How to price influencer deals

Hello Readers 🥰

Welcome to today's edition, bringing the latest growth stories fresh to your inbox.

If your pal sent this to you, then subscribe to be the savviest marketer in the room😉

In Partnership with Levanta

Only a Select Few Brands Will Be Featured This Holiday

Every holiday season, millions of shoppers turn to gift guides, newsletters, listicles, reviews, and social placements curated by trusted publishers. 

This year, those publishers are already deciding which brands will make the cut, and Levanta is working directly with them to surface a very limited set of marketplace brands.

Here’s why this matters:

• Marketplace placements are converting at 5:1 vs. DTC
• Publishers drive millions of high-intent holiday sales each year
• Selected brands get prime visibility, predictable CAC, and directly measurable growth

This isn’t a typical affiliate program. Access is limited, and most brands spend months trying to earn relationships like these.

If your brand qualifies, you’ll skip the line and secure holiday placement that competitors can’t buy.

How to Pay Influencers

One of the most challenging aspects of influencer marketing is determining the appropriate compensation for creators. Benchmarks floating around the internet often oversimplify things, but in reality, compensation depends on a mix of factors: audience quality, engagement, deliverables, and long-term value. Here’s a practical framework to guide your payment strategy.

Steps to Demystify Influencer Payments:

1️⃣ Focus on Real and Relevant Audiences:
Follower counts don’t tell the full story. Audit for fake followers and check whether the majority of an influencer’s audience aligns with your target demographics. If 100k followers shrink to 25k real prospects, your payment should reflect that reality.

2️⃣ Look Beyond Engagement Rate:
Engagement rate is the most common metric, but it can be misleading. Viral posts or engagement pods can skew numbers. Instead, review the quality of comments, ask for analytics broken down by content type, and study consistency over time. Low engagement doesn’t always mean low sales impact.

3️⃣ Build Your Own Benchmarks:
Stop relying solely on public benchmarks. Instead, reach out to multiple creators, log price ranges, and establish your own database of standards. Over time, run campaigns, compare spend to outcomes, and refine your internal benchmarks based on actual performance.

4️⃣ Factor in the Full Context:
Rates vary based on niche, geography, campaign complexity, and partnership duration. Big brands often secure favorable rates, but smaller brands can negotiate by offering long-term relationships.

The Takeaway
Paying influencers isn’t about applying a one-size-fits-all formula. It’s about learning through experience, auditing real audiences, digging deeper than engagement rates, and setting benchmarks grounded in your own data. By treating payments as a dynamic process rather than a fixed rule, you’ll build stronger partnerships and maximize ROI.

Learn Effectively With AI Study Mode

Mastering complex topics often requires more than just reading explanations, it takes active practice, guided problem-solving, and feedback at every step. With interactive AI study tools, you can now turn your learning sessions into structured, tutor-like experiences that deepen understanding and improve retention.

Steps to Learn Effectively With AI:

1️⃣ Enable Study Mode:
Start by activating Study & Learn mode in your AI settings. This mode is designed to guide you step by step instead of simply giving you the final answer.

2️⃣ Choose Response Timing:
Select from three response styles: Auto for default flow, Instant for quick answers to simple prompts, and Thinking for detailed scaffolding that simulates a tutor walking you through the material.

3️⃣ Use Structured Prompts:
Frame your requests clearly. For example: “Help me solve [topic] step by step. Ask me for each intermediate value before moving on.” Or: “Quiz me on [subject] with MCQs and short answers.” This ensures the system checks your input before continuing.

4️⃣ Work Through Guided Steps:
The AI will act like a tutor asking you for intermediate answers, verifying correctness, and only revealing the next step once you respond. This prevents passive learning and helps you engage actively with the material.

5️⃣ Save and Revisit Sessions:
Download or bookmark your study sessions to review later. This lets you build personalized notes and track progress over time.

The Takeaway
AI-powered study flows transform passive reading into active learning. By alternating between problem-solving, guided hints, and quizzes, you’ll retain concepts longer and build confidence. With structured prompts and saved sessions, it’s like having a personal tutor available anytime you study.

We'd love to hear your feedback on today's issue! Simply reply to this email and share your thoughts on how we can improve our content and format.

Have a great day, and we'll be back again with more such content 😍