How to Bulk Invite Influencers with a CSV Upload

Samantha Brown Updated by Samantha Brown

You can now invite up to 10,000 influencers to a campaign at once by uploading a CSV of names and email addresses. Instead of filling out the invite form one person at a time, you upload a file, review a summary of who will and won't be invited, and approve it. Friendbuy then sends each person the same invitation email they would get from a single invite.

Key features:

  • One campaign per upload. Each CSV is tied to a single influencer campaign. The same influencer can be invited to more than one campaign.
  • Review before anything is sent. A validation summary shows every row that will be invited, skipped, or can't be processed, and why. Nothing happens until you approve.
  • Same invitation email. Bulk invitations use your existing Influencer Invitation email, so recipients see exactly what they would from a single invite.
  • Safe to re-upload. People who already joined the campaign are skipped automatically, and people with a pending invite get a fresh invitation instead of a duplicate.

Before You Begin

Make sure you have the following in place:

  • An influencer campaign. You'll choose which campaign the upload is for. See Managing Influencer Campaigns & Commission Tiers.
  • An active Influencer Invitation email. You can't approve a bulk invite until one is set up and active in the Emails section of your account. This prevents invitations from being created without an email going out.

  • Format your CSV

Your file needs one row per influencer and a header row. Only the email column is required.

Column

Required

Accepted header names

Limit

Email

Yes

email, Email Address

254 characters, one address per cell

First name

No

firstName, First Name

100 characters

Last name

No

lastName, Last Name

100 characters

Example:

Email,First Name,Last Name
jane@example.com,Jane,Doe
john@example.com,John,

File requirements:

  • Save as CSV UTF-8. In Excel, choose File > Save As > CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited). Other encodings (like Windows-1252) are rejected.
  • Up to 10,000 rows per file, not counting the header.
  • Header names aren't case-sensitive, and columns can be in any order. Unknown columns are ignored.
  • Names containing commas should be wrapped in quotes, e.g. "Doe, Jane".

How to Bulk Invite Influencers

  1. Navigate to Influencers > Campaigns and locate the campaign you want to invite people to.

  1. Click Invite Influencer within the actions menu next to the campaign you wish to invite influencers to.
  2. Toggle to Upload a CSV, select your CSV to upload, and click Upload.
  3. Review the validation summary. Each row is sorted into one of three groups:
    • Will be invited — new invitations, plus fresh invitations for anyone whose earlier invite is still pending.
    • Will be skipped — people already active in this campaign, or whose enrollment was disabled.
    • Can't be invited — rows with a problem, such as a missing or invalid email.
  4. Confirm that everyone on the list has agreed to be contacted, then click Send invitations. Invitations start going out right away.
  5. Track progress on the import screen. When it finishes, you'll get an email with a link to the results.

Note: An upload expires if it isn't approved within 72 hours. The file is deleted and no invitations are sent. The file can be uploaded again.

Why a row can't be invited

Reason

What it means

How to fix it

Email missing

The email cell is blank

Add an email address

Email invalid

The address isn't in a valid format (for example, no @)

Correct the address

Multiple emails

The cell has more than one address

Put each person on their own row

Email too long

Longer than 254 characters

Correct the address

Name too long

First or last name is over 100 characters

Shorten the name

Duplicate in file

The same email appears earlier in the file (matching ignores capitalization)

Remove the extra row; the first one is kept

Column count mismatch

The row has more values than the header

Check for stray commas or unquoted names

If the whole file is rejected, check that it has an email column, isn't empty, is saved as CSV UTF-8, doesn't repeat a column name, and has 10,000 rows or fewer.

How to cancel an import

You can cancel a running import from the import screen. Invitations already sent stay in place, and the screen shows how many went out before you canceled. Bulk invitations can't be undone as a group once approved.

FAQ

What happens if someone on my list is already an influencer in another campaign? They're invited to this campaign as well. Their existing profile and other campaign memberships aren't affected.

What if someone already has a pending invite to this campaign? They get one fresh invitation email with a new link. No duplicate is created.

Will my CSV overwrite an influencer's existing name? No. If an influencer already has a name on file, Friendbuy keeps it.

Can I run two uploads for the same campaign at once? No. Wait for the current import to finish, or cancel it, before starting another for that campaign. You can run imports for different campaigns at the same time.

Why are some invitation emails arriving later than others? Large imports are sent gradually. If you reach your account's daily email limit, the remaining emails are queued and sent the next day. Every invitation is still created right away.

Why does a row show the email as suppressed? That address has previously bounced or opted out, so no email was sent. The invitation still exists.

Some rows failed during the import. What do I do? Failed rows are listed in the results. You can retry them from the results screen.

Can I download the results? Results are shown in the app, and the completion email links to them. The error report from the validation step can be downloaded.

How did we do?

Managing Influencer Campaigns & Commission Tiers

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