Niche
Tower defense games vs a creator marketplace
A creator marketplace is a real product. It is a catalog of people who signed up to get deals. I still want the people the algorithm is already pushing to the person who would actually play the first session this week.
In tower defense games: the tag is PC-mod YouTubers.
The person: US English, 18-34, already bounced off a TD that energy-gated waves and a defense game that was ads between maps, watches ‘I cannot start the next wave’ and late-night-map videos on a couch. Example: someone beating a map and hitting an energy wall before the next. Skip the 350k TD YouTuber who only posts PC mods.
How I actually work without the catalog
Marketplaces are good when you need a body in a niche and you can live with applicants. They are fast. They are public. Your client or your competitor can buy a version of the same list.
I scroll Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube as that person on real phones. Scout is $1,500/month for that list. Outreach is $2,500 if contacting should not be your job. Dealmaker is $5,000 if the yes should not live in DMs. Creator fees extra. No demo. No download guarantee.
Energy-wall rants already have the audience; a first map they can play at night is the demo.
When to use which
Use a marketplace if you need a 200-person CRM for a store catalog. Use a feed session if you shipped a live TD with a first map that is not an energy gate, or a wave that is not a 30-second ad and you need names this week from the people already in the room.
PC YouTubers quote launch rates. I want roughly 50k average views. Below that, $700 a post for 1k views is a money sink. A Minimum View Guarantee on a call is how I keep the deal honest. Example: $2000 / 4 posts / 1M views. Over email you just get the first number.
If you do this right, ie at scale, you will have many other creators to choose from.
Money page: jumptrend.co/for/tower-defense-games. Campaigns: jumptrend.co/campaigns.
Related: - How I find influencers - How we find creators by scrolling a real TikTok avatar - Campaigns - Brief - Money page for tower defense games