You hired a web-developer to build your site, a photographer to capture your product photography, a copy-writer to write your product descriptions. These people trade their skill for compensation. You trade your skill of managing a brand to being compensated from your employer. Creators also like to be compensated for their work. Even Google Ads charges you to have that number one spot on page one for “Best Travel Website”. Setting up a creator compensation framework is paramount to success.
So when you tell a creator “we have no budget” you are only setting yourself up for backlash with creators. Most creators have spent endless hours to hone their skills and create a two-way conversation between their audience and their brand.
When you are asking an influencer to work for free, you are asking to have that #1 spot on their platform without any payment or consideration for their time. Google ads has automated this process, but influencers aren’t a digital platform. When free product doesn’t appeal to every creator, this is why you need to have a creator compensation structure in place.
How much to pay influencers then? Well, it depends.
There is no one-size fits all correct answer on creator compensation. Just as in the corporate world, there are plenty of nuances between salaried employees and corporations which makes job pricing an art that individuals devote their career to.
Your compensation structure should align with your philosophy and principles on why and how much you compensate your creators. It should be relevant to your niche, your total revenue size and your total marketing budget.
Instead of saying we have no budget, you could instead ask yourself “why is my company not assigning a budget to working with creators?” and what you can do to change that.
If your company has never experimented with influencer sponsorships and need a place to start, our firm specializes in mapping out a budget for your marketing year with competitive influencer sponsored post pay data relevant to your niche.
If your firm has “never had success driving ROI” from an influencer campaign, perhaps you are targeting the wrong influencers and you need help re-prioritizing your goals. Maybe you need help setting up a system to capture value and report on influencer campaigns.
Our firm can help you find a solution and a process that works for you and your budget so that you can pinpoint your high performing influencer targets.
When you hire a creator, you aren’t buying digital ad space. You are buying trust. You are buying someone’s time to create content. You are hiring talent.
Isn’t that worth something when done right?
