Many marketers recognize the impact that influencer programs have in amplifying a brand's reach, increasing brand awareness, and generating sales. When it comes to paying out those influencers, there are many options—each with different benefits.
With impact.com, you can pay out influencers based on any number of your custom parameters and your choice of special terms. You may even decide to incorporate multiple payout types and incentives within your program depending on your goals.
This guide walks through three common types of payout structures along with some tips on incentives that can help you optimize your influencer partnerships for success. Most of the terms outlined below can be set up in Contracts → Template Terms.
Read more about the most common types of payouts and incentives below to decide which options could work best for your brand below.
One of the most utilized terms for influencer partners is a fixed payout on each action. This means that you would offer your influencers a fixed dollar amount to be paid out per action. An action can refer to a variety of leading actions that help you meet your goals. An action could be a sale, a newsletter subscription, an app install, or a signup for a free trial.
Example: If you set up a fixed payout of $5 per sale and an influencer makes 5 sales, you would pay that influencer a total of $25 for those 5 sales (no matter the value of each sale).
Fixed payouts simplify things for you and your partners because you know exactly how much you'll pay influencers for each action. For example, if an influencer earns $5 per sale, you'll pay $5 regardless of the order value, making it easier to plan and calculate the sales needed to meet your revenue goals.
Set a fixed payout that attracts influencers and matches their audience size. A celebrity may require higher amount, while a micro-influencers may accept a lower offer. Customize terms for different influencer segments based on their audience and engagement.
To learn more, see the help article Create Template Terms.
Instead of a fixed payout per sale, consider offering influencers a commission-based payout, especially if your products have varying prices or you have a limited budget. This aligns the payout with the value of each order, benefiting both you and your partner.
Example: An influencer makes a $200 sale, so you give them 10% (or $20) of that order's value as a commission for making the sale.
For brands, a commission-based payout structure is appealing due to its low risk. However, influencers face higher risk as they invest time creating and scheduling posts without guaranteed payment, often leading them to request free products or services alongside commission. We’ll discuss free products in more detail below.
To learn more, see the help article Create Template Terms.
Sponsored Posts are highly regarded, as well as highly requested, in the Influencer arena. In these cases, you would negotiate a fixed fee with each influencer directly in exchange for a specific promotion, much like a paid placement on a website, or a set of deliverables, such as photography assets.
Example: You negotiate with an influencer who agrees to post an Instagram Story featuring custom images of your brand's products for $500 in advance. In this scenario, the best method of payout would be issuing the partner a bonus using a Partner Funds Transfer in the Finance section of your impact.com account.
Sponsored posts are a great way to get the ball rolling on a new influencer partnership by showing influencers that you are willing to invest in them when they put in the time and effort needed to promote your brand to their audience.
Popular influencers will usually have media kits or rate cards available, and are willing to negotiate their rates or create custom promo bundles that include email blasts and multi-platform posts.
To learn more, see the help article Transfer Funds to a Partner.
Incentives are a big part of influencer partnerships and can be competitive between brands, especially depending on the vertical. Below are some of the popular forms of incentives used in influencer programs today.
Free Product is key. An influencer's audience values their opinion; without a service to test or a product to photograph, the influencer's promotions could lose authenticity and fall short of expectations.
If you sell a product or service that you want an influencer to promote, expect to give them free product or free usage of your service, in addition to the payout terms set.
You might also see requests for free products to be gifted in audience giveaways or as prizes in contests. Giveaways and contests are great to increase the social hype around your brand using audience participation, in addition to being a low-cost way to please your influencers.
Nano- and micro-influencers frequently participate in “seeding programs” where you can send them free product in exchange for sharing a review, photo, or post on social media. You can easily set up a seeding program using impact.com's Activate platform, which has an extensive network of influencers who will apply to participate.
Placement fees are great incentives to activate your influencer partners. In impact.com, Placement Fees refers to pre-set payouts you can create using Template Terms. You can easily create placement fees alongside any of the terms outlined above in your Template Terms section.
A placement fee incentive could include a payout for accepting the offered terms, an additional payout on the first event, or even a monthly payout if they are regular promoters.
Placement fees are applied at the end of each month and paid with commissions for other event types on the same contract. If multiple event types are present, placement fees will be paid according to the latest schedule.
Example: A contract with Roadrunner's Rockets might include an Online Sale/CPA event type with a 5-day action locking period and a 10-day payout period. Placement fees will lock 5 days after the month ends and pay out 10 days after locking.
Placement fees are great to boost a new partnership and activate an influencer that has just joined your program, or show appreciation for a partner that regularly promotes your brand.
To learn more, see the help article Create Template Terms.
Vanity promo codes offer multiple benefits. Influencers can provide exclusive discounts to boost conversions, while brands can test which influencers drive sales with minimal risk. This is an effective way to identify top performers before transitioning them to commission-based agreements.
Vanity promo codes are a great low-cost incentive to offer your influencer partners, and can even give your brand a slight competitive advantage over brands that do not offer vanity codes.
Influencers prefer promo codes with their social handles or brand-related wording, as they are easier for their audience to remember and reduce errors. Plus, these codes look better and align with the influencer's aesthetics.
To learn more, see the Guide to Setting Up Promo Codes.
