There are a whole lot of reasons for influencer marketing’s surge in brand marketing portfolios: it’s incremental, it’s flexible, and more competition in the partner landscape has made reporting on its impact more transparent.

At DMi, we want to help every brand, no matter the budget, tap into influencer’s growth potential. In this post, I’ll explain why we’re so bullish on influencer marketing and describe our approach to helping our clients take advantage of it at scale.

First, why invest in influencer marketing?

If you’re hesitant to dive into influencer marketing, I’ve got over $10B reasons for you to make the plunge (source: eMarketer:

The motivating factor behind the spend is the fact that, especially for younger consumers, shopping habits are being heavily driven by what they see on TikTok, Instagram, and social media in general. Brands should be in the best position possible to effectively get their products in front of consumers and not be left in the dust by competitors.

Influencer, like other affiliate initiatives, has faced skepticism from brand marketers whose approach to measurement has failed to capture the additive effects of influencer campaigns. Creators bring in their own audiences, and whether they’re introducing the products or providing social proof for products already on a user’s radar, those campaigns work in a way that other advertising does not.

Influencer marketing also features several different fee structures, including a pay-for-performance model, which means brands can tailor compensation and goals to fit their specific business needs and limitations. These fee structures are more effective now than they’ve ever been thanks to improved transparency of influencer marketing platforms. Where LTK used to dominate the influencer space, ShopMy has become a noteworthy competitor over the last three years, in part because it offered full visibility into what creators were driving brand performance.

What are the challenges to scale influencer marketing?

Whenever your marketing is in third-party hands, there can be complications, but aligning the right creators and the right expectations tends to eliminate those up front. The real challenge to scaling influencer marketing tends to be budget; the smaller the budget, the more resourceful you need to be to drive significant growth.

For DMi, scaling smaller-budget brand programs begins with our signature 1:1 approach to building personalized partnerships with creators. Those relationships are key to opening the door to scrappier, lower-cost incentives including increasing commission, additional gifting, and sharing information on what’s working for other creators to help strengthen their content. We also strive to deliver assets that help creators produce engaging posts; these include vanity/exclusive discount codes and real-time information on sales, product launches, and relevant viral trends.

Comp models can also be structured to work with smaller budgets. A pay-for-performance model minimizes risk and allows brands to spend only when they’re earning sales – and when the ROAS warrants, brands can always turn up the budget dial. If a brand has higher-funnel awareness goals, those campaigns tend to be pricier, but we consistently find solid ROI because, in part, we’re leaning on historical and benchmark data before we make any recommendations.

How we align influencers with brands

Of course, willingness to work with certain comp structures doesn’t mean a creator is a good fit for a brand. Creators must have a genuine connection – whether through their interests, their values, or their own shopping history – with the brand or product in question in order for their content to resonate with their audience.