Most beer influencer marketing advice stops at "work with micro-influencers" and "be authentic". We wanted to see what the biggest beer brands actually do, so we pulled the 50 most recent sponsored posts for each of the most-searched beer brands in the US and looked at who posted, how each deal was disclosed, and which posts took off.

Here's why beer brands work with creators, the commonalities in their strategy, and a step-by-step way to run your own campaign.

Why beer brands use influencer marketing

Creators do a few things for beer brands that ads and product pages can't:

• Food creators put beer in the recipe. A beer that goes into a dish gets bought with the groceries. For Día de los Muertos, @nanajoe19 made an uncle's favorite pollo marinated in citrus and Modelo, and the post got 150k plays.
• A design gives people something to collect. Limited cans and bottles turn a six-pack into something worth posting. When Guinness asked @yeshidesigns to design a limited-edition can, the post got 1.1k likes, about 5% of the creator's following.
• TV fans follow their favorite cast. A beer that shows up next to a show people love borrows that show's fans. Corona sent @roamwithdee on vacation with Survivor's Cirie Fields, and the post got 471k plays.
• A new pack needs someone to explain it. Shoppers don't notice a new can size until someone points it out. When Guinness Malaysia launched a 300ml can, the post introducing it from @isawkwardguy got 159k plays.

Top beer brands using influencer marketing

These are the most-searched beer brands in the US, according to Ahrefs. Deal types show how each post was disclosed (for example, with a paid partnership label or an ambassador hashtag). Creator tiers: micro 10k–50k followers, mid-tier 50k–500k, macro 500k+.

1. Michelob Ultra: freestylers on repeat

Michelob Ultra keeps coming back to the same creators: football freestylers @seanfreestyle and @johnnellis posted 7 times each during the World Cup, and 12 of its 26 creators posted more than once. 5 posts are World Cup ticket giveaways that ask followers to follow @michelobultra and tag a friend. 21 of its 26 creators have more than 500k followers, and none of the posts use a discount code.

• Creators: @leonstreetskills (3.6M), @florencia.galarza (76k) and @seanfreestyle (5.5M) are among the creators who've posted for Michelob Ultra.
• How posts were disclosed: 49 paid partnership, 1 unspecified

What to take from it: Rebook the creators whose format fits your moment. @seanfreestyle posted 7 times for Michelob Ultra during the World Cup, and the "MMA or football?" clip got 27.3M plays and 877k likes, the most of any post across the five brands.

2. Guinness: match day in every market

17 of Guinness's last 50 sponsored posts are about sport, from Arsenal watch parties at Guinness Matchday events in Nigeria to the Women's Six Nations and Test cricket at Lord's. 16 tag Guinness Africa and 14 tag Guinness US, each with its own campaign. Its creators are based in the US (11), the UK (8), Nigeria and Ireland (3 each), and the only code is a QR code for rating a pint in Malaysia.

• Creators: @nufc (3.8M), @dede_ashiogwu (347k) and @nakeirawest (36k) are among the creators who've posted for Guinness.
• How posts were disclosed: 49 paid partnership, 1 unspecified

What to take from it: Pair your beer with the team your buyers support. @nakeirawest's trip to Dublin with Guinness and Arsenal got 710k plays and 16k likes from an account with 36k followers.

3. Modelo: Hispanic heritage stories

18 of Modelo's last 50 sponsored posts are about Hispanic culture and family, from artists designing "One-in-6Pack" bottles for Hispanic Heritage Month to Latino media brand @wearemitu, which posted 5 times. 10 posts promote a sweepstakes, like its Full-Time Fan college football contest. All 33 creators with a listed location are in the US, all 50 posts were disclosed as paid partnerships, and none use a discount code.

• Creators: @devonrodriguezart (9.5M), @henry715 (391k) and @muybuenocooking (68k) are among the creators who've posted for Modelo.
• How posts were disclosed: 50 paid partnership

What to take from it: Let cooks put your product into a recipe their family already makes. @muybuenocooking posted three times about Modelo's Spiked Aguas Frescas, and the agua de Jamaica post got 431k plays, more than six times the creator's following.

4. Corona: sweepstakes for sports fans

8 of Corona's last 50 sponsored posts promote a sweepstakes, from a Northeast beach trip to limited-edition MLB jerseys. Its most frequent partner is @jomboymediafootball, with 11 NFL clips, and Corona Premier sponsored the U.S. Open golf account's coverage (3 posts). 32 of its 33 creators with a listed location are in the US, 48 posts were disclosed as paid partnerships, and none use a code.

• Creators: @saweetie (11.8M), @roamwithdee (206k) and @hopeannwilliams (177k) are among the creators who've posted for Corona.
• How posts were disclosed: 48 paid partnership, 2 gifted

What to take from it: Make the prize the post. @hopeannwilliams's post for Corona's Northeast beach trip giveaway got 2.0M plays, Corona's most-viewed and more than 11 times the creator's following.

5. Budweiser: cricket fans in the stands

35 of Budweiser's last 50 sponsored posts come from the ICC Men's T20 World Cup, where Budweiser India took creators to matches in India and Sri Lanka under its "In the Hands of Fans" line. Budweiser UK covered the FIFA World Cup and the Parklife festival (5 posts). Its creators are based in India (33) and the UK (5), it books big creators (a median of 523k followers), and none of the posts use a discount code.

• Creators: @laurengottlieb (3.0M), @sushmitaasingh (388k) and @akritinegi_official (1.4M) are among the creators who've posted for Budweiser.
• How posts were disclosed: 47 paid partnership, 2 unspecified, 1 gifted

What to take from it: Put fans in the stadium and let them post the moment. @akritinegi_official celebrated an India win with Budweiser India, and the post got 8.9M plays and 461k likes, a third of the creator's following.

What the top beer brands have in common

Looking across all 250 posts, four patterns stand out:

• Sport carries the category. 136 of the 250 posts are about a sport, from cricket and the World Cup to the NFL and golf.
• Smaller creators get more out of their audience. Across 203 posts with visible likes, creators under 50k followers got a median of 4.9% of their followers liking the post. For creators above 50k, it was 0.7%.
• They book big anyway. Only 15 of the 179 creators across the five brands have under 50k followers.
• Each market runs its own program. 38 of Budweiser's posts tag Budweiser India, and Guinness splits its posts between Guinness Africa, Guinness US, Guinness GB and Guinness Malaysia.

How to run a beer influencer marketing campaign

Here's how to run a campaign step by step, using what the top beer brands do at each stage.

1. Pick one goal and one metric

Decide what the campaign is for before you pick a single creator, because the goal changes who you book, how you pay them and what you ask them to post. The top beer brands' posts show both goals at work. Budweiser UK's £5 pint offer and Guinness Malaysia's new 300ml can are built to drive sales. Budweiser India's cricket trips and Michelob Ultra's freestyle clips are built for reach.

• Sales: track revenue per creator with a unique link and code.
• Awareness: track views, saves and reach per post.
• Sweepstakes entries: if you run a giveaway, like Corona's beach trip, give each creator a tracked entry link and compare entries per creator.

Pick one metric per campaign so you can compare creators fairly afterwards.

2. Find and vet creators who fit your brand

Follower count is the last thing to filter on. A concert photographer with 34k followers sharing shots from an Olivia Dean show in Dublin for Guinness Ireland got 18.1k likes, more than half their following, because concert photos are what their followers come for. Across all five brands, creators under 50k followers got about seven times the likes relative to their audience.

Our survey found niche micro-creators are outperforming mega-influencers: nearly 60% of marketers said niche influencers performed better in 2025 than in 2024.

• Write down who drinks your beer (fans who watch every match, people who host backyard cookouts, festival regulars) and look for creators living that life.
• Search Modash's database of 380M+ creators and filter by audience demographics (age, gender, location), bio keywords, engagement rate and fake-follower checks.
• Or describe that creator in plain language, like "creators who host game-day watch parties", and Modash's AI creator search surfaces matching creators on the platform you're searching.

• Check who else they've posted for. @mrchuy posted for both Modelo and Michelob Ultra, and for Gatorade too. Modash shows which brands a creator has already posted sponsored content for.

You can also find beer influencers for free, for example by searching the hashtags your buyers follow.

3. Choose the deal type

Every top beer brand pays per post. Modelo disclosed all 50 of its last 50 posts as paid partnerships, and Michelob Ultra and Guinness 49. None of the 250 posts were labeled as ambassador or affiliate posts.

• Gifting works for limited merch creators will want to show off, like the gifted Mookie Betts jersey in Corona's mix.
• Paid posts suit campaigns tied to a fixture list, like a World Cup, a cricket tournament or the NFL season.
• Affiliate didn't show up in any of the 250 posts. Alcohol rules vary by market, so check what's allowed before you offer commission on beer sales.
• Ambassador deals suit creators who post every match day, like the weekly NFL clips Corona booked from one sports account.

Commission-only is getting harder to sell, though. Over 23% of marketers in our survey said creators would take performance pay only if a flat fee came with it. If you run tiers, the average commission tiers in our affiliate research were 10%, 14% and 19%, and brands with more than one tier had more active affiliates.

4. Brief the content formats that work in beer

The captions from the top beer brands point to three formats that carry most of their creator content:

• Match day. Guinness's and Budweiser's creators post from watch parties and stadiums. Get creators to the game, or to the best pub to watch it, and let them film the crowd.
• Cooking with beer. Modelo's creators make aguas frescas and marinades, and Guinness's make ribs and a viral dot cake. Ask for a dish followers can cook with a beer this weekend.
• Merch and fits. 12 of Modelo's posts show outfits and merch, from Rolling Loud fits to a Lucky Brand collection. Give creators something to wear that ties back to the beer.

Whatever the format, give creators one hashtag to use every time, like #guinnesspartner or #coronapartner, and the age line each market requires.

5. Launch with tracked links and time-limited codes

None of the top beer brands used discount codes in these posts. They ran giveaways instead: Modelo, Corona and Michelob Ultra promote a sweepstakes or giveaway in 23 posts.

Codes also leak. In our affiliate marketing research, 47.6% of marketers said they struggle with code poaching, where a creator's code ends up on coupon sites.

• Give every creator a tracked link for everyday posts, and add a code only for launches and sales.
• Put an end date in the caption so followers know the offer won't last.
• If creators use "comment for the link", make sure the link they send by DM is their tracked link.

In Modash, each creator gets a tracked link and a code tied to your Shopify data, so sales from DMs, bios and stories all count toward the right person. Commission is calculated on net revenue after refunds and returns.

6. Rebook your best creators

The top beer brands rebook some of their creators: 37 of their 179 creators posted more than once, and Guinness came back to @princenelsonenwerem 6 times. That matters in beer, where people order the same pint out of habit, and a creator seen with it every match day builds the habit.

Most marketers want to do more of this. In our influencer marketing trends survey, over 60% said they plan to invest more in long-term partnerships, but only 54% actually ran more of them last year.

• Start new creators on a single post, then offer a longer deal to the ones who hit your metric from step 1.
• Use revenue per creator, not likes, to decide who gets rebooked. Modash's campaign dashboard shows revenue, orders and ROAS for each creator.
• Give rebooked creators something new each time, like a seasonal release, a match to attend or a recipe to film, so their posts don't repeat.

Where beer creator programs go wrong

The top brands avoid a few mistakes that trip up smaller programs:

• Using one age line for every market. Legal drinking ages and required warnings change by country, from 18 in much of Europe to 21 in the US, and some markets add rules of their own. Get the required wording for every market you run in and put it in the brief.
• Offering commission-only deals to established creators. In our survey, 63% of marketers said influencers were open to becoming affiliates in 2024. In 2025 that fell to 26%. When you reach out to established creators, offer a flat fee plus commission rather than commission alone.
• Running the affiliate program on autopilot. In our affiliate research, marketers who were "very involved" with their affiliates had 71.5% of them active. "Very hands-off" marketers had 10%. Affiliates post when you give them a reason to, so check in every month with something new to share. For beer, that could be a new seasonal beer, a match-day recipe, or a giveaway to share.
• Sending affiliates old product. 93% of marketers gift products to affiliates, but almost 30% don't refresh them when something new launches. Send every seasonal release and limited can to your creators before it reaches shelves.
• Running a giveaway without the fine print. A beer giveaway needs official rules in the caption: no purchase necessary, who can enter and when it ends. Write that line into the brief so every creator posts it, and check it before the post goes live.

FAQ

How much does beer influencer marketing cost?

It depends on platform, following and engagement. Micro-influencers often work for free product plus a fee in the low hundreds per post, or an affiliate commission. Larger creators charge more. Many brands start with gifting plus commission to test fit before committing to flat fees. To estimate what a specific creator is likely to charge, drop their handle into our free Instagram influencer pricing calculator.

Which platform is best for beer influencer marketing?

Instagram carries most beer creator work, and every sponsored post we analyzed for the five most-searched beer brands ran there. TikTok's branded content rules restrict alcohol, so check what's allowed in your markets before you plan creator work there.

Which beer brands use influencer marketing?

Michelob Ultra, Guinness, Modelo, Corona and Budweiser are the most-searched beer brands in the US, and all of them run active creator programs. See the breakdown above for who each one works with.

Should beer brands work with micro or macro influencers?

It depends on your goal. A launch chasing awareness leans bigger, a conversion play leans smaller and more trusted. In the beer posts we analyzed, creators under 50k followers got about seven times the likes relative to their audience size, so most brands should build their base with micro-influencers (10k–50k followers) and add bigger names for launches.

How do I measure beer influencer marketing?

Track sales per creator with unique links and codes, then compare revenue against what you paid (fees, product and commission). Our engagement rate calculator and fake follower checker help you vet creators before you spend, and our guide to influencer marketing ROI covers the full calculation.

Start your beer creator program

Find creators, manage relationships, pay them in 180+ countries and 36 currencies, and track every sale through Shopify – all in one place, with no fees taken out of creators' pay. Try Modash free, no credit card required – or browse the top beer influencers to see who's already out there.