How to Negotiate Compensation: Pairing Lower Fees With Performance Commissions

Jonathan Claydon, Chief Strategist at Acceleration Partners, the world's largest partner marketing agency, breaks down how to negotiate compensation with creators in ways that actually hold up across real campaigns. He argues that benchmarking a creator's rate against similar accounts in their space is a legitimate baseline, and that anyone priced at 5x the going rate is a fair candidate for pushback.

His preferred structure blends a lower fixed fee with a higher commission rate tied to affiliate performance, which he says aligns incentives for both sides and often earns creators more than a flat fee would have anyway. Critically, Claydon says sharing campaign goals upfront, whether CAC, ROAS, or CPA, and then reporting results back after the campaign closes, dramatically improves creator performance and retention. Influencers rarely receive that feedback from brands, and it is precisely what turns a one-off deal into a long-term partnership.

Watch to see how he builds the full negotiation structure around that insight.