How to choose brands to promote as a creator (without losing your audience)
A filter, in order, for deciding which campaigns to accept: fit, geography, real commission, exclusivity, red flags and how to read the terms.
Choosing brands to promote is mostly an exercise in saying no. The question is not which campaign pays the most, but which one you can recommend without your audience feeling sold to. A useful filter runs in this order: first whether the brand fits your content and your values, then whether you would use it yourself, then whether the offer is valid in the countries where your followers live, and only at the end how much it pays net and under which conditions. Almost every bad decision comes from flipping that order: looking at the rate first and justifying the rest afterwards.
This guide walks through that filter step by step, lists the red flags that rule a brand out on the spot, and ends with something few creators take advantage of: using an affiliate campaign as a low-risk test before negotiating a flat fee. It applies whether offers arrive in your DMs or you browse campaigns on an affiliate platform for creators.
Which brands fit your content?
The first question is whether the brand could show up on your account without anyone noticing a change of tone. If you post recipes and a budgeting app makes an offer, the post will feel like an interruption no matter how good the app is. Fit does not mean staying inside your narrowest niche; it means the recommendation has a believable bridge to what you already do and to what your audience expects from you.
The second question is less comfortable: would you use it or buy it yourself? Not “if they sent it for free”, but at full price. If the answer is no, keep walking. Your audience detects indifference in two seconds, and a single forced recommendation costs credibility for the next ten.
Then there is a values filter worth writing down: the categories you never promote, out of conviction, because of your audience’s age, or because of the platform’s rules. Having that list before an offer arrives means you never decide with the rate in front of you.
Is the offer valid where your followers live?
This question rules out more campaigns than you would expect. A code that only works in a Spanish store is close to useless if most of your followers are in Mexico and Colombia; whoever tries it gets an error at checkout and the feeling that you told them about something broken. Check the country breakdown Instagram or YouTube shows you before accepting anything.
Ideally the filter is done for you: a platform like convli reads your audience’s countries with your permission and only shows campaigns that are eligible there. If you deal with the brand directly, ask where it ships, where it charges and where it attributes the sale, because those three are not always the same.
How much does the campaign really pay?
The percentage the brand advertises is the starting point, not the number that reaches you. Ask for the net commission (after the network or platform takes its share), the confirmation window (sales are usually validated weeks later, once the return period has passed) and the attribution window: how many days the cookie or code lasts from the moment someone taps your link until they buy. A one-day window and a thirty-day window are different campaigns even when the percentage is identical.
Then come exclusions and rejection rates. Many campaigns pay nothing on discounted products, existing customers or returned orders, and some reject a large share of conversions for reasons you never see. Ask for those figures before accepting; if the brand does not know them, that is a signal in itself. Why those conditions exist and how to read them is covered in fraud and compliance in affiliate marketing.
Exclusivity, and how many campaigns per month
An exclusivity clause stops you from promoting competitors for a period of time. It is not bad by definition, but it has a price: if a brand wants exclusivity in its category for six months, it should compensate you for everything you turn down in that period. Read the scope (direct competitors only, or the whole category?), the duration, and what happens if the brand stops sending you campaigns before the term ends.
On quantity: there is no correct number, but there is a simple test. If someone opens your profile and the latest posts are almost all promotions, your audience noticed before you did. Many creators are comfortable with one campaign for every several organic posts and with not repeating a category in the same month; adjust the ratio based on comments and your followers’ response, not on how many offers land in your inbox.
Every brand you accept spends a little of the trust that took you years to build; pick the ones that pay it back with interest.
What red flags rule a brand out?
Four are non-negotiable. They ask you to pay to join the program or to buy a “starter kit”: an affiliate gets paid, not the other way around. Income depends on recruiting other creators more than on selling a product: that is multi-level marketing, not affiliate marketing. They promise “guaranteed” income or show screenshots of someone else’s earnings: nobody can guarantee what your audience decides. And they ask you not to label the post as an ad or to hide the code: that exposes you, not them.
Disclosure is not up for negotiation. The FTC’s Endorsement Guides FAQ is clear: an endorsement must reflect your honest opinion and your relationship with the brand has to be visible. If a brand asks for the opposite, the answer is no, whatever it pays.
How to read the terms and test before you negotiate
Before accepting, look for five specific things in the terms: which action is paid (sale, sign-up, download), with what attribution window, what is excluded, when and how you get paid (payout minimum, payment method, currency) and what can get your account terminated. Anything not written down, ask about in writing. And keep a copy of the terms in force when you start: they change.
An affiliate campaign is also the cheapest way to test a brand. You post with your affiliate links and codes, watch clicks and conversions per post and find out within weeks whether your audience responds. If it does, you walk into a flat-fee negotiation with your own data instead of promises; our post on how to build a media kit shows how to present them. If it does not, you learned something without tying your account to a long-term deal.
Frequently asked questions
Should I accept a brand that messages me directly?
It can be legitimate, but verify first: the account and domain should match the real brand, nobody should ask you to pay anything, and the terms should arrive in writing. Then apply the same filter you would to any campaign.
Can I promote two competing brands at the same time?
Yes, unless you signed an exclusivity clause. Even so, space them out: recommending two rival products in the same week makes your audience doubt both recommendations.
Is a high commission better than a well-known brand?
It depends on conversion. A known brand with a low commission often converts better than an unknown one with a high commission, because your audience already trusts it. Compare revenue per post, not percentages.
convli team · convli · Last updated: September 12, 2026