Follower count is the least predictive number available to you. Organizers who pay for reach get reach. Organizers who pay for relevance get attendance.
Look at comments, not followers
Are real people having real conversations, or is it emojis from accounts with no posts? An account with twenty thousand engaged followers in your city will outsell one with two hundred thousand scattered across three continents.
Check the overlap
Their audience must plausibly attend your event. A lifestyle creator with a national following is worth less to a Lagos-only club night than a micro-creator who posts about that scene weekly.
Give everyone a code
Unique promo codes are the only honest measurement. Without them you are guessing, and next year you will renew the wrong partnerships.
Brief, do not script
Give them the facts, the link, the deadline and the tone. Then let them write it themselves. Audiences recognise a pasted press release instantly and it converts like one.
Agree the deliverables in writing
How many posts, on which platforms, in what formats, and on which dates. "We'll post about it" is not a deliverable. A single story that disappears in twenty-four hours is not the same as a feed post that stays up, and the difference in price should reflect that.
Specify the posting window too. A creator who posts the day before your event, after your early bird has closed, has delivered the letter of the agreement and none of its value.
Ask for the audience breakdown
Most creators can screenshot their location and age split in a few seconds. If they will not, that is information as well. You are looking for a meaningful concentration in your city and your age band, not raw numbers.
Consider the trade
Not every partnership needs cash. Tickets for a giveaway, a table on the night, or access to photograph the event are real value to a creator building their own content, and they cost you inventory rather than budget. This works best with people who genuinely want to attend.
Pay for outcomes where you can
A smaller fee plus a per-ticket commission aligns interests and is often accepted by creators who genuinely believe in the event. The ones who refuse any performance component are telling you something useful.
Keep the ones who deliver
After two or three events you will have a short list of creators whose codes actually convert. Treat that list as an asset. Pay them earlier, brief them better, and give them something the others do not get, because replacing a proven partner costs far more than retaining one.