“Ambassadors are the most underrated channel in creator marketing,” says Taylor Garaventa , who co-runs the ambassador team at cookware brand Caraway. Many ecommerce teams still treat their brand ambassador program as a side project. That leaves a lot on the table. Turning customers into creators who already use and recommend a product can bring in new buyers, create content a brand can use, and drive sales it can track.
The data shows how much is at stake when choosing the right creator strategy. The best ambassador programs bring in more than six times as much referral revenue as typical ones. GreenStalk Garden and Caraway show two ways to close that gap, and why founders and marketing leads should run ambassadors as a revenue channel instead of a perk.
Key takeaways
- Among DTC brands doing 25M a year, top-quartile ambassador programs drive 5.58% of brand revenue through referrals, against 0.88% at the median.
- At GreenStalk Garden, ambassadors drove 49% of total online revenue in 2025.
- Caraway’s top 40–50 ambassadors drove more than $2.1 million in referred revenue in 2025, and the brand’s monthly ambassador posts rose eightfold.
What separates top brand ambassador programs from the rest
In Roster’s 2026 ambassador marketing benchmarks, the median program at DTC brands with $5 million to $25 million in revenue generated 0.88% of brand revenue through referrals. Top-quartile programs generated 5.58%, a 6.3x gap. The study measured live programs on Roster’s platform from February through July 2026 and included only programs at least 90 days old with 25 or more active members.
The gap holds at the level of individual members too. Each active member at a median program produced $20 in referred revenue per month. At a top-quartile program, each member produced $63. Top programs also generated 38 Instagram posts per 100 active members per month, compared with 10 at the median. Smaller brands do well on this channel: for brands under $5 million, referrals made up 2.5% of revenue at the median and 8.4% in the top quartile.
The lesson for operators is that a long list of ambassadors means little on its own. What separates the top programs is how many members take action and how much of that action turns into referred orders.
GreenStalk: ambassadors as a primary revenue channel
GreenStalk Garden is a family-owned Shopify brand that sells stackable vertical planters. Its program shows how big this channel can get. In 2025, ambassadors drove 49% of the brand’s total online revenue, up from 46% the year before. Referred revenue grew 44%, faster than the 36% growth in the brand’s total online revenue.
The GreenStalk results also counter the idea that ambassadors mostly sell to customers a brand already has:
- Ambassadors accounted for 39% of new-customer orders, and referred new customers grew 45% year over year.
- Referred orders had a 15% higher average order value than non-referred orders.
- 22% of referred revenue came from referred customers buying again.
GreenStalk keeps the recommendations personal, which is what makes them believable. “We don’t script our ambassadors. We want their honest experience, not a performance,” says Autumn Lemon, the brand’s ambassador program manager. A planter is a product people can show in use, so an ambassador’s real harvest persuades better than any polished ad.
Caraway: a content engine that also brings in new customers
Caraway sells its cookware direct to consumers and through retailers including Target and Crate and Barrel. The brand grew tracked ambassador posts from about 250 to about 2,100 a month, an eightfold increase. That gives the team a steady supply of real customer content to test and reuse.
The content also leads to sales. In 2025, Caraway’s VIP group of 40 to 50 ambassadors drove more than $2.1 million in referred revenue and brought in more than 4,300 new customers. About 8% of their referral clicks turned into orders. Caraway’s top ambassador alone drove over $465,000 in referred revenue and nearly 950 new customers. That is how much one dedicated advocate can be worth.
This brand ambassador program example shows why content output and customer acquisition each need their own reporting. A post introduces the product to new people. A referred order shows a direct sale. When teams track both, they can see which ambassadors build awareness, which ones drive revenue, and which small group is driving most of the results.
Five things the best ambassador programs do differently
GreenStalk and Caraway sell very different products, but the top-performing programs in the benchmark data share a handful of habits that any ecommerce team can put into practice:
- Recruit from existing customers first. Past buyers and email subscribers already know the product, and they tend to become active faster than recruits brought in through cold outreach. Start with the customers whose enthusiasm already shows in repeat purchases, reviews or messages, rather than judging people by follower count alone.
- Give new members something to do on day one. An approval email is not an activation plan. Ask for a simple first action, such as showing the product in use or sharing an honest recommendation, and make it clear what to submit. Follow it with ongoing goals so members stay involved.
- Track what every member sells, and pay for results. Give each ambassador a trackable link or code tied to real orders. That way the strongest performers stand out, inactive members don’t inflate the numbers, and rewards follow the revenue each person brings in.
- Put ambassador content to work in ads and email. With permission and the right usage rights, the strongest product demos and customer stories can outperform studio creative. A post that answers a common buying question can be valuable even if it drove few referrals on its own.
- Reward with a mix of product, discounts and commission. Free product gives ambassadors firsthand experience. A discount makes it easier for new buyers to try the product. Commission pays for sales a brand can trace. Matching each reward to the action you ask for works better than giving everyone the same incentive.
Treat ambassadors as a channel, not a perk
A channel needs an owner, a clear purpose and regular measurement. For an ambassador program, that means deciding who recruits and activates members, what participation looks like, how referred sales are measured, and which content gets reused elsewhere. Report revenue, new customers and content output separately, so the program’s full contribution is visible.
The 6.3x benchmark gap shows that having ambassadors and running an effective program are two different things. GreenStalk built a channel that drives nearly half of its online revenue. Caraway built a content engine that also brings in thousands of new customers. For DTC operators, the next step is clear: give your existing creators work they want to do, measure what happens, and treat the results like any other growth channel.