Desire that drives revenue

On creator-led proof and repeat purchase, in that order. Recommendation is the primary discovery mechanism in this category, and smaller creators consistently outperform large ones on trust, so the programme is usually many creators rather than a few expensive ones. What decides whether it pays is retention: a first order acquired through a creator that never repeats is a marketing cost, not a customer.

Influencer marketing buys someone's audience. UGC buys their content, which you then distribute through your own paid media. UGC is usually the better economics for performance creative because you control the spend and the testing, while influencer partnerships are what build the cultural position paid media cannot manufacture. Most brands that run only one of the two are underperforming on the other.

With fit information, honest imagery and better size guidance, which is a merchandising and content problem rather than a marketing one. Returns are the margin line that quietly decides whether a fashion brand is profitable, so we treat return rate as a reportable outcome of the product page rather than as an operations cost outside marketing's remit.

More on brand than a performance agency will tell you. In a category where the product is substitutable and the meaning is the differentiator, pure-performance spend raises acquisition cost every quarter, because there is no recognition to convert against. The practical split is a protected brand allocation alongside a performance budget judged on blended CAC, not channel ROAS.

By converting attention into owned relationships while the attention is there. A viral moment produces traffic, not a business, and the brands that survive it captured email, SMS and community out of the spike and had a second product ready. We plan the retention mechanics before the launch, not after the spike has passed.

Repeat-purchase rate, contribution margin after returns, blended CAC, and creator-cohort retention. Engagement and reach are inputs. The question that decides the year is whether customers acquired through creators come back at the same rate as the ones acquired anywhere else, and most brands have never checked.