Agency services
Influencer Marketing Agency in Vietnam: What Full Service Covers
An influencer marketing agency in Vietnam should run the whole creator campaign for you: strategy, KOL and KOC sourcing, contracts, samples, content approvals, creator payments and reporting. What it should not take from you are the decisions only the brand can make, such as product claims, pricing and stock. This guide maps that split clearly, so you can brief an agency, compare proposals and spot weak partners before money moves.
Short answer
What does an influencer marketing agency in Vietnam do?
A full-service influencer marketing agency in Vietnam plans the campaign, finds and books KOLs and KOCs, writes briefs and contracts, ships samples, manages drafts and approvals, pays creators with the right tax handling and reports results. The brand keeps product claims, pricing, stock, budget sign-off and final content approval.
- Agency runs: strategy, sourcing, booking, contracts, logistics, approvals, payments, reporting
- Brand keeps: claims, pricing, stock, budget and final sign-off
- Since 1 January 2026, advertising cooperation must go through a contract (Law 75/2025/QH15)
- Ask for raw data and links in every report, not only a summary deck
- Walk away from guaranteed views, no contracts or no tax documents
1. What does an influencer marketing agency in Vietnam actually do?
An influencer marketing agency in Vietnam turns a business goal into a set of creator deliverables and then runs every step until the posts are live, paid and measured. Most of the work is operational: finding the right people, getting agreements in writing, keeping dozens of drafts on schedule and reconciling money at the end.
Agency sales pages in Vietnam usually list services (booking KOL, booking KOC, seeding, livestream) without saying where the agency's responsibility starts and ends. That gap is where campaigns go wrong. A useful way to judge any proposal is to ask, for each stage below, who does the work, who approves it and what document proves it was done.
- Strategy and creator mix
- Sourcing, shortlisting and booking
- Briefs and contracts
- Samples, links and TikTok Shop or Shopee affiliate setup
- Content drafts, revisions and approvals
- Posting, monitoring and paid amplification rights
- Creator payments, invoices and tax withholding
- Reporting and learnings
2. Strategy: what a good agency decides with you before booking anyone
Strategy comes first because it decides how many creators you need, which tiers and which platforms. A good agency will not send a creator list until it understands the objective (awareness, reviews, sales on TikTok Shop, store visits), the product's sell-in status and the budget range.
Expect a short plan that covers the objective and the main KPI, the creator mix (a few KOLs for reach, a wider base of KOCs for reviews and conversion), platforms, content formats, timeline and the budget split between creator fees, product, amplification and the agency fee. If the plan starts with a list of famous names, it is a sales pitch, not a strategy.
Example: a skincare brand launching on TikTok Shop might agree a two-phase plan. Phase one seeds 40 KOCs so that search results and the product page fill with real reviews. Phase two books two or three KOLs once there is social proof to send traffic to.
3. Creator sourcing and booking: KOL, KOC, freecast and affiliate
Sourcing and booking is the core of the job: building a long list, checking audience quality, negotiating and confirming each creator in writing. The agency should show you how it vets creators (audience location, real engagement, past brand work, content quality), not only follower counts.
Booking models differ. Paid bookings fix a fee per deliverable. Freecast or product-only collaborations trade product for content and suit KOCs with smaller audiences. Affiliate models pay commission on sales through TikTok Shop or Shopee affiliate links. Many campaigns mix all three, and a good agency tracks each creator's model, status and next step in one pipeline.
KOC booking pipeline: the 7 stagesKOC freecast model explainedHow to find the right KOCIn-house team vs agencyWhite-label creator operations for agencies
4. Briefs, contracts and the 2026 advertising rules
Every booked creator should receive a written brief and sign a contract before filming. Under Article 6 of the Law on Advertising as amended by Law No. 75/2025/QH15 (in force from 1 January 2026), cooperation between parties in advertising activities must be made through an advertising contract. A chat message is not enough.
The same amendment adds Article 15a, which gives influencers specific duties when they carry advertising: verify the reliability of the advertiser, check documents about the product, not introduce products they have not used or do not understand, and announce the advertisement immediately before and during it. Article 23 also requires social media users who advertise to mark content as advertising or sponsored. A competent agency builds these duties into the brief and contract, and prepares the product documents the creator will ask for.
This is general information, not legal advice. Have your own counsel review contract templates.
Influencer contract checklist: 14 clausesVietnam influencer advertising law
5. Samples, links and commerce setup
Logistics is where many campaigns lose a week. The agency should collect delivery addresses, ship samples with tracking, confirm receipt and give creators enough time to actually use the product, which matters legally as well as creatively.
If the campaign sells, the agency also sets up the commerce layer: TikTok Shop affiliate plans and sample requests, Shopee affiliate links, creator-specific voucher codes and UTM links for your website. Ask who creates these links, who owns the data and how sales are attributed to each creator.
6. Content approvals and compliance checks
Approvals protect the brand from wrong claims and missing disclosures. The agency should collect every draft, check it against the brief, the claim list and the disclosure requirement, then send it to you with comments in one place.
Agree the rules up front: how many revision rounds are included, how many working days each side has to respond and who has final sign-off. Keep a versioned record of what was approved and by whom. When a claim is questioned later, that record is your evidence.
- Claims match the approved claim list word for word
- Advertising disclosure is visible before and during the content
- Product shown is the right variant and packaging
- Links, codes and the TikTok Shop cart point to the right product
- Music and footage are cleared for the planned usage
7. Creator payments, invoices and tax withholding
Paying creators is an operational and tax task, not just a bank transfer. Decree 253/2026/ND-CP, applied from 1 July 2026, requires an organisation paying a resident individual without a contract, or with a labour contract under three months, to withhold 10% personal income tax when a payment is 5 million VND or more per payment (Article 50, as summarised by Thu Vien Phap Luat). How this applies depends on how each creator is set up, so confirm with your tax adviser.
Ask the agency which entity pays creators, whether it withholds and files tax, what documents creators sign and what you receive for your own accounts. A clear reconciliation sheet per creator (fee, deliverables, status, withheld tax, paid date) saves weeks at month-end.
8. Reporting: what you should receive and when
A report should let you verify every number. At minimum, you should receive a list of live links per creator, the metrics pulled at an agreed time after posting and the cost per creator, plus sales data where links or codes were used.
Ask for the raw table as well as the summary deck. Agree before the campaign which KPIs count, when they are measured (for example seven and 30 days after posting) and how organic and paid results are separated.
9. What your brand must keep in-house
Some decisions cannot be outsourced because only the brand carries the responsibility. Product claims and the documents behind them, pricing and promotions, stock availability and the final approval of content stay with you, even if the agency drafts everything.
For regulated categories this matters even more. For example, Article 20 of the amended Law on Advertising requires cosmetics advertising to have a cosmetic product notification, and the notification holder is a Vietnamese business, often your importer or distributor. The agency cannot create that document for you; it can only check that it exists before content goes live.
- Approved claim list and supporting documents
- Price, promotion mechanics and voucher budgets
- Stock levels and shipping capacity during peaks
- Budget sign-off and any change of scope
- Final content approval
10. Who does what: a simple RACI for an agency-run creator campaign
A RACI table removes most arguments before they happen. R is responsible for doing the work, A is accountable and signs off, C is consulted and I is informed. Use the split below as a starting point and adjust it in the proposal.
- Objective and budget: brand A and R, agency C
- Creator shortlist: agency R, brand A
- Negotiation and booking: agency R and A, brand I
- Brief: agency R, brand A
- Contracts: agency R, brand A when the brand is a party
- Claims and product documents: brand R and A, agency C
- Samples and logistics: agency R, brand C for stock
- Draft review: agency R, brand A for final approval
- Payments and tax documents: agency R and A, brand I
- Reporting: agency R, brand A
11. Red flags when choosing an influencer agency in Vietnam
Most bad agency experiences show warning signs during the proposal. Treat the points below as reasons to ask harder questions or to walk away.
- Guaranteed views, followers or sales numbers
- No written contracts with creators, or contracts the agency will not show you
- No tax handling or no documents for creator payments
- Creator lists without audience data or past work
- Reports with screenshots but no live links or raw data
- Pressure to approve content without seeing drafts
- Vague fees with no split between creator costs and agency fee
How to choose an influencer agency in VietnamInfluencer marketing RFP templateHow influencer agencies charge
12. Agency, in-house team or both?
Hire an agency when you need speed, local creator relationships and operations capacity you do not have. Build in-house when creator marketing is a permanent, high-volume channel and you can staff it. Many brands end up with a hybrid: an in-house owner sets strategy and approves, while the agency runs booking, logistics and payments.
Whichever model you choose, keep the creator data in a system you control. A creator CRM such as Roster keeps the roster, booking stages, contracts and performance history in one place, so knowledge stays with the brand if the team or agency changes.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How much does an influencer marketing agency in Vietnam cost?
There is no single price. Agency costs usually combine creator fees, product and logistics, optional paid amplification and the agency's own fee, which may be a management percentage, a fixed project fee or a retainer. Ask for these lines separately so you can compare proposals on the same basis.
What is the difference between booking KOLs and KOCs through an agency?
KOLs are larger creators booked mainly for reach and credibility, usually on a paid basis. KOCs are everyday users with smaller, engaged audiences who produce reviews, often through freecast, paid or affiliate models. A good agency mixes both according to your objective.
Do influencers in Vietnam have to disclose paid content?
Yes. Under Article 15a of the Law on Advertising as amended by Law No. 75/2025/QH15, in force since 1 January 2026, influencers must announce the advertisement immediately before and during it, and Article 23 requires social media users who advertise to mark the content as advertising or sponsored. Build the exact disclosure format into your brief and contract.
Can a foreign brand hire a Vietnamese influencer agency without a local company?
Yes, a foreign brand can contract an agency, and the agency can contract and pay creators locally. Product-related documents still matter: for example, cosmetics need a product notification held by a Vietnamese business before they are advertised. Check what your importer or distributor holds before you plan content.
What should be in an influencer agency report?
Live links for every deliverable, metrics captured at agreed times, cost per creator, sales or code data where available and notes on what worked. Always ask for the raw data table, not only a summary deck.
