Influencers have taken over social media platforms! They connect brands with their target audience and get them conversions.

Influencer marketing is a $5-10 billion industry. Brands are vying for attention to get the meatier pie. Because collaborating with the right influencer can earn them huge profits.

But brands fail in selecting the right influencers or creating engaging campaigns. It is where an influencer platform or agency comes into the picture.

What are an influencer marketing agency and an influencer platform? What is the difference between them?

Both the influencer marketing agency and the platform offer influencers and design campaigns for the brands.       

What is an Influencer Platform?

An influencer marketing platform or an influencer marketplace offers a platform for brands to find their influencers and collaborate with them. Just as in Upwork and Fiverr, the brands can either select their influencers or place an offer. Interested influencers respond to the bid if it suits their niche and budget. The brands pay the influencer through the platform. The platform takes a cut as its commission.   

What is an Influencer marketing agency?

An influencer marketing agency handles everything from influencers to campaigns. Brands pay an amount for hiring the agency services. Brands cannot pick influencers in the agency. The agency finds the right influencers and designs marketing campaigns for the brand. It saves time otherwise spent scouring the right influencers, designing campaigns, and running them on various social media platforms.   

What is the difference between an influencer platform and an influencer marketing agency?

The gap between the influencers platform and an influencer marketing agency is thinning now. Both offer similar services, but there are a few differentiators.

An influencer platform gives greater freedom for brands in selecting the right influencers. It allows them to choose an influencer from its platform.

An agency offers end-to-end influencer marketing solutions. Brands can sit back and relax while the agency completes the campaign. But the drawback is that the brand does not have much say in what an agency does.

Let us look into the difference between an influencer marketing platform and an influencer marketing agency here.    

• Hiring influencers

When you hire the services of an influencer marketing agency, you do not have the headache of selecting influencers. Choosing the right influencers is a challenging task for brands. They have to study the follower demographics of the influencer. The engagement rates are also to be ascertained. But, by hiring an influencer marketing agency, you get rid of these jobs and let them do the work for you.

The con of letting the agency pick the influencer is that you have no say in it. The agency may not consider the engagement rate of the influencer. It may also not go deeply into what the follower demographic is. The agency may favor one influencer over another.     

In an influencer marketing platform, brands pick the right influencers for their brand. If they are not able to pick one, they place an offer. Influencers bid for the offer. The brand picks up the right influencer who matches their budget and niche. They have one-to-one meetings with the influencers while collaborating on campaigns. Influencer marketing platforms are more manual. It allows brands to learn influencer marketing first-hand.   

An platform offers liberty to the brand to choose the influencer whose follower niche aligns with the brand’s core.  

• Paying fees

In an influencer platform, the brands collaborate with the influencers directly. The marketplace acts as a mediator and ensures that the brands pay the fee and the influencer gets it. It retains the money paid by the brand till the influencer delivers the campaign. Once the influencer has done their job, the platform pays them their fee. If the influencer does not complete the campaign, the platform returns the money to the brand. It ensures a smooth fee transaction with zero risks to all the stakeholders.

An influencer marketing agency takes money for its campaign services. Each agency charges differently depending on its ad structure. Some charge a percentage of the entire spend. Some take a cut from the influencer side and the brand. Even though agencies have influencers under their fold, they charge a fee for hunting down the right ones. One advantage here is that brands can negotiate the rates for influencers and campaigns.  

With an influencer platform, you can decide on the ad budget after hiring the influencer. But with an agency, your budget determines the influencer and the campaign you get.     

• Creating campaigns

Influencer marketing agencies offer end-to-end solutions in influencer marketing. From the start to the end, they complete the entire process of marketing. They pick the right influencers, plan strategies, and run campaigns. The brand can rest assured without being involved deeply in the process.

These Influencer platforms also offer custom campaign services. Brands can opt for complete ad services as in an influencer marketing agency. The services offered are-

• Selecting the right influencer
• Planning campaign strategies based on the brand’s business goal
• Collaborating with multiple influencers
• Optimizing influencer campaigns
• Running ads on different social media platforms
• Offering detailed campaign analytics to the brand

Influencer marketing platforms offer cost-effective solutions. It gives more control over the influencer marketing campaign. A brand can scale up when needed.

• Customer support

Satisfaction in customer support is essential whether you hire the services of an influencer marketing agency or platform.

An influencer marketing platform offers full support for its customers. The brands and influencers have separate dashboards on the influencer marketing platform’s website or app to manage their campaigns. The panel for brands has information on their projects, influencers hired, ads allotted to influencers, its progress details, and the analytics for campaigns done by the platform. Similarly, the panel for influencers has information on brand collaborations, project offers, and ongoing campaigns.

An influencer marketing agency dashboard for brands has the campaign details like the influencer list, individual influencer metrics, campaign KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), etc. It helps brands to study their campaign metrics and analyze which collaboration is giving the best results.

Also Read: Online Businesses These Days Are In Need Of Digital Marketing

Wrap up

An influencer marketing platform is best suited for small or one-off campaigns. Brands select the right influencers and run campaigns or hire a dedicated manager to design it.

An influencer marketing agency is best for brands that need multi-influencer collaboration or multiple campaigns on various social media platforms. Of course, you pay more for an agency.

For brands that have a limited budget, influencer marketing platforms are the best. They select the influencers that fit their budget. They even design ads suiting their budget and niche.

Campaign goals have to be foremost on their minds when choosing between an influencer marketing agency or platform. Finally, it is your call!