How To Productively Negotiate With Influencers (Tips From Influencer Marketers)

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Influencer marketing rates vary dramatically. 

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Alex Llull, the influencer marketer at Perspective, shared a similar story where two creators with the same engagement, follower count, and niche charged wildly different prices:

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Your negotiation skills and ability to allocate budget effectively significantly impact the ROI of your influencer marketing campaigns. 

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We curated advice from some of the top B2B influencer marketers, and in this post, you’ll learn how to identify a reasonable baseline price, how to negotiate the deal and allocate budget effectively based on your goals.

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Why Delicate Influencer Negotiation Is Critical (A Story of a Brand That Learned This The Hard Way)

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Creators deserve to be paid fairly, but it's also your job as an influencer marketer to negotiate the best rates for your company and maximize the impact of your influencer marketing budget.

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However, the manner in which you handle the negotiation process has a far greater impact on your overall influencer program than just the immediate outcome of a single collaboration. 

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Creators talk, and if you handle the negotiation process rashly, you'll find it harder to work with industry leading creators. 

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Here's an example from a well-known brand that lowballed various creators, and those creators chimed in on Reddit, recommending other creators not to work with that company.

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There will likely still be some smaller creators who will take any offer regardless, but if you want to work with influential industry leaders (who tend to generate a better ROI anyway), a negative reputation among creators will make it much harder to secure that dream collaboration. 

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Of course, you can’t always make everyone happy, but you can significantly reduce negative backlash by using the negotiation tactics we’ll discuss below.

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7 Tips To Negotiate With Influencers Effectively 

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We curated a list of seven key negotiation tips from leading influencer marketers to help you professionally negotiate deals that are favorable to both parties.

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1.) Start With a Reasonable Budget

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Before running an influencer marketing campaign, realize that, just like any performance marketing campaign, you need a meaningful budget to generate meaningful results.

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Some marketers (especially those in the DTC space) still expect to earn a shoutout just for sending a free product. However, creators are realizing the value of their audience, and many receive dozens of products each month. As a result, influencer gifting strategies don't work as well as they once did.

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Here's what influencer marketer Jennifer Quigley-Jones has to say on the matter:

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This leads us to the question: What’s a reasonable budget for influencer marketing?

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Grant Lee, the co-founder of Gamma recommends startups dedicate $10,000 to $20,000 to influencer marketing. 

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I asked Adelė Grigūnaitė of Omnisend a similar question, and this was her response:

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"I remember attending the Affiliate Takeover conference in Barcelona recently, and Ezra Firestone mentioned that you should invest around 10% of your marketing budget on influencer marketing," says Adelė. 

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However, she also notes that there's a lot of nuance in determining the ideal budget for influencer marketing.

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"I would say that this percentage might be even 50% or higher. It really depends on the industry and your position in the market," says Adelė. 

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What are some additional factors that can help you determine a reasonable budget for influencer marketing?

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First, look at your competitors. Are they investing in influencer marketing, and how heavily relative to other channels? That can help you get a baseline of a rough percentage to allocate to influencer marketing. 

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Additionally, in our study of companies investing in LinkedIn influencer marketing, we found that a large percentage of them were AI startups. 

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This statistic is likely because AI products are often novel, and people aren't actively searching for the solutions they provide.

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For example, you might not be searching for a faster way to identify R&D opportunities because your current method works just fine. However, if an influencer shows you an AI tool that analyzes your patent filings and suggests R&D opportunities accordingly, you might be interested.

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In this scenario, influencer marketing may warrant a higher percentage of marketing spend relative to other channels.

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2.) Know Your Number 

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Ash Turner, who runs influencer marketing for Synthesia, says the first step for a successful influencer negotiation is to know your number before walking into a conversation with an influencer. 

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“Always go into a call with an expectation of, this is the max that we can realistically afford for this person,” says Ash. 

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Sarah Adam, the head of influencer marketing at Wix, says she built her own database of influencer pricing benchmarks that she refers back to during negotiations. So start your own benchmark database, and record prices of even the creators you don’t work with:

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However, if you don’t have a benchmark database just yet, how do you pick a reasonable number if you’ve never worked with an influencer before?

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First, Ahrefs influencer marketer, Igor Gorbenko, recommends simply reaching out to other influencer marketers and asking them if they think it’s a reasonable price. 

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In an interview with Igor, this was the advice he gave me:

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“Don’t be shy to ask your colleagues [other influencer marketers] because I’ve had quite a few people just contact me and about starting their influencer marketing and they even sometimes send me the rates they’re getting. 

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For example, ‘I was talking to this guy and he’s charging this much. Do you think that’s a good deal?’”

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If you’re doing LinkedIn influencer marketing, you can also use Favikon’s Fair Price calculator. This calculator is based on verified influencer rates from over 130 LinkedIn creators across different spaces.

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You can enter the information and quickly get an estimate for any creators:

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Alternatively, if you’re using a paid Favikon plan, you can log in and see an estimation for a sponsored post with any creator:

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If you’re planning to run an influencer marketing campaign on YouTube, Sarah Adam, the head of influencer marketing at Wix, recently shared these prices for dedicated YouTube videos:

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She also shared the price per video she was quoted by creators in the AI niche for TikTok and Instagram videos: 

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Of course, the price you’ll receive will depend on your request. For example, a dedicated video will cost more than an integration. (We’ll discuss this in more detail below.)  

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Finally, if you’re estimating a price based on their past organic content’s performance, realize that dedicated sponsored content will likely generate significantly less engagement. 

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In fact, we did a study comparing average sponsored and organic content on LinkedIn and found that 93% of creators have a lower engagement average on sponsored content compared to their organic content.  

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And, the engagement gap was significant. 

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The average engagement on sponsored content was about 57% lower compared to the creator’s average engagement on organic content. And, that gap tended to widen as the creators became more influential:

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So forecast performance and allocate budget based on that creator’s average sponsored performance rather than their average organic engagement.

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You’ll find that some creators have relatively similar engagement on sponsored and organic content while other creators have a large gap between sponsored vs organic engagement averages. 

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3.) Ask The Influencer For a Price First

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The most obvious reason to ask an influencer for their price first is that you can't really negotiate down after you've stated your price. 

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Additionally, Alex Llull mentioned that most creators simply ghost you if your initial offer isn't what they had in mind. Yet if they go first, you might be able to negotiate to a middle ground using the tactics we'll discuss next. 

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Another creator in the comment section also confirmed that they’ve ghosted brands for this reason:

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Of course, it can be tricky to get a creator to state their price first, as you don’t want to ask for a rate card in the initial outreach message. If you do ask for pricing in that first outreach message, it sets a transactional tone rather than a long-term partnership, and many creators simply won’t respond.

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Instead, make sure the initial outreach message is conversational, like this one that Igor uses at Ahrefs:

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If the creator responds by asking for your budget, here’s a response you can use (if you plan to do long-term partnerships):

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“We’re flexible depending on the scope. Can you give us a baseline price for one (dedicated video, post, etc.)?”

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This response suggests that you're open to longer-term partnerships (which can make your brand more appealing), and it also gives you more room for negotiation moving forward.

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4.) Negotiate For More Content 

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“If the influencer wants more money, ask for more posts instead,” says Adelė of Omnisend. 

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“We usually try to get package deals rather than just one post because it's cheaper per post and we get more exposure,” she continues.

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“If a creator asks for more than our budget, we'll say something like ‘What if we do 3 posts for that price instead of 1?’ Most creators are fine with this because it's actually easier money for them once they know our product.”

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Keep in mind that even if you negotiate for more posts, that doesn’t mean you have to post all of them in a single quarter. 

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For example, you can negotiate a deal for four posts throughout the year, and plan for each post to be published once per quarter. 

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You can also negotiate for promotion on more platforms. For example, if they also have a large newsletter, you can ask the creator if they could package a newsletter shoutout into the deal.

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In general, you’ll be able to get a better deal for each piece of content and potentially better returns by approaching influencer partnerships with a long term lens.

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5.) Negotiate The Terms

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Usage rights (whether or not you can run ads with their content) are usually not included in the base fee.

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In fact, an influencer recently asked on social media if they should be expected to offer whitelisting as part of the brand deal, and the comments on the post were all in agreement that this is not typically not included in the base brand deal:

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However, this also means that paid ad usage rights can be a valuable bargaining chip. If you can’t justify meeting the influencer’s price for an organic post, you could offer to match it if they include rights to the content for paid promotion.

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This can justify the higher price as their content can help improve the performance of your paid ad campaigns. And, many brands are already paying UCG creators to film videos for ads. 

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On the other hand, if the influencer pitches you a package that includes paid ad usage rights, you can counter with a lower offer that does not include usage rights. Then, if the ad does really well, you could purchase the creative rights after the campaign.

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This is the strategy that Jeremy Barbara of Doola uses:

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You can also negotiate on exclusivity. 

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Most creators are willing to reduce their rate if you have a very short exclusivity timeframe.

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For example, Jeremy is willing to negotiate 30 day exclusivity deals, because if the campaign doesn’t perform well for Doola, it probably won’t perform well for competitors either.

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If the campaign does perform well, they’ll negotiate a longer-term partnership with longer exclusivity.

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6.) Stack Incentives

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It’s also possible to get a much better deal if you stack incentives with affiliate deals. 

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“We have our affiliate program which gives 20% recurring commissions. And sometimes this can be leverage for negotiations,” says Adelė of Omnisend. 

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As discussed in our influencer payment structures resource, influencer rates are usually flat fees, but sometimes brands will throw in a minimum performance threshold or offer additional commission incentives for achieving specific sales or engagement goals.

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If you’re struggling to negotiate with influencers, you could offer a standard flat fee along with an additional flat fee bonus if they achieve a specific milestone. 

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For example, if they surpass 2,000 engagements on the post, you’ll give them an additional $500 on top of the agreed-upon flat fee.

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If the influencer is confident that they can deliver the ROI you need, this deal structure can be a valuable method to achieve a common ground.  

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7.) Be Prepared to Walk Away

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“I'd say nine times out of ten, we can come to an agreement with a creator that works on both ends,” says Ash Turner of Synthesia.

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The key is to walk into the deal with a realistic budget and realistic expectations.

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However, there will be some situations where the gap between the creator’s expectations and your brand’s budget is simply too wide to bridge. Here’s an example: 

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In these cases, turn down the creator eloquently rather than ghosting them. This is important because creators talk.

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Here’s a sample email you could send to that creator:

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Hi [Name],
Thanks so much for sharing your details. Your work is great, but our budget for this campaign doesn’t quite align right now. That said, I’d love to stay in touch and hopefully work together in the future.

All the best,
[Your Name]

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I appreciated this final thought from Sarah Adam:

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“I view my budgets as a puzzle that I slowly put together, one influencer deal at a time. I will never be 100% sure how many influencers my campaign will include until I reach the budget and my puzzle is complete.” 

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So try to think of the negotiation process as a game.

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Additional Factors That Impact The Success of Your Negotiation

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The terms of the deal itself aren’t the only bargaining chips you can use. Often, your biggest leverage in a negotiation is how easy you are to work with and how much the creator likes your brand.

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Here are a few additional things you can leverage to secure better deals with creators.

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Response Times

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If you respond to creators faster, you’ll probably be taken more seriously.

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Ideally, try to get as much done in a single conversation as possible and take advantage of chatting with them while they’re online and in the mood to make a deal. 

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If you get back to them the following day, your message might get lost in their inbox, or the excitement of doing a partnership with your brand might have worn off.

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Your Brand Images and Reputation

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If creators already love your brand, it’s naturally easier to get the deal done. 

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In their reflection of spending $1 million creator partnerships, this was something that the Ahrefs team learned:

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A strong brand perception makes it easier to work with creators. Since we’ve spent years building our brand—making great content, listening to our community, and building a must-use product—we don’t face many challenges in finding influencers willing to work with and promote us.

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For example, a creator might be willing to go a little lower on their pricing if you’re a hot company like Loveable, because the brand association makes that creator look good. 

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So even though Loveable might have a big brand name and therefore seemingly have a larger budget, their brand image makes them much more desirable to creators, and therefore might allow them to command a better deal.

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The opposite is also true, and you may face higher than normal rates if your brand is risky, as creators don’t want to promote a poor product to their audience.

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For example, the influencers who promoted FTX faced backlash from their audience. As a creator’s income is entirely reliant on audience trust, few creators are willing to gamble on unknown brands. If they are willing to gamble, the price will be high. 

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Sean Frank of Ridge stated something similar when discussing the concept of a “Base CPM.” You can expect to pay more if you’re a newer brand or in a taboo category.

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You might not be able to change your company’s category, but you can emphasize the importance of brand image to your executives and invest in organic content marketing efforts to build the brand.

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Your brand will also earn more trust as you work with other larger influencers, and that can be useful leverage during an influencer negotiation. 

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Often, a creator is willing to negotiate down (to a reasonable amount) with a brand that is popular among its peers, because your past influencer partnerships validate that your brand is safe and easy-to-work-with brand. 

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For example, Synthesia got into the LinkedIn influencer marketing game early on, and it has helped them secure brand partnerships with top creators.

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In my conversation with Ash Turner, here’s what he had to say:

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“Now those relationships have paid dividends. It's a lot easier to open these conversations because when I speak to some creators, they're like, I've seen this creator work with you guys already. I'd be open to a chat.”

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Campaign Creativity 

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If an influencer is excited to participate in your campaign, they’re much more likely to negotiate with you to make something work.

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For example, if an influencer’s normal rate is $2,000, but you only have a budget for $1,600, there’s a good chance the influencer will say yes anyway if they love the concept. 

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The reality is that it’s often harder to get an influencer’s attention than to get to an agreed-upon rate. 

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If you capture their attention with a concept that’s truly unique and they’re already invested in the conversation, the negotiation itself is much easier. 

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This Hootsuite partner alluded to this concept:

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I also loved this example from a Perspective partner. 

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The campaign itself made the influencer money. 

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Sure, the influencer wasn’t guaranteed a positive ROI at the beginning of the campaign (which is why they still paid him a traditional flat fee), but the concept itself (let’s see if we can increase your revenue) was likely compelling enough that it gave Perspective some unique leverage in the negotiation:

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Remember that the negotiation process is often more emotional than analytical, and most rates set by influencers are arbitrary rather than scientific. 

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Therefore, lean into emotional factors beyond just the deal structure itself when negotiating with influencers.

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Focus on Maximizing ROI Rather Than Minimizing Cost 

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The negotiation conversation is often focused on minimizing cost.

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However, as most performance marketers realize, you might see better returns spending more to work with higher quality creators who can help you get in front of a loyal audience that closely matches your ICP.

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Additionally, you can only minimize your cost so much whereas there’s an unlimited ceiling to which you can maximize revenue. 

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That isn’t to say that you should blow all of your budget on expensive creators. 

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Instead, get your feet wet testing different creators, identify what works, and then double down on expanding the creator partnerships that work.

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Get More Help Improving Your Influencer Marketing Results

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You’ll likely negotiate more effectively if you have a list of other creators who can deliver a similar ROI. 

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The problem is that finding and contacting the right creators is often much more challenging than people anticipate. 

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Even if you can find creators who appear to be a good fit, you also need to check the quality of their audience, the authenticity of their content, and other factors before entering a partnership.

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To make it easier to find and contact the right creators, we built Favikon. It’s an all-in-one influencer marketing platform that makes it easy to filter and find the right creators for your campaign. 

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You can also manage the entire negotiation process and even the campaign from within the Favikon dashboard. 

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You can try Favikon today to see for yourself how it can improve the effectiveness of your influencer marketing campaigns and allow you to save time in the process.

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