Illustrative example. Not a real client.
A sample shortlist, brief and report.
This is what Crossway Influence sends, free, within 2 business days of a brief.
The brief: a web-search API for AI agents, with a $10,000 creator budget.
Creator spend + fee = total. Fee: 20%, with a $1,000 minimum on standard terms. Pilot: only for posts that ran.
Last reviewed: 21 October 2026
$10,000 creator budget
Option A: three picks, $6,060. The rest stays unspent until a pick is worth it.
- YouTube · AI coding$1,800
- AlphaSignal$3,000
- JavaScript Weekly$1,260
- Not spent$3,940
Crossway Influence’s fee at 20%: $1,212, only for posts that went live (pilot terms).
The shortlist
| Option | Creators | Creator spend | Fee | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A (recommended) | #1 AI-coding channel, #2 AlphaSignal, #3 JavaScript Weekly | $6,060 | $1,21220% | The three lowest costs per view or open, led by the closest match. |
| B (more reach) | Option A, plus #4 LinkedIn ML engineer and #5 AI-agents channel | $9,760 | $1,95220% | Adds LinkedIn and a second YouTube channel. Option B’s extra creators double as alternates. |
| C (smaller test) | #1 AI-coding channel, #3 JavaScript Weekly, #5 AI-agents channel | $4,260 | $1,000the minimum; pilot $852 | Three posts for less; #5 misses the like check. |
How to judge it: one post on its own rarely tells you much. Treat the first booking as a 3–5 post test, and judge it on the 7-day numbers and the 30-day report.
Names: newsletters are named, since their rates are public. YouTube and LinkedIn creators are named once you sign the order form. You then have 2 business days to drop anyone at no cost.
| Creator | Audience | Price and source | Next open | Cost per 1,000 | Comments and likes per 1,000 | Past dev-tool sponsors | Source | Evidence | Vetting bars | Misses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 YouTube · AI codingNamed after signing | 120k+ subscribers, about 45,000 median views | $1,80060–90 second integration | Week 3 | $40 per 1,000 views | 2.4 comments and 33 likes per 1,000 views | In a real shortlist: the last three dev-tool sponsors, with dates | Composite of public channel stats, last 10 long videos, 15–17 October 2026 | The closest match: commenters ask setup questions about AI coding tools; last long video this month | YouTube: views, comments, likes, last video and price all passed | None |
| #2 Newsletter · AI engineersAlphaSignal | 200,000 subscribers, 44% opens | $3,000secondary slot (Passionfroot) | Week 4 | $34 per 1,000 opens | Doesn’t apply to newsletters | Its Passionfroot page (subscribers, open rate, price), 17 October 2026 | Read by engineers and data scientists working with AI; the secondary slot sits inside the $20–55 range | Newsletters: open rate 30%+ passed (44%) | None | |
| #3 Newsletter · JavaScriptJavaScript Weekly | 163,000 subscribers (Aug 2026), 37% open rate | $1,260sponsored link (Cooperpress Q4 2026 rate card) | Week 2 | $21 per 1,000 opens | Doesn’t apply to newsletters | AgentField AI, Meticulous AI, Greptile | Cooperpress’s Q4 2026 rate card (subscribers from August, open rate from July), checked 17 October 2026 | Cheapest per open, and many agents are written in TypeScript. The sponsored link, against $3,680 for the primary, is enough for a first test | Newsletters: open rate 30%+ passed (37%) | None |
| #4 LinkedIn · ML engineerNamed after signing | 100k+ followers | $2,500one LinkedIn post (cross-post included) | Week 2 | LinkedIn views aren’t public; impressions screenshot on request | Views aren’t public; comment count on the last 10 posts checked before booking | Composite of public profiles, 15–17 October 2026 | Commenters are mostly ML engineers: the people who choose an AI stack at work | LinkedIn: median comments 20+ In a real shortlist: the exact median | None so far | |
| #5 YouTube · AI agentsNamed after signing | 200k+ subscribers, about 25,000 median views | $1,200shoutout (a short mention) | Week 4 | $48 per 1,000 views | 2.2 comments and 16 likes per 1,000 views | In a real shortlist: the last three dev-tool sponsors, with dates | Composite of public channel stats, last 10 long videos, 15–17 October 2026 | Builds agents on screen | YouTube: views, comments, last video and price passed; likes missed | Likes (16 per 1,000; bar is 20). Still in B and C: its commenters build agents. |
| #6 YouTube · AI newsNamed after signing | 350k+ subscribers, about 115,000 median views | $9,000shoutout | Week 3 | $78 per 1,000 views | 1.0 comments and 10 likes per 1,000 views | Composite of public channel stats, last 10 long videos, 15–17 October 2026 | Fits, and many commenters build with AI coding agents, but one sponsored post is $9,000 of the $10,000 budget | YouTube: views and last video passed; comments, likes and price missed | Comments (1.0 per 1,000; bar is 2), likes (10 per 1,000; bar is 20), price (range $20–55 per 1,000 views) |
Newsletter rows use real public rates; YouTube and LinkedIn rows are composites of typical channels. So no real creator is identifiable.
YouTube and LinkedIn prices are public-data estimates, confirmed before an order form. None of these creators is a client or partner of Crossway Influence.
Cost per 1,000
Price ÷ median views (YouTube) or ÷ (subscribers × published open rate) (newsletters), × 1,000. Apple Mail’s privacy features push open rates up. So treat cost per 1,000 opens as a floor, and compare within a format. Public numbers, 15–17 October 2026, rounded.
The plan
- Week 1: pick an option. Reply A, B or C.
- Week 1: sign the short order form. YouTube and LinkedIn creators are named; you have 2 business days to drop anyone at no cost.
- Weeks 1–3: briefs, one page per creator; shared drafts checked against your docs.
- Weeks 2–4, each creator’s next open date: the post goes live, labelled as paid.
- 7 days after each post: 7-day numbers.
- 30 days after the last post: 30-day report: what each post drove, and what to book again.
The brief each creator gets
One plain-text page: what the creator must get right.
Brief
Web-search API for AI agents
For: YouTube · AI coding · one 60–90 second integration
- The product in one line: “Web search for AI agents, with 1,000 free searches a month.”
- Three things to get right: results come back as clean text a model can read. The free tier’s rate limits. It works with the agent frameworks named in the docs.
- Don’t say: “real-time”, “unlimited”, or any accuracy figure the product team hasn’t published.
- Call to action: create a free API key, with your own link and code.
- Disclosure: YouTube’s paid-promotion setting plus a spoken mention at the start.
- Draft (if you share drafts): 5 days before publishing, so it can be checked.
What the report looks like
Definitions only: the report fills these in with your numbers.
| Column | How it’s measured |
|---|---|
| Clicks per creator | Clicks on that creator’s tracked link |
| Signups by link and code | Signups through that creator’s link, or through a code if you give each creator one |
| “How did you hear about us?” answers | Answers on your signup form that name the creator |
| Cost per 1,000 | Price ÷ views or opens × 1,000 |
| What didn’t work | Each post that drove little, the likely reason, and whether to book it again |