What is influencer marketing? A Swedish guide

1. In short: influencer marketing is advertising that a creator makes on their own channels, on behalf of a company and in return for payment.

Influencer marketing is when a company pays a creator to show a product, a service or a brand on the creator’s own social media channels. The Swedish Agency for the Media (Mediemyndigheten) describes it as an established form of advertising, in which an advertiser and an influencer enter a commercial partnership and the influencer undertakes to feature something in return for payment [1]. The payment does not have to be money. Goods, trips and services count too [2].

What sets influencer marketing apart from other advertising is the sender. The message comes from a person the audience has chosen to follow, and often trusts, not from the company itself [3, 4]. That is why the law’s requirement is clear: it must be plain that it is marketing, and who is behind it [5].

The company can pay in four ways: with a flat fee, with products, with commission on sales or by results, for example views [3, 6]. The models spread the risk differently between the company and the creator, and none of them fits every campaign.

The rest of the article goes deeper. Section 2 separates influencer marketing from ordinary ads and from UGC. Section 3 sets the payment models side by side. Section 4 gives three numbers on the Swedish market, section 5 sums up what the law requires and section 6 shows how a campaign runs. Section 7 describes the sources and what the article does not cover.

2. Influencer marketing differs from an ordinary ad in who sends it, and from UGC in where the content is published.

Influencer, creator or influerare

The words are used for the same thing. Mediemyndigheten writes about influencers, “or as they are also called, creators”, and notes that there is no clear line for who is an influencer [1]. The Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) uses both influencer and the Swedish word influerare, and describes influencer marketing as influerare advertising goods and services on social media [7]. In EU law, influencers who often advertise or sell products can count as traders, which is assessed case by case [8]. This article uses creator and influencer interchangeably.

The difference from an ordinary ad

IRM, which measures the Swedish advertising market, splits influencer marketing into two parts. Sponsorship is when the influencer writes about or uses the advertiser’s products in a post. Advertising is when the influencer sells ad space, for example for a banner or a commercial, next to their content [1, 9]. The advertising part resembles an ordinary ad: the company buys a slot and decides what is shown in it. Sponsorship is what this guide is about. There, the creator makes the content. According to Mediemyndigheten, the advertiser usually gives guidelines, but the creator often has some room to adapt the content to their own tone [1].

The difference from UGC

By UGC, user-generated content, we mean here material that a creator makes for a company and that the company then publishes on its own channels or in ads. The word has no fixed definition in the authority and industry sources we have read. The difference lies in where the content is published and who the sender is. In influencer marketing the post appears on the creator’s account, for the creator’s followers. With UGC the material becomes part of the company’s own marketing. Mediemyndigheten describes one such case, where a creator after a trip edits around a hundred photos that the advertiser can then use on social media, in print and in email [1]. How a company can choose between the two is covered in the guide to UGC or influencer marketing.

The line can also blur. On TikTok a company can, with the creator’s authorisation, run the creator’s own post as an ad for as long as the authorisation lasts [10]. Who may use the material, where and for how long is therefore something to write into the agreement from the start.

3. A company can pay with a fee, products, commission or by results.

How the company pays decides what it buys. Four models can be described one by one: flat fee, product, commission and pay by results. They can also be combined, for example a flat fee with a variable part [11]. No independent source shows how common the models are in Sweden, so the article does not rank them. Figure 1 sets them side by side, and what drives the cost in each model is covered in the guide to what influencer marketing costs.

Flat fee

With a flat fee the company pays an agreed amount for set deliverables, for example a certain number of videos of a certain kind [3, 6]. The company knows in advance what it gets and what it costs. In return, it carries the risk if the post does not reach people or does not lead to sales.

Product

The creator can also receive goods, services or a trip instead of money. The European Parliament’s study calls this barter [3], and Konsumentverket writes that barter agreements are common in the industry [12]. It lowers the company’s cash cost, but it is still payment. A post made for products can be advertising just like a post made for money [2], and the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) counts the payment as income for the creator whether it consists of products, services or money [13].

Commission

With commission the creator gets a share of the sales that can be traced to them, most often through their own link or discount code [3, 13]. Affiliate networks offer systems that show who passed on a click or a purchase, and that handle commissions and payments [1]. The company only pays for what sells, and the risk moves to the creator. A purchase that does not go through the link or code earns nothing, even if the post helped bring it about.

Pay by results

In the fourth model the payment depends on how the post performs, for example on the number of views. TikTok describes one variant in its TikTok One service, where the creator gets a flat fee for the video plus a variable part that depends on the video’s performance and the advertiser’s ad spend. The page does not say whether the model is available in Sweden [6]. The model can also be built as a pot: the company sets the budget in advance, and the creators split it by results. The company then knows what the campaign costs but not exactly what it delivers, and the creator does not know in advance what they will get. Both need to agree on how the result is measured.

The platforms’ own programmes are something else. There it is the platform, not a company, that pays the creator by views or clicks [1, 11]. What the four models above share is that they are payment from a company. Konsumentverket writes that posts where any form of compensation goes to the person behind the post are marketing covered by the requirements of the Marketing Act [12]. What that means is summed up in section 5.

4. The Swedish market turned over just over SEK 1.1 billion in 2025, according to the industry’s own measurement.

Influencer marketing in Sweden turned over just over SEK 1.1 billion in 2025, according to IRM, the Swedish institute for advertising and media statistics, which carries out the measurement for the industry body IAB Sverige. The market grew by just over 19 percent during the year [14]. The figure rests on a mapping of the industry and a survey of the actors IRM has identified. Where answers are missing, IRM has filled in with public data and estimates [14]. So it measures money that the actors in the market report, not how many people see the content.

In the same measurement TikTok was the largest platform, with 44 percent of revenue against Instagram’s 41.9 percent [14]. These are shares of the money paid for partnerships, not of the users.

Many Swedes also follow influencers, especially young people. 43 percent of Swedes aged 15 and over follow an influencer, and 79 percent of those aged 15–24, according to the European Parliament’s Eurobarometer on social media 2025 as cited by Mediemyndigheten [1]. The survey is a web survey with a quota sample, not a random sample [15]. The figures are therefore an indication rather than an exact share.

5. The law treats paid posts as advertising, and advertising must be recognisable at once.

The Marketing Act requires all marketing to be designed so that it is clear that it is marketing, and who is responsible for it [5]. According to the industry recommendation of January 2026, issued by Sveriges Kommunikationsbyråer (Komm), Sveriges Annonsörer (now Brand Marketing Sweden) and IAB Sverige, a post is advertising when it is published in return for payment on behalf of a company and has commercial content linked to the company’s products or services. The payment can be goods, trips and services, and affiliate links can also be covered [2]. The agreement does not have to be in writing. Konsumentverket writes that it can be oral and even implied, and that it must be clear even at a fleeting glance that it is marketing [16].

The company that hired the creator carries the main responsibility for the marketing and cannot contract it away. The creator, and others who contributed to the marketing, can share that responsibility [7]. According to the recommendation, the platforms’ own advertising labels do not always meet the law’s requirement of clarity, and “i samarbete med” (in collaboration with) should not be used as a label [2]. How the label should look in practice is covered in the guide to advertising labels.

6. A campaign runs from goal and brief to review, publication and follow-up.

The steps look much the same whatever the payment model. What differs is when and how the creator gets paid. Here is the process in four steps.

1. Goal and model

Start with what the campaign should achieve, for example awareness, traffic or sales, and choose the payment model to match. A model that pays per purchase goes with a sales goal. One that pays by views goes with reach. According to IAB Sverige, the industry’s focus is increasingly on long-term partnerships, data-driven optimisation and clear measurement of effect [4].

2. Creators, brief and agreement

The company finds creators itself or through an intermediary. Mediemyndigheten describes three kinds: talent agencies that represent influencers, networks that broker partnerships with a less exclusive relationship, and affiliate networks that handle tracking and commission [1]. The agreement often sets scope, message and timing, and the advertiser usually gives guidelines such as key messages, required tags, links or discount codes and the number and type of posts [1]. Write the label, and who may use the material and for how long, into the brief from the start.

3. Review and publication

The creator makes the content and the company reviews it before publication. Konsumentverket writes that companies need a working advertising review function, because a breach cannot be undone by changing the marketing afterwards [16]. Check that the label shows in the published post, not only in the draft.

4. Follow-up and payment

After publication the company follows up the result. IAB Sverige names reach, views, engagement, conversions and brand effect as measures to track [17]. Which measures are enough depends on the goal from step 1. When the payment depends on the result, the measurement also decides the payment, so it needs to be settled before the campaign starts.

7. About this article: a strong basis for the definitions and the law, thinner for how the models are used in Sweden.

The article was compiled in October 2026 from published sources, read on 15 October 2026. We have mainly used statute, Swedish authorities, EU institutions, research and the industry’s own recommendations and measurements. Every source is tagged by what it is. “Independent” marks laws, authorities, research and industry bodies. Industry bodies such as IAB Sverige represent the industry, and IRM’s measurement is made on their behalf. “TikTok” marks TikTok’s own help pages.

What is not covered

The article shows no prices, because we have not found any independent Swedish price data. It says nothing about how common each payment model is, because no independent Swedish source measures that. Tax is mentioned only in passing, and labelling in detail belongs to a guide of its own. The market figures are for 2025. IRM has measured the market before, but the values for 2023 and 2024 are not public and the basis may differ between measurements. The article therefore computes no change over several years.

Limitations

We have not measured how many people search for the topic. We read the Eurobarometer figures for Sweden in Mediemyndigheten’s report, not in the EU’s own factsheet. Where the risk lands in each model is our judgement, not a measurement. The description of the law sums up what the statute, Konsumentverket and the industry recommendation say. It is not legal advice, and a single case can be judged differently.

We will review the article again when IRM publishes its next measurement or when Konsumentverket or the industry changes its guidance.