5 Insights You Need to Know About Influencer Partnerships in 2024

Experts from Right Side Up and Superfiliate explore the evolution of affiliate marketing and share influencer partnership insights to drive sustainable growth. Watch the Right Side Up webinar for the complete conversation.

Influencer partnerships are a must for any brand seeking to connect and engage with a target audience, and for good reason: 49% of consumers make purchases based on what influencers say.

But why does it work so effectively? Partnering with influencers helps build trust with a brand—and quickly. Consumers interact with their peers and others with shared interests online, meaning brands can leverage influencers to tap into highly engaged, loyal communities without the ‘sales-y’ feeling that a traditional advertisement often evokes. Instead, brands rely on an influencer or affiliate to advertise for them, and the target audience feels motivated to try out the product or service promoted.

It’s about far more than product placement, though. Influencer partnerships foster conversations, ultimately increasing brand awareness, engagement, and conversions.

Brands in any industry—whether business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B)—invest heavily in influencer and affiliate marketing even as budgets remain tightened in 2024 because influencer partnerships provide an efficient return on investment (ROI).

Influencer Marketing Hub estimates that brands earn, on average, $5.78 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing—an incredible 478% return. Other channels might achieve a similar (or even better) ROI, but influencer partnerships supersede them with an unrivaled ability to build the genuine, tight-knit relationships every business strives for.

Let’s explore the state of influencer partnerships and what you need to do to fill gaps and drive sustainable growth.

The State of Influencer Partnerships in 2024: What the Experts Say

To gather insights on influencer partnerships, we’ve brought in experts from Right Side Up and Superfiliate, a platform that empowers brands to scale end-to-end influencer, affiliate, and referral programs.

• Amy Scanlon | GM, Affiliate Practice, Right Side Up
• Andy Cloyd | Co-Founder & CEO, Superfiliate
• Anders Bill | Co-Founder & CPO, Superfiliate

Influencer partnerships involve collaborating with individuals or other brands with an online community aligning with your target audience. Influencers and affiliates create content—typically lifestyle images and videos—to promote a brand’s products or services in an engaging, authentic format.

By leveraging the partner’s credibility and connection with their audience, brands reach potential customers more personally and effectively than traditional advertising.

However, for brands without an existing foundation of influencers and affiliates, getting started might be intimidating. “Before doing anything, I would understand creator-product fit. Consider the right creators that fit your product,” says Bill.

“I call it ‘endorsement marketing’ because affiliates can be influencers, and influencers can be affiliates. In the B2B world, resellers and affiliates can be the same. So I’ve labeled it ‘endorsement marketing’ with the guidance to understand your swim lanes, be the lifeguard, and point people to partners in the right swim lane at the right time,” says Scanlon.

Growth marketers understand the value of endorsement marketing and know they need to leverage influencer partnerships to drive sustainable growth. So it comes down to execution, and our experts have insights for navigating influencer partnerships in 2024.

Here’s what you need to know about influencer partnerships right now, according to experts from Right Side Up and Superfiliate.

The role of influencer partnerships in a partner mix

Influencer partnerships drive significant value beyond brand awareness, working throughout the marketing funnel and allowing brands to use influencers for several objectives.

• Brand Awareness & Engagement: Influencers and affiliates can introduce your brand to new audiences, which increases visibility and recognition.
• Credibility & Trust: In the early stages, influencer partnerships establish credibility and trust among a target audience.
• Maintain Relevance: For mature brands, influencers and affiliates help keep the brand relevant while engaging with new audience segments.
• Drive Conversions & Sales: As you move prospects to the bottom of the funnel, influencer partnerships drive conversions and boost sales through their recommendations.

Integrating influencers and affiliates with other channels—such as paid media and content marketing—creates an impactful marketing strategy that accelerates growth.

In addition, influencer partnerships offer the unique advantage of driving organic growth through user-generated content (UGC) and word-of-mouth marketing. Content created by consumers and actual users can be more powerful than content produced by marketers and released through the brand. It extends brand visibility and builds deeper connections with the audience. As a result, consumers are far more likely to trust what they see and become customers.

Best practices for working with creators

Working effectively with creators requires a strategic approach emphasizing collaboration and authenticity.

To start, brands need the right creators. It’s about finding creators who fit with a product or service, and who the audience identifies with. Failing to find the right fit will quickly erode trust, and you won’t reap the benefits of the engagement you seek.

Once you’ve identified influencers, determine the compensation structure. The most common methods include performance-based, commission-based, or tiered payments. Brands can also compensate creators with free products or direct, one-time payments made upfront.

Scanlon says, “It’s a relationship game. You need to understand the motivation behind the relationship, and many people want monetary compensation while others just love getting new products.”

Bill adds that working with creators is a numbers game regarding compensation. “A creator or their agent might come to you with a cost of $5,000 for an Instagram story, even though that influencer would be willing to book at $1,500. So there’s some inflation to be aware of, and you need to be prepared to negotiate,” he advises.

Keep expectations clear, too. Brands should provide detailed briefs that outline campaign objectives, messaging frameworks, and creative guidelines while allowing influencers and affiliates the creative freedom to interpret and deliver authentic content. Asking a creator to change their style will backfire for both parties.

Just as much as you want to grow relationships with potential customers, you want to grow relationships with creators. “You can’t plan to run a one-month influencer marketing test for your brand. I can almost assure you that will fall, short of the randomness of the platforms making you go viral,” Cloyd says. He goes on to say, “You have to get that commitment for some extended period to give yourself a chance to succeed.”

Long-term influencer partnerships build stronger connections as influencers and affiliates become more familiar with the brand and advocate more effectively.

Manage influencer and affiliate spend

Strategy and continuous optimization are required to manage influencer and affiliate spend. Set clear budgets and key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with overall marketing goals, and establish a comprehensive budget that accounts for fees, product or service seeding, and any expenses related to campaign execution and measurement.

To achieve a good return on investment (ROI), you must carefully track and measure the performance of influencer campaigns. Use tools and platforms that offer detailed analytics to monitor engagement rates, conversion metrics, and overall campaign impact. This data-driven approach will help you quickly identify the most effective influencers and strategies and weed out what’s not working.

Consider a mix of the compensation models we discussed earlier, including fixed fees, performance-based incentives, and commission structures. Performance-based models often best align the interests of brands and influencers, as they incentivize influencers to deliver high-quality, impactful content.

So, be sure to review and adjust compensation based on performance trends.

Build strong relationships with partners

Regular interactions and check-ins with influencers help maintain a strong rapport. You don’t want your influencer to feel just like a number, nor do you want that for your organization. Consumers will take notice. So, take steps to keep both parties aligned on goals and expectations.

Here are some easy ways to make that happen:

• Early Access to New Products: Give influencers an early look at your new products before they are released publicly.
• Exclusive Information: Share behind-the-scenes details and insider information about your brand and products.
• Opportunities for Contribution: Remember that when you pick the right influencer, they’re also a potential customer. So, involve influencers in product development by seeking their input and feedback.
• Recognition & Appreciation: Don’t adopt a set-it-and-forget-it approach. Make it a true partnership where your brand acknowledges influencers' contributions through social media shoutouts and features on your brand's channels. This is a win-win decision that grows positive awareness for both parties.
• Special Projects & Collaborations: Offer influencers the chance to work on exclusive projects and collaborations that showcase their creativity and connection to your brand.

Influencers who feel valued and respected are likelier to be committed to your brand and produce authentic, high-quality content.

Leverage technology to scale partnership programs

Influencer partnerships shouldn’t require an all-manual effort. As with most things today, technology should be a foundational component of your strategy.

Advanced tools and platforms automate many aspects of creator management, from identifying the best influencers and affiliates to tracking campaign performance and managing payments.

Brands then have an easier time finding and vetting influencers. Instead of going on a hunt and scrolling through social media platforms to find the best influencers, software like Superfiliate helps you find the right ones. There are also countless tools offering powerful analytics that give insights into campaign performance.

Why take on more work than you need to? Automation can handle repetitive tasks, such as sending out briefs, managing contracts, and processing payments, freeing up time for marketers to focus on other more strategic work that is always vying for attention.

Leveraging customer relationship management (CRM) systems to maintain detailed records of interactions with influencers can help brands manage relationships so no opportunities are missed.

Leverage the Power of Influencer Partnerships for Measurable Growth

Return to the statistic shared earlier: 49% of consumers make purchases based on what influencers say. So if your organization hasn’t yet added influencer partnerships to its marketing strategy, you’re missing out on significant revenue.

By understanding and implementing the insights shared by our experts, you’ll position your brand to maximize the impact of campaigns.

‍Watch Right Side Up’s webinar with Superfiliate—The State of Influencer Partnerships in 2024—to explore how growth marketers leverage new frameworks and technology to build sustainable programs.