How to Negotiate With Influencers: Levers for the Best Deals

We’ve covered the basic do’s and don’ts of negotiating with influencers. So, what else do you need to know to secure the best deal for your brand?

Enter: Negotiation levers.

Influencer negotiations have an art and a science. There’s a balance that needs to be maintained to ensure all parties are happy. So, how can you leverage different components of an influencer’s scope of work to give everyone what they want? That is is where the negotiation levers come in.

What are negotiation levers?

Negotiation levers are tactics and deliverables that influencer marketers can pull on to reach mutually beneficial agreements with creators. They help ensure that brands maximize their budgets as much as possible, while also building more productive, long-term partnerships with creators that yield better ROI over time.

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Lever 1: Ask the creator for their rate first

“Don’t make the first move!” might be a cliche in all types of negotiations, but it’s cited for a reason. Letting the influencer provide their rate first gives you a starting point to negotiate from, so you can anchor your counter-offers based on that initial proposal.

“The influencer is most often going to send you their highest rate. It’s almost always negotiable.”
_{Rebecca Beach,  Influencer Marketing and Creator Relationship Manager at VERBfluence Agency.}

If the brand offers first, there’s a risk that you might offend a creator by sending something that’s lower than their typical range. It’s difficult to come back from this - and trust us: You don’t want to become known as a brand that makes lowball offers.

In saying that, it’s always important to give creators context about the rate you’re offering. As Lydia explains, this helps them to understand your budget limitations and open up further discussions about what arrangement could work:

“I always just try to level with them. My line is “We're a small company balling on a budget.” I always say that I don't aim to offend anyone with this low offer. It's just what we can afford, you know?”
_{Lydia Lee, Chief Executive Officer at For The Clout.}

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Lever 2: Set a baseline

As with any service, the cost of working with influencers is not set in stone; rates vary wildly based on performance, audience size, niche, content style, and more. This can make influencer negotiations a bewildering experience for less experienced marketers, but as Lindsay points out, this opens up a lot of opportunities, too:

“The creator economy has come to a place where creators can command high dollar, but there's also a lot of new creators that are hoping to get started. Do a lay of land to understand what those industry benchmarks are for certain deliverables.”
_{Lindsay Gamble}

So, before you open a negotiation with a creator, you need to establish a reliable baseline for what you're willing to pay. Otherwise, it’s impossible to know whether an influencer’s rate is reasonable. As Jonathan explains, this ensures you don’t end up drastically overpaying for content:

"If you see somebody's approximate cost is 5X what other folks in their space are charging, it might be out of line. You can then go back and explain that their cost based on their followers seems too high and negotiate from there."
_{Jonathan Claydon, Chief Development Officer at Acceleration Partners.}

Criteria to consider when establishing a baseline includes:

• Follower count
• Impressions
• Engagement rate
• CPM

These metrics will give you a solid idea of whether a creator’s rates fall within a reasonable range - and if they don’t, a strong lever to negotiate lower.

Lever 3: Adjust your deliverables, rather than pricing

If an influencer's rate is too high for your budget, consider negotiating the deliverables for the campaign instead. While this can mean paying more per deliverable, you can find some unique ways to maximize these assets.

"If you need 6 unique pieces of content specifically for video, you might be able to say, let's actually do 2 unique pieces of content, but let's do social reposting."
_{Amber Kai, Head of Creator and Brand Partnerships at Sequincial.}

For example, if you’re booking a set of Instagram Stories, you can always ask the influencer to throw in an additional ‘Reminder Frame’ to go out 1-2 weeks after the initial set. This is little extra work on a creator’s end, and also prolongs audience exposure to a referral link and discount.

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Lever 4: Leverage performance-based commissions

Fxed fees are advantageous for creators, but doesn’t guarantee a positive outcome for brands. Instead, negotiate for a lower upfront fee, combined with a commission based on engagement or revenue generated from their content.

This incentive helps to align influencers and brands on achieving certain outcomes. Plus, if the campaign achieves its objectives, both sides benefit and are more likely to work together in future.

Because commission rates are more complex to structure, it’s important to understand how adjusting these fees will impact your budget overall. Otherwise, you could end up running out of budget if a campaign ends up performing unexpectedly well.

”Meeting with your finance team really helps to know where you need to negotiate. We've built out financial models where I was to ask someone for X cash plus X commission, or if we raise commission and lowered cash, how does that affect the flow and the profit of a deal?”
_{Kendall, Dickieson, Head of Social and Influencer at Graza.}

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Lever 5: Focus on non-monetary benefits

No brand has an unlimited budget. It’s not always possible to offer a creator their usual rate. But what you can do is get creative with other types of incentives.

“I try to think a little bit less about pure dollars and cents, but what other ways can I provide value to you?”
_{Mike Newton, Influencer Marketing Strategist.}

For example, if a creator is still relatively fresh, giving them more insights into their performance and areas of improvement is immensely valuable. This opens the door to creating better content - and a longer-term partnership with your brand.

Alternatively, you could provide intros to other brands or sponsors in your category they would like to work with, or the opportunity to be featured in some other kind of branded content.

Technically, this costs your brand nothing - but it’s worth a LOT to a creator.

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Lever 6: Don’t be afraid to walk away

While this lever is risky, walking away can sometimes bring a creator back to the negotiating table with a lower offer that you can work with.

“You just say, sorry, this doesn't work for us right now. In my experience, most times the influencer comes back and says, wait, no, that rate is negotiable.”
_{Rebecca Beach, Influencer Marketing and Creator Relationship Manager at VERBfluence Agency.}

However, not every deal is destined to happen. Sometimes the budget isn’t big enough, or the timeline just isn’t right. In either case, it’s important to be polite and leave the door open to working together in future.

Knowing how and when pull on these different negotiation levers takes time and practice, but it’s going to make your influencer negotiations run much more smoothly and avoid wasting valuable time on partnerships opportunities that aren’t progressing. When you feel like discussions with a creator are getting off track, reviewing these tactics will help you to see where you can propose a different arrangement that’s amenable to both parties.

We’ve closed out the booking and negotiation section of the field guide! Next up? How you can marry together creator content and paid marketing—and get the best of both worlds.