Overlap, not size
The question is not how many people will see it. It is how many of the people who see it were plausible customers before they saw anything.
A partner with a fraction of the reach and a precise audience will usually deliver more, because the message arrives to people for whom it is relevant.
Look for evidence of action
Engagement is easy to fake and easy to misread. Evidence of action is harder to fake: past collaborations that ran more than once, an audience that asks practical questions, comments that read like people rather than like padding.
A repeat partnership is the strongest signal available. Nobody renews something that did not work.
- Have they run this kind of thing more than once?
- Do comments ask practical questions?
- Is the audience where you can actually sell?
- Would you take their recommendation yourself?
Agree what each side gets, in writing
Most partnerships fail quietly because neither side stated what success meant. One expected sales, the other expected exposure, and both delivered what they promised.
Write down what each side gives, what each side gets, and how you will both know it worked. That conversation is short before and impossible after.
Start small enough to be wrong
A first collaboration should be small enough that being wrong costs little and clear enough that the result is readable.
The purpose of the first run is not revenue, it is finding out whether a second run is worth having.