Influencer Vs Affiliate Marketing: The Main Difference Between the Two | Partnerize

Influencer Vs Affiliate Marketing: The Main Difference Between the Two

Aug 15, 2024

Chrissy Kammerer

Director of Content

Influencers aren’t interested in working with or investing time in affiliate-only partnerships. That’s the reality according to the findings of a recent research collaboration between market research firm Ipsos and CreatorIQ which surveyed 125+ creators to get to the heart of what they truly want in their partnerships to ultimately identify four critical strategies for nurturing two-way relationships that yield the best long-term results.

With a substantial one-third of influencers’ annual income resulting from affiliate marketing work being from their creator work, the truth about how influencers feel about working with affiliate-only opportunities is sobering. Less than a quarter of the creator respondents noted that they’re satisfied with their affiliate programs and less than a quarter are happy with the income they generate from affiliate programs.

Further, when prompted to prioritize what motivates them to work with a particular brand’s affiliate program, the results were undeniable: Influencers care deeply about product quality, brand reputation, and brand authenticity–perhaps even more than they do about earning a quick-hit payday. Bottomline: Long-term earning potential and brand exposure will usually outweigh one-and-done commission.

What does this all mean? In short, for brands running affiliate programs who are eagerly pursuing relationships with influencers, these survey results should send a clear message: influencers want more. They crave deeper partnerships and opportunities than they feel affiliate-only partnerships can deliver.

So, while the synergy between affiliate marketing and influencers holds immense potential, there’s no single playbook that takes the sum of this research, or influencer sentiment, into account to show brands how to successfully navigate this unique intersection and perhaps more importantly–what influencers need from them to be happy.

Let’s explore some of the biggest reasons behind the absence of a definitive playbook and some key considerations for marketers looking to leverage the combined power of affiliate marketing and influencers inside the same affiliate sales/partnership channel.

  1. Divergent Strategies Between Affiliates & Influencers

One of the primary reasons why an affiliate and influencer marketing convergence playbook remains elusive is the inherent divergence in their marketing strategies. Traditional affiliate marketing relies on performance-based models, emphasizing metrics such as clicks, conversions, and sales or some sort of action-based event. In contrast, influencers often focus on building authentic relationships with their audience, emphasizing engagement, trust, and brand affinity. Earned Media Value (EMV), for example, is a widely tapped metric to gauge the value of social media content but one not often measured in affiliate-only partnerships. For example, social media influencers could measure EMV by number of likes, comments, shares, video views, etc. Bridging these distinct approaches to create a seamless strategy requires a nuanced understanding of both worlds. For example, brands may try to force brand awareness plays to be evaluated with a performance-based mindset. This may be in part due to the desire for measurement or it may even be due to an unstable macroeconomic environment or pressure to be accountable to measuring results. On the influencer side, they tend to prioritize their audience’s perception of them as creators first. Meaning they’re more interested in long-term growth opportunities. This is not to say that they deprioritize payment structures and models–they don’t. Most influencers prefer upfront payment or sponsorship fees to account for the brand awareness, engagement and reach they drive because, on a strictly performance basis, they won’t earn as much. Merging these two strategies will take brand understanding and compromise as well as a healthy dose of a more future-thinking mindset when it comes to cultivating influencer relationships.

  1. Genuine Lack of Brand Know-how for Supporting Non-Traditional Product Promoters

This was a big theme in CreatorIQ’s research and one that is luckily highly actionable. Specifically, influencers didn’t feel they received the right kind of support–or much support in general–from the brands they work with in the affiliate channel. Influencers are hungry for educational resources, technical support, payment support, and general product knowledge so they can promote a product as effectively as possible. With proper planning, many of these requests can be satisfied by brands but in some cases, a lack of internal resources who are available to or dedicated to influencers and growing an influencer program get deprioritized.

  1. Measurement Challenges

The challenge of measuring the impact of influencer marketing on affiliate metrics and vice versa adds a layer of complexity. Affiliate marketing is typically associated with quantifiable performance-based metrics, such as conversions, making assessing the return on investment easier. Influencers have value across the entirety of the conversion journey from brand awareness to conversion; the challenge is trying to measure performance solely based on conversion when there is another value, for example, earned media value (EMV), that isn’t captured in that measurement approach.

Further, in a practical sense, linking challenges in social platforms and/or reliance on code-based attribution (and the absence of a clicked link) eliminates the attribution of a conversion. Some creators rely on code-based attribution, to circumvent linking challenges, but even that approach is imperfect, requiring consumers to remember to use the code and be ready to purchase.

In short, the measurement isn’t a perfect science, and using a traditional affiliate measurement model exclusively is at odds with the breadth of value influencers can provide a brand.

And no matter what another partnership platform tells you: Creating a unified measurement framework that captures the diverse outcomes of both strategies is a puzzle marketers are still deciphering.

  1. Disparate Payment Models

When it comes to influencers shying away from affiliate-only programs, a fundamental difference in payment philosophy may be one of the biggest reasons why. Advertisers naturally want to pay influencers on a commission basis because it’s risk-insulated by assuming commissions will be available from the products sold, making it a safer bet that payment will be available. But savvy influencers know that a commission-only payment model doesn’t always work to their benefit. Again, due to measurement and attribution challenges, working on a pure commission basis may not be the ideal value exchange for an influencer or suffice for all that goes into their output. They have photo shoots, copywriting, and posting that requires time and care, especially since they want to appear as authentic and connected as possible to their audience of followers.

That being said, influencers have cited that they don’t want to be paid on an affiliate pure play. And that’s because they know that this payment model doesn’t contemplate all of the other value (earned media value, for example) they provide for a brand. This is why most influencers are paid on a sponsorship basis. But this tactic is typically reserved for a specific cohort of influencers–those who command the highest follower bases. And even then, sometimes influencers will just tack on their commissionable affiliate link, even if you have only agreed to sponsorship, so brands often end up paying the hybrid fees anyway. Many try to solve this gap through a hybrid model, paying a sponsorship fee and commission, to appease both parties. However, suffice to say, that this approach can get very expensive very quickly.

  1. Misunderstanding How Advertisers Can Find Success with Influencers

Even with the best intentions, marketers frequently overlook the power of nano and micro-influencers, focusing instead on macro or celebrity influencers which are often out of reach to brands with a mind on maintaining a respectable advertising budget. The truth is that nano and micro-influencers often possess highly engaged, niche audiences, fostering genuine connections. Recognizing their potential to authentically amplify brand messages is essential for cultivating effective and relatable influencer partnerships. These types of influencers are also far more likely to be open to flexible payment structures including a performance structure or a hybrid or combination of performance and flat fees. With that, these influencers are often the best to test within the affiliate channel–they are willing, able, and flexible to various payment structures, mostly because they are eager to establish a relationship with the brand.

One of the most successful and strategic methods for advertisers to work with influencers on the Partnerize platform is to collaborate with influencer networks like LTK ( LIKEtoKNOW.it), Mavely, and Brandcycle. Advertisers can experience demonstrable success by:

The Takeaway

The long and short of it is that an affiliate marketing strategy and influencer convergence playbook is still a work in progress, marked by the challenges posed by divergent strategies, lack of know-how, measurement complexities, disparate payment models, and knowing which influencer types to work with and how to best work with them in the affiliate space. However, digging in and overcoming these challenges can mean huge rewards for marketers working with influencers in the affiliate space.