The Best Remuneration Model for Your Influencer Marketing Agency
Influencer marketing has been a hot topic in the boom of social media over the last few years. More and more of our projects include this type of work. Continuing with our Flock series on Influencer Marketing, previously we covered tips to consider when Choosing the Right Influencer Marketing Agency. Next in the series, we explored the scale and services you should be aware of when assessing a potential agency to ensure to Make Nose and Win with Your Influencer Marketing Agency. If you’ve not yet had a chance, have a read through those articles first to help set the scene before concluding with this article, explaining the different pricing models that can be implemented.
Commercial Aspect – What is Best for You?
Agency remuneration models can be complex, particularly with influencer relationships as they may involve a combination of product and fees. As influencers gain visibility into fee structures with the launch of communities such as FYPM, setting up clear commercial structures between brands and agencies can help provide transparency.
Influencer marketing spans multiple “channels”, so some agencies may view these initiatives as media-driven, with influencers providing the media, whilst others will view influencer work as PR or social content-driven. This POV will drive the type of contracted resources allocated to the work.
Like other types of agency contracts, there are three primary models:
- Flat Fee
Flat Fee models are inclusive of all agency fees, expenses, taxes, and influencer costs required to execute the campaign requirements from start to finish. This may or may not include platform licensing costs, ranging from 12-20% of the total. These fees are effectively built into “media” costs of curating, managing, and co-creating with influencers.
Budget requirements may vary, averaging $25k- 50k per campaign for larger brands, and payment terms tend to follow a standardized 50/50 format upon signing and completion.
- Commission
Agency fees for commission-based contracts are based on the amount of Total Spend and can range from 10-40%. Smaller percentages typically apply to larger media spend, which in the case of influencer-only campaigns, this media cost is effectively the influencer cost. Traditionally, media fees have been 15-30% of the total spend however this model has continued to evolve by platform. Flock’s Agency Scoping Tool (FAST) can help provide an unbiased analysis of agency fees to drive additional value on areas to optimize.
- Time and Materials (T&M) Rate Card
This is a typical model for most agency services that are based on hourly rate cards and allocated staff hours. Some agencies may use blended rates to keep staffing levels flexible, where the blend is an aggregate across roles and hourly rates. In this model influencer costs are treated as itemized pass-through costs which are incremental to the agency’s hours.
The best pricing model will be one that is preferred by you and your agency and that finds a balance between individual ways of working and the type of campaign or online activity carried out. Ultimately, this needs to be mutual understanding and agreement coupled with transparency to truly have the most optimal outcome.
If you would like to know more about Flock’s Agency Scoping Tool and receive a live demo, fill in the contact form below and one of our consultants will be in touch.