pricing stays reasonable.

Their audience still sees them as a relatable person, and more importantly, the trust you're paying for is still intact at this tier.

Our most profitable deals usually came from this level, and the winners paid for every deal that didn't hit.

Fair warning: you still have to run enough deals in this category to find your winning formula, but this is where the math makes the most sense.

A Tier: Micro-influencers

Cheaper deal that still converts.

A creator with 30,000 followers feels like a friend to their audience.

So when they plug your product, it lands like a recommendation instead of an ad.

The catch: no single micro-influencer deal will blow up your downloads. 

This tier works as a volume play, which means you need a pipeline that signs and manages dozens of them without you spending hours managing all the logistics.

B Tier: Nano-influencers

Here's where the numbers start to get a little more risky.

The total work required to close a deal is the same whether the creator has 7,000 followers or 300,000. 

Everything from outreach, negotiations, contracts, reviews, and making sure posts go live.

At nano scale, these deals might just break even or put you in a small hole. 

Their audience can be cult-like and the deal still loses money, so pick your influencers wisely in this category.

If you can't get this tier down to near-zero effort per deal, skip it.

C Tier: Big creators

This is where the paid partnership starts to show. 

Audiences know big creators do brand deals, and the trust starts evaporating accordingly. 

You're paying premium prices for reach, and reach alone usually doesn't convert.

We broke this rule twice, and they were HUGE bets that paid off in our favor, but that’s not the norm.

You will definitely get a dopamine hit when signing someone at this level, but it’s often just an expensive way to feel important.

F Tier: Celebrities

Everyone knows it's an ad.

The entire product in influencer marketing is borrowed trust, and a celebrity post has none in it. 

Their audience follows them for entertainment, not recommendations for how to improve their life.

You end up paying the most money where the most important lever (real trust) isn't even there.

I hope this honest breakdown clears up who you should go after and who to avoid like the plague.

So before you wire money on your next deal, make sure you understand what you’re paying for and if it aligns with your current goals and revenue.

One other note: even though mid-tier creators worked the best for Cal AI, it’s still up to you to evaluate the quality of the audience of an influencer you’re interested in signing.

I’m confident in these influencer assessments because I evaluated over 10,000 influencers and figured out what to look for after signing too many creators that flopped.

If you want more breakdowns like this, just reply to this email and let me know what you want to see more of from me with Operator’s Notebook.

- Jake