If I were a DTC founder launching on TikTok Shop tomorrow, I wouldn't send sampl
By Brandon Fishman · July 7, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
If I were a DTC founder launching on TikTok Shop tomorrow, I wouldn't send samples to 2,000 creators. I'd pick 300 and out-earn most brands doing 10x the volume.
We've worked with about 5,000 creators regularly. The shift we made this year was figuring out which few hundred of them actually move revenue for any given brand.
We call it the overlap list. Two filters, one shortlist:
Filter 1: Demographic match.
We use Reacher and a few other bots that surface creators by demographic, pulling creators who have already done similar work for competitors in the space.
Filter 2: Known-good creators.
These are creators who have moved real units for us on previous brands. Past conversion is the only filter we trust.
The overlap of those two filters is the shortlist. Everything else gets cut.
The brands still seeding 2,000 creators a month are spending 7x the money to find the same buyers we're finding with 300.
The volume isn't getting you reach. It's getting you a bigger sample budget and a worse ROI.