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

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

Why luxury brands use influencer marketing

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

• Access is part of what luxury sells. Most followers will never get inside a luxury house's private events, so a creator who does shows them what it's like. One Louis Vuitton post opened with "LV invited me into a mansion", from an exhibition that took over a whole house.
• Buyers want an insider's opinion. Before spending thousands on a bag, buyers want to hear from someone who knows the range. A Louis Vuitton client advisor with 48k followers reviews new bags like the Nano Speedy, and that post got 53k plays.
• Beauty is the way in. Many people buy a luxury lipstick or blush long before they buy the bag. A Hermès blush post from a creator with 803k followers got 291k plays.
• Styling tips justify the price. A silk scarf is easier to buy when someone shows how to wear it. A creator with 8k followers filming a silk scarf tutorial with Hermès and Dior pieces got 12.9k plays, more than their whole following.

Top luxury brands using influencer marketing

These are the most-searched luxury 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. Louis Vuitton: front-row seats and pop-up hotels

12 of Louis Vuitton's last 50 sponsored posts come from its fashion shows, mostly the Fall-Winter 2026 show in Paris and the Cruise 2027 show in New York. 9 more come from its exhibitions, stores and pop-ups, like its pop-up hotels in Bangkok and London. It works with the biggest creators of the five (a median of 539k followers), its listed creators are spread across the US (6), South Korea (3) and Thailand (3), and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @yong.lixx (35.3M), @jamilla.strand (355k) and @urassayas (12.7M) are among the creators who've posted for Louis Vuitton.
• How posts were disclosed: 40 paid partnership, 4 gifted, 4 ambassador, 2 unspecified

What to take from it: Turn the invitation into content before the show starts. Urassaya Sperbund's get-ready video for the Fall-Winter 2026 show, wearing a Louis Vuitton lipstick, got 10.7M plays.

2. Dior: beauty gifting and a book-inspired bag

20 of Dior's last 49 sponsored posts are about its beauty line, from J'adore to a new cushion case, and 7 of its 11 gifted posts sent makeup or fragrance to beauty creators and makeup artists. Others cover Jonathan Anderson's new collections, the Dior Book Tote and the opening of House of Dior Shinsaibashi in Osaka. Its creators are based in Japan (6), the US (6) and Germany (5), and none of the posts use a code.

• Creators: @yuuuuukko_ (4.8M), @juri_kosaka (144k) and @jackbenedwards (1.3M) are among the creators who've posted for Dior.
• How posts were disclosed: 29 paid partnership, 11 gifted, 7 unspecified, 1 affiliate, 1 ambassador

What to take from it: Give creators outside fashion a way into your story. A post tying "one of publishing's most innovative books" to Dior's designer, from a creator with 1.3M followers, got 649k plays and 30k likes.

3. Balenciaga: a fragrance launch and fan accounts

8 of Balenciaga's last 50 sponsored posts introduce Le Dix, a collection of ten fragrances sold at Selfridges in London and La Samaritaine in Paris. Another 8 come from fan and style accounts covering Thai actor PP Krit wearing Balenciaga at its Paris shows. Its creators are based in the UK (6), Germany (4) and Italy (4), and only one post includes a code, from an eyewear retailer.

• Creators: @rosiehw (20.4M), @lennongallagher (211k) and @amaliestar (506k) are among the creators who've posted for Balenciaga.
• How posts were disclosed: 43 paid partnership, 4 unspecified, 2 ambassador, 1 affiliate

What to take from it: Ask creators to take a new design out of the studio and into their day. A creator with 506k followers taking Balenciaga's Radar sneakers "for a spin around town" got 3.2M plays, its most-viewed post.

4. Hermès: one piece in a full outfit

10 of Hermès' last 49 sponsored posts are outfit posts where the creator credits each piece, from a silk scarf to western boots, often next to other brands. @petradieners posted five of them, two tagging the retailer Eppli. Its creators are based in Turkey (7), Italy (4) and Germany (3), 41 posts were disclosed as paid partnerships and 8 as gifted, and none use a code.

• Creators: @gamze_ercel (4.6M), @mariakragmann (434k) and @tamara (2.1M) are among the creators who've posted for Hermès.
• How posts were disclosed: 41 paid partnership, 8 gifted

What to take from it: Let creators style your piece with the rest of their wardrobe instead of asking for a solo product shot. @tamara's "mountain getaway" outfit with a Hermès knit and bag got 669k plays, and another of @tamara's outfit posts with a Hermès bag got 547k.

5. Rolex: a podcast and a documentary series

10 of Rolex's last 49 sponsored posts promote Planet Visionaries, a podcast about environmental solutions hosted by climber Alex Honnold for its Perpetual Planet Initiative. 4 more are episodes of a documentary series about the "Rolex family", including Tiger Woods and Michael Bublé, and 13 are about the sports it sponsors, like golf, tennis and show jumping. It works with just 31 creators, its listed creators are based in the US (8), the UK (2) and France (2), and none of the posts use a code for Rolex.

• Creators: @markruffalo (20.4M), @jamiechadwick (301k) and @alexhonnold (4.0M) are among the creators who've posted for Rolex.
• How posts were disclosed: 44 paid partnership, 4 ambassador, 1 gifted

What to take from it: Give long-term partners a format they can keep coming back to. Alex Honnold hosted 10 Planet Visionaries posts for Rolex, and the episode with photographer Cristina Mittermeier got 736k plays.

What the top luxury brands have in common

Looking across all 247 posts, four patterns stand out:

• They pay per post. 197 of the 247 posts (80%) were disclosed as paid partnerships, and only 11 as ambassador posts.
• Smaller creators get more out of their audience. Across 173 posts with visible likes, creators under 50k followers got a median of 2.1% of their followers liking the post. For creators above 50k, it was 1.3%.
• Nobody discounts. Only 2 of the 247 posts include a code, both from retailers, and the one in a Rolex post doesn't apply to Rolex watches.
• Views don't follow follower count. A Rolex filmed as a 30th birthday surprise by a creator with 560k followers got 5.5M plays, more than six times Tiger Woods' Rolex post (873k).

How to run a luxury influencer marketing campaign

Here's how to run a campaign step by step, using what the top luxury 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 luxury brands' posts show both goals at work, though most lean toward reach. Dior's beauty gifting and the Hermès posts linking to the retailer Eppli are built to drive sales. Louis Vuitton's show invitations and Rolex's podcast are built for reach.

• Sales: track revenue per creator with a unique link and code.
• Awareness: track views, saves and reach per post.
• Boutique appointments: if your sales close in store, like Louis Vuitton's client advisors, give each creator a tracked booking link and compare appointments 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 creator with 10k followers posting a "dream date" look with Dior Beauty got 1,185 likes, more than a tenth of their following, because beauty looks are what their followers come for. Across all five brands, creators under 50k followers got about one and a half 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 buys your product (first-time luxury buyers, collectors, watch enthusiasts) 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 style designer pieces in everyday outfits", and Modash's AI creator search surfaces matching creators on the platform you're searching.

• Check who else they've posted for. @sato_harumi__official posted for both Louis Vuitton and Dior, and for Fendi, Saint Laurent and Tory Burch too. Modash shows which brands a creator has already posted sponsored content for.

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

3. Choose the deal type

Most luxury posts were disclosed as paid partnerships, led by Rolex (44 of 49) and Balenciaga (43 of 50). Dior gifts the most, with 11 of its last 49 posts disclosed as gifted, and Louis Vuitton and Rolex each labeled 4 as ambassador posts.

• Gifting works for beauty and fragrance launches creators will actually use on camera, like Dior's gifted makeup and perfume.
• Paid posts suit shows, launches and store openings that have to land on a date.
• Affiliate works for entry pieces creators can keep linking, like fragrance, lipstick or small leather goods.
• Ambassador deals suit athletes and artists you want next to your name for years. Rolex's 4 ambassador posts came from members of its "Rolex family", like golfer Jason Day.

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 luxury

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

• Show and event coverage. Louis Vuitton's and Balenciaga's creators post from its shows in Paris. Give creators something to film before the show starts, like a get-ready or an arrival.
• Outfit credits. Hermès' creators list every piece they're wearing, from the boots to the bag. Ask creators to tag your piece by name so followers know exactly what it is.
• Long-form stories. Rolex's posts are podcast episodes and short documentaries about the people it sponsors, not product shots. If your story is bigger than one product, give a creator a series to host.

Whatever the format, give creators the exact name of every piece, like "Le 7 Shoulder Bag Medium", and agree on how the product is shown before they shoot.

5. Launch with tracked links and time-limited codes

The top luxury brands don't discount. Only 2 of the 247 posts include a code, both from retailers. Instead, Louis Vuitton and Rolex each sent followers to the link in bio in 7 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

Most of the top luxury brands book a creator once: only 27 of their 202 creators posted more than once. That's a missed chance in a category where buyers save up for months, and seeing the same creator wear a piece season after season is what makes it feel worth the price. Rolex is the exception, rebooking 9 of its 31 creators.

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 collection, a show invitation or a store opening, so their posts don't repeat.

Where luxury creator programs go wrong

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

• Putting a discount code on a luxury product. A code tells followers the price is up for negotiation, and that can hurt full-price sales long after the campaign ends. Use invitations, early access or personalization as the hook instead of money off.
• 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 luxury, that could be a new collection, a boutique opening, or a personalization service.
• 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 or fragrance to your creators before it reaches boutiques.
• Booking creators who post dupes. A creator who posted a "designer dupe" haul last month makes your piece look like one more option at a lower price. Check a creator's past posts for dupes and replicas before you book them.

FAQ

How much does luxury 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 luxury influencer marketing?

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

Which luxury brands use influencer marketing?

Louis Vuitton, Dior, Balenciaga, Hermès and Rolex are the most-searched luxury brands in the US, and all of them run active creator programs. See the breakdown above for who each one works with.

Should luxury 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 luxury posts we analyzed, creators under 50k followers got about one and a half 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 luxury 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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