Influencer marketing doesn’t have to leverage Kardashian-sized accounts to generate results.

In fact, micro-influencers — those with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers — see higher engagement rates than larger accounts. Plus they’re more relatable and authentic than top-tier influencers.

But don’t take my word for it; check out these 12 real-world micro-influencer marketing examples…

Example #1: Aumio

Background

Aumio is a sleep and relaxation app for kids partnering with affiliates and influencers for fixed-fee campaigns. Most affiliates (60%) come via inbound queries, while fixed-fee creators are primarily found via talent agencies (50%) and Modash (40%). The company’s choice of platform is Instagram, so they mostly find Instagram influencers.

Results

• Aumio’s goal with influencer marketing is to increase app signups. They regularly use long-term influencer partnerships, with almost 70% of promo code redemptions coming via creators who’ve already collaborated with Aumio 5+ times.
• Influencer marketing is Aumio’s biggest acquisition channel. And since the company focuses on strategically collaborating with fast-growing influencers, they’ve had several instances where creators generated positive results for 12+ months in a row.
• One of their affiliate partners started working with them when they had roughly 8K followers, and within a year this had grown to 35,000+ followers! She still consistently generates 20 – 30 code redemptions per month for Aumio.
• In our podcast episode with Anna-Maria Klappenbach, Aumio’s community and brand marketing lead, she explained how focusing on follower growth rate helps her find high-performing influencers at affordable price points. Modash's influencer discovery tool has a “growth rate” filter to make this process even easier for Aumio.

🤓 Key learnings

Finding fast-growing influencers is effective. By being one of the creator’s early partners, you’ll have the chance to lock in lower rates, and build a great relationship (before other brands discover their talent).

Example #2: Tinder

Background

Tinder is the most downloaded dating app in the world. Yet it has surprisingly low cut-through among younger audiences, with two-thirds of users aged 25+. The brand hoped to change this through “Tinder House”, a three-part YouTube series exploring the dating adventures of three Gen Z students based in Manchester, UK.

Of course, those students just so happened to also be micro-influencers — and they shared their experiences across Instagram and TikTok throughout the campaign.

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As well as organic influencer content, the campaign incorporated social media ads and out-of-home spots in three UK cities with large student populations — Leeds, Manchester, and Nottingham.

Results

• The campaign aimed to reach 300,000 people. But it blew this goal out of the water, achieving total reach of 3.27 million.
• Brand recall was sky-high, with 80% of surveyed students saying they had seen a Tinder ad during the campaign period.
• Not only that, but 28% said the campaign had changed their perception of the dating app.

🤓 Key learnings

Tinder’s campaign highlights the benefit of tapping into culturally relevant conversations. Specifically, it filled a gap for long-form student dating content, as no other UK reality dating show had focused on university students. Tinder House was so successful that the second series has been picked up by Channel 4, a major British broadcaster.

Example #3: Arla

Background

Scandinavian dairy cooperative Arla wanted to drum up more attention online. It decided the best solution was an influencer marketing campaign on TikTok, in which micro-influencers shared acts of kindness with friends and loved ones. Of course, Arla’s products were front and center in each video.

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Results

• Arla successfully recruited 50 TikTok micro-influencers for the campaign.
• Influencers created engaging and entertaining content, which helped the brand hit its targets for reach and impressions.
• Micro-influencer content created during the campaign generated thousands of likes and hundreds of comments.

🤓 Key learnings

It’s not just about coming up with a smart, engaging campaign concept. You also need a way to naturally integrate your products, otherwise your message will fall flat. In Arla’s case, it came up with the concept of good deeds, like sharing milk and cookies with your dad to cheer you up on a bad day.

This campaign also played into consumer desire for feelgood content. In a world that often seems dominated by negative news, 56% of consumers use their smartphones to find uplifting content, while 45% agree that viewing positive, inspiring stories boosts their mood.

Example #4: Deeper Sonars

Background

Portable sonar brand‍ Deeper Sonars is a market leader in the angling world. Much of its success stems from its ambassador program, which accounts for approximately 70% of Deeper’s total marketing budget. The program has three levels:

• Deeper Squad is an open community for any fishing hobbyist and/or fan of Deeper
• Deeper Heroes are pros who use Deeper sonars
• Paid partnerships are influencers with whom Deeper has negotiated a long-term deal

The vast majority of ambassadors join at Squad and Hero level via inbound methods. The remainder are larger micro-influencers — like the aptly named @carpfishingirl — who are mostly recruited through an outbound recruitment strategy using Modash.

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Results

Despite only having five marketers on its team, Deeper Sonars has recruited 7,000+ ambassadors from 30+ countries. Now that’s efficient.

🤓 Key learnings

Deeper Sonars is an excellent example of how to scale influencer marketing by combining paid partnerships with an inbound, self-serve ambassador program that keeps running like a well-oiled machine without admin load. Setting up and refining an ambassador program might take time, but the compounding results are worth the effort.

💡 Learn more: How Deeper Sonars Recruited 7k+ Brand Ambassadors In 30+ Countries

Example #5: Ellos

Background

Online fashion and home furnishings retailer Ellos invested heavily in traditional, fixed-fee influencer marketing. But it wasn’t satisfied with the results and wanted a more flexible solution. Specifically, it aimed to boost engagement while cutting costs by working with micro-influencers in the Nordic region.

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Results

• Ellos abandoned its fixed-free approach in favor of a performance-based partnership model, recruiting 130 micro-influencers to generate content highlighting the brand’s fashion and furniture collections.
• The influencer program spanned multiple campaigns and seasons, each targeting different product categories (like summer fashion and back to school).
• In all, the program generated 980 pieces of content, over two million total impressions, and $78,000+ in revenue at an impressive 4% conversion rate.

🤓 Key learnings

This campaign demonstrates how fixed-fee partnerships with micro-influencers aren’t always the way to go. Switching to a performance-based model helped Ellos reduce costs and foster longer-term relationships with those influencers who generated the best results.

Example #6: Honest Co

Background

The Honest Company is a baby and beauty products company founded by Jessica Alba (yes, the Jessica Alba). It regularly works with micro-influencers, including a campaign centered on four products that help moms and babies wind down before bedtime. To drive bulk purchases and boost the retailer’s average order value, influencers were asked to share these products as a package. Clever stuff.

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Results

• The Honest Co recruited 30 micro-influencers who aligned with its brand story and tasked them with creating content that looked similar to the brand’s own posts.
• In all, the campaign generated 133 pieces of influencer content — 66% more than planned.
• Campaign content generated an impressive average engagement rate of 4.25%, with in-feed posts seeing engagement rates of 4.32%.
• Importantly, it also drove meaningful action, including 578 link clicks to the retailer’s website and 1,402 sticker taps to its Instagram profile.

🤓 Key learnings

For many brands, engagement metrics aren’t enough to make an influencer campaign worthwhile — they need more meaningful results (i.e. conversions). Honest achieved this by asking influencers to share a unique 15% off discount code that encouraged audiences to buy the four target products together.

Example #7: I and Love and You

Background

Sustainably sourced pet food brand I and Love and You regularly works with micro-influencers to increase its reach and generate sales. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of people looking to engage with cute cats and dogs on social media.

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Results

• For one campaign, the brand reached out to 400 micro-influencers in the pet niche, with the goal of increasing brand awareness and generating more content.
• Influencers who agreed to take part shared 122 posts, which reached a combined 7.8 million people and generated 64,000 engagements.
• As an added bonus, I and Love and You further expanded its reach by asking influencers to cross-promote campaign content across different channels, including social platforms and blogs.

🤓 Key learnings

Influencer marketing for smaller businesses like I and Love and You is all about generating the highest possible bang for your buck. Asking influencers to share content across multiple platforms can be an effective approach. Depending on the content format, it shouldn’t involve a ton of extra work for your influencers — but it can make a massive difference to your reach.

Example #8: Airalo

Background

Airalo is a marketplace that gives travelers access to affordable eSIMs in 190+ countries and regions. It wanted to boost awareness and app installs among its target market of travelers aged 18 – 35, so it ran a micro-influencer campaign on TikTok — where money-saving travel hacks are a major trend.

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Results

• Airalo worked with 10 micro-influencers on TikTok, who generated a combined 2.1 million video video views at an excellent 12.3% engagement rate.
• Even more impressively, the campaign achieved a cost per install of just $0.23 — way below the average global CPI of $1.50+.

🤓 Key learnings

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel in your influencer campaigns. Instead, leverage existing formats and trends to generate more authentic and engaging content. In Airalo’s case, travel tips and tricks are already a big hit on TikTok, with hundreds of thousands of results for hashtags like #traveltips and #backpackingtips.

Example #9: Warby Parker

Background

D2C eyewear brand Warby Parker frequently collaborates with micro-influencers to promote its collections on Instagram and TikTok. These campaigns typically focus on USPs like the brand’s free home try-on service and its pledge to donate a free pair of glasses on every purchase to someone in need.

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Results

• Running regular micro-influencer campaigns has helped Warby Parker dominate share of voice in the eyewear niche.
• There are 251,000+ posts on Instagram for the branded hashtag #warbyparker.
• Meanwhile, on TikTok, videos featuring micro-influencers promoting the brand regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views.

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🤓 Key learnings

In part, Warby Parker’s approach to micro-influencer marketing demonstrates the benefits of purpose-driven messaging (i.e. the brand’s pledge to donate glasses to those in need). This is a key differentiator, with 82% of shoppers saying they prefer a consumer brand’s values to align with their own — and three-quarters choosing to part ways with a brand over a conflict in values.

Example #10: Cuts Clothing

Background

Cuts Clothing is a premium menswear brand specializing in T-shirts, sweatshirts, bottoms, and hats. It runs micro-influencer campaigns at scale, tasking influencers to create up to two TikTok videos per month around specific themes — such as holidays or new product launches.

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Results

• Cuts has built a sustainable “content farm” of high-performing micro-influencers capable of creating a combined 20 – 30 pieces of content per month on TikTok.
• Despite requiring minimal involvement from the brand’s side, its influencer program has achieved its volume target while maintaining CPAs below the target level of $120.

🤓 Key learnings

When running influencer campaigns at scale, you need to be super clear on the creative you expect to receive.Cuts Clothing creates clear briefs to help guide creators on exactly what kind of content to produce, minimizing the need for lengthy discussions or constant rounds of amends.

Example #11: St Pierre Bakery

Background

St Pierre is America’s #1 French brioche brand. It wanted US audiences to know that its premium products are still available wherever people do their regular grocery shopping. So it launched two micro-influencer campaigns — one based around summer grilling, and a holiday campaign focusing on sweet treats like French toast.

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Results

• St Pierre recruited 30 influencers for each campaign.
• The summer campaign reached 1.7+ million people and generated over 25,000 engagements.
• The holiday campaign performed even better, racking up 3.3+ million reach and an engagement rate of 3.2% on Instagram.
• Both campaigns leveraged Instagram Stories to drive clicks, resulting in a combined 1,400+ link clicks and almost 2,500 sticker taps.
• One campaign saw a CPM of just $0.21, helping St Pierre achieve 157% of its impressions target.

🤓 Key learnings

It pays to think about content repurposing when planning any influencer campaign. In this campaign, each influencer created polished step-by-step videos explaining their recipe in detail. These were perfect for the brand to reshare via its own channels, helping St Pierre generate a higher ROI.

Example #12: Hers

Background

Hers is a telemedicine company specializing in hair loss and acne treatments. It wanted to promote both product categories to Gen Z women in the US. But it faced a problem: there were strict advertising regulations around the skincare line, which prevented the use of words like “prescription”.

Hers collaborated with two types of influencers on each campaign:

• Hero creators with audiences of 2+ million followers.
• Micro-influencers whose high-quality content gave them a strong chance of going viral on TikTok.

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Results

• In all, Hers worked with 10 influencers, split evenly between the skin and haircare campaigns.
• Over 30 days, the hair campaign generated 1,453,900 total impressions, a $11.01 CPM, and a 4.48% engagement rate.
• Despite the ad restrictions, the skincare campaign performed even better, notching up 3,414,400 total impressions with a $5.13 CPM and a 2.24% engagement rate.
• Combined, the two campaigns drove 11,000+ people to the Hers website, at a cost per click of just $0.62 CPC — 20% below the beauty industry average.
• Spark Ads played a key role in promoting both product categories, achieving a $2 CPM on awareness campaigns and $5 on traffic campaigns.

🤓 Key learnings

Spark Ads (AKA TikTok’s version of influencer whitelisting) can be an effective way to boost influencer content. Especially when you’re promoting content that’s already played well organically, as Hers did in this campaign. To learn more, check out our complete guide to influencer whitelisting.

Conclusion

As you can see, micro-influencer campaigns are delivering real results for brands in many niches. Not just impressions and reach, but clicks and conversions too.

And all at a fraction of the cost of teaming up with a “big name”.

If you want to dive deeper and learn more about running micro influencer campaigns for your brand, try these resources next:

👉 First, check out our guide on how to find micro-influencers

👉 Then learn how to reach and engage them in our actionable guide to influencer outreach