Working checklist

Influencer due diligence checklist

Write the decision first. Then check identity, audience, public conduct, commercial claims, company links, campaign controls and the post-signing response path. Keep every material finding tied to its source.

Published 18 September 2026 · Reviewed 18 September 2026 · By Monitor Research

1. Fix the decision and scope

☐ Name the creator, legal contracting party and campaign.
☐ Write one decision sentence: approve, reject, request context or approve with controls.
☐ List the brand, market, audience, product and campaign rules.
☐ Define the evidence period and every public source in scope.
☐ Name the reviewer, decision owner, legal contact and response owner.
☐ Record the decision date and the launch deadline.

A vague request produces a vague risk score. A useful brief states what conflicts with this partnership and what evidence proves the conflict.

2. Confirm identity and official accounts

☐ Match the contracting name with the creator or authorised representative.
☐ Record official TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other relevant account URLs.
☐ Record previous usernames, trading names and linked websites.
☐ Confirm ownership through direct contact and account-linked evidence.
☐ Separate fan pages, impersonators, parody accounts and inactive profiles.
☐ Escalate identity conflicts to a qualified investigator.

3. Test the audience and campaign economics

☐ Confirm audience location, age band and language against the campaign market.
☐ Compare followers with typical views, comments, shares and recent growth.
☐ Inspect sudden growth, repeated comments and signs of bought engagement.
☐ Review past sponsored posts for reach, response and product fit.
☐ Record which figures come from first-party analytics and which come from estimates.
☐ Keep audience quality separate from conduct and brand fit.

4. Review public conduct against written rules

☐ Review speech, captions, visible text, images and actions.
☐ Include reposts, recurring jokes, collaborations and relevant comment behaviour.
☐ Search each rule across the full agreed date range.
☐ Record the source URL, publication date, relevant moment and surrounding context.
☐ Distinguish direct evidence from allegation, satire, quotation and edited material.
☐ Request creator context before a disputed finding controls the decision.

Public-content review is brand-specific. The same post creates different decisions for a children's product, an alcohol brand, a newsroom and a fashion retailer.

5. Check commercial integrity

☐ List current and recent sponsors, affiliate links, discount codes and brand tags.
☐ Check whether paid relationships are disclosed clearly under the relevant market rules.
☐ Compare product claims with the creator's stated experience and available evidence.
☐ Review health, financial, performance, origin and review claims with extra care.
☐ Record creator-owned companies, directorships and trading names relevant to the deal.
☐ Compare founder, revenue or success claims with official company records.
☐ Record deleted, corrected or materially changed sponsor content.
☐ Look for repeated contradictions, not a single harmless inconsistency.

6. Put the response into the contract and campaign

☐ Define disclosure wording and placement.
☐ Define prohibited claims, subjects, products and conduct.
☐ Set content approval, correction and removal duties.
☐ Set a response time for urgent evidence requests.
☐ Define suspension, payment hold and termination events.
☐ Define the record kept after a decision.
☐ Give the response owner direct contact details for the creator or representative.

7. Set the after-signing review

☐ Watch the official profiles named in the agreement.
☐ Apply the same written rules used at approval.
☐ Add campaign-specific triggers for disclosure, claims and competitor work.
☐ Record new sponsors, quiet sponsor removal and material persona changes.
☐ Record deleted or corrected posts and new public complaints with specific evidence.
☐ Route each alert to a named reviewer and response owner.
☐ Close each alert with a decision, action, owner and date.
☐ Re-run the full decision when the partnership, market or campaign changes.

8. Keep one decision record

☐ Decision: approve, reject, request context or approve with controls.
☐ Decision owner and date.
☐ Material findings and source links.
☐ Creator response and unresolved facts.
☐ Contract controls and campaign conditions.
☐ Monitoring rules, watched accounts and response owner.
☐ Next formal review event.

Regulatory references

Disclosure and advertising rules differ by market. The United States Federal Trade Commission states that endorsements must be honest and not misleading, and that a material connection needs clear disclosure. The United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority and Committee of Advertising Practice require influencer advertising to be recognisable as advertising.

Keep public-video findings tied to the source.

Monitor reviews available public TikTok and Instagram videos against your Organisation's questions before and after approval.

Create a Monitor account

Next: read how to monitor influencers after signing or build the full influencer vetting process.