Launch an influencer campaign for homeschool planners
I scroll Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube under a fresh account if I’m marketing a homeschool planner. I try to put myself in this person’s shoes: US English parent, 30-45, already bounced off a paper planner that became a guilt object and a 40-tab spreadsheet, watches 'the planner is making me cry' and Sunday-lesson-panic videos after kids are in bed, no child-directed creative. 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. The planner is a guilt object and Sunday is a second unpaid job. They already tried a paper planner that became guilt, a 40-tab spreadsheet, and a curriculum company's portal they hate. Skip the homeschool-influencer whose grid is a sponsored curriculum every week. Adjacent is Sunday panic, planner guilt, not kid-on-camera curriculum ads. 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: a parent at a table of printables after bedtime, no child as talent. Signal: the same after-bedtime panic face two Sundays.
03
I prefer email. The contact is usually in a clearly-adult parent-creator bio. Just send a short note. Name a real video. Ask for the phone number. Don’t start the deal over email. Curriculum influencers quote sponsor rates and will put kids on camera. Move on. 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. A week view the parent can fill after bedtime. Parent fills next week after bedtime, drop the code. Kids are not talent.
Why most first homeschool planners campaigns stall
01
Curriculum influencers quote sponsor rates and will put kids on camera. Move on. You needed a lot of other names so you could move on. Planner-guilt already has the parent audience; a week view they can run after bedtime is the product. Kids are not the audience and not the talent.
02
People tag #homeschool when they want brands to find them. A database tells you who exists. Your customer lives in a feed you never opened. A cute kid-at-the-table video you cannot run.
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 a child to perform. Ask the parent to fill next week's list after bedtime.
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 sold to parents, no child-directed creative.
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 by the parent, 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.
Curriculum influencers quote sponsor rates and will put kids on camera. Move on. 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 curriculum sponsors and kid-on-camera accounts you cannot buy. I read the session the person who would download this actually gets served. Product page for the general job: campaigns.