How Can Pet Influencers Monetise Partnerships With Cat Food Brands?

In today’s world, there has been a massive shift: more and more people view their pets as family members or even children, rather than simply animals.

Cat owners are increasingly doing research to ensure they’re providing their furry family members with the best food, toys and more.

This is where social proof plays a big role; it helps expose people to trusted brands and educates them on the benefits of various products. Influencer marketing can greatly benefit your cat food brand by allowing you to connect with pet owners in an authentic and relatable way.

How Can Catfluencers Help Build Your Brand?

More people are turning to social media to see real reviews from users, rather than relying solely on images and descriptions on a brand’s website.

This is where catfluencers—cats with social media presence, often guided by their human counterparts—can build trust in your brand. If a catfluencer loves and endorses your product, their audience will hear their positive experience and possibly see how much their own pet enjoys your brand’s cat food.

By sharing personal stories and genuine experiences, catfluencers humanise your brand, making it feel more accessible and trustworthy.

Catfluencers also have access to wider and often more engaged audiences than many brands can reach on their own. These influencers can connect your brand with cat owners who value premium nutrition and quality—exactly your target demographic.

What’s more is that if a company is a cat food subscription company, rather than a company promoting one time sales, the investment in an influencer can lead to customers who stay loyal to the brand on a subscription basis for a long time; making them particularly valuable to the business in question.

Tips For A Successful Influencer Partnership

Cat food brands must approach influencer partnerships strategically and avoid simply choosing the first influencer they come across. Here are some key tips for creating a successful influencer collaboration:

Find A Suitable Influencer

Use tools such as Upfluence or HypeAuditor to find relevant catfluencers. It’s recommended to look for influencers with an engagement rate above average, and a following of 5,000–50,000. These so-called “micro-influencers” typically have highly loyal audiences.

It’s also essential to ensure the influencer aligns with your brand values—this will make the collaboration feel more natural and authentic.

Vet Your Influencers

Before working with any influencer, vet them thoroughly:

Confirm that their audience is based in the UK (or your intended market)
Check the quality of their content—is it consistent with the image you want for your brand?
Ensure they have a genuine, active following with strong engagement (e.g., comments, shares, not just likes)

Propose Mutually Beneficial Partnerships

Influencers expect fair compensation, whether through payment, free products, or affiliate commissions. Consider co-branded content or exclusive discount codes for their audience to drive more value for both parties.

Affiliate Programmes

Affiliate marketing is a cost-effective strategy. Influencers share unique links or discount codes with their followers and receive commission on sales made through those links. This model directly ties compensation to performance and provides measurable results.

Track Performance

To understand the impact of your influencer campaign, track metrics such as:

Website traffic
Sales from affiliate links
Social media engagement

Tracking performance will also help you determine whether you should expand into other platforms, such as TikTok or YouTube, especially if video content is outperforming static posts.

How To Build A Lasting Relationship With Catfluencers

While one-off campaigns can be helpful, building long-term relationships with influencers promotes stronger trust and more sustainable growth. Here’s how:

Keep Communication Clear And Professional

Clearly communicate your brand’s vision, values, and expectations, including deliverables, deadlines, and tone of voice. Professionalism builds mutual respect.

Honour Ongoing Support

If a particular catfluencer is making a positive impact, reward their loyalty:

Offer exclusive discounts or commissions
Provide early access to new product launches
Feature them on your website
Invite them to brand events

This makes them feel like valued brand partners, not just short-term promoters.

Drawbacks Of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing can be powerful, but it’s not without its challenges and some industries, often business to business (B2B) industries find it harder to use influencers. For example, it is more straightforward to sell a pet product to a consumer than it is to sell a UK phone system to an SME. Here are a few potential drawbacks to be aware of:

Delivering Real Experiences

Avoid influencers who create content that feels too sales-focused. It’s important that your catfluencer shares authentic stories and genuine experiences—audiences can easily spot inauthenticity, and it could damage your brand’s credibility.

Watching The Budget

Micro-influencers are typically cost-effective, often charging a few hundred pounds per post. Ensure the catfluencer you choose fits within your allocated marketing budget and that you’ve negotiated fair terms for both sides.

Can Catfluencers Make A Difference?

Absolutely. Catfluencers can significantly help diversify your brand’s reach, increase visibility, and even drive sales—if their audience likes what they see. Building a lasting relationship with a well-aligned influencer fosters both trust and brand loyalty.

By sharing their real-life experiences with your cat food brand—through sponsored posts, videos, or affiliate links—catfluencers can turn their influence into measurable results for your business.