Affiliate vs. Influencer: What’s the Difference?

Affiliate and influencer marketing are often grouped under one umbrella and viewed as the same thing. According to Insider Intelligence, affiliate marketing made up 9.6% of influencers’ revenue in 2021, vs. 68% from brand collabs.

While they sometimes produce the same results, there are key differences between affiliate vs. influencer marketing. Affiliate marketers help generate sales and are paid for each sale made using their affiliate code or link. On the other hand, influencers create content to encourage brand engagement, awareness, and sales by highlighting the benefits of a specific product and sometimes the company as a whole. 

Affiliate vs. influencer marketing 

Over the years, influencer and affiliate marketing have helped brands achieve more conversions and higher ROIs than they were ever able to with TV and radio. This is thanks to the power of social media.

While influencers typically leverage a social media website or platform, affiliates use several methods. Some affiliates promote products on their social media pages, but others create websites and digital tools to attract the target audience. 

Influencers are typically paid a flat rate or gifted a product to create and post content promoting a brand and or product instead of every time a sale is made. And in some cases, influencers are also given affiliate codes or a commission for every sale they encourage.

Benefits of influencer marketing

Deciding which strategy is best for your brand can take time and effort. Influencer marketing can focus on long-term improvement for metrics like click-through rates, SEO and engagement using content creation. 

Marketers collab with influencers for that sense of authenticity and to build credibility and trust. Social media influencers succeed because of their ability to position themselves as experts in their niches while simultaneously inspiring those who support them.

Their audience is more inclined to trust them and listen to their recommendations and opinions. Our Trust in Influencer Marketing report shows that 62% of all respondents are more likely to trust a sponsored post from an influencer over an A-list celebrity.

Brands can also have more control over influencer campaigns. Depending on the contract, they can choose the perfect fit, create the content strategy, ask for revisions, and post the content more than once.

Benefits of affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is fairly simple. It can be easily implemented into strategies without adding extra, complex steps. However, finding a quality tool that creates unique URLs and allows conversion tracking can be difficult. 

With IZEA Flex, our next-gen influencer marketing platform, you can create custom Tracking Links to easily measure your affiliate or influencer marketing success. The Free plan gets 10 Tracking Links per month, and you get even more by upgrading to the Starter or Power plan. Combined with other Flex features, you have everything you need to run your campaigns.

Affiliates also increase web traffic, even though a sale is not always made. However, more traffic increases the likelihood of a sale. 

There are instances where a combination of influencer and affiliate marketing is the best bet. This allows your brand to reach its target audiences while also converting that reach and engagement into sales by placing affiliate links within influencer content. 

Setting clear goals before launching a campaign helps gauge its success. Some common goals include increased brand awareness, sales, newsletter signups, engagement, follows, clicks, reviews and testimonials, higher conversion rates, etc. 

No matter the approach you take, it’s also important to note that influencers and affiliates can make or break a campaign, so it’s crucial to choose creators who align with the brand voice and those who have an engaged, loyal audience. 

Influencers:

Looking to partner with industry-leading brands? Create your free profile today. 

Marketers:

The world’s biggest brands trust IZEA. Find which of our influencer marketing software or managed service solutions are right for you.