Free product for a chance at coverage, or guaranteed deliverables — each has its place.

Seeding — sending free product in exchange for a chance at organic coverage, no guarantee — is cheap and scalable, but unpredictable. It works well for building broad awareness, testing which product angles resonate, and finding creators worth a paid relationship later.

Paid partnerships guarantee deliverables: a specific number of posts, usage rights, and timelines. They cost more per creator but remove the guesswork, which matters when you need content for a launch date or a specific ad campaign.

A practical approach: use seeding as a low-cost discovery layer to find creators who genuinely like the product, then move the best performers into paid relationships once you've seen what they can do.