How to run your first pet influencer campaign in Australia

Step 1: decide what you actually want

Most first campaigns go sideways here, before a single creator is contacted. “Get our name out there” isn't a campaign, it's a wish. Pick one concrete outcome: a reel of a dog genuinely enjoying your treats that you can reuse on your own channels, or a creator's honest review reaching their local audience, or a batch of photos for your website. One outcome, one campaign. You can run another next month.

This decision also settles the biggest fork in the road: whether you want the creator to post to their audience, or to make content you post yourself (UGC). They're different jobs with different prices. If you're not sure which you need, we wrote a separate guide on UGC versus influencer posts.

Step 2: write a brief a human wants to answer

A good brief is short and specific. Creators read dozens of vague ones; the specific ones get the enthusiastic replies. Cover four things in plain words:

• Who you are. Two sentences on the brand and the product. Link your site.
• What you want made. “One 30-second reel of your dog trying our treats at home” beats “some content” every time.
• Who it's for. The pet, the niche, the city if it matters.
• What happens with the content. Just their channel? Or do you want to reuse it in your own posts or ads? Say so upfront, it changes the price.

What to leave out: scripts, shot lists, and demands about hashtags in the first message. You're hiring the creator because their audience trusts their voice. Over-direct it and you'll pay for an ad that performs like one.

Step 3: pick on fit, not follower count

The follower number is the first thing you'll look at and the last thing you should decide on. Better signals, in order: does their audience actually comment and reply like real customers? Do their existing posts look like a world your product belongs in? Do they already talk about products the way you'd want yours talked about? A 5,000-follower account that ticks those boxes will do more for a small brand than a 50,000-follower account that doesn't.

And spread the bet. If the budget allows two or three small creators instead of one bigger one, take the spread: more content, more audiences, and a real comparison of what works.

Step 4: agree the deal like a grown-up

The handshake needs four things in writing, even if the writing is just messages you can both scroll back to: the deliverable, the price, when it's due, and what rights you have to reuse the content. If you're shipping product, confirm the address and send tracking. If you're paying, agree how and when.

This is the part most first-timers do over DMs and regret. Payment disputes, ghosting after the product arrives, content that never comes: nearly all of it traces back to a deal that was never actually agreed. It's also the part a platform is for. On Vetterly the brief, the bid, the price and the delivery all live in one place, and your payment is held safely until you approve the work, so neither side has to run on trust alone.

Step 5: let them make it, then actually use it

Once the deal's agreed, get out of the way. Answer questions fast, ship the product fast, and review the draft with one round of honest notes rather than a rewrite. Then, when the content lands: reuse it. Repost it to your own channels (with permission agreed in step 4), put the best clip on your product page, save the photos for your next launch. The campaign you paid for once should keep working for months.

The classic first-timer mistakes

• Chasing one big account instead of testing a few small ones.
• Vague briefs that attract vague content.
• No usage rights agreed, then wanting to run the video as an ad later.
• Judging it in a week. Give a campaign a month before you call it.
• Doing the whole deal in DMs with nothing written down and no payment protection.

How this works on Vetterly

Vetterly is built for exactly this first campaign. You post the brief in your own words, matched Australian pet creators bid with their own rate and pitch, and you pick who fits. Payment is held safely and only released when you approve the work. The fee is a flat 10% on top of the creator's rate, there's no subscription, and posting a brief costs nothing.