I thought I was too small to get sponsorships, then I looked into what brands actually care about

what a dream

For the longest time, I assumed Instagram sponsorships were basically something that happened once you became “big.” You know the usual image like 50k, 100k, 500k followers, brands start emailing you, you get free products, make a post, and somehow you're getting paid thousands of dollars.

So when I first started looking into sponsorships, I honestly didn't think there was much point for smaller creators. Then I started looking into what brands actually look for, and apparently follower count isn't nearly as important as I thought.

Engagement matters. Your niche matters. Your audience matters. The quality of your content matters. Even whether your followers actually trust your recommendations can matter more than the number sitting at the top of your profile.

And apparently you don't necessarily have to sit around waiting for a brand to discover you either. You can pitch brands yourself, put together a media kit, show them your content, and basically make a case for why you'd be a good fit.

That was already interesting, but then I stumbled into UGC.

I didn't know much about UGC at the time, so I followed this guide: https://sideshift.app/blog/instagram-sponsorship

I figured I'd try it rather than just reading about it. Not long after, I actually found a campaign with a car-care brand. That was kind of a “wait, this actually works?” moment for me. Because I wasn't being hired because I had some enormous Instagram audience. I was being hired because I could create content that the brand could use.

And that distinction completely changed how I thought about sponsorships.

There's this weird pressure online where everyone seems to think they need to grow to 10k, 50k, or 100k followers before they can make money from their content.

But there are clearly other ways to monetize the skill itself.

Now I'm curious about other people's experiences with this. If you have a relatively small account, have you ever gotten a sponsorship or UGC deal?

I'm especially curious whether the brand approached you first or whether you pitched them.