Influencer marketing (or creator marketing) is when a brand pays a creator to make custom content. More often than not, that content is then posted to the creator’s channel, though some partnerships will share the content on the brand’s channel, or whitelist the content to push through paid media.

There are all kinds of ways to show creators love—gifting, covering travel, free products for fans, and more. Really, though, I encourage you to throw down some cash if you want great content from great creators.

The 3 most common $$$ payment models for influencers are:

This is where the game of chicken begins.

At first glance, you can understand why a brand would push hard for a strictly commission-based payment model—feels like a good way to make sure that marketing budget is hard at work.

But… honestly, many influencers might feel commission-only isn’t nearly enough carrot. Creators gotta make the content, and creators don’t have any control over your digital point of purchase—they’ll bring the crowd to your site, but you’ve gotta reel ‘em in yourself.

Flat fee deals offer creators a guarantee they’ll appreciate, but what if the post goes super viral? What if the brand makes hundreds of thousands of dollars off that one post? Sounds hyperbolic, but I’ve seen it happen.

But’s that’s just me. Let’s actually ask the creators.

Back to that study I mentioned earlier (which has a grrreat title): Ghosted No More: The Secrets To Thriving Creator-Brand Partnerships. impact.com and Adweek Branded’s chats with creators got us some hard data to drive influencer marketing decisions, including on the payment front.

There are all kinds of amazing takeaways in the study—you should give it a read here. Let’s focus on the question at hand, though: how do creators want to be compensated?

You see that big green cut-out? That represents a blend of flat fee + commission deals, which impact.com refers to as the “Hybrid” or “PostPlus” Payment Model. It turns out Creators have gotten wise to their value—58% are asking for the blended approach the first time they work with a new brand. It’s only after the first brand deal that creators get more comfortable with a commission-only model, jumping 21% once they know they’ll generate sales for the brand & great money for their own pockets.

It makes sense. Hybrid payment models make sure everyone feels respected while still offering incentive—it’s low risk, high reward. Happy creators make better content, and making sure they’re getting paid a little something something regardless of performance is a great way for your brand to show trust.

You’ve heard me sing impact.com’s praises throughout the newsletter today—they just became the *takes deep breath* first performance platform to let you discover, create, manage, and scale full-funnel influencer marketing programs, all from a single interface, that’ll also get you access to their opt-in network of 80,000+ creators.

Trust me—you want an all-in-one influencer tool like this. I’ve worked with the good folks over there a few times now—big brains. You’ll get so much more than simple brand awareness if you’re using a platform like theirs.

There are so many social big thinkers out there, writing all kinds of amazing strategies, analysis, and breakdowns. All ships rise with the tide, so here are a few reads from other places I think you could learn from.

The “You’re doing it wrong”-ification of TikTok (Vox)

We’re all looking for stronger TikTok hooks to drive retention, but suddenly everyone’s scolding everyone—those first few frames are shaming you before explaining their personal recs. A great read on an increasingly ugly trend.

Branded content tools coming to Threads (Axios)

It sounds like traditional social advertising is a ways away from getting to Threads, but never fear, companies—branded content tools should be out soon. That means you can do all that wonderful influencer marketing on the hottest new network.

How McDonald’s handled the Grimace Trend

I love when people in the work reveal their thought process. Here’s a great read on what to do when your brand goes viral for harmless, but definitely not brand safe content.