Launch an influencer campaign for board game collection apps
I scroll Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube under a fresh account if I’m marketing a board game collection app. I try to put myself in this person’s shoes: US English, 24-42, already bounced off BoardGameGeek they find hostile on a phone and a spreadsheet of plays, watches BGG on a phone is a fight and Friday-night-picker videos at a shelf. Linger, save, like, and comment as if I were them. Once the algorithm is trained I take whoever keeps showing up. Ideally over 50k average views. Below that they quote $700 a post for 1k views. That’s a money sink.
You really need to do this for hundreds of creators a day, because the market is not efficient. Some dumb startup is paying thousands for hundreds of views. I scroll as the person who would download this on real phones. Scout is $1,500/month. We find creators. Outreach is $2,500 if I should send the emails. Dealmaker is $5,000 if I should negotiate and paper the deal. Creator fees extra. No demo. No download guarantee. I wrote the long version at How I find influencers.
Where people actually look
How I actually launch
01
Not a demographic. We wanted to play in 10 minutes and BGG wanted a desktop, and then we argued rules for 40. They already tried BGG on a phone they hate, a spreadsheet of plays, and photos of boxes they cannot search. Skip the 400k board-game-influencer whose grid is a weekly unboxing haul. Adjacent is Friday shelves, hostile BGG, not unboxing hauls. Steal the brief if you want.
02
Fresh account. Real phones. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Linger, save, like, comment as if I were them. Once the algorithm is trained I take whoever keeps showing up. Ideally over 50k average. Example: someone picking a game for Friday and opening BGG to a page they cannot read. Signal: the same Friday-shelf face two weeks.
03
I prefer email. The contact is usually in a small Friday-night bio. Just send a short note. Name a real video. Ask for the phone number. Don’t start the deal over email. Board-game influencers quote unboxing-haul rates. If they won’t give a number, move on.
04
Pay $X for N posts with a floor of Y views. An example that is easy to hold: $2000 / 4 posts / 1M views. Then send the contract while it’s still fresh. Pick a game off a real shelf on a Friday. Open the shelf, pick in 10 minutes, drop the code.
Why most first board game collection apps campaigns stall
01
Board-game influencers quote unboxing-haul rates. You needed a lot of other names so you could move on. BGG-on-phone rants already have the audience; a shelf picker they can use on Friday is the product.
02
People tag boardgames tag when they want brands to find them. A database tells you who exists. Your customer lives in a feed you never opened. A 10-game unboxing with no picker.
03
Many times I have read something unprofitable like “$700 a post” from a creator that gets 50k views. On a call I can explain a Minimum View Guarantee. Over email you just get the first number. Do not ask for a 10-game unboxing. Ask them to pick a game in 10 minutes.
What you actually buy
Every plan includes the scrolling. Pay more and I do more of the emailing and the paperwork. Creator pay is extra. No demo. No download guarantee. A live listing whose first screenshot is a shelf and a picker, not a marketplace.
Scout
$1,500/month
We find creators.
Most people start here
Outreach
$2,500/month
We find relevant creators, and do outreach.
Dealmaker
$5,000/month
Outreach, then negotiation and contracts.
Billed monthly, cancel anytime. Creator compensation is not included. You approve every creator and every rate. Measurement is App Store installs with a unique custom code.
Questions
You can learn vocabulary that way. People tag what they want brands to find. I still scroll as the person who would download this on a fresh account and take whoever keeps showing up. The method essay is How we find creators by scrolling a real TikTok avatar.
No. Anyone who does is lying or running paid. I do the scrolling and, on Outreach and Dealmaker, the contacting. You still approve every creator and every rate. Talent is extra. No demo. No download guarantee.
Board-game influencers quote unboxing-haul rates. I want roughly 50k average views or the economics usually break. Below that, $700 a post for 1k views is a money sink. On a call I can explain a Minimum View Guarantee. Example: $2000 / 4 posts / 1M views. Over email you just get the first number. If they will not give a number, move on. If you do this right, ie at scale, you will have many other creators to choose from.
No. It is a different job. The tag is unboxing-haul talent. I read the session the person who would download this actually gets served. Product page for the general job: campaigns.