Influencer marketing is growing rapidly and is by many seen as the new online advertising. People filter out pushy advertising and react more often to a blogger’s content. Therefore, advertisers started looking for bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers, and Facebookers who know how to sell sponsored content. Now, influencer marketing might seem the same as affiliate marketing, thus nothing new in the market, but there are a few differences.

The storytelling element is what distinguishes influencer marketing from affiliate marketing.  Content creators are promoting the advertiser’s product on their own domain. And it is not the advertisers’ point of view anymore, influencers are real people sharing their first-hand experiences, making it much more trustworthy. With influencer marketing, companies can reach new target groups that are hard to reach, niche markets. With such a perspective, there is no doubt why influencer marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing mediums in the last five years.

Since the number of influencers is growing rapidly it’s getting hard to find the right ones for the exact brand fit, it can be very costly and very time consuming, although with the arrival of marketplaces like the whole influencer marketing strategy planning for companies was revolutionized.

Now companies can publish their briefing towards influencers on the marketplace, and they can come and present themselves to the companies if they feel like they are the right fit. That way companies can plan their own influencer marketing strategy themselves, without the hassle of choosing the right influencers out of thousands. It automated the whole process to a level which makes life easier for (influencer) agencies and made it so easy for brands that the agencies also sometimes were (partially or fully) taken out of the process.

The influencer market places offer filters like domain authority, price range, organic reach, quality views, etc. which makes the selection procedure very simple, and business oriented. Not only that, but marketplaces also show the detailed results of the marketing campaigns, and easily can adjust if something is not working, also plan ahead if the influencer – company partnership is doing great.

Advertisers feel satisfied with marketplaces’ and think its “easy to use and reliable”, “the price-quality ratio is very good” and  are “satisfied with the quality of the blogs and the fact that they can see the results quickly”, meanwhile bloggers feel that it helps them to do business quicker and easier, its a perfect way to start as an influencer, and “ forces the marketers to write the best possible briefing, for excellent results. “

Self-service platforms such as , lets advertisers and influencers negotiate the conditions and price of influencer marketing themselves, without the intervention of agencies. These market places have now been active for around a year. How does it work? And what experiences advertisers and bloggers have?

Influencer marketing is seen as the new advertising. We no longer trust advertising, but we do trust bloggers. Therefore, advertisers started looking for bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers, and Facebookers who knows how to sell sponsored content. The only problem advertisers encounter –  how do you find the right bloggers? Agencies with open and exclusive networks of bloggers give the opportunity to link your brand with the right influencers based on the brand fit. Only problem – that does not always fit in the annual budget. And that’s how self-service platforms came to life.

First, what is the difference with affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing was there before and proves its value for comparison sites. Consider the cashback sites, the discount code sites, and the deal sites. Content creators also use affiliate marketing through well-known sites such as Awin, Daisycon, PayPro, Tradetracker, and Tradedoubler.

In that way, influencer marketing is already a part of affiliate marketing. But suppose you take sharing experiences as a starting point – that’s what influencer marketing does. Affiliate marketing then forms a part of influencer marketing.

In my view, it is precisely that content element or even better, that storytelling element is what distinguishes influencer marketing from affiliate marketing. Especially in market places such as because affiliate marketing is no longer needed. As a content creator, you are promoting the advertiser’s product on your own domain.

With influencer marketing, one can reach new target groups that it is hard to reach through one’s own channels. Or niche markets. One immediately increases leads and sales performance by placing affiliate links and one can follow and measure the results in real time.

With influencer marketing, the spending of the budget for advertisers has been made scalable. You also increase your domain authority in a very instrumental way through the backlinks on relevant sites. And you can deepen your brand loyalty: the influencer shares his experiences about your product in the form of a story with just the right group of interested people. Key point: he tells the story in the form of first-hand experience. That is the storytelling element that distinguishes influencer marketing from affiliate marketing.

Influencer Marketing is the fastest growing and most cost-effective channel – Forbes

 

If you want to generate leads, then you have to choose bloggers, Instagrammers, and YouTubers. And there are all types and sizes: nano-influencers (up to 5,000 followers), micro-influencers (5,000 – 50,000 followers), meso-influencers (50,000 – 100,000 followers), macro-influencers (100,000 – 1,000,000 followers) and mega-influencers with more than 1,000,000 followers.

For sales performance, you need to look at these influencers. One problem, it takes a lot of time to find the right bloggers to be the right fit for your brand. There is such a large selection of content creators on the internet that it is hard not to get lost like in a deep forest. And if you are successful and have found them already, you’ll also have to rank them by scope and domain authority.

, which has now been established for about a year and a half, says that there are 3,600 verified content creators on their platform, but from 1,350 bloggers the rinser is becoming a bit thin in terms of followers. There are other newer and smaller platforms such as Hulc which has only been active in recent months. This marketplace shows that there are more than 1,000 verified content creators on the platform. is more focused on Instagram. There you can see Instagram branding campaigns of major brands as examples. Hulc focuses on websites. They mainly show promotional blogs, landing pages or SEO pages. At first, LinkPizza mainly consisted of affiliate marketers such as telephone providers, lifestyle, insurance, and energy companies, but six months ago the range became much more diverse, and now they offer the widest range of topics.

Do the parties come to a complete and honest agreement? Usually, everything is held on a professional level, the blogger starts to write a blog article according to the terms agreed upon with the advertiser. Bloggers usually receive amounts from one hundred to a few hundred euros for a review that were discussed before. And there can even be more if there is published affiliate links in the blog. But that always depends on the advertiser, if he has an affiliate program and if he is willing to grant additional money for the links. It can happen that advertisers sometimes see it unnecessary and doesn’t want to pay extra for the links. With LinkPizza there is an advantage for bloggers is there is a need for an affiliate program, do not have to set it up yourself. LinkPizza creates it automatically.

An example of what Requirements advertisers set on LinkPizza:

• Sales-oriented article
• You state the promotion and associated discount code
• 1 relevant photo
• The domain authority of at least 25
• At least 500 words
• Deadline
• Link and anchor texts are specified
• The article may be rewritten
• Permanent placement
• 1 internal link to another page on your site
• 2 internal links to the new blog post
• LinkPizza script installed (required for affiliate tracking)
• You post the blog on your social media channels

Hans Caspers – Semilo: “The price-quality ratio is very good”

Hans Caspers owns Semilo, which makes media plans for advertisers. Caspers says that he can follow everything easily and reach everyone on the platform with a quick response. He receives dozens of pitches on campaign briefings within a few days, and always has recent reach figures. Caspers: “The influencers respond quickly and the price-quality ratio is very good. You see immediate results and can, therefore, adjust while already starting the campaign if necessary. “

Caspers thinks that the workflow between advertiser and content creator is a major advantage of marketplaces. “All information about a campaign is stored on the platform, making it clear to everyone who should take the next action. In addition, all results can are shown in one place and that saves a lot of time on number rounds in different systems. “

Isabelle Westra – BlooSEM: “Instead of going fishing, I let the fish come to me”

Isabelle Westra is an online marketing consultant at BlooSEM, an online performance marketing agency that designs and implements online strategies,  for one of the largest telecom providers in the Netherlands. BlooSEM uses around 15 blogger agreements per campaign. The telecom provider compensates the bloggers through an affiliate construction: they receive money for each subscription that people have signed up for. The value for the telecom provider is that the company addresses a whole new target group that otherwise would be very difficult to reach.

Westra: “Before, we were mainly on telecom-related comparison sites. Now we are also on websites about living, interior, etc. You need to be a little creative about content: what do you have to arrange when you move? Making them think about our phone subscriptions. Blogs that write about how you can save by taking cheap prepaid subscriptions, gadget blogs that write about phones because if you buy a phone, you naturally also need a subscription. For us, that is primarily the value of . “

Westra mentions the speed and convenience as a major advantage of the platform. “All influencers in the Netherlands – bloggers, and publishers, are in one marketplace and can make a deal with a specific suitable price for you. So instead of going fishing, I let the fish come to me.“

Charlotte Vermeer – Tradedoubler: a big advantage that publishers come up with the proposals

Charlotte Vermeer is an account manager at Tradedoubler, an international affiliate network. Vermeer has created an open campaign on for MediaMarkt in Belgium.

Vermeer: ​​”MediaMarkt wants to get some more content in the story so that we can be a bit higher in the funnel, therefore I made the campaign very broad.. “

She sees the fact that publishers are presenting proposals themselves as a huge plus. “Otherwise, I first would have to look for bloggers and then start negotiating one-on-one with all of them” According to Vermeer, bloggers themselves always find a hook for MediaMarkt products. Also, through such an open campaign, she also sees and meets with very specific websites, which she would have never thought of.

Nicole Adelaars – Girl-Stubborn: “You get business fast”

Nicole Adelaars blogs for both marketplaces with her blog Girl-Eigenwijsje and has a domain authority of 37, with 19,000 visitors a month on her blog, 5,500 on Instagram and 2,300 on Facebook. She is never criticized for her sponsored blogs. Nicole: “It is because I always write articles from my point of view, from my own experience.”

What she particularly likes about this type of marketplace: “You see the assignment and you can immediately decide whether it suits you or not. And you start doing business very quickly, in different platforms, the negotiations can take days. “A disadvantage is that advertisers or agencies do not always allow to have an affiliate link. That is because, according to the client, you already received a fee for writing the article. Nicole: Although, that is clearly stated in the conditions beforehand, so you know that before you enter the negotiations. In any case, I find clearer than Hulc. “

Linda van Aken – Mom Love: “If you are a beginner, marketplaces are perfect”

Linda van Aken from Mamal Liefde (350,000 visitors per month on her site, with a domain authority of 40) has written for both marketplaces. “When you register, you are often working on the same assignment with ten other bloggers so earnings are slightly less than when you are invited to a campaign via . Then you don’t have to pitch anymore. “

With her blogs, Linda generates around 5,000 euros a month, half of which comes through affiliate income. She has more than 3,000 blogs online. She also works a lot with other bloggers. She doesn’t do anything with Hulc. Linda: “That is in general, just processing a link in a blog as cheaply as possible. Teenage work. Quality or number of visitors do not matter, as long as it is cheap. But I think if you’ve just started blogging, market places like Hulc and are ideal. “

Traveler magazine: “LinkPizza is efficient”

The Publisher of Travelers Magazine (35,000 unique visitors per month with a DA of 30) only has experience with. He says he mainly joined because he was not happy with all those link builders from different advertorial parties from airlines, the hotel companies and indirectly through media agencies, ‘It was chaos. I once counted my last assignment and I came across 28 discussions moments about the content. Even before the deal was finished. After that, you have to e-mail ten times up and down about the content and 15 times for the administrative settlement. is really much more efficient. I am listed there as a publisher. I do not register for campaigns. I only respond if advertisers come to me via system link. “

 

“I don’t feel like working with all those media agencies”

Marketplaces such as LinkPizza and Hulc brings advertisers and content creators together in an accessible way. Speed and convenience are seen as major advantages by both advertisers and content creators. Advertisers do not have to negotiate with bloggers one-on-one. In this way, they build relationships with influencers that provide value for each other quickly. 

Advertisers have always been using brand ambassadors to promote their brand. So in that sense, there is nothing new under the sun when we are talking about influencer marketing. Although, with the rise of social media, a new dimension was added. The number of content creators exploded and all major and minor publishers with a multitude of titles arose. A distribution industry was born. Nowadays, the range of content creators is huge and extremely diverse, content creators (social influencers) consist of two groups: bloggers and publishers. Among the bloggers, you will see specialized bloggers, mom bloggers, world-famous bloggers, Instagrammers, and YouTubers. And the publishers are the classic publishers with a new look. Think of Quotenet, Autowereld, Elle, and Managementteam.

…. It’s no wonder that it is one of the fastest growing marketing media in the past five years – The Guardian

 

And what’s the use of it as a blogger? It provides a nice additional income, as spotted by the large selection of content creators. What does that mean? A serious influencer generates a monthly income of 5000+ euros per month, half of which comes from affiliate marketing. And for publishers, say, professional content creators, influencer marketing is a business revenue model.

To get an idea: Cosmopolitan.nl attracts around 1.6 million self-assured, spontaneous, inquisitive millennials per month and has a domain authority of 86. A blog written by the editors costs 7,500 euros there. You can reach a lot of people, but its important either from a branding perspective to generate brand awareness, or from an SEO perspective. It is not because you expect to generate a lot of sales from that. The 1.6 million followers are too unsorted for that.

 

A big help comes from agencies such as Adfactor, IMA, Influentials, and Juulr. They promise to link your brand with the right influencers based on the right brand fit. You are then connected with the right and top fit bloggers through a filter system. But then there is a little problem, you need to enter the one-on-one negotiations with each blogger. That costs a lot of time. Market places such as goes one step further. On such a platform you can negotiate the price with the affiliated bloggers and publishers in groups, so you have a range of bloggers for every budget. As an advertiser, you don’t have to look for bloggers with the right reach for your budget. Or as an advertiser said: “Instead of fishing, let the fish come to me.” Basically, marketplaces just helps you build your own influencer marketing campaign. Since the whole process is highly automated, and the platform lets both sides show the best of them, companies and brands no longer need to hire agencies to set up the influencer campaigns. All they need is a good briefing and a clear idea, and the marketplace takes care of the rest. This way is much more cost and time effective than the old school booking an agency way.

The advertiser posts a campaign on the marketplace with a number of conditions and bloggers and publishers can then pitch on it. Advertisers can make a selection of bloggers themselves, who then receive an email with the request to respond, advertisers leave it open to see who responds. Bloggers come up with a bid or a counter-offer and advertisers can make a counter-offer again.

The final price criterion is the range that an influencer has, or the niche occupying a content creator, and the domain authority. The advertiser also imposes requirements on the domain authority. That data is via and Hulc. creates a media kit for content creators, with which bloggers can present themselves and which advertisers can use when negotiating. At Hulc, the media kit is called “Standard Services” and you can also see the history and reviews of bloggers there, so you know who you are doing business with.

Quality reach is becoming increasingly important for advertisers. As an advertiser, you never know whether the promised reach is actually going to happen. The agencies that use the platforms can make a realistic estimate for their customers if they take a look at the site. measures the performance of blogs, feeds and posts in the form of views, reads (quality views), clicks, leads, and sales. Reads are quality views: when a visitor has been on a blog for more than 15 seconds.

Milou Derckx – Biano: “speed and efficiency”

Milou Derckx is a content marketer at Biano, a relatively new online platform of 60 affiliated web shops. Biano registers itself for campaigns in the sphere of living on and asks for a budget of 350 euros. Derckx: “We are a professional company and offer advertisers a large reach and a strong domain authority of 33.”

To reach a larger audience, Biano also uses campaigns on . The price he pays bloggers is around 100 euros. For that amount, Derckx always checks whether bloggers post it on their social media channels because that is part of the conditions. Derckx: “We received a lot of enthusiastic reactions from bloggers on our garden furniture campaign. Mainly we are looking for relevant sites that are really in a field of interior design. And there are plenty of them. “

In addition to the wide range of bloggers, Derckx also sees the speed and efficiency as an advantage of a marketplace such as . Once Derckx received a preview full of spelling and style errors from one blogger, therefore more time was needed to finish the task, correct the errors. Derckx:

“That is, of course, wasn’t planned or intended, by the marketplace, it is a very human error. Although, there should be another tool, that helps tests bloggers’ writing skills before they can present themselves on the platform. Now everyone can simply sign up. “

Christel van Grinsven – SearchResult: seeing results quickly

Christel van Grinsven is an SEO Consultant at SearchResult, an online marketing agency that uses primarily for SEO and traffic. Van Grinsven mentions campaign efficiency as a big plus.

“Normally you would have to set up such a campaign manually and it would take a lot of time. Now you can put out a briefing to everyone in one go and you can easily agree upon a price. “

She is also satisfied with the quality of the blogs and the fact that she can see the results quickly. Now, she already knows. which bloggers she wants to continue with the next time. Although, she points out that “When I work outside of , I see that bloggers almost always use the LinkPizza plugin. Then I have to do a double check so that I am sure that the plugin is switched off. “

TOMS is a less well-known brand compared to MediaMarkt. Vermeer has also launched a campaign for this shoe brand via . Then she had to give bloggers a more extensive briefing about brand image and the brand itself.

Precisely measures actions

From Tradedoubler, Vermeer can precisely measure which actions have been run through which blogger and she can also look very clearly if and how she wants to continue working with certain bloggers. Sometimes with affiliate links, sometimes with more fixed fees. Vermeer: ​​”We can show bloggers exactly what actions have been taken by visitors through his or her blog. And with that, you also can show the advertiser that it is still good to continue working with a certain publisher, even though you do not see anything in return in terms of sales. “

“I am certainly not the cheapest”

Nicole has pitched at 45 assignments at Hulc in half a year. She has only received three of those – “I know, I’m certainly not the cheapest” – but there are still 16 open requests waiting, without any action happening. Nicole: “When I put a lot of energy into explaining why I think we would be a good match and what I can do for them, but hear nothing back, it is very annoying. I can no longer reject them because I made my offer. So they remain open.

“My explanation is that the clients at Hulc are mainly for link building, and want to be in the first rank for a dime. I never find them alone, but we find that with a larger group of bloggers. At , advertisers see me more the valuable as an influencer. “Nicole has one more tip for bloggers: sign up for or Hulc through another blogger. That’s how you help each other – we are all in the same boat as bloggers. “

Raymond Vink – Effect-Internet-Services: “It’s nice to get some extra, for a beer on Friday”

Raymond Vink from Wat-betekent.nl (35,000 visitors and a DA of 33) is registered at both marketplaces but uses only Hulc.

“I mainly create blogs in which I explain something. I do this in the form of an advertorial with paid links. For example, I can explain a company name or a product name. It can also be the operation of a physical product or an internet service. I have no special target group. “

At Raymond it is not about a large number of views on the article itself, but about the longer-term link building. Anyone who has a website and wants a backlink should write a campaign on Hulc. Raymond: “It was a hobby that went out of hand. An extra additional income for something I have already been doing. With 50 to 60 euros per article, a few articles per month, it is nice to earn some money for a beer on Friday. “Raymond believes that you can easily respond to outstanding campaigns via your profile on Hulc. He only needs to adjust something in his profile once in a while.

“My minimum price is 500 euros. You will often be emailed by media agencies and advertisers if you want to write an article for 350 euros. Then I respond: put it up on, but my minimum amount is 500 euros. I don’t feel like working with all those media agencies. When I am on vacation again, they see the old data and want to make an arrangement again on the same old terms… That is why is just as ideal. If it turns into a bigger project, with more and longer articles, I might have four, five discussion moments per article and that’s it. It helps a lot that the advertiser or marketer writes a good briefing. forces the marketers to write the best possible briefing, for excellent results. “

“Incidentally, I do not use the affiliate facility of, but rather do it through the networks of Awin, Tradetracker, and ProPay. Although offers being connected to all affiliate link networks with a single login, in exchange for a small piece of the fee, I just use purely for the advertorial itself. “

The marketing model is scalable and advertisers see the real time results. From the beginning, it is a great way to get assignments without much administrative hassle for content creators. And once advertisers know where to find you, you can also earn good money. Partly “automatically” through affiliate marketing.

On LinkPizza you can negotiate the price with the affiliated bloggers and publishers in groups, so you have a range of bloggers for every budget. As an advertiser, you don’t have to look for bloggers with the right reach for your budget. Or as an advertiser said: “Instead of fishing, let the fish come to me.” Basically, marketplaces just help you build your own influencer marketing campaign. 

Since the whole process is highly automated, and the platform lets both sides show the best of them, companies and brands no longer need to hire agencies to set up the influencer campaigns. All they need is a good briefing and a clear idea, and the marketplace takes care of the rest. This way is much more cost and time effective than the old school booking an agency way.

, lets advertisers and influencers negotiate the conditions and price of influencer marketing themselves, cutting the middle-man, the agency, out.  

LinkPizza just helps you build your own influencer marketing campaign. Since the whole process is highly automated, and the platform lets both sides show the best of them.

Influencers can reach new target groups, niche markets, immediately increase leads and sales performance by placing affiliate links and one can follow and measure the results in real time.

measures the performance of blogs, feeds and posts in the form of views, reads (quality views), clicks, leads, and sales.

, which has now been established for about a year and a half, has around 3,600 verified content creators on their platform, who can do the perfect job. 

All information about a campaign is stored on the LinkPizza platform, making it clear to everyone who should take the next action.