How ZoomInfo Built a Multi-Million Dollar Creator Program with Limelight

Key Results

40+ Active Creators
ZoomInfo expanded their creator ecosystem from an initial pilot into a scaled program.

30% of All Event Registrations
Creator partnerships became a primary acquisition channel driving event growth.

2,100+ Registrations from Creators
Influencer-led promotion generated thousands of qualified signups.

$25M+ Pipeline Generated
Creator-led campaigns translated directly into measurable revenue impact.

Scaling a Creator Army Without the Infrastructure to Support It

ZoomInfo had a clear thesis: B2B influencer marketing was an untapped growth channel that could deliver measurable pipeline. In 2024, they funded their first dedicated influencer program and recruited Justin Levy - a veteran of social and influencer at Citrix, ServiceNow, and Demandbase - to build it from the ground up.

The early results proved the thesis. With a small cohort of 18–20 creators, the program delivered 2,100+ registrations for ZoomInfo’s flagship virtual summit - representing 50% of all event registrations. That performance came from creators alone, while every other marketing function combined (email, webinars, paid, partner events) delivered the remaining 50%.

But as the program grew, so did the operational challenges. ZoomInfo’s internal procurement process required six to eight weeks to onboard a single new vendor - whether a solo creator or a Fortune 500 partner. Accounts payable had recurring issues with timely payments. And because most creators were managed outside of formal contracts, the brand carried significant legal and compliance exposure with no centralized paper trail.

“It takes six to eight weeks to onboard a new vendor with ZoomInfo, whether they’re a one person shop or whether they’re a 10,000 person company. And then there are some extreme issues with AP not paying people on time.”

— Justin Levy, Former Head of Social & Influencer, ZoomInfo

Meanwhile, leadership was demanding more - more creators, more channels, more measurable ROI. The H1 2026 target was set at 50 active creators, with a mandate to diversify beyond LinkedIn into YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Substack, podcasts, and newsletters. Without a centralized platform, scaling from 40 to 50+ creators across seven channels would be operationally impossible.

The core challenges were clear:

• Procurement bottleneck: Six to eight weeks to onboard each creator through internal vendor processes, making it impossible to move at the speed influencer marketing demands.

• No contract infrastructure: Roughly 80% of creators had no formal contract with ZoomInfo — a significant risk exposure that new leadership immediately flagged.

• Attribution gap: Leadership and the board needed full-funnel proof that creator spend translated to pipeline and revenue — not just impressions and engagement.

• Channel diversification: The program needed to expand from primarily LinkedIn into a multi-channel strategy spanning seven platforms — each with different creator profiles and content formats.

Limelight as the Operating System for ZoomInfo’s Creator Program

ZoomInfo adopted Limelight as the centralized platform to manage their entire creator program - from discovery and onboarding through campaign execution, payments, and performance measurement. The decision was driven by a simple calculus: Limelight could collapse weeks of procurement into days, while providing the compliance infrastructure that enterprise requires.

1. Bypassing the Procurement Bottleneck

Rather than routing each creator through ZoomInfo’s six-to-eight-week vendor onboarding process, the team funneled creator payments through Limelight. This was a calculated decision approved by marketing leadership: accept the trade-off of managing creators through a platform partner in exchange for the ability to activate creators within days rather than months.

“I can pay someone in Limelight today and get them up and running next week for that campaign. So that was a calculated decision that Molly approved.”

— Justin Levy, Former Head of Social & Influencer, ZoomInfo

The impact was immediate. New creators could be sourced, briefed, and paid within the same week - a critical advantage when executing time-sensitive campaigns around product launches and live events.

2. Building the Compliance Layer

To address the contract and compliance gap, ZoomInfo leveraged Limelight’s terms and conditions feature - embedding legal requirements directly into the creator workflow. Every campaign proposal now includes T&Cs that creators must accept before receiving payment, creating an auditable paper trail.

This approach was modeled after SurveyMonkey’s implementation, where Limelight’s T&C capability solved similar enterprise compliance requirements. For ZoomInfo, this meant FTC disclosure guidelines, brand safety requirements, and content restrictions could all be enforced programmatically rather than chased manually.

“If they click ‘Accept’, it shows, ‘you agreed to these terms and conditions’. And then on the creator side, it creates a paper trail while you’re waiting for the contracts to be signed.”

— David Walsh, CEO, Limelight

3. Full-Funnel Attribution with Signals

The most transformative piece of the partnership was Limelight’s Signals product. ZoomInfo used Signals to track engagement on creator content and connect it directly to pipeline. Rather than stopping at impressions and clicks, the program could now attribute specific leads and revenue to individual creator posts.

Justin Levy drove the development of this capability in partnership with Limelight, pushing the team to build tracking that went beyond brand awareness into full-funnel performance measurement. The result: Limelight’s Signals became responsible for approximately 85% of the total revenue attributed to ZoomInfo’s creator program.

“We utilized what became the Signals product to help take that and utilize the engagements on those posts and be able to get more life out of that one post. As opposed to just checking a box and maybe they drove leads through the gated page.”

— Justin Levy, Former Head of Social & Influencer, ZoomInfo

4. Scaling Across Seven Channels

As the program matured, ZoomInfo expanded from a LinkedIn-first strategy to a multi-channel approach spanning LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Substack newsletters, podcasts, and Meta. Limelight served as the single source of truth for managing creators across all of these platforms — centralizing briefs, content approvals, tracking, and payments regardless of channel.

The team also diversified their creator portfolio from macro influencers (100k+ followers) down to niche, micro creators with highly targeted audiences — a strategy that proved especially effective for reaching specific buyer personas like SDRs, AEs, and RevOps leaders.

“You can take that same budget and go hire thirty or forty niche creators because they’re at a lower budget and they’re willing to go deeper because they might have a small newsletter, a small podcast that you’re able to become one of the first sponsor of.”

— Justin Levy, Former Head of Social & Influencer, ZoomInfo

A Creator Program That Reports to the Board

The partnership between ZoomInfo and Limelight transformed what started as a small influencer experiment into one of the highest-performing channels in ZoomInfo’s marketing organization. The results were not incremental — they were structural.

“We did that with eighteen to twenty people. All of the other marketing functions delivered the other three thousand. So you’re talking about probably hundreds of thousands of emails, webinars, purchase lists, partner dinners and email blasts. But to prove the impact of influencers, eighteen to twenty people did thirty percent of everything.”

— Justin Levy, Former Head of Social & Influencer, ZoomInfo

How ZoomInfo Runs Their Creator Program Today

ZoomInfo’s creator program has evolved from a single-channel experiment into a structured, multi-channel revenue engine. Here’s how the team operates today:

Creator Strategy

The team maintains a tiered portfolio of creators ranging from macro influencers with 250k+ followers to niche micro-creators with highly targeted audiences of 2–5k. New creators are signed to three-month test engagements before committing to longer partnerships. This gives both sides time to evaluate content quality, audience alignment, and working relationship.

Campaign Execution

All creators receive a structured brief that includes messaging pillars, sample content, do’s and don’ts, tracking URLs, and landing pages. Creators are given a ZoomInfo account with Copilot access so they can speak authentically about the product. Content spans LinkedIn posts, newsletter sponsorships, podcast ad reads and interviews, YouTube videos, and short-form social.

Measurement Framework

The program tracks full-funnel metrics from engagement through to closed revenue. Every creator post is tracked through Limelight’s Signals product, which identifies who engaged with the content, matches them to ZoomInfo’s ICP, and feeds qualified leads into the sales pipeline. The team segments results by market tier (SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise) and measures against a minimum 2–3x pipeline return target.

Compliance & Operations

All campaigns include embedded terms and conditions through Limelight’s proposal workflow, ensuring every creator has agreed to brand requirements before receiving payment. FTC disclosure is mandatory across all content, and the team is working toward pre-approved standardized contracts to further streamline onboarding.

“I got maniacal about the tracking of revenue because I wanted to prove the return against the budget. My goal was always and continues to be to provide a two to three X minimum return on pipeline.”

— Justin Levy, Former Head of Social & Influencer, ZoomInfo

From Experiment to Growth Engine

ZoomInfo’s creator program represents one of the most mature B2B influencer operations in the market today. What started as an eighteen-person LinkedIn experiment has evolved into a multi-channel, full-funnel revenue engine that commands board-level attention.

Going into H1 2026, the team is focused on reaching 50 active creators while expanding into new content formats and channels. The program has set an ambitious revenue target, backed by leadership’s confidence in the data and infrastructure that Limelight provides.

For ZoomInfo, creator marketing is no longer a line item in someone’s job description. It’s a standalone function with dedicated budget, dedicated team, and a clear mandate: prove that eighteen to twenty people can outperform entire marketing departments.

They already have.