Influenster: A product testing app that gives freebies for reviews

Money Talk is intended to inform and educate; it's not financial advice. Affiliate links, including from Amazon, are used to help fund the site. If you make a purchase via a link marked with an *, Money Talk might receive a commission at no cost to you. Find out more here.

Everyone loves a freebie, but getting something decent isn’t always easy.

You can try your luck on freebie websites, but you’ll mostly end up with samples or cheap tat.

Product testing gigs can land you a pretty decent haul, but you might also be stuck filling in endless surveys and questionnaires with nothing to show for it.

And then there are the competitions, both online and offline, where the odds are rarely in your favour.

But what if there’s an app that combines elements of all three, but requires minimum effort on your part? 

For that, I give you Influenster.

What is Influenster?

Influenster* is a product discovery and reviews platform where members get free products in exchange for their honest feedback and social engagement. 

It was founded in the US back in 2010, and now has millions of users worldwide.

What makes it different is that it’s not just for influencers with massive followings, or people with a product testing background.

Literally anyone over 18 can join, and get freebies with minimal effort.

How does Influenster work?

Influenster is pretty straightforward to use.

Obviously you’ll need to sign up* first, and you can do this via their app. It’s completely free, and fairly quick and painless, but you do need to be over 18.

After that, you’ll need to go through a few more steps before you start getting freebies regularly.

Step one: Tell Influenster about yourself

Once you’ve registered for an account, you’ll need to populate your profile so marketeers can get a feel for what you might like, and what products would be a good fit. 

They will ask all sorts of things, from your hair and skin type to whether you have a garden or pet, or if you enjoy playing games or getting outdoors.

You can share as little or as much as you want with Influenster, and everything is done through checkboxes and shouldn’t take more than half an hour.

You also have the option to link your social media profiles. 

Again, this isn’t essential, but it can help improve your chances of snagging a freebie (more below).

Step two: Wait… And wait… And wait

After you’ve completed your profile, it becomes a waiting game (more below).

Influenster uses your profile to match you with marketing campaigns, so think of registering and filling in your profile as entering a competition.

The more detailed your profile, the more entries you’ll get – but you’ll only get picked for a campaign if you fit the right demographic requirements, and this is true for any product testing gig.

Step three: Get your products

If you do get matched to a campaign, you’ll get a “Free product alert!” email and a notification on the app.

Sometimes you have to fill in a short survey first, but often you can just log straight onto the app and claim your freebie.

You’ll need to be quick as there are often a limited number of freebies.

You can also opt out of the campaign if it isn’t one for you.

After you claim a product, there might be another long wait as it can sometimes take weeks or months for the item to be shipped.

Sometimes they might be unexpectedly out of stock, and your campaign might be cancelled as a result.

Step four: Test the product and review

Once you receive your freebie, you’ll have a month or two to test your product – Influenster will tell you exactly how long you have – before writing a short review on the app.

Influenster’s minimum word count for reviews is only 120 characters, which is about 20 to 30 words, so this is really easy compared to other product testing gigs.

Some campaigns will require you to post a review elsewhere, like on Tesco or Superdrug, or post on social media, but that’s all set out when you claim the campaign.

Generally you can use the same review you wrote for Influenster elsewhere, which saves you even more time.

If you complete all the tasks required as part of the campaign on time, you’ll improve your chances of getting picked for future campaigns.

And that’s all there is to Influenster.

What kind of freebies can you get on Influenster? 

The campaigns offered through Influenster are really wide-ranging.

Beauty products and make-up are the ones that seem to crop up the most, but you can also get food and drink, gadgets and electronics, and even household appliances and furniture.

I have been offered some variation of all of them, but not all of them were freebies.

That’s because Influenster runs a few different types of campaigns.

There are the straightforward freebie ones of course, where the product is shipped straight to your home.

Some are voucher-based, which means you have to go to a physical shop to buy your item but the voucher gives you 100% off.

There are also deals where you might get a discount on a big ticket item like a TV or fridge, but you still have to pay for part of the item yourself.

Is Influenster legit or a scam?

Wait, I hear you say, you have to pay for things? Surely it must be a scam?

No. Influenster is 100% legit, and you can get new and existing products to try from well-known brands like Max Factor or Philips without having to pay a penny.

You can simply decline the deals campaigns if you don’t want to buy stuff – I did this lots of times for things I didn’t need.

Don’t worry, declining campaigns doesn’t affect the likelihood of you getting picked for other campaigns in future.

The downside of Influenster

Influenster is certainly not without its flaws. Before you sign up, here are a few things to bear in mind.

There’s a long wait for freebies

Like any other product testing gig, getting a campaign depends on whether marketeers think you’re the right fit.

It means you could be waiting for a while before your first campaign (more below).

I asked in several forums how long people had to wait before they got their first campaign, and the answers varied enormously between a few weeks to a few months.

That rang true for me too.

I joined Influenster in June 2024 with a view to write about it for Money Talk, but I wasn’t matched with a campaign until September of that year. 

That said, a couple of people claimed they had been on the app for years and have yet to receive anything.

There might be all sorts of reasons why this happens, and I’ll cover how you can improve your chances of getting matched further down.

The freebies come once in a blue moon

Even if you’ve got a couple of campaigns under your belt, you might still go through fallow periods where you’re not offered anything at all.

I also asked people how often they were getting freebies and most people were getting claims either a couple of times a month (31%) or once every few months (40%).

After I completed my first campaign, I started getting three or four matched campaigns a month and once even three in one day.

Not all of these were freebies though – some were the deals campaigns I mentioned earlier.

You have to work for your freebie

There’s no such thing as a free lunch and in the case of Influenster, you have to complete certain tasks once you receive your freebie.

Influenster runs a couple of different types of campaigns, and all of these will involve a review of some variety.

Often the review will be for Influenster as well as another website, such as Tesco or Superdrug.

You could also be matched with a social media campaign where you have to do a social post on Instagram, TikTok or Facebook

This takes a bit more time, especially if a video rather than a simple photo is required.

Some brands will also ask you to do a short survey at the end of the testing period.

All of these tasks have deadlines – missing a deadline could prevent you from being picked for future campaigns.

The freebie might be a sample

While most of the freebies offered on Influenster are full sized ones, you can end up with samples.

This is often the case with things like perfumes, which can make the tasks feel like they’re not worth the time.

You can opt out of receiving samples though.

You might also be receiving an early version of a new product that might not be quite market-ready but in a way that’s what makes product testing exciting – you get to shape what products come to market.

How to improve your chances of getting freebies

When I first joined Influenster, I spent weeks scouring forums and websites to see how I could improve my chances of getting picked for a campaign.

The advice ranged from posting regular reviews to inviting lots of people to join – and of course linking your social media profiles.

I followed them all, and wasn’t picked for anything for months.

When I was finally offered my first campaign, I had actually forgotten about Influenster, and had stopped interacting with the app.

So what I would say is this: you don’t need to let the app take over your life.

When you first join, it’s important to complete your profile and to link your social media profiles to maximise your chances of getting freebies.

After that, it’s just a case of waiting for the demographic genie to match you to a campaign.

Writing reviews on the app before your first campaign can help marketeers figure out what you like, but you don’t need to do hundreds – I did about 20 before my first campaign.

Once you get one campaign under your belt, and you complete all the tasks on time, you’ll be much more likely to be picked for future campaigns.

It helps if your reviews have decent photos and are detailed enough to be useful, but they don’t need to be essays or be positive about the brand if you don’t like the product.

What about Influenster Pro?

In 2024, Influenster launched its Influenster Pro programme, which those with bigger social media followings can apply for. 

To be eligible, you need to have a public Instagram profile that’s linked to a Facebook page, and the category has to be a business or creator one, rather than a personal one.

You also need a large and engaged audience, and post regular, high quality content.

I am absolutely terrible at social media (although you can find me @qinxiesays everywhere) and post rarely, so I wasn’t eligible for the programme when it launched.

Since then, I’ve been invited to join Influenster Pro and have been accepted.

Why apply for Influenster Pro?

The main benefit of Influenster Pro is that it allows brands to contact you about paid campaigns, which hasn’t happened for me yet because as I said, I don’t use social media a lot.

It’s also meant to give you early access to campaigns, and more social campaigns.

With a bit of sleuthing, I figured out that I get slightly earlier access on some campaigns, with better product availability, so I don’t miss campaigns even if I don’t see the alert straightaway.

Before becoming Pro, I’ve missed campaigns because I didn’t log onto the app quickly enough.

That said, I’ve also been offered campaigns days after it’s been offered to non-Influenster Pro members, so I don’t think having Influenster Pro necessarily means more or better campaigns.

Is Influenster worth it?

If you love freebies, Influenster is absolutely worth it.

Getting products to review from the site has required little effort on my part, and my haul has been pretty decent.

What I really like about Influenster though is the opportunity to try new products, and that’s one of the reasons why the platform exists.

Pin this for later