Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
*Get our 10 prompts for influencer-led growth:* clickhubspot.com/a6rk
Paid social math is breaking. Costs keep climbing, performance keeps slipping, and the companies growing fastest right now aren't fixing it with bigger ad budgets. They're building deep influencer partnerships instead.
In this episode, Kipp breaks down the exact playbook for launching your first influencer partnership, live. He finds a real creator on YouTube, uses AI to dig up contact info and estimate costs, walks through the lead math that tells you if a $15K deal is worth it, and shares the Creator Scorecard from the new book Loop that HubSpot used to scale its creator program from tens of thousands of dollars to millions.
Ep 443 Mentions
Loop: Outlearn. Outmarket. Outgrow hubspot.com/loop-marketing-book
Perplexity perplexity.ai
Unilever unilever.com
Founders Podcast founderspodcast.com
Claude claude.ai
📌 WHAT WE COVER:
→ Why the paid social math is breaking for most companies
→ Unilever's bet: from thousands to 300,000+ influencers and creators
→ The "trusted slot" in your customer's day and why ads can't reach it
→ Live demo: finding your first influencer partner on YouTube
→ How to evaluate creators (why 70K subscribers can beat 3M)
→ Using AI tools to find creator contact info and estimate costs
→ What a first partnership actually costs ($15K-25K opening range)
→ The lead math: how to know if an influencer deal pays for itself
→ Why you should let the influencer shape your offer and creative
→ The Creator Scorecard from Loop: size, fit, and growth
→ The ideal creator profile: high fit, high growth, mid-size audience
→ How HubSpot scaled its creator program to millions in spend
🎙️ Host: Kipp Bodnar (CMO, HubSpot)
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Paid ads are the lazy way (and the math is breaking)
00:50 - Unilever's 300,000-influencer strategy
01:30 - Your ideal customer is ignoring you
02:00 - The "trusted slot" and why sponsorships work
02:59 - Live demo: finding your first influencer partner
03:45 - Why AI assistants aren't enough (go to the platform)
04:30 - Evaluating creators: big names vs. hidden gems
05:50 - Found the right creator: what to look for
06:30 - Using AI to find contact info and estimate costs
07:25 - What your first partnership will cost
08:25 - The lead math: making the numbers work
09:05 - Counterintuitive tip: trust the influencer's instincts
10:00 - The Creator Scorecard (from the Loop book)
10:35 - Size, fit, and growth: how to grade any creator
11:20 - The ideal creator profile to target
11:50 - How HubSpot scaled creators to millions in spend
12:30 - Your first campaign starts today
📺 Subscribe to Marketing Against the Grain for weekly episodes on marketing, growth, and AI.
#influencermarketing #creatormarketing #marketingstrategy #paidads #b2bmarketing #marketingpodcast #hubspot #growthmarketing #creatorEconomy #marketingtips #cmo #demandgeneration
```
Host Links:
📲Kipp Bodnar, twitter.com/kippbodnar
📲Kieran Flanagan, twitter.com/searchbrat
‘Marketing Against The Grain’ is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Produced by Darren Clarke.
About the Show
Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot’s CMO and Kieran Flanagan Hubspot's SVP of Marketing, lead you down the rabbit hole of marketing trends, growth tactics and innovation. On the way you’ll pick up undiscovered strategies to give you that slight edge for success. These are not your typical twitter thread regurgitated marketing tactics that everyone is doing. These are new methods, with unfiltered examination of successful fresh ideas.
*Get our 10 prompts for influencer-led growth:* clickhubspot.com/a6rk
Paid social math is breaking. Costs keep climbing, performance keeps slipping, and the companies growing fastest right now aren't fixing it with bigger ad budgets. They're building deep influencer partnerships instead.
In this episode, Kipp breaks down the exact playbook for launching your first influencer partnership, live. He finds a real creator on YouTube, uses AI to dig up contact info and estimate costs, walks through the lead math that tells you if a $15K deal is worth it, and shares the Creator Scorecard from the new book Loop that HubSpot used to scale its creator program from tens of thousands of dollars to millions.
Ep 443 Mentions
Loop: Outlearn. Outmarket. Outgrow hubspot.com/loop-marketing-book
Perplexity perplexity.ai
Unilever unilever.com
Founders Podcast founderspodcast.com
Claude claude.ai
📌 WHAT WE COVER:
→ Why the paid social math is breaking for most companies
→ Unilever's bet: from thousands to 300,000+ influencers and creators
→ The "trusted slot" in your customer's day and why ads can't reach it
→ Live demo: finding your first influencer partner on YouTube
→ How to evaluate creators (why 70K subscribers can beat 3M)
→ Using AI tools to find creator contact info and estimate costs
→ What a first partnership actually costs ($15K-25K opening range)
→ The lead math: how to know if an influencer deal pays for itself
→ Why you should let the influencer shape your offer and creative
→ The Creator Scorecard from Loop: size, fit, and growth
→ The ideal creator profile: high fit, high growth, mid-size audience
→ How HubSpot scaled its creator program to millions in spend
🎙️ Host: Kipp Bodnar (CMO, HubSpot)
⏱️ CHAPTERS:
00:00 - Paid ads are the lazy way (and the math is breaking)
00:50 - Unilever's 300,000-influencer strategy
01:30 - Your ideal customer is ignoring you
02:00 - The "trusted slot" and why sponsorships work
02:59 - Live demo: finding your first influencer partner
03:45 - Why AI assistants aren't enough (go to the platform)
04:30 - Evaluating creators: big names vs. hidden gems
05:50 - Found the right creator: what to look for
06:30 - Using AI to find contact info and estimate costs
07:25 - What your first partnership will cost
08:25 - The lead math: making the numbers work
09:05 - Counterintuitive tip: trust the influencer's instincts
10:00 - The Creator Scorecard (from the Loop book)
10:35 - Size, fit, and growth: how to grade any creator
11:20 - The ideal creator profile to target
11:50 - How HubSpot scaled creators to millions in spend
12:30 - Your first campaign starts today
📺 Subscribe to Marketing Against the Grain for weekly episodes on marketing, growth, and AI.
#influencermarketing #creatormarketing #marketingstrategy #paidads #b2bmarketing #marketingpodcast #hubspot #growthmarketing #creatorEconomy #marketingtips #cmo #demandgeneration
```
Host Links:
📲Kipp Bodnar, twitter.com/kippbodnar
📲Kieran Flanagan, twitter.com/searchbrat
‘Marketing Against The Grain’ is a HubSpot Original Podcast // Brought to you by The HubSpot Podcast Network // Produced by Darren Clarke.
About the Show
Kipp Bodnar, HubSpot’s CMO and Kieran Flanagan Hubspot's SVP of Marketing, lead you down the rabbit hole of marketing trends, growth tactics and innovation. On the way you’ll pick up undiscovered strategies to give you that slight edge for success. These are not your typical twitter thread regurgitated marketing tactics that everyone is doing. These are new methods, with unfiltered examination of successful fresh ideas.
