Launch an influencer campaign for customer feedback widgets
I scroll Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube under a fresh account if I’m marketing a feedback widget. I try to put myself in this person’s shoes: US English indie SaaS, 26-38, already bounced off Typeform they are embarrassed to send and a Canny they never triaged, watches 'nobody fills in my Typeform' and 'Canny is a graveyard of votes' videos after a churn email. 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 pay for this tool 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. I have 80 votes and I still do not know what to build on Monday. They already tried a 20-question Typeform, Canny they never triaged, and a support@ inbox that is unreadable. Skip the product-led-growth thread-lord selling a $799 research course. Adjacent is churn emails, graveyard boards, not enterprise survey suites. 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 opening Canny to 80 votes and closing it because nothing is ranked. Signal: the same Canny-graveyard face two changelog weeks.
03
I prefer email. The contact is usually in a tiny SaaS site contact, often a personal gmail in the footer. Just send a short note. Name a real video. Ask for the phone number. Don’t start the deal over email. PLG coaches quote course prices. 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. Paste, ask one question, see an answer. Paste the widget, ask one question, show the first answer.
Why most first customer feedback widgets campaigns stall
01
PLG coaches quote course prices. You needed a lot of other names so you could move on. Graveyard-board rants already have the audience; a three-question widget is the thing they can ship this week.
02
People tag #buildinpublic when they want brands to find them. A database tells you who exists. Your customer lives in a feed you never opened. A cinematic 'we shipped what you asked' with no widget.
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 them to fake a roadmap. Ask them to paste the widget and read one answer.
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 working widget they can paste on a real page tonight.
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 signups to a live widget product, unique link.
Questions
You can learn vocabulary that way. People tag what they want brands to find. I still scroll as the person who would pay for this tool 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.
PLG coaches quote course prices. 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 PLG coaches; they want a course affiliate, not a widget. I read the session the person who would pay for this tool actually gets served. Product page for the general job: campaigns.