Which Brands Use the Most Influencer Promo Codes? We Analyzed a Million Codes to Find Out

Influencer codes have become so common that it's easy to stop noticing them — or to wonder whether they're actually worth anything. Are these real discounts, or just a marketing line item dressed up as a deal?

We looked at the data to find out. Using SimplyCodes' database of 932,784 influencer promo codes across more than 500,000 online stores, we identified which codes were tied to influencer partnerships and which weren't. Then we analyzed everything: which brands rely on them most, what they're actually worth in dollar terms, how the strategy varies across industries from pet supplies to electronics, and whether smaller brands use them differently than household names.

A few things jumped out. Some brands run their entire coupon strategy through influencers — every single available code comes from a creator. The typical influencer discount is smaller than you'd expect. And the category a brand operates in predicts its influencer discount strategy more than almost anything else.

These brands run entirely on influencer deals

For some brands, influencer codes aren't part of the strategy — they are the strategy. Every single available promo code comes from a creator partnership. No store-wide sales, no seasonal promotions, no email signup discounts. Just influencer codes, all the way down.

The pattern is hard to miss. These are almost all direct-to-consumer brands in beauty, fitness, and fashion — categories where the creator is the storefront. They don't run traditional promotions because they don't need to. Their entire customer acquisition model runs through influencer relationships, and the promo code is the tracking mechanism that makes it work.

If you've ever seen a discount for one of these brands, it came from a creator's feed. There is no other door.

The big brands betting on influencer codes

The DTC brands above are built on influencer marketing. But what about the names you'd find in a mall or a grocery aisle? Some of the most recognizable retailers in America route a surprising share of their available codes through creator partnerships.

SHEIN at 79% is no surprise — the brand was essentially built on influencer marketing. But Kohl's, Walgreens, and CVS each routing more than half their available codes through influencer partnerships? That's a signal that legacy retail has fully adopted the DTC playbook.

When nearly half of JCPenney's codes come from creators rather than the brand's own promotions page, it suggests a strategic shift in how these companies think about discounting. The influencer isn't just an awareness channel anymore — they're becoming the primary distribution mechanism for deals.

For shoppers, the takeaway is simple: if you're looking for a code for one of these retailers, a creator's page might actually be a better place to start than the store's own website.

What influencer codes are actually worth

So influencer codes are everywhere. But how much are they actually saving you? We broke down all 932,784 influencer codes by discount level to find out.

More than one in three influencer codes offers just 10% off — the most common tier by a wide margin. Stack the next two tiers on top and the picture gets clearer: roughly 80% of all influencer codes are worth 20% or less.

Only 8% of influencer codes crack the 30%-off threshold. If a creator is promoting something above that mark, it's either a genuinely strong deal or a product category where deep discounts are the norm (more on that in the next section).

The typical influencer code isn't a blowout sale. It's a nudge — a small enough discount that the brand's margins stay intact, but just enough to push a hesitant shopper over the line. Think of it less as a deal and more as a closing mechanism: the creator builds the desire, and a modest 10–15% code removes the last bit of friction.

That doesn't mean they're worthless. For brands that rarely discount at all, a 10% influencer code might be the only discount available anywhere. But if you're holding out for a deep cut, the data says you'll be waiting a while — fewer than 1 in 12 influencer codes will get you there.

How influencer discounts vary by category

Not all influencer codes are created equal. The category a brand operates in predicts its discount strategy more than brand size, follower count, or almost anything else. Some industries treat influencer codes as tiny loyalty tokens. Others use them to move product at steep markdowns.

Here's how the major categories break down.

The conservative discounters

Pets & Baby brands give influencers the smallest codes. Nearly half of pet influencer codes (47.5%) sit at 10% or less — no other category is that concentrated at the bottom. Baby & Parenting is close behind at 36.7%. These are trust-driven categories where brands are cautious about cheapening their image. A discount is a gentle invitation, not a fire sale.

Electronics takes an all-or-nothing approach. It has the highest share of tiny codes (5% or less) of any major category at 20.6%, yet 11.8% of codes also sit at 50% or more. The middle tiers are largely empty. Electronics brands either give influencers a token code or go big — there's almost nothing in between.

The standard playbook

Beauty runs a classic two-tier strategy. The largest single cluster is 10% off (32.6%) — the ubiquitous "use my code for 10% off" that dominates skincare and cosmetics content. But 18.3% of codes jump to 25%, suggesting brands deploy a low tier for awareness and a higher tier when they want to push conversions.

Food & Beverage has the most standardized influencer deal in any category. More than one in five food codes land at exactly 21–25% off — the tightest clustering we found anywhere. Food influencers appear to negotiate from a common template rather than leaving discount levels to chance.

The deep discounters

Home & Living is the outlier. Nearly one in four influencer codes (23.6%) offers 50% or more off — far above every other category. These are likely clearance items or high-margin products like decor and bedding where heavy discounts are sustainable without destroying profitability.

Automotive is the most unpredictable category. It's the only one with a meaningful share at 26–30% (10.1%) and a large 50%+ tail (18.7%). There's no dominant discount tier, which suggests the auto industry hasn't standardized how it works with influencers the way beauty and food have.

Which categories are leaning into influencer codes — And which are pulling back

The discount tiers tell you what influencer codes are worth today. But the longer-term trend reveals something more interesting: which categories are increasing their bet on influencer codes versus shifting budget elsewhere.

We compared the success rate of influencer codes against non-influencer codes in each category from 2022 through 2025. A positive gap means influencer codes outperformed; a negative gap means traditional codes did better.

Gap = influencer code success rate minus non-influencer code success rate, in percentage points.

A few standout shifts:

Home & Garden is the only category where influencer codes have consistently outperformed traditional codes every single year. If you're shopping for home products, the creator code is genuinely your best bet.

Electronics tells the opposite story. Influencer codes outperformed by 8.2 points in 2022 but have underperformed since 2024. Electronics brands may be reallocating influencer budgets or tightening the codes they offer creators.

Beauty is the most notable reversal. Influencer codes had a slight edge in 2022 (+2.2 points) but have underperformed traditional codes for three straight years, hitting –3.7 in 2025. In the category most associated with influencer marketing, the creator codes are now less effective than the brand's own promotions.

Hobbies & Toys swung to +7.6 in 2025 — the largest influencer premium of any category this year. If you're shopping for hobby or toy products, influencer codes are having a moment.

Smaller brands need influencer codes the most — But offer the smallest discounts

There's a clean, almost perfectly linear relationship between brand size and influencer code reliance. The smaller the brand, the more its coupon strategy depends on creators. But there's a catch: those codes are worth less.

We grouped merchants into size tiers using monthly search volume as a proxy for brand awareness, then looked at how much of each tier's code inventory came from influencer partnerships and what the median discount was.

Micro merchants — the long tail of more than 45,000 smaller online stores — generate a third of all their codes through influencer partnerships. That's nearly three times the rate of large brands. The reason is straightforward: small brands don't have the marketing budgets for paid search, TV spots, or email lists with millions of subscribers. Influencer codes fill the gap. For many of these merchants, a creator's Instagram story is the marketing department.

But the economics flip when you look at discount depth. Large brands offer a 23.2% median discount through their influencer codes versus just 16.6% for micro merchants. Bigger brands negotiate fewer partnerships but make each one count with a more compelling offer. Small brands take the opposite approach — distribute as many codes as possible, but keep the discount shallow enough to protect thin margins.

For shoppers, this creates a useful rule of thumb. If you're buying from a small DTC brand, the influencer code in a creator's bio is likely the best (and possibly only) discount you'll find. For larger retailers, it's worth comparing the influencer code against whatever's on the brand's own site — there's a decent chance the store-wide promotion is just as good or better.

What this means

Influencer codes aren't going away. If anything, the data shows they're becoming a more central part of how brands — from tiny DTC startups to Kohl's and CVS — get discounts into shoppers' hands. But not all influencer codes are equal, and knowing the patterns can save you time and money.

• Expect 10–20% off, and be pleasantly surprised by anything more. Nearly 80% of influencer codes fall in that range. A creator promoting 30% or more is offering something genuinely above average — that's worth acting on.
• Check the category before you judge the code. A 10% code from a pet brand is standard. A 10% code from a home goods brand is below average for that category, where discounts regularly hit 50%. The same number means very different things depending on what you're buying.
• For small brands, the influencer code is probably your best option. Micro merchants route a third of their entire discount strategy through creators, and many don't run promotions anywhere else. If you see a code in a creator's bio for a brand you've never heard of, that might be the only deal available.
• For big brands, compare before you commit. Retailers like JCPenney, Kohl's, and Walgreens all have significant influencer code programs — but they also run their own promotions. The influencer code might match or even beat the store's own offer, but it's worth a quick check.
• Watch the trend lines. Influencer codes in home and garden consistently outperform traditional codes. In beauty and electronics, they've been losing ground for three years running. The category momentum is shifting, and last year's best strategy isn't always this year's.

The influencer code economy is massive — nearly a million codes across half a million stores. Most of them won't change your life. But knowing which ones are worth your time? That's the difference between a smart discount and a marketing prop.

Methodology

This analysis is based on 932,784 influencer promo codes tracked across more than 500,000 online stores in SimplyCodes' database. Codes were classified as "influencer codes" when tagged as influencer-sourced in our system, meaning the code originated from a creator partnership rather than a store-wide promotion, seasonal sale, or affiliate deal.

Discount tiers were grouped into 5-percentage-point buckets (10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%+) based on each code's stated percentage-off value. Category-level analysis used SimplyCodes' internal merchant categorization. Year-over-year comparisons of influencer versus non-influencer code performance span 2022 through 2025 and measure the gap in code success rates between the two groups within each category.

Merchant size tiers (large, medium, small, micro) were determined using SemRush monthly search volume as a proxy for brand awareness. The micro tier includes 45,703 merchants.

All data reflects codes active through 2025. SimplyCodes verifies coupon codes through a combination of automated testing and community feedback, giving us visibility not just into what codes exist but which ones actually work at checkout.