will caplan

The world is changing at an ever-increasing rate. @JNeedem and I have been publishing twice a week, every week, for the past 6 months in a newsletter called Change Makers. We cover the people, businesses and ideas and that are shaping the world. Join us on this journey!

@MitcheIl launch

There is simply no reason to hire an expensive marketing agency anymore when AI Agents exist The AI handles: → Sourcing → Outreach → Contracting → Revisions → Payments You just approve.

Creator Partnership Ads consistently outperform standard paid social. The problem has always been the operational overhead to run them at scale. Tano solves that.

Introducing the world’s first AI Agent for Creator Partnerships Ad Dozens of brands like IM8, ElevenLabs, Bloom & Wild already use us. RT + Comment "creator ads" and I'll send you the complete guide on Creator Ads in 2026

@daviefogarty Dude! We've done this - working with companies like IM8 (bosses growing supplement company of all time) and ton of other eight and nine-figure brands :)

Creator ops for any brand that is scaling are an absolute mess. If someone can solve all these problems using AI, it will make them richer than they could imagine. - Outreach volume. The bigger companies need to be contacting hundreds of creators to make a difference. Most brands hire an influencer manager who can maybe handle 20-30 relationships properly, but that's not enough volume to find consistent winners. - Follow-ups. This is where 80% of potential deals die. The creator says they're interested, you send a product, then nothing. No one has time to chase 200 people who ghosted. - Negotiation. Every creator wants different terms. Flat fee, affiliate, hybrid, usage rights, exclusivity. It turns into a full-time job just managing contracts. - Content approvals. The creator sends content, it doesn't match the brief, you go back and forth five times, by the time it's approved, the moment has passed. - Tracking ROI. Which creators actually drove revenue? Most brands have no idea. They're guessing based on vibes. Payments. Chasing invoices, managing payouts, reconciling affiliate commissions. Administrative nightmare. This is why most brands either give up on influencer marketing entirely or throw money at agencies that charge 20-30% and deliver inconsistent results. So how do you build this with AI? Step 1: Define your ideal creator profile Feed the agent your ideal metrics. Follower range, engagement rate, niche, content style. Give it examples of creators who've worked for you before so it knows what "good" looks like. Step 2: Automated outreach at volume The agent DMs creators directly. Makes it personalised based on their content but the pitch is simple: we'd love to send you product, no strings attached. Replicate mass seeding where volume is the game. You're not trying to close deals, you're trying to get products in the hands of as many people as you can. Step 3: Automated follow-up sequence Did you like the product? What did you think? Would you be open to posting about it? The agent handles all of this and keeps the conversation going without you touching it. Step 4: Affiliate pitch Once they've tried the product and responded positively, the agent pitches the affiliate program. "We have a performance-based program. You get x% of revenue from your code. If your content works as a paid ad, you get a percentage of the ad revenue too." This filters for creators who actually believe in the product. They only make money if they drive sales. Step 5: Voice messages Founder voice DMs get opened because they feel personal, and they can't be skimmed/ignored. Pull a database of your best performing creators and creatives. Let the AI use those as examples when explaining what works. Step 6: Everything stays in DMs Don't try to move people to email or a portal. Keep the conversation where it started. Less friction, higher response rates. The whole system runs on volume, automated follow-up, and performance-based compensation. You're not paying $5K flat fees hoping it works. You're seeding product widely, following up automatically, and only paying creators who actually drive revenue. An influencer manager running this manually can maybe handle 30 relationships. An AI agent running this system can handle 300. Same playbook, but 10x the output. This is the agentic agency model I keep talking about. The brands that figure this out in 2026 will have a structural advantage that's almost impossible to compete with.

Hot take: I don't think Icon has gone bankrupt. I think they are playing everyone with a genius marketing strategy.

@codyplof When do realistically think tools/systems like Manus can make nuanced optimisations like these that actually work?

We just dropped iCPA on Meta 26% by doing the following: - Moved spend aggressively from VO to CO - Increased partnership spend - Added a campaign with view optimization - Scaled AEB investment - Improved reels delivery - Patched some exclusion leaks All just to improve CPMr. It’s wild how much you have to do just to have a chance of success these days. I’d like to see Manus try.

@codyplof for one customer this month - 1000s of influencers being sourced and vetted against their requirements (we use Gemini VLM models)

@CaplanWill Show me

Anyone set up claude code for influencer sourcing? Or open claw in combo with it?

@codyplof this is influencers emailed (reply rates hover around 25-35% for seeding and then upwards of 65% for paid campaigns) - so sourcing number will actually be way higher than this.

@codyplof @TaylorHoliday Perhaps...building it to orchestrate 1000s of influencer conversations, contracts, payments etc is a whole new ball game 🤣 The v1 was vibe coded in a weekend at beginning of last, the rest has taken top AI engineers months to get working at true entreprise scale!

@CaplanWill @TaylorHoliday Looks like something I can vibe code

I now 100% agree with @TaylorHoliday thata lot of roles are converging and best in class performance marketing programs will be able to be ran by 1-2 high agency people in the next 6-12 months. I think it will go in this order: 1. Ecom / CRO / Dev 2. Retention 3. Media Buying 4. Influencer Creative will either be last or will not happen fully as there will always be the the desire for real, non AI content (That will get much stronger due to AI). I'm losing sleep over this. If you work in one of these departments, I would take note and do everything you can to learn the new skills needed.

@MattEpstein16 @drewfallon12 launch

I’ve been dead silent about this. 54 days ago @drewfallon12 hit me up to launch his company. We went to war. -13 script rewrites -456 comments on the edit -2 all nighters The result? There sales calendar is booked for months. We’ve rinsed and repeated the same formula across 20 launches. Each drives 100’s of demos and millions in value. I created a 22 page document of my entire strategy so you can copy it. I get paid $150k for this. Rt and comment “launch” and I’ll send you the doc.

@rom1trs hire him?

What do you respond to this? "I wanna compete with you, can you help me?"

Now, a marketing team of 1 can onboard and manage 1000s of revenue-producing influencer affiliates Head to tano.ai now to claim your free 15 influencers NOW Bonus: Every person you tag = +5 influencers Repost = +15 influencers Every phone number: +5 influencers

4️⃣ We monitor posts, surface top affiliates to build real relationships with, and handle all reporting. 5️⃣ Re-use high-performing creator content for paid ads with our “one-click paid-ads request" feature.

Meet Tano - the first AI influencer-affiliate marketer. Tano.ai is like hiring a team of influencer marketers, without the salaries.