Should I look at a creator past brand partnerships when shortlisting?

Yes, the past partnerships of a creator are one of the most revealing things to check at the shortlist stage, since they show how the creator actually works rather than how they describe themselves.

Look at whether they have promoted your rivals, how past sponsored campaigns performed and whether their sponsorships fit a coherent identity or scatter across unrelated categories.

The caution is fairness, since one mismatched past deal is not a red flag but a pattern is and how a creator handled brand work before is the best preview of working with you.

Yes and a creator record of brand partnerships is some of the most useful evidence available at the shortlist stage, because it shows how the creator behaves with brands in practice rather than how they pitch themselves. Three things in that history are worth reading. First, who they have worked with, specifically whether they have promoted direct competitors or routinely promote everyone in your category, because that raises real questions about conflict, exclusivity and whether their audience would see your endorsement as just another paid placement. Second, how those past sponsored campaigns performed where the engagement is visible, since a creator sponsored posts pulling strong genuine response is a good predictor that yours will too, while sponsored content that consistently underperforms their organic posts is a warning the audience tunes out their ads.

Third, the coherence of their sponsorship history: whether their brand work fits a recognisable identity and niche or scatters randomly across unrelated categories chasing any deal. A creator whose partnerships all make sense for who they are has an audience that trusts their recommendations, while one who promotes a supplement one week, a finance app the next and a fast-fashion brand after that has trained their audience to treat every sponsorship as noise, which weakens whatever you pay for. The important caution is fairness and proportion: a single past partnership that looks slightly off is not a red flag, because creators take individual deals for all sorts of reasons, so what you are reading for is a pattern, not an isolated case and you weigh the history as one input alongside audience authenticity and fit rather than as a sole verdict. So yes, you should consider past partnerships during shortlisting, reading for competitive conflict, sponsored performance and coherence, since how a creator has handled brand work before is the clearest preview of how they will handle yours.

Reviewing a creator brand-work history alongside audience and engagement checks is part of how influencer discovery supports vetting, so the partnership pattern informs your shortlist rather than surfacing as a surprise later. Past brand behaviour is one of the better predictors of fit and reliability. Read the partnership history for conflicts and coherence as you shortlist and you back creators whose track record fits how you want to work.