One team found 800 creators and hit a 7% conversion rate by rethinking the recruitment process.

This post is part one of our three-part blog series recapping the Ad Age webinar Beyond the Like, hosted by Creator in partnership with Groupon. The session featured a fireside chat with Creator’s VP of Marketing Jeff Schaeffler, Account Director Ishita Sachdev, and Reagan Anthony, Marketing Coordinator for Influencer and Affiliate at Groupon.

Together, they explored how brands can streamline influencer recruitment, leverage creator content across multiple channels, and scale programs without sacrificing authenticity. 

Over the next three posts, we’ll break down the biggest takeaways, starting with one of the most foundational pieces: recruitment.

Recruitment Is Where Most Brands Get Stuck

Authentic content is still the holy grail of marketing, but anyone who’s tried to scale an influencer program knows that authenticity and efficiency often feel mutually exclusive. 

That’s where expert recruiters and the right tools come in.

Before working with Creator, Groupon’s Reagan Anthony was spending most of her time just trying to find creators.

“Before Creator, a massive issue that we had was recruitment, it was taking up most of my work week. I was posting on Reddit, I was looking in Facebook groups, I was scrolling through Instagram trying to find these creators. UGC creators may not have a huge social presence so they are a bit harder to find. Without a tool like this it would be impossible to find.”

UGC creators, those producing content for brand use rather than audience clout, often fly under the radar. Sourcing them manually is time-consuming and unsustainable. That’s why the first step to scaling influencer content is building smarter systems instead of hiring more marketers. 

“Having a system like Creator helped cut that time significantly and allowed me to focus on managing the campaign.”

At Creator, we built a recruitment infrastructure that prioritizes speed and fit. Instead of combing through social platforms or relying on one-off DMs, we developed a repeatable approach that includes smart filters, bulk messaging tools, and centralized dashboards to track progress. Using our recruitment strategy, Groupon scaled from producing 30 pieces of content per month to over 100 without burning out their team or the creators they worked with.

“It really allowed us to scale the recruitment process… and we wouldn’t have been able to do it without Creator.”

And while tech was critical, so was the human element. Expert recruiters know how to balance incentives, communication, and creative guidance.

This Is What Sustainable Scale Looks Like

Scaling content doesn’t mean lowering your standards. In fact, it requires even more clarity, coordination, and care. Here’s how our approach to influencer recruitment laid the groundwork for sustainable scale:

• Streamlined outreach: With access to vetted creators and automated messaging, the outreach process is faster and less manual.‍
• Flexible incentive options: Offering a menu of compensation options helped speed up buy-in.‍
• Creator-led storytelling: Providing clear brand direction while letting creators lead the narrative resulted in content that felt real.‍
• Re-engagement strategies: We kept momentum going by encouraging creators to go beyond a single deliverable, giving us more UGC to repurpose.‍
• Performance-driven iterations: By connecting our recruitment with real-time campaign data, we continuously improved who we brought in and how we worked with them.
  

Creators Can’t Create if You Can’t Find Them

Scaling influencer content is about setting up systems that work for your team, your creators, and your audience. The volume comes naturally after.  Recruitment is the foundation of that system, and expert recruiters, powered by the right tools, are what turn a headache into a consistent flow of content.

Stay tuned for part two of this series, where we’ll explore how to go beyond influencer marketing and leverage paid ads to drive ROI.