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

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

Why lifestyle brands use influencer marketing

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

• Creators can sell more than one category. Lifestyle brands sell clothes, home and accessories, and one creator can move between them in a single week. Next to its linen and cashmere, 4 of Quince's last 50 sponsored posts cover luggage, kids' essentials or fragrance.
• Trips give people a reason to buy now. A vacation or a packing list gives followers a date to shop for. 8 of Kendra Scott's last 50 sponsored posts are about a trip, from packing for Europe to a trip to Montauk.
• Creators show who the brand is for. A brand that sells a way of life needs faces that look like its buyers, not just models. A creator with 170k followers announced a Free People partnership at 75, writing that "Summer doesn't know how old you are".
• Events bring the brand to life. A pop-up gives creators something to film and followers somewhere to go. A New York creator with 785k followers posting Kate Spade's free Strawberry Social at Rockefeller Center got 203k plays.

Top lifestyle brands using influencer marketing

These are the most-searched lifestyle 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. Quince: clothes and home in one feed

All of Quince's last 50 sponsored posts went live within five weeks, between May 6 and June 9. 14 of them are about home, mostly bedding, and the rest are mostly linen and cashmere clothing. 23 posts link to LTK, the shopping app many fashion and home creators use. 28 of its creators are in the US and 7 in Canada.

• Creators: @ashleyandemilyblog (710k), @cyndispivey (243k) and @louisemontgomeryblog (365k) are among the creators who've posted for Quince.
• How posts were disclosed: 35 paid partnership, 11 ambassador, 3 affiliate, 1 gifted

What to take from it: Book home creators, not just fashion creators. @louisemontgomeryblog's "Dining room redesign part 1", built around a Quince rug, got 232k plays, one of Quince's two most-viewed posts.

2. Free People: a summer of statement pants

12 of Free People's last 50 sponsored posts are about pants or trousers, from cargo pants to "the most controversial trouser of the summer". 12 posts tag its European account, and 11 of its creators are in the UK, next to 28 in the US. 5 posts feature other brands it sells or collaborates with, like the Birkenstock Amsterdam clog and an ASICS collab, and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @aspynovard (2.2M), @claireakennedy (359k) and @madagraviet (248k) are among the creators who've posted for Free People.
• How posts were disclosed: 24 paid partnership, 10 gifted, 10 unspecified, 4 ambassador, 2 affiliate

What to take from it: Let creators pick one piece and make it theirs. @madagraviet's "Realllly good pants" post got 414k plays and 11.8k likes for Free People.

3. Kendra Scott: design-your-own Color Bar pop-ups

All 44 of Kendra Scott's creators with a listed location are in the US, and most are small: 26 of its 46 creators have under 50k followers. 7 posts invite followers to design their own piece at its Color Bar, including pop-ups in Miami and Austin. 22 captions carry a gift hashtag like #GiftFromKendraScott, though 16 of those were disclosed as paid partnerships, and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @kylie_dickson (814k), @kaitybiggar (297k) and @a.magical.life.for.me (32k) are among the creators who've posted for Kendra Scott.
• How posts were disclosed: 25 paid partnership, 16 ambassador, 7 gifted, 2 unspecified

What to take from it: Give a collab to the creator whose whole account is about it. A Disney creator with 32k followers announcing the first Disney Parks x Kendra Scott Halloween collection got 205k plays and 10k likes.

4. Tory Burch: the products beyond the bag

12 of Tory Burch's last 50 sponsored posts feature something other than a bag, like glasses sold only at MyEyeDr (3 posts), jelly sandals, bracelets and perfume. It works with big names around the world: 17 of its creators have over 500k followers, spread across 14 countries, and creators posted from its February runway show. None of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @i_dle_official (13.1M), @saff_michaelis (212k) and @j.cathell (298k) are among the creators who've posted for Tory Burch.
• How posts were disclosed: 38 paid partnership, 7 gifted, 4 unspecified, 1 ambassador

What to take from it: Ask creators to style the whole look, not one product. @j.cathell styled a Tory Burch jelly sandal, sunglasses and bag for a pool day and got 786k plays.

5. Kate Spade: creators as the faces of its campaign

12 of Kate Spade's last 50 sponsored posts come from creators who were cast in its ads, posting from the set or the shoot, like one who "got to film a Kate spade ad with my best friend". Friendship runs through the rest too: 14 posts mention a friend, a bestie or a BFF. 8 of its creators have over 500k followers, and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @nickkosir (3.1M), @juliamervis (147k) and @paytonpurther (70k) are among the creators who've posted for Kate Spade.
• How posts were disclosed: 29 paid partnership, 8 gifted, 7 unspecified, 6 ambassador

What to take from it: Cast creators in your campaign, then let them post the shoot. @paytonpurther's "last bits of our kate spade campaign" got 310k plays, more than four times their following.

What the top lifestyle brands have in common

Looking across all 250 posts, four patterns stand out:

• Trips carry a lot of the posts. 25 of the 250 posts are about a trip, a vacation or packing, led by Free People and Kendra Scott.
• Smaller creators get more out of their audience. Across 208 posts with visible likes, creators under 50k followers got a median of 1.8% of their followers liking the post. For creators above 50k, it was 0.8%.
• Comment-for-the-link is common. 39 of the 250 posts ask followers to comment a word to get the link, most of them for Quince and Free People.
• Views don't follow follower count. A Kendra Scott post from a creator with 45k followers got 120k plays, and a Free People unboxing from a creator with 14k got 29k.

How to run a lifestyle influencer marketing campaign

Here's how to run a campaign step by step, using what the top lifestyle 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 lifestyle brands' posts show both goals at work. Quince's creator codes and comment-for-the-link posts are built to drive sales that week. Kate Spade's campaign shoots and Tory Burch's runway invitations are built for reach.

• Sales: track revenue per creator with a unique link and code.
• Awareness: track views, saves and reach per post.
• Average order value: if you sell across categories, like Quince with clothing, bedding and luggage, compare average order value per creator to see who drives bigger baskets.

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 creator with 5k followers wearing Kendra Scott jewelry to wedding festivities got 123k plays, more than 25 times their following, because wedding guests are who shops for statement jewelry in summer. Across all five brands, creators under 50k followers got more than twice 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 buys your product (wedding guests, people packing for a trip, first-time homeowners) 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 post packing lists for summer trips", and Modash's AI creator search surfaces matching creators on the platform you're searching.

• Check who else they've posted for. @sarahbrezel posted for both Free People and Tory Burch. Modash shows which brands a creator has already posted sponsored content for.

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

3. Choose the deal type

Paid posts lead for lifestyle brands. Tory Burch and Quince disclosed 38 and 35 of their last 50 posts as paid partnerships. Kendra Scott is the exception, with 16 ambassador posts.

• Gifting works for limited collabs creators will want to unbox, like the Disney Parks x Kendra Scott Halloween collection.
• Paid posts suit campaigns that need to land on a date, like a new collection, a holiday or a runway show.
• Affiliate works for everyday staples people buy again in new colors, like linen pants or bedding.
• Ambassador deals suit creators who wear your products across their whole life, like Kendra Scott's partners packing for Europe or Florida.

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 lifestyle

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

• Trips. 13 of Free People's posts are about a trip, a festival or a day by the sea, like "packing for Provence". Ask creators to show what they're packing and where they'll wear it.
• Home makeovers. Quince's creators style a whole bed or room, like "the exact formula I use to create the coziest luxury hotel bed at home". Send home creators enough pieces to finish the room.
• Game day. 6 of Kendra Scott's posts style jewelry for game day, from soccer jerseys to the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Tie products to a moment followers already dress up for.

Whatever the format, give creators one partner hashtag, like #quincepartner or #kendrascottpartner, and the exact product names and links so followers can find every piece.

5. Launch with tracked links and time-limited codes

Quince was the only brand of the five to use codes: 19 of its posts include one, most for 10% off a first order. Free People, Kendra Scott, Tory Burch and Kate Spade used none.

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 lifestyle brands rarely rebook: only 26 of their 220 creators posted more than once. That's a missed chance for brands that sell a whole way of life, where the same creator coming back each season shows the brand fits their real life. Tory Burch's @saff_michaelis is the exception, posting three times during her pregnancy.

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 new season's collection, a home launch or a trip to pack for, so their posts don't repeat.

Where lifestyle creator programs go wrong

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

• Briefing every category the same way. Bedding, dresses and jewelry need different creators and different shots. Match each category to creators who already post it, like home creators for bedding, instead of asking one fashion creator to cover everything.
• 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 lifestyle, that could be a new season's collection, a home launch, or a trip to pack for.
• Sending affiliates old product. 93% of marketers gift products to affiliates, but almost 30% don't refresh them when something new launches. Send every new collection and home launch to your creators before it goes live.
• Leaving out size and fit. Followers who order the wrong size send it back, and returns eat into the sale a creator just made. Ask creators to share their height and the size they're wearing, as many Quince and Free People creators already do.

FAQ

How much does lifestyle 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 lifestyle influencer marketing?

Instagram carries most lifestyle creator work, and every sponsored post we analyzed for the five most-searched lifestyle brands ran there. TikTok is worth testing too: in our survey, marketers rated TikTok videos the highest-performing deliverable (53.2%).

Which lifestyle brands use influencer marketing?

Quince, Free People, Kendra Scott, Tory Burch and Kate Spade are the most-searched lifestyle brands in the US, and all of them run active creator programs. See the breakdown above for who each one works with.

Should lifestyle 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 lifestyle posts we analyzed, creators under 50k followers got more than twice 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 lifestyle 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.

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