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

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

Why pet brands use influencer marketing

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

• Pet owners trust other pet owners. A dog eating its dinner on camera says more than any ingredient list. Many of the top pet brands' creators are pet accounts, like Open Farm's, where the dog or cat is the one doing the talking.
• Creators show the moments owners worry about. Fireworks, being home alone, a picky eater: pet owners buy to solve a worry. About 20 of Furbo's last 50 sponsored posts show what pets got up to while their owners were out.
• Pet content gets shared. Pet videos travel far beyond the creator's own followers. Blue Buffalo's most-viewed post got 4.5M plays, about six times the creator's following.
• Creators show results over time. Pet owners want proof that a treat or food makes a difference, and that takes more than one post. Greenies' creators took on its 28-Day Dental Health Challenge, one treat a day for cleaner teeth.

Top pet brands using influencer marketing

These are the most-searched pet 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. Blue Buffalo: one fresh food line

All 50 of Blue Buffalo's last sponsored posts were disclosed as paid partnerships, and 25 feature Love Made Fresh, its refrigerated dog food. Another 9 promote its Nudges treats, and a tax-season contest asked owners to "claim" their dog as a "dog-pendent". 43 of its 44 creators with a listed location are in the US, and only two posts include a code.

• Creators: @emmezhou (854k), @halleykate (325k) and @cboothangcooks (743k) are among the creators who've posted for Blue Buffalo.
• How posts were disclosed: 50 paid partnership

What to take from it: Pick one product line and let creators show it in real mealtimes. Blue Buffalo put most of its creator budget behind one launch, and a creator serving the new fresh food to their dogs got 4.5M plays.

2. Open Farm: pet accounts on ambassador deals

Open Farm labeled 21 of its last 49 sponsored posts as ambassador posts, the most of the five, and most of its creators are pet accounts that post in the voice of a dog or cat. 11 of its 36 creators posted more than once, and 12 posts share a code like "$25 off" or "40% off your next order". Its creators are based in the US (19) and Canada (5).

• Creators: @rollingwithophelia (2.6M), @sampson_the_dood (218k) and @kristinjohns (626k) are among the creators who've posted for Open Farm.
• How posts were disclosed: 21 ambassador, 18 paid partnership, 4 gifted, 3 affiliate, 3 unspecified

What to take from it: Sign the pet accounts your customers already follow, and give each one a code. Open Farm's ambassador post starring "Honey Bee" got 912k plays from an account with 626k followers.

3. Fi: bundle deals with other pet brands

Fi works with the smallest creators of the five: 17 of the 21 creators with a listed follower count have under 50k. 21 of its last 50 sponsored posts team up with another brand, usually a free Fi collar with a first order from a food brand like The Farmer's Dog, Ollie or Spot & Tango. 24 posts include a code, and @pawsup4treats posted 9 times.

• Creators: @the_broadmoor_house (2.0M), @cissathegoldenpup (62k) and @pawsup4treats (12k) are among the creators who've posted for Fi.
• How posts were disclosed: 28 paid partnership, 9 ambassador, 9 gifted, 4 affiliate

What to take from it: Team up with brands your customers already buy from. Fi gave away its collar with first orders from food brands, so each post pitched two products at once, and the bundle post from @the_broadmoor_house led with "How to get this collar FREE!".

4. Greenies: celebrity dares and pledges

All 50 of Greenies' last sponsored posts were disclosed as paid partnerships, spread over 16 months. Its campaigns give followers something to do: 7 posts dare owners to sniff their dog's breath (#GreeniesDoubleDogDareYou), and 7 ask them to take a pledge tied to UConn basketball in March. 10 of its 35 creators posted more than once, and 11 posts send followers to a link in bio rather than a code.

• Creators: @thekalenallen (1.5M), @missjazzy.doodle (373k) and @dianataurasi (406k) are among the creators who've posted for Greenies.
• How posts were disclosed: 50 paid partnership

What to take from it: Give followers something to do, not just something to buy. Basketball star Diana Taurasi asked her followers to take Greenies' pledge before March Madness, and the post got 4.1M plays.

5. Furbo: a code in almost every post

40 of Furbo's last 50 sponsored posts include a code, usually for an extra 60 days of its Furbo Nanny subscription ("Use code FurboExtra"). It works with big creators, with a median of 323k followers and 12 over 500k. Its creators are based in the US (18), the UK, Australia and Canada (4 each), and @daisythegoldiee posted 5 times.

• Creators: @emmakenney (2.2M), @03_mania (358k) and @simonsits (987k) are among the creators who've posted for Furbo.
• How posts were disclosed: 49 paid partnership, 1 ambassador

What to take from it: If your product records something, let that footage be the post. @simonsits used Furbo clips to "expose the dog's toxic traits", and the post got 541k plays with a code at the end.

What the top pet brands have in common

Looking across all 249 posts, four patterns stand out:

• Pet tech runs on codes. Furbo, Fi and Open Farm put a code in 76 of their posts, often for a free device or a subscription bonus. Blue Buffalo and Greenies used two between them.
• Smaller creators get more out of their audience. Across 185 posts with visible likes, creators under 50k followers got a median of 1.1% of their followers liking the post. For creators above 50k, it was 0.6%.
• They rebook. 41 of the 189 creators across the five brands posted more than once, led by Open Farm and Greenies.
• Food brands sell through mealtimes. Blue Buffalo's and Open Farm's creators film the bowl, the pour and the reaction, and both brands' most-viewed posts are about what the dogs eat.

How to run a pet influencer marketing campaign

Here's how to run a campaign step by step, using what the top pet 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 pet brands' posts show both goals at work. Furbo's and Fi's codes are built to drive sales. Greenies' breath dares and Blue Buffalo's fireworks-season posts are built for reach.

• Sales: track revenue per creator with a unique link and code.
• Awareness: track views, saves and reach per post.
• Subscriptions: if you sell food or an app plan, like Furbo Nanny or Open Farm's fresh food, track subscriptions started 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 13k followers making frozen treats for their dogs with Open Farm got 326k plays, the kind of idea dog owners save and copy. Across all five brands, creators under 50k followers got nearly 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 (new puppy owners, senior dog parents, cat owners in small apartments) 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 "dog accounts that post homemade treat recipes", and Modash's AI creator search surfaces matching creators on the platform you're searching.

• Check who else they've posted for. @adenwang posted for both Greenies and Furbo, and for Ring too. Modash shows which brands a creator has already posted sponsored content for.

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

3. Choose the deal type

Most of the top pet brands pay per post. Blue Buffalo and Greenies disclosed all 50 posts as paid partnerships, and Furbo 49. Open Farm is the exception, with 21 ambassador posts.

• Gifting works for creators who'll film their pet's honest first reaction, like the 9 gifted posts in Fi's mix.
• Paid posts suit campaigns that need to land on a date, like fireworks season or the holidays.
• Affiliate works for things pets go through every month, like food, treats and litter.
• Ambassador deals suit pet accounts that post every week. Most of the creators Open Farm booked more than once were labeled as ambassadors at least once.

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 pet

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

• Mealtimes and recipes. Blue Buffalo's and Open Farm's creators film toppers, taste tests and frozen treats. Ask creators to show the bowl and the reaction, not just the bag.
• Caught on camera. Furbo's creators post what their pets did while they were out, with #caughtonfurbo in 9 captions. If your product records or tracks, let the footage be the post.
• Seasonal safety. Fi's and Blue Buffalo's creators posted fireworks prep around the Fourth of July and New Year's. Tie briefs to moments owners worry about, like fireworks, travel or a new puppy.

Whatever the format, give creators one hashtag to use every time, like #bluebuffalopartner or #openfarmpartner, and list what they can and can't say about health benefits.

5. Launch with tracked links and time-limited codes

The top pet brands split on codes. Furbo, Fi and Open Farm lean on them, while Blue Buffalo and Greenies send followers to a link in bio instead (15 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 pet brands keep coming back to the same creators. 11 of Open Farm's 36 creators and 10 of Greenies' 35 posted more than once, and Fi's @pawsup4treats posted 9 times.

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 recipe, a seasonal treat or a new product to test, so their posts don't repeat.

Where pet creator programs go wrong

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

• Switching foods overnight on camera. A creator who swaps their dog's food in one go is showing followers the wrong way to do it, and an upset stomach makes for a bad review. Ask creators to show a gradual switch, like mixing the new food in as a topper.
• 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 pet, that could be a new recipe, a seasonal treat, or a new product to test.
• 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 recipe or product to your creators before it launches.
• Scripting the pet. Pets don't follow shot lists, and the best pet posts are the unplanned moments. Brief the outcome you need, like the dog finishing the bowl, and give creators a few days to film instead of one fixed shoot.

FAQ

How much does pet 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 pet influencer marketing?

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

Which pet brands use influencer marketing?

Blue Buffalo, Open Farm, Fi, Greenies and Furbo are the most-searched pet brands in the US, and all of them run active creator programs. See the breakdown above for who each one works with.

Should pet 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 pet posts we analyzed, creators under 50k followers got nearly 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 pet 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 pet 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 pet influencers to see who's already out there.