Brands face mounting pressure to optimize creator partnerships as investments surge – according to a World Federation of Advertisers research, multinational brands will increase creator marketing budgets by 54% this year.
In this second installment examining brand-creator relationships, industry leaders we spoke to offer frameworks for crafting performance-driven partnerships. The discussion builds on our previous examination of changing metrics and budget allocation trends, now focusing specifically on contract structures and measurement approaches that enhance ROI.
We asked C-suite executives and marketing leaders as well as brand strategists and creators to uncover actionable insights for optimizing brand-creator deals. Their inputs reveal a clear trend: one-off posts may generate impressions, but sustainable partnerships are the ones that deliver desired outcomes.
To deliver true ROI, brand-creator deals must prioritise alignment in values, not just metrics. At BNOC, we believe the most impactful partnerships are built on shared purpose and mutual respect. Creators aren’t media channels, they’re storytellers with influence rooted in trust.
Deals should be structured around long-term relationships, clear objectives, and space for authentic content creation. When a creator genuinely resonates with a brand’s mission, their audience does too and that’s what drives real conversion.
ROI improves when brands brief with depth, involve creators early, and move beyond one-size-fits-all campaign models. Paid social performance can amplify a post, but values and voice are what make it stick.
Meaningful partnerships, not just moments, are the future of influencer marketing and they’re what truly move the needle.
Brand-creator deals need to be structured with both investment and accountability to deliver better ROI.
One-off deals buy you a post. Real ROI comes from resourcing the right creators and holding them to performance. If a creator’s lens and performance metrics landed them the deal, those same numbers and creative authenticity should shape the contract — with minimum benchmarks, engagement clauses, and an expectation to optimize. This isn’t just content delivery; it’s business impact delivery.
At DNY — and now through SOCI Studio — we’re building this model in real time. SOCI is where creators craft community-first creative, turn algorithms into advantages, and generate repeatable, measurable results.
Short-term campaigns may spike impressions. Long-term partnerships, built on shared KPIs and mutual upside, build media equity. Creators aren’t just influencers — they’re media networks in the making.
The brands that co-build and demand performance won’t just see better ROI — they’ll own the space.
Brand-creator deals deliver stronger ROI when they’re structured as multi-platform, multi-pulse campaigns, not just one-and-done posts. Consistency across channels (Reels, Stories, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.) drives more impressions, recall, and trust over time.
It also starts with clarity. Even a short briefing between the creator and brand helps ensure content aligns with brand values and performs authentically. Quick approval windows and real collaboration go a long way.
And most importantly, the brand should be clear on what ROI actually means to them. Is it downloads? Awareness? Credibility in a new niche? When goals are defined early, creators can tailor their content accordingly and brands are more likely to get measurable, meaningful results.
To deliver the “best” ROI in influencer partnerships, creators and brands need to understand how to hedge risk on both sides of the table.
From the creator’s perspective, the risks include time spent on production, the opportunity cost of filling limited content slots, and how the audience might perceive the promoted product.
From the brand’s side, the primary risk is financial — investing in content without guaranteed results.
The most effective structure to balance these risks is a hybrid model: base fee + performance bonus.
The base fee protects both parties if the video underperforms, while the performance tier (via an agreed CPM) ensures the brand fairly compensates the creator when content performs well — all while staying within target KPIs.
Flat-fee or purely performance-based deals often overpay or underpay creators. A hybrid model creates fairness, consistency, and a stronger foundation for long-term partnerships.
The best performing brand-creator partnerships are the ones that feel less like transactions and more like collaborations. With talent, ROI comes from the trust they’ve built with their audience, and how naturally the brand fits into their world.
This means brands & agencies need to carefully toe the line between getting what they need (and are paying for) while still respecting the creator’s voice/style and leaving room for creativity. This includes being realistic about deliverables and understanding the pacing of the creator’s content.
We’ve also consistently seen better results when brands think beyond one-off deals and invest in ongoing, longterm partnerships. When a brand becomes part of a creator’s actual lifestyle, that authenticity rings true — and the sales tend to follow.
There’s a structural bias in how creator impact gets measured—and creators are the ones losing out. Our data shows influencers are under-credited by nearly 40% because legacy attribution models still favor who closes, not who contributes. That’s outdated. Real ROI comes from aligning pay with actual influence, not just the last click. We need smarter tech, better measurement, and deal structures that don’t treat creators like disposable traffic sources. The tools exist. It’s time we use them.
Brand-creator deals work best when everyone’s incentives are aligned—and not just on paper. Our survey with impact.com showed nearly half of brands lean toward flat-fee plus performance bonuses, while creators say rate negotiation is their biggest buzzkill. The win-win? Pay-per-post with commission. It shares the risk and the reward. But here’s the kicker: ROI doesn’t come from likes. It comes from measurable actions—clicks that lead somewhere, not just vibes. If you can’t track it, you can’t optimize it.
Brand creator deals should be focused on sustainability for all parties long term. Maximizing ROI comes from not only a successful one off integration which can be swayed by many factors outside of either parties control, but rather by creating a partnership that will last long-term. This allows the brand to truly and authentically integrate into a creators audience, which ultimately drives performance.
Brands should be doing three important things to maximize ROI of their influencer investments:
1) Integrate influencer data into MMM reporting so that the results ladder up into the broader marketing dashboards that executives are reviewing to assess marketing spend;
2) Test creator content in paid media against BAU (business as usual) content to understand how it performs against media benchmarks (social and beyond); and
3) Make all creator content shoppable so that there is no dead end posts, and when consumers take action that action can be properly tracked and attributed to the creators. If all three are done effectively it paints a much clearer picture of the total impact of creator partnerships beyond the organic reach of the creators post.
Aligning with the right creator partners is essential. That doesn’t necessarily mean creators with the most followers, but rather those whose audience data and content align with your brand’s target audience, which ensures that the content will be seen by probable customers. I also recommend partnering with creators with a proven track record for sales by working with creators with a strong affiliate marketing strategy and the data to back up their ability to convert views into purchases. Part of the reason The Digital Dept. launched our new affiliate creator program to strengthen creators’ affiliate data and make them ideal candidates for ROI-focused campaigns.
From a strategy perspective, timing your campaign strategically can also boost ROI. Aligning it to a major shopping holiday or tying it to a large cultural event that relates back to your brand can help drive buzz and catch consumers when they are planning on making purchases.
Influencer and brand partnerships need to reflect the reality of 2025’s creator economy, not 2015’s. The shift from photo to video wasn’t the biggest industry change; it was the shift from informative-first to entertaining-first content. Successful deals now follow our ‘entertain, then inspire or educate’ framework. For example, when skincare brand Innisfree partnered with entertainment-first creators for their Green Tea Seed Hyaluronic Cream launch, they explicitly gave creative freedom while asking for authentic, personality-driven content. One video alone achieved well over 700% industry benchmarks by prioritizing entertainment over standard product messaging.
ROI lives in the first three seconds – without an attention-grabbing hook, all your strategic brilliance goes unwatched. Our recent platform rebuild at Fohr focuses on this 2025 reality, refocusing our tech on identifying creators who consistently achieve virality, not just average performance. Stop measuring ROI with legacy metrics and start building deals around content that transforms passive viewers into active participants.
I think brand-creator deals work best when they’re built around what makes each creator unique. Every creator has their own voice, audience, and style of storytelling, so deals shouldn’t be one size fits all. For brands to see better ROI, they need to take the time to understand who they’re working with. It’s not just the numbers, but the creator’s vision and what kind of content feels natural to them. When that alignment is there, the content performs better because it’s authentic, and the audience can feel that. Brands need to think beyond pushing product but how it’s also about creating something that fits into the creator’s world in a way that feels real. That’s what builds trust with the audience, and that’s what drives results. At the end of the day, the best partnerships are the ones where both sides feel like they’re getting something meaningful out of it.
As someone who works primarily creator-side, the worst thing you can hand over is a brief packed with so many talking points it becomes a scripted ad.
Audiences instantly sense when something isn’t in the creator’s authentic voice — and that’s the fastest way to tank your ROI.
From the brand side, focus on a few key must-haves, then give the creator full creative control. You’ll still get a chance to review and request edits before it goes live, so there’s no real risk. In fact, if the creator knows their audience (and they should), they’ll likely deliver a better integration than you imagined.
Finally, brands need to invest in longer-term partnerships. Creators value stability, and multiple-video deals consistently perform better, boosting audience trust and authenticity — both of which directly drive stronger ROI over time.
Moving beyond surface-level metrics like likes and impressions is crucial for brands seeking genuine ROI from influencer collaborations. While influencer marketing holds the potential to be highly measurable, success hinges on a data-centric strategy from the outset. This involves a deep understanding of creator personas, content styles, hook and transition rates, and engagement depth to identify the right partners and content formats. By prioritising data collection before campaign execution, brands can define clear KPIs and implement robust tracking mechanisms. This proactive approach ensures that the right questions are asked, leading to the collection of meaningful data that informs strategic decision-making and moves beyond guesswork.
To truly maximise ROI, brands must structure collaborations with a focus on measurability. This includes providing clear briefs, establishing pre-campaign benchmarks, integrating unique tracking tools, and actively monitoring performance. A/B testing content variations and conducting in-depth post-campaign analysis are essential for identifying what resonates best with the target audience and drives conversions. By embracing this data-driven approach, influencer marketing can evolve from a reliance on vanity metrics to a sophisticated and accountable channel, ultimately unlocking its full potential to deliver tangible and significant returns on investment.
To deliver better ROI, brand-creator deals should focus on long-term partnerships, performance-based incentives, and clear KPIs. At Clicks Talent, we’ve seen that when creators are genuinely aligned with the brand’s values and have creative freedom, campaigns perform significantly better. Structuring deals with milestone-based payouts, usage rights, and exclusivity terms ensures accountability and maximizes value for both sides. Brands should also invest in data-driven matchmaking — pairing with influencers whose audience truly matches their target market. Finally, post-campaign analytics are essential to measure success and refine future collaborations.
The partnership should be based on the idea of long-term cooperation. Thus, content creators will become strategic partners or you can also call them brand advocates. This type of partnership implies that the brand and the creator immediately agree on the goals of the partnership, metrics and other terms of cooperation.
Today, there are a lot of brands, the market of almost any sphere is highly competitive, and before making a purchase, the audience will hesitate and will have to choose between several products or services. Long-term partnerships with the same influencers allow you to convince the audience of a particular creator that your product is
On average, people need about 8 checkpoints before they finally buy something. That is why it is so important to work with an influencer who will constantly represent your brand.
Brand deals should be structured around multiple touch points with the creators’ audience. For example, on LinkedIn – brands can activate around LinkedIn Posts, Creator Newsletters, Podcasts, Webinars and Co-Authored Content. The goal is to spread these activations over a minimum of 3 months so you can test multiple activation types. For example, a monthly LI post, a monthly newsletter blast, a webinar with a co-authored asset is an excellent way to test if things are working well.
From a monetary perspective, there are a few ways to structure deals. You can pay a retainer that unlocks usage rights and competitive exclusivity. Or you can try and push for a performance heavy deal. The reality is however, that many creators don’t take performance only deals. The key is to find a hybrid model especially when you’ve already finished the pilot.
To deliver better ROI, brand-creator deals should be structured around measurable outcomes and long-term value. The most effective partnerships rely on detailed performance data, such as transaction-level insights and engagement trends, to predict and track results. This approach enables brands to optimize campaigns in real time and justify marketing spend. Micro-influencers, in particular, offer strong returns by combining niche expertise with authentic audience connections. Platform choice also impacts ROI: Instagram and TikTok command higher brand rates, while YouTube and Snap lead in direct creator compensation. As the creator economy matures, professionalism and brand safety have become table stakes, allowing creators to deliver high-performing content while maintaining authenticity. Structuring deals with clear KPIs, creative flexibility, and aligned values helps ensure partnerships are both impactful and sustainable.
When structuring brand-creator deals for optimal ROI, it’s crucial to focus on alignment, authenticity, and long-term value. Both parties must establish clear, measurable goals – whether it’s driving sales, building awareness, or reaching a specific audience. The key is matching a brand with a creator whose values and content authentically resonate with their audience. This ensures the campaign feels genuine and drives meaningful engagement.
Equally important is leveraging data-driven insights to determine fair compensation structures, often blending upfront fees with performance-based incentives. This approach encourages creators to invest in the campaign’s success while delivering measurable value for brands.
Long-term partnerships can also yield better ROI than one-off deals as they allow creators to build trust with their audience and authentically integrate the brand into their ongoing narrative. Finally, it’s essential to stay flexible and maintain open communication. Brands and creators must collaborate to refine strategies based on real-time performance data, ensuring campaigns consistently deliver impactful results.
As we move toward more specifically measurable campaign listening tools, awareness plays are, understandably, not cutting it for brands any longer. There are a number of things brands can do to hone in on ROI, but the first step is finding the right talent. It’s a rare thing to find an influencer with a broad reach and a high conversion rate, with the intangible factor that bridges those two tentpoles being trust. A creator who has cultivated a large audience that puts a lot of trust in that creator’s recommendations, thus leading them down the sales funnel towards the path to purchase, has likely done so through an extremely selective sponsored posting cadence, a very robust organic posting cadence (rife with authentic recommendations), and an underlying ability to create genuine, engaging, and relatable content.
With the right talent in place, the next thing to consider is the brief. Before getting into the commercials, brands need to understand that the way information is delivered to a creator’s audience is the single most important element of a campaign. It’s why campaigns fail and it’s why they succeed. Oftentimes, creators are saddled with paragraphs of talking points, hashtags, and must-do’s that miss the mark, creating a rigid structure within which creators are unable to express themselves in the way their audience is accustomed to. It’s inauthentic and it stifles sales. We always push for talent-led concepting because we know it will be more successful.
Finally, when it comes to commercials and actual deal structure, there needs to be more longevity (i.e., multi-pulse or ambassador-style campaigns), more sales-based incentives (accompanied by higher value discount codes than can be found elsewhere), and more transparency with performance (it’s rare to have full visibility into how links performed).
Authenticity drives impact. When brands collaborate with creators who share their values, the partnership resonates with audiences in a way that builds trust and engagement. The live streaming industry stands out because it connects brands to highly engaged, niche communities. These audiences aren’t just passive viewers; their passion for the content translates into higher interaction and, ultimately, increased ROI for brands that offer products or services aligning with those interests.
Furthermore, when creators focus on building deeper relationships with carefully chosen partners, they can maintain the trust of their audience by promoting genuinely valuable products. Constantly introducing new, unrelated brands makes audiences more skeptical of the creator’s recommendations. However, by collaborating with brands that align closely with their values, creators can enhance their credibility while delivering meaningful content to their followers. This strategy benefits the audience and results in stronger, long-term partnerships that drive better outcomes for creators and brands.
Cecilia Carloni, Interview Manager at Influence Weekly and writer for NetInfluencer. Coming from beautiful Argentina, Ceci has spent years chatting with big names in the influencer world, making friends and learning insider info along the way. When she’s not deep in interviews or writing, she's enjoying life with her two daughters. Ceci’s stories give a peek behind the curtain of influencer life, sharing the real and interesting tales from her many conversations with movers and shakers in the space.
Brands face mounting pressure to optimize creator partnerships as investments surge – according to a World Federation of Advertisers research, multinational brands will increase creator marketing budgets by 54% this year.
In this second installment examining brand-creator relationships, industry leaders we spoke to offer frameworks for crafting performance-driven partnerships. The discussion builds on our previous examination of changing metrics and budget allocation trends, now focusing specifically on contract structures and measurement approaches that enhance ROI.
We asked C-suite executives and marketing leaders as well as brand strategists and creators to uncover actionable insights for optimizing brand-creator deals. Their inputs reveal a clear trend: one-off posts may generate impressions, but sustainable partnerships are the ones that deliver desired outcomes.
Maya Orr, Founder, BNOC Agency
To deliver true ROI, brand-creator deals must prioritise alignment in values, not just metrics. At BNOC, we believe the most impactful partnerships are built on shared purpose and mutual respect. Creators aren’t media channels, they’re storytellers with influence rooted in trust.
Deals should be structured around long-term relationships, clear objectives, and space for authentic content creation. When a creator genuinely resonates with a brand’s mission, their audience does too and that’s what drives real conversion.
ROI improves when brands brief with depth, involve creators early, and move beyond one-size-fits-all campaign models. Paid social performance can amplify a post, but values and voice are what make it stick.
Meaningful partnerships, not just moments, are the future of influencer marketing and they’re what truly move the needle.
Ashley Rudder, Chief Creator Officer, DNY
Brand-creator deals need to be structured with both investment and accountability to deliver better ROI.
One-off deals buy you a post. Real ROI comes from resourcing the right creators and holding them to performance. If a creator’s lens and performance metrics landed them the deal, those same numbers and creative authenticity should shape the contract — with minimum benchmarks, engagement clauses, and an expectation to optimize. This isn’t just content delivery; it’s business impact delivery.
At DNY — and now through SOCI Studio — we’re building this model in real time. SOCI is where creators craft community-first creative, turn algorithms into advantages, and generate repeatable, measurable results.
Short-term campaigns may spike impressions. Long-term partnerships, built on shared KPIs and mutual upside, build media equity. Creators aren’t just influencers — they’re media networks in the making.
The brands that co-build and demand performance won’t just see better ROI — they’ll own the space.
Gigi Robinson, Creator Economy Strategist & Founder of Hosts of Influence
Brand-creator deals deliver stronger ROI when they’re structured as multi-platform, multi-pulse campaigns, not just one-and-done posts. Consistency across channels (Reels, Stories, LinkedIn, TikTok, etc.) drives more impressions, recall, and trust over time.
It also starts with clarity. Even a short briefing between the creator and brand helps ensure content aligns with brand values and performs authentically. Quick approval windows and real collaboration go a long way.
And most importantly, the brand should be clear on what ROI actually means to them. Is it downloads? Awareness? Credibility in a new niche? When goals are defined early, creators can tailor their content accordingly and brands are more likely to get measurable, meaningful results.
Benjamin Marks, Founder & CEO, Nucreator
To deliver the “best” ROI in influencer partnerships, creators and brands need to understand how to hedge risk on both sides of the table.
From the creator’s perspective, the risks include time spent on production, the opportunity cost of filling limited content slots, and how the audience might perceive the promoted product.
From the brand’s side, the primary risk is financial — investing in content without guaranteed results.
The most effective structure to balance these risks is a hybrid model: base fee + performance bonus.
The base fee protects both parties if the video underperforms, while the performance tier (via an agreed CPM) ensures the brand fairly compensates the creator when content performs well — all while staying within target KPIs.
Flat-fee or purely performance-based deals often overpay or underpay creators. A hybrid model creates fairness, consistency, and a stronger foundation for long-term partnerships.
Michael Curtis, Founder & CEO, Proud Management
The best performing brand-creator partnerships are the ones that feel less like transactions and more like collaborations. With talent, ROI comes from the trust they’ve built with their audience, and how naturally the brand fits into their world.
This means brands & agencies need to carefully toe the line between getting what they need (and are paying for) while still respecting the creator’s voice/style and leaving room for creativity. This includes being realistic about deliverables and understanding the pacing of the creator’s content.
We’ve also consistently seen better results when brands think beyond one-off deals and invest in ongoing, longterm partnerships. When a brand becomes part of a creator’s actual lifestyle, that authenticity rings true — and the sales tend to follow.
Stephanie Harris, Founder & CEO, PartnerCentric
There’s a structural bias in how creator impact gets measured—and creators are the ones losing out. Our data shows influencers are under-credited by nearly 40% because legacy attribution models still favor who closes, not who contributes. That’s outdated. Real ROI comes from aligning pay with actual influence, not just the last click. We need smarter tech, better measurement, and deal structures that don’t treat creators like disposable traffic sources. The tools exist. It’s time we use them.
Scott Allan, Chief Marketing Officer, URLgenius
Brand-creator deals work best when everyone’s incentives are aligned—and not just on paper. Our survey with impact.com showed nearly half of brands lean toward flat-fee plus performance bonuses, while creators say rate negotiation is their biggest buzzkill. The win-win? Pay-per-post with commission. It shares the risk and the reward. But here’s the kicker: ROI doesn’t come from likes. It comes from measurable actions—clicks that lead somewhere, not just vibes. If you can’t track it, you can’t optimize it.
Ben Deaney, President, MANA Talent Group
Brand creator deals should be focused on sustainability for all parties long term. Maximizing ROI comes from not only a successful one off integration which can be swayed by many factors outside of either parties control, but rather by creating a partnership that will last long-term. This allows the brand to truly and authentically integrate into a creators audience, which ultimately drives performance.
Keith Bendes, Chief Strategy Officer, Linqia
Brands should be doing three important things to maximize ROI of their influencer investments:
1) Integrate influencer data into MMM reporting so that the results ladder up into the broader marketing dashboards that executives are reviewing to assess marketing spend;
2) Test creator content in paid media against BAU (business as usual) content to understand how it performs against media benchmarks (social and beyond); and
3) Make all creator content shoppable so that there is no dead end posts, and when consumers take action that action can be properly tracked and attributed to the creators. If all three are done effectively it paints a much clearer picture of the total impact of creator partnerships beyond the organic reach of the creators post.
Ali Grant, Co-CEO & CMO, The Digital Dept.
Aligning with the right creator partners is essential. That doesn’t necessarily mean creators with the most followers, but rather those whose audience data and content align with your brand’s target audience, which ensures that the content will be seen by probable customers. I also recommend partnering with creators with a proven track record for sales by working with creators with a strong affiliate marketing strategy and the data to back up their ability to convert views into purchases. Part of the reason The Digital Dept. launched our new affiliate creator program to strengthen creators’ affiliate data and make them ideal candidates for ROI-focused campaigns.
From a strategy perspective, timing your campaign strategically can also boost ROI. Aligning it to a major shopping holiday or tying it to a large cultural event that relates back to your brand can help drive buzz and catch consumers when they are planning on making purchases.
James Nord, Founder & CEO, Fohr
Influencer and brand partnerships need to reflect the reality of 2025’s creator economy, not 2015’s. The shift from photo to video wasn’t the biggest industry change; it was the shift from informative-first to entertaining-first content. Successful deals now follow our ‘entertain, then inspire or educate’ framework. For example, when skincare brand Innisfree partnered with entertainment-first creators for their Green Tea Seed Hyaluronic Cream launch, they explicitly gave creative freedom while asking for authentic, personality-driven content. One video alone achieved well over 700% industry benchmarks by prioritizing entertainment over standard product messaging.
ROI lives in the first three seconds – without an attention-grabbing hook, all your strategic brilliance goes unwatched. Our recent platform rebuild at Fohr focuses on this 2025 reality, refocusing our tech on identifying creators who consistently achieve virality, not just average performance. Stop measuring ROI with legacy metrics and start building deals around content that transforms passive viewers into active participants.
Ryan Lu, Content Creator
I think brand-creator deals work best when they’re built around what makes each creator unique. Every creator has their own voice, audience, and style of storytelling, so deals shouldn’t be one size fits all. For brands to see better ROI, they need to take the time to understand who they’re working with. It’s not just the numbers, but the creator’s vision and what kind of content feels natural to them. When that alignment is there, the content performs better because it’s authentic, and the audience can feel that. Brands need to think beyond pushing product but how it’s also about creating something that fits into the creator’s world in a way that feels real. That’s what builds trust with the audience, and that’s what drives results. At the end of the day, the best partnerships are the ones where both sides feel like they’re getting something meaningful out of it.
Kristian Sturt, Director, Colossal Influence
As someone who works primarily creator-side, the worst thing you can hand over is a brief packed with so many talking points it becomes a scripted ad.
Audiences instantly sense when something isn’t in the creator’s authentic voice — and that’s the fastest way to tank your ROI.
From the brand side, focus on a few key must-haves, then give the creator full creative control. You’ll still get a chance to review and request edits before it goes live, so there’s no real risk. In fact, if the creator knows their audience (and they should), they’ll likely deliver a better integration than you imagined.
Finally, brands need to invest in longer-term partnerships. Creators value stability, and multiple-video deals consistently perform better, boosting audience trust and authenticity — both of which directly drive stronger ROI over time.
Sam Royle, Co-Founder & CEO, SoSquared
Moving beyond surface-level metrics like likes and impressions is crucial for brands seeking genuine ROI from influencer collaborations. While influencer marketing holds the potential to be highly measurable, success hinges on a data-centric strategy from the outset. This involves a deep understanding of creator personas, content styles, hook and transition rates, and engagement depth to identify the right partners and content formats. By prioritising data collection before campaign execution, brands can define clear KPIs and implement robust tracking mechanisms. This proactive approach ensures that the right questions are asked, leading to the collection of meaningful data that informs strategic decision-making and moves beyond guesswork.
To truly maximise ROI, brands must structure collaborations with a focus on measurability. This includes providing clear briefs, establishing pre-campaign benchmarks, integrating unique tracking tools, and actively monitoring performance. A/B testing content variations and conducting in-depth post-campaign analysis are essential for identifying what resonates best with the target audience and drives conversions. By embracing this data-driven approach, influencer marketing can evolve from a reliance on vanity metrics to a sophisticated and accountable channel, ultimately unlocking its full potential to deliver tangible and significant returns on investment.
Alina Kotliarova, Legal Counsel, ClicksTalent
To deliver better ROI, brand-creator deals should focus on long-term partnerships, performance-based incentives, and clear KPIs. At Clicks Talent, we’ve seen that when creators are genuinely aligned with the brand’s values and have creative freedom, campaigns perform significantly better. Structuring deals with milestone-based payouts, usage rights, and exclusivity terms ensures accountability and maximizes value for both sides. Brands should also invest in data-driven matchmaking — pairing with influencers whose audience truly matches their target market. Finally, post-campaign analytics are essential to measure success and refine future collaborations.
Kate Andreeva, Head of Influencer Talent Relations, HypeFactory
The partnership should be based on the idea of long-term cooperation. Thus, content creators will become strategic partners or you can also call them brand advocates. This type of partnership implies that the brand and the creator immediately agree on the goals of the partnership, metrics and other terms of cooperation.
Today, there are a lot of brands, the market of almost any sphere is highly competitive, and before making a purchase, the audience will hesitate and will have to choose between several products or services. Long-term partnerships with the same influencers allow you to convince the audience of a particular creator that your product is
On average, people need about 8 checkpoints before they finally buy something. That is why it is so important to work with an influencer who will constantly represent your brand.
Aneesh Lal, CEO, The Wishly Group
Brand deals should be structured around multiple touch points with the creators’ audience. For example, on LinkedIn – brands can activate around LinkedIn Posts, Creator Newsletters, Podcasts, Webinars and Co-Authored Content. The goal is to spread these activations over a minimum of 3 months so you can test multiple activation types. For example, a monthly LI post, a monthly newsletter blast, a webinar with a co-authored asset is an excellent way to test if things are working well.
From a monetary perspective, there are a few ways to structure deals. You can pay a retainer that unlocks usage rights and competitive exclusivity. Or you can try and push for a performance heavy deal. The reality is however, that many creators don’t take performance only deals. The key is to find a hybrid model especially when you’ve already finished the pilot.
Scott Sutton, CEO, Later
To deliver better ROI, brand-creator deals should be structured around measurable outcomes and long-term value. The most effective partnerships rely on detailed performance data, such as transaction-level insights and engagement trends, to predict and track results. This approach enables brands to optimize campaigns in real time and justify marketing spend. Micro-influencers, in particular, offer strong returns by combining niche expertise with authentic audience connections. Platform choice also impacts ROI: Instagram and TikTok command higher brand rates, while YouTube and Snap lead in direct creator compensation. As the creator economy matures, professionalism and brand safety have become table stakes, allowing creators to deliver high-performing content while maintaining authenticity. Structuring deals with clear KPIs, creative flexibility, and aligned values helps ensure partnerships are both impactful and sustainable.
Catherine Halaby, Vice President of Creator Relations, Collective Voice
When structuring brand-creator deals for optimal ROI, it’s crucial to focus on alignment, authenticity, and long-term value. Both parties must establish clear, measurable goals – whether it’s driving sales, building awareness, or reaching a specific audience. The key is matching a brand with a creator whose values and content authentically resonate with their audience. This ensures the campaign feels genuine and drives meaningful engagement.
Equally important is leveraging data-driven insights to determine fair compensation structures, often blending upfront fees with performance-based incentives. This approach encourages creators to invest in the campaign’s success while delivering measurable value for brands.
Long-term partnerships can also yield better ROI than one-off deals as they allow creators to build trust with their audience and authentically integrate the brand into their ongoing narrative. Finally, it’s essential to stay flexible and maintain open communication. Brands and creators must collaborate to refine strategies based on real-time performance data, ensuring campaigns consistently deliver impactful results.
SMITH&SAINT
As we move toward more specifically measurable campaign listening tools, awareness plays are, understandably, not cutting it for brands any longer. There are a number of things brands can do to hone in on ROI, but the first step is finding the right talent. It’s a rare thing to find an influencer with a broad reach and a high conversion rate, with the intangible factor that bridges those two tentpoles being trust. A creator who has cultivated a large audience that puts a lot of trust in that creator’s recommendations, thus leading them down the sales funnel towards the path to purchase, has likely done so through an extremely selective sponsored posting cadence, a very robust organic posting cadence (rife with authentic recommendations), and an underlying ability to create genuine, engaging, and relatable content.
With the right talent in place, the next thing to consider is the brief. Before getting into the commercials, brands need to understand that the way information is delivered to a creator’s audience is the single most important element of a campaign. It’s why campaigns fail and it’s why they succeed. Oftentimes, creators are saddled with paragraphs of talking points, hashtags, and must-do’s that miss the mark, creating a rigid structure within which creators are unable to express themselves in the way their audience is accustomed to. It’s inauthentic and it stifles sales. We always push for talent-led concepting because we know it will be more successful.
Finally, when it comes to commercials and actual deal structure, there needs to be more longevity (i.e., multi-pulse or ambassador-style campaigns), more sales-based incentives (accompanied by higher value discount codes than can be found elsewhere), and more transparency with performance (it’s rare to have full visibility into how links performed).
Ashray Urs, Head of Streamlabs
Authenticity drives impact. When brands collaborate with creators who share their values, the partnership resonates with audiences in a way that builds trust and engagement. The live streaming industry stands out because it connects brands to highly engaged, niche communities. These audiences aren’t just passive viewers; their passion for the content translates into higher interaction and, ultimately, increased ROI for brands that offer products or services aligning with those interests.
Furthermore, when creators focus on building deeper relationships with carefully chosen partners, they can maintain the trust of their audience by promoting genuinely valuable products. Constantly introducing new, unrelated brands makes audiences more skeptical of the creator’s recommendations. However, by collaborating with brands that align closely with their values, creators can enhance their credibility while delivering meaningful content to their followers. This strategy benefits the audience and results in stronger, long-term partnerships that drive better outcomes for creators and brands.