This industry runs on buzzwords and, oftentimes, marketers are talking about the same metrics with totally different language. Below is the vocabulary we use every day across campaigns and conversations: what we mean, why it matters, and where we break from the industry default.
The Fohr Way
Fohr Predictive #
Fohr Predictive is Fohr’s proprietary technology that forecasts how a campaign—and every creator in it—will perform before a dollar is spent.
Cultural Intelligence #
Cultural intelligence is human insight into which creators, communities and trends are rising, used alongside predictive data to cast creators.
Predictive Casting #
Predictive casting is selecting creators based on their forecasted views (not follower count) and understanding how a group of creators will work together to achieve your campaign goals.
Portfolio Construction #
Portfolio construction is building a creator roster the same way an asset manager builds a fund; every creator plays a role, the downside is managed, and success never hinges on one viral post.
Predictive Pricing #
Paying creators for the views they’re forecast to deliver, not their follower count or rate card.
In-Flight Optimization #
In-flight optimization ensures that we’re tracking every creator against their predictive curve and flagging risk while there’s still time to fix it. No more post-mortems on campaigns you could have saved.
Precision Planning #
Precision planning calculates how many views a campaign needs to saturate its target audience, usually aiming for each person to see the product or message seven times.
Bulletin #
Bulletin is Fohr’s tool for finding creators who want to join a specific campaign. Brands post an opportunity, vetted creators raise their hands, and programs scale across creators of every size, including on a flat-fee model.
Rate Check #
Rate Check is a Fohr tool that tells you what to pay a creator, using predicted views and market-rate comps.
Measurement and prediction
Views Per Dollar (VPD) #
Views per dollar (VPD) is the number of views a creator delivers for every dollar spent. A $1M campaign with 35M views and a $1K post with 35K views both have a VPD of 35. The higher a creator's VPD, the more appealing the partnership.
CPM (Cost Per Mille) #
Cost per mille (CPM) is the cost to deliver 1,000 impressions, and the standard pricing unit across paid media.
Spend Efficiency #
Spend efficiency is a campaign’s VPD compared with a benchmark. In a controlled test for The RealReal, predictive casting delivered 12.5x the spend efficiency of traditional casting.
Impressions #
Impressions are the number of times content is seen. Long dismissed as a vanity metric because nobody could predict them. Forecast them, price them and measure against them, and impressions become the foundation that makes ROI possible.
Reach #
Reach is the number of unique people who see content at least once. Impressions count every view, repeats included, so impressions are always equal to or higher than reach.
Frequency #
Frequency is how many times, on average, one person sees a message. It is measured by impressions divided by reach.
Views #
Views are the platform-reported count of how many times a video was played.
Forecasted Views #
Forecasted views are the views a creator or campaign is predicted to deliver, set before launch and used to price, plan and hold everyone accountable.
Baseline #
Baseline is a creator's typical views under normal conditions, outliers excluded. The yardstick for momentum and forecast accuracy.
Momentum #
Momentum is the tendency for a creator's next posts to outperform their baseline after a viral spike.
Outlier Post (Viral Post) #
A viral post is a post that blows past a creator's baseline. Great when it happens, impossible to bank on.
Seven-Exposure Threshold #
The seven-exposure threshold is the rule of thumb that people need to see a message about seven times before acting. This is the math behind Precision Planning, helping us to understand how many impressions you need to generate for a core audience to see you seven times.
Community Saturation #
Community saturation is concentrating impressions inside a defined community until a message takes root.
Niche Concentration #
Niche concentration is the share of a creator’s audience that actually belongs to the community you’re targeting. Higher concentration means fewer wasted impressions.
Engagement Rate #
Engagement rate is the number of likes, comments, shares, and saves divided by impressions. It is shown as a percentage.
EMV (Earned Media Value) #
Earned Media Value (EMV) is total impressions divided by 1,000 multiplied by your CPM. It is an estimate of what organic creator content would have cost as a paid ad.
Return on Investment (ROI) #
Return on investment (ROI) measures how much profit an investment generates relative to its total cost. Formula: (net profit ÷ total cost) × 100.
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) #
Return on ad spend (ROAS) measures how much revenue a campaign generates for every dollar spent on ads. Formula: revenue ÷ ad spend. Unlike ROI, it counts only ad spend, not total investment, and uses revenue rather than profit.
Influencer Marketing ROI #
Influencer marketing ROI compares the value a creator program generates with its total cost, including creator fees and product. The formula is (net profit ÷ total cost) × 100.
Brand Lift #
Brand lift is the measurable change in awareness, consideration, favorability or purchase intent among people who saw a campaign. Usually measured by survey during or right after the campaign.
Cost per Engagement (CPE) #
Cost per engagement is what a brand pays for each like, comment, share, or save on a piece of content. It is calculated as total cost divided by total engagements.
Cost per View (CPV) #
Cost per view is what a brand pays for each view of a piece of content, calculated as total cost divided by total views.
Creator marketing fundamentals
Creator Marketing #
Creator marketing, also called influencer marketing, is when brands partner with creators to reach and persuade the creators' audiences.
Creator #
A creator is an individual who builds an online audience by making content. The best ones are trusted voices inside a community, which is exactly why they move people.
Nano Creators #
Nano creators have less than 10,000 followers. They are known for having tight-knit, highly engaged audiences.
Micro Creators #
Micro creators have 10,000 to 50,000 followers. They also have strong engagement and trust and often have a defined niche authority, like gaming, fashion, or home decor.
Mid-Tier Creators #
Mid-Tier creators have 50,000 to 500,000 followers. They are established creators with real reach who still feel accessible. They balance scale and engagement.
Macro Creators #
Macro creators have 500,000 to 1,000,000 followers. They are professional creators with broad reach.
Mega Creators #
Mega creators have more than 1,000,000 followers. They have massive reach and cultural visibility.
Follower Count #
Follower count is the number of accounts following a creator. It measures potential audience, not how many people will see a given post, which is why Fohr doesn't price on it.
Audience Authenticity #
Audience authenticity is the share of a creator's followers who are real, active people, not bots or bought accounts. Fohr built the industry's first fake-follower detection, as reported by Adweek.
Brand Safety #
Brand safety is ensuring that a brand does not partner with, or show up next to, people or content that could damage its reputation. In creator marketing, that means reviewing a creator's past content and conduct before anyone signs. All creator profiles on Fohr have a brand safety analysis built in.
Creator Vetting #
Creator vetting is screening creators for audience authenticity, brand safety, past performance and consumer fit before a partnership.
Brief #
The creative brief is a set of instructions a brand gives a creator: goals, messaging, deliverables, guardrails. Good briefs set direction; great ones leave room for creators to sound like themselves.
FTC Disclosure (#ad) #
FTC disclosure is the U.S. requirement that creators clearly label paid or gifted content, whether with #ad, a "paid partnership" label or a verbal callout.
Always-On Program #
Always-on programs run continuously rather than in one-off bursts. A sustained influencer presence is what helps build relevance.
Ambassador #
An ambassador is a creator in a longer-term, deeper partnership with a brand. Repetition from a trusted voice compounds.
Gifting #
Gifting is sending product to creators. It’s low cost and often used to seed relationships and surface organic fans.
Seeding #
Seeding involves sending product to lots of creators to build awareness and find genuine fans, who often become the shortlist for paid partnerships.
Organic vs. Paid #
Organic content reaches people through a creator’s own feed, while paid content is boosted with ad spend.
UGC (User-Generated Content) #
User-generated content (UGC) is content made by creators or customers that brands use in their own channels and ads. Authentic-looking assets, made at scale.
Affiliate Marketing #
Affiliate marketing involves paying creators a commission on the sales they drive.
Social Commerce #
Social commerce is buying directly inside a social app, including TikTok Shop or shoppable posts. Creators drive it through product tags, live shopping and affiliate links.
Deals and pricing
Rate Card #
A rate card is a creator's published price list per deliverable, such as one Reel or one TikTok. It reflects asking price, not expected performance.
Deliverables #
Deliverables are the specific content a creator agrees to make (one Reel, three Stories, one TikTok) and when it goes live.
Flat Fee #
Flat fees are fixed payments for agreed upon deliverables, regardless of how the content performs.
Usage Rights #
Usage rights, occasionally called content licensing, outline what a brand may do with creator content, where and for how long. Usage terms should be priced into the deal.
Paid Usage (Whitelisting) #
Paid usage, often referred to as whitelisting, is permission for a brand to run ads through a creator’s account.
Spark Ads #
Spark Ads are TikTok ads that put paid spend behind an existing organic post, either the brand’s own or a creator’s.
Partnership Ads #
Partnership ads are Meta ads on Instagram and Facebook that a brand runs through a creator’s account, so the ad shows both the creator’s handle and the brand’s in the header.
Spark Ads vs. Whitelisting #
Whitelisting gives a brand access to a creator’s account so it can run new ads under the creator’s handle on Meta or TikTok. Spark Ads are TikTok’s built-in version, limited to boosting a creator’s existing organic post with the creator’s authorization code. In short, whitelisting gives you more control over the creative, and Spark Ads are faster to set up and keep the original post’s engagement.
Dark Posts #
Dark posts are targeted ads that never appear on the account’s public feed, so a brand can test different versions of creator content with different audiences.
Exclusivity #
Exclusivity is a contract term that stops a creator from working with competitors for a set period.
The category
Creator Economy #
The creator economy is the market of independent creators, the brands that pay them, and the tools and services in between.
Creator Marketing Agency (Influencer Marketing Agency) #
A creator marketing agency plans, casts, manages, and reports on creator campaigns for brands.
Influencer Marketing Platform #
An influencer marketing platform is software that helps brands find creators, manage outreach, contracts and payments, and track campaign results.
Talent Management #
Talent management is representation for creators: negotiating their deals, rates and schedules.