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Thirty-six percent agreed that long-term brand ambassadorships with influencers and creators were their most effective type of collaboration, far ahead of sponsored posts (22%), event collaborators and live appearances (22%), and product reviews (20%). Given the time and effort it can take brands to identify influencers who fit with their brand and then collaborate with them, it’s understandable that they’d want to make the most of their investment with a long-term partnership rather than one-off posts.
In fact, 40% of marketers cite brand fit as their top priority when choosing creators and influencers to work with. Nearly a quarter (24%) prioritize content quality. And good news for creators with relatively modest followings: Only 17% make audience size their top priority when selecting partners.
In keeping with their emphasis on brand fit and content quality, 51% of marketers said that maintaining creative control is very important, to the point that they provide detailed guidelines to the creators they work with. Another 42% consider creative control somewhat important, giving influencers looser content guidelines. Influencers like to have less rigid guidelines so keep that in mind developing your content requirements.
Marketers’ desire to retain at least some degree of creative control is not surprising when you consider how important their influencer programs are to their companies’ success: 61% deemed influencers “very significant” and 37% “significant.” They ascribe only slightly less significance to their affiliate programs, as 59% said they’re “very significant” and 33% “significant.” One reason affiliate and influencer programs are similarly important in the minds of the marketers could be that 66% of those surveyed work at brands where the affiliate and influencer marketing teams are combined.
The vast majority of the marketers surveyed—86%—use external teams to help with strategizing and/or implementing their influencer and affiliate marketing efforts. Yet only 24% prefer to use their agencies to communicate their expectations to influencers and creators, perhaps a reflection of their emphasis on maintaining creative control. One quarter of marketers prefer to email directly with creators, while 27% favor direct messages on social media.
As for how they measure the effectiveness of their influencer marketing programs, sales were the number-one metric, used by 59% of the marketers surveyed. Engagement metrics—likes, comments, shares—were nearly as important, with 57% using them. Website traffic, influencer feedback, and brand awareness and reach rounded out the top five most important metrics.
Because marketers view sales figures as the most important measurement of a program’s success, it’s no surprise that they favor a compensation model tied directly to sales. Slightly more than half (53%) of respondents prefer to pay creators on a commission basis, and 47% also favor performance-based bonuses. In contrast, only 42% like to pay a flat fee per post, and just 32% prefer a long-term contract with retainer.
This preference for a commission-based payment model that is tied to sales results makes affiliate marketing for ecommerce creators really important. If you're an influencer with a large following but not much experience with the affiliate channel that's ok. You just need to be willing to try a performance-based model and that alone can help you stand out from other influencers that require an upfront payment. App links easily deliver the affiliate affiliate tracking capabilities helping you to maximize sales and earn performance-based bonuses. URLgenius has been proven to boost conversion rates: 89% of the influencers who participated in the URLgenius & impact.com Commerce Creator Lightning Survey enjoyed higher Prime Day conversion rates after implementing a deep-linking app, with nearly half (49%) enjoying an impressive increase of more than 25%. What’s more, a survey we conducted earlier this year found that 78% of influencers saw their average order value rise after implementing URLgenius. An increase sales will also lead to an followers!
No matter what sort of compensation model or success metrics you use, URLgenius can increase your income with no extra effort on your part. That's because we specialize in app-to-app linking (no website required!). Learn more and start growing your income today. Contact us for a demo!