JoinBrands Local lets you send creators and influencers directly into your physical locations to create authentic, high-performing content. It's built for brands that want local awareness, real-world social proof, and scalable influencer marketing, without any manual outreach. This guide walks you through launching a local campaign from start to finish. 🚀
🎬 Prefer to watch? Follow along with the full video walkthrough: JoinBrands Local for Businesses Tutorial
🛒 Retail store jobs: if you sell through a national retail chain, Local campaigns can send creators to buy your product at a nearby store and film there. See Section 8 below.
📍 1. What Is JoinBrands Local (and Who It's For)
JoinBrands Local is designed for businesses with a physical presence: retail stores, restaurants, cafés, hotels, gyms, and service-based businesses. Instead of shipping products, you invite nearby creators to visit your location in person, experience it, and capture in-store, in-location UGC you can use for ads and social media. To start, choose Local/Retail as your business type when you create a new campaign.
It also works for brands whose products are sold in national retail chains: creators can buy your product in a store near them and create content in-store.
🎬 2. Content Only vs. Content + Posting
When you create a local campaign, you'll first choose the campaign type:
Content only: creators visit your location and deliver the content to you; you use it however you like.
Content + posting: creators also post the content to their own social channels for added reach.
You can then use the creator content for ads, whitelisting, and Spark codes on TikTok and Instagram, turning authentic visits into paid, high-performing creative.
💰 3. Setting Creator Pay
Set how much creators earn for the campaign. As a rule of thumb, higher pay increases your success rate (more creators apply, and you attract stronger profiles), so it's worth being competitive with your offer.
📝 4. Writing a Strong Content Brief
Your brief tells creators exactly what you're looking for. Be specific about the shots, angles, and messaging you want. You can also upload brand assets, provide captions, and add reference links so creators understand your style before they visit.
🏷️ 5. Naming Your Campaign
Give your campaign a clear name so it's easy to identify later, then move on to your creator parameters.
👥 6. Choosing Your Creators
Next, define who you want to work with:
Demographics & age range: target the creator audience that fits your brand.
Distance from the location: set how far creators can be from your business so applicants are genuinely local.
Special requirements: add any specific criteria creators must meet.
Manual approval: review creator profiles and approve applicants yourself before they're booked.
Counter offers: creators can propose different terms, and you can accept or decline.
Number of creators: choose how many creators you want for the campaign.
🏢 7. Selecting Your Brand
Choose an existing brand or add a new one to attach to the campaign.
🛒 8. Where Does the Job Happen?
Choose where creators will create their content. This decides what the rest of the step asks for:
My own location: creators visit a venue you own and film there. The venue is the product. Continue with Sections 9 to 11 below.
Retail store: creators buy your product in a store and film there. You pick the product, the retail chain and the area.
Setting up a Retail Store job
Pick your product: the product creators will buy in store.
Choose the retail chain: select a national chain such as Walmart, Target, Costco, Whole Foods Market, Albertsons, Best Buy, CVS, H-E-B, Home Depot, Kroger, Lowe's or Publix. Each chain shows how many states it's available in.
Set the distance radius: your campaign reaches creators who live within that distance of any of the chain's stores.
Ask for a purchase receipt (optional): switch this on if you want creators to upload their receipt so you can verify the in-store purchase.
📓 What creators see: retail store jobs show a "Buy at" line naming the chain you picked (for example "Buy at Target") and the creator's nearest stores, on both the creator website and the mobile app. Creators confirm their in-store purchase to start the job straight away, and the product cost is reimbursed to them. If you asked for a receipt, you can view it on the job.
⚠️ Important: Retail store jobs are available in the US only.
📌 9. Adding Business & Service Locations
If creators are visiting your own location, tell them exactly where to go and what to expect:
Service value & reimbursements: set the value of the product or service creators receive and how they're reimbursed for purchases.
Exact physical location: select the precise address creators will visit.
Location description: add helpful details about the venue.
Location links & service fees: include any relevant links and applicable fees.
🕒 10. Visit Windows & Duration
Choose the time windows when creators can visit and how long each visit should last, so appointments fit your business hours and capacity.
✨ 11. Appearance Guidelines & What to Bring
Set appearance guidelines and let creators know what they should bring to the visit, so everyone arrives prepared and on-brand.
🚀 12. Payment, Inviting Creators & Launch
Finalize payment, invite creators, and launch your campaign. From there you can manage applications and bookings as creators come in.
🎉 Why JoinBrands Local Works
JoinBrands Local turns real visits into authentic content and local buzz, perfect for driving awareness, building real-world social proof, and scaling influencer marketing without manual outreach. Ready to launch your first local campaign? Get started on JoinBrands, or book a guided walkthrough with our team. 🚀