Practitioner · Lesson 3 of 4
Influencer campaigns with tracked results
About 10 minutes · Yogender Kumar, Managing Partner
By the end of this lesson you'll be able to
- Choose between a fee, commission or a mix of both for a creator
- Calculate cost per sale including the creator's fee
- Set up tracking and labelling that holds up
Why this matters
A creator's post can bring in hundreds of thousands of views and very few sales. You can't tell which until you track it, and you can't compare creators until you include what you paid them.
The core idea
There are three ways to pay a creator:
- A fixed fee for an agreed set of posts. You carry the risk.
- Commission only, a share of each tracked sale. The creator carries the risk, so it suits smaller creators or ones who already love the product.
- A hybrid: a smaller fee plus commission. It shares the risk, and it's a common middle route.
Track every creator two ways: a tracked link and their own discount code. Links miss people who buy later or on another device. Codes catch many of those, but they can leak onto voucher sites.
Then judge each creator on cost per sale, including the fee. Views and likes tell you about reach. They don't tell you what was sold.
The post must also be labelled as an ad. The ASA treats a creator's post as an ad when there's payment, commission or another reward and the brand has some control, such as a brief or approval. That includes commission-only posts. It expects "Ad" up front, on the post itself. A platform's paid-partnership tag alone may not be enough.
Worked example
Saltmarsh Skincare is an imaginary UK skincare brand, so the figures are illustrative. Its average order is £60 and its target is £25 per sale. It runs three creators for a month, all on 10% commission (£6 a sale), with different fees:
- Creator A, 400,000 followers: £2,000 fee. 50 sales. Commission £300. Total £2,300, or £46 a sale.
- Creator B, 40,000 followers: £500 fee. 40 sales. Commission £240. Total £740, or £18.50 a sale.
- Creator C, 8,000 followers: commission only. 15 sales. Commission £90, or £6 a sale.
Creator A had ten times B's following and brought slightly more sales, at two and a half times the cost per sale. B and C are inside target.
One more check. Saltmarsh searches for each code and finds Creator A's code on two voucher sites. Some of A's sales may be shoppers who never saw the post, so A's real cost per sale is higher than £46. Next time, A gets single-use codes, each working for one customer only.
My view: start with smaller creators on a hybrid or commission deal, and move to bigger fees only once you know what a creator's audience buys.
Cost per sale for each creator, fee included
In practice
- Give every creator a tracked link and a code of their own.
- Agree in writing what's posted, when, and how it's labelled.
- Judge each creator on cost per sale, including the fee.
- Search for creator codes on voucher sites every week.
- Rebook the creators whose audience buys, and drop the rest.
Common mistakes
- Judging by views. Reach isn't sales. Compare cost per sale.
- Leaving the fee out. Commission alone makes a big fee look cheap. Add the fee in.
- Unlabelled posts. It breaks the advertising rules and puts the brand at risk as well as the creator. Agree the label in the brief.
Try it yourself
A creator charges a £1,200 fee plus 8% commission. Your average order is £75, and the campaign brings 60 tracked sales. What's the cost per sale? Your target is £30.
Show answer
Commission per sale: £75 × 8% = £6. Total commission: 60 × £6 = £360. Total cost: £1,200 + £360 = £1,560. Cost per sale: £1,560 ÷ 60 = £26, inside the £30 target.
Quick check
Not scored. Pick an answer to see the explanation.
Why give a creator both a tracked link and their own code?
A creator's fee is £1,000 and commission totals £200 on 40 sales. What's the cost per sale?
Key takeaways
- Pay creators by fee, commission or a hybrid, depending on who should carry the risk.
- Track with a link and a code of their own.
- Judge creators on cost per sale, including the fee.
- Label paid and affiliate posts as ads, up front.