Influencer Campaign Management: 5 Problems to Avoid

While some brands manage their campaigns, others turn to an outside influencer team to help craft strategies, identify influencers, and execute campaigns to engage their target audiences. Whether you turn to experienced help or manage campaigns internally, it’s essential to be aware of potential problems that can arise in influencer campaign management and how to solve them.

Problem: You aren’t sure what to pay influencers

One of the biggest challenges brands have with influencer collaborations is settling on payment. In fact, many brands aren’t sure where to begin. What’s a fair wage for an influencer? Does compensation vary by audience size or other factors?

Solution: Refer to IZEA’s State of Influencer Earnings for a breakdown of influencer rates. The report gives you benchmark costs by platform and offers adjusted rates for follower count.

The chart above, for example, shows the average rate influencers earn by platform. A Facebook post averages $642, while Twitch content averages $4,373. This is a good starting point, but compensation varies based on an influencer’s experience, audience size, and industry. It can also vary due to usage rights. The upcoming 2024 earnings report will show even more up-to-date insights.

Problem: Content that misses the mark

When you work with any influencer, you should create an influencer brief that outlines the campaign and its deadlines. Sometimes, even with an influencer brief, you’ll receive content that doesn’t align with your goals.

Solution: Working with a full-service team means this type of communication is off your plate, giving you room back in your schedule to focus on other work. If you were taking the self-serve route, you’d need to email an influencer or call them to discuss the issue. Start the conversation with what you like, and then offer specific changes that should be made. Set a new deadline and send the list of updates via email, too.

You should also take another look at your brief. Was it specific? Did it provide enough guidance? A brief should include:

A company and product overview
Target audience
Disclosure requirements
Campaign goals and KPIs you’ll use to gauge success
Brand information
Content review and approval process
Deadlines
Example of previous content or content you’d like the influencer to draw inspiration from

Problem: Influencer misses a deadline

At some point, you’ll probably work with an influencer who misses a deadline. Maybe there was a miscommunication, and the influencer had the wrong date.

Solution: Check in with the influencer. See what’s going on. Ask when you can expect the content. If it’s a misunderstanding and the content arrives in your inbox on the same day, it was worth your time to follow up.

A full-service team would work diligently to ensure all content is delivered on time and meets the client’s expectations.

Problem: You’re working with an agency, but your campaign falls short of its KPIs

It’s common for brands to outsource influencer collaborations, but what if your campaigns miss their benchmarks? It happens. Maybe the agency picked the wrong social media channel, targeted the wrong audience, or didn’t thoroughly review influencers before working with them.

Solution: If you want to work with an external team to manage influencer marketing, thoroughly research the company.

IZEA, for example, has 17-plus years of experience in the industry with 3.9 million collaborations in its portfolio. It’s trusted by the world’s largest agencies and nearly half of the Fortune 50.

You’ll have access to a suite of tools to support influencer campaigns, including extensive production capabilities and paid media expertise to ensure your KPIs are met.

Problem: You need content you can repurpose

Content creation is time-consuming, so brands often want to repurpose content to get more mileage out of it. It’s a valid plan, but how do you do it?

You can turn to customers to supplement your content library by running UGC campaigns. You can ask customers to participate in a contest in exchange for sharing and repurposing content as your brand sees fit.

With an influencer-generated campaign, your request to repurpose content is a bit more formal. Still, it’s worth ensuring you can reuse influencer content later on.

Solution: In your influencer contract, one of the many items that should be included is content ownership. Usually, influencers are willing to give brands a license to use the content for a certain period, like six months. During that time, brands can repurpose the content as they see fit.

Repurposing influencer-generated content helps you get extra mileage out of the content, but be sure to include content ownership in your contract.

If your brand sees the value in influencer marketing but finds influencer campaign management to be a challenge, consider IZEA’s full-service campaign management team. With a dedicated team of experts and a next-gen influencer marketing platform, every aspect of your influencer campaigns is handled.