Peersway has released a new research showing influencer preferences and expectations when working with a brand. The full-service marketing agency surveyed 464 influencers in Canada and 140 in the U.S. for the study.
The report found that 61% of influencers prefer long-term collaborations with brands, while 39% opt for one-off campaigns. Around 49% prefer to work with influencer marketing platforms, 39% like to work alone and 12% with a talent agent.
According to the survey, influencers tend to prefer to collaborate with beauty and fashion brands, followed by food and beverage companies. Travel and wellness brands fall in the middle, followed by non-profit and technological businesses.
Respondents say the determining factor in choosing to collaborate with a company is whether it aligns with their brand, rather than the amount of money or product they will receive in compensation. They also make decisions based on whether they believe in the product they advertise and whether the reputation of the client/brand is good.
In terms of payment models, the study revealed that influencers are 12 times less likely to agree to work with a company if they are only compensated through affiliate compensation, compared to brands that offer a paid collaboration. But once payment is combined with affiliate compensation, they are three times more likely to accept a campaign.
After collaborating with a brand, 79% of them like when the company provides feedback on their work. Two out of three respondents also want brands to share campaign results, including sales figures and website traffic.
Peersway CEO Arnab Majumdar tells MiC that influencers are increasingly part of agencies’ client marketing strategies. “Some brands still prefer more conventional marketing methods, while many more want to go big on influencer activations. Increasingly, we have noticed that agencies try to include some influencer marketing in all projects based on the available budget and the scope of the project.”
“Influencers are also becoming a part of the agencies’ responsibility/budget. Apart from creative and PR, agencies are regularly carving out budgets for influencer activations, whitelisting influencer content, and sometimes even repurposing influencer content for paid social media.”
According to Majumdar, marketing with content creators is good for brands and agencies because of the variety of creativity they bring to the table. “Everyone has their own style of creating content and this helps the brand share the same message in a variety of different ways.”
They also offer access to an engaged audience, says Majumdar, who adds that “building such an audience takes a lot of time and effort, and companies can tap into the trust that influencers have earned.”
“Another big reason is the cost-effectiveness of user-generated content. Instead of hiring a model, booking a studio and hiring a photographer/videographer, brands and agencies can hire an influencer to create content. Due to this cost-saving, they can create significantly more content for the same amount of money when they work with influencers.”
Peersway’s business has been growing thanks to influencer marketing – the company saw an uptick right after the pandemic, when much of the budget shifted from experiential to influencer marketing. “Our revenue increased 250% in 2022 and has remained at the same level year-on-year,” says Majumdar.
The company, founded in 2016, is based in Canada, but has also been working with brands in the U.S. and U.K. It specializes in building relationships with content creators to design brand-specific campaigns that engage their audiences.
