Welcome back to the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint series! In the first two parts of our journey, we explored the foundations of building high-ROI creator communities and understanding the nuances of influencer affiliate programs. Now, it’s time to delve into the art of recruiting social media influencers and content creators to supercharge your affiliate program. Keep reading to learn how to recruit influencers and creators like a boss!

Understanding the Landscape

Before diving into tactics, let’s grasp the diverse landscape of influencers and creators:

1. Macro vs. Micro-Influencers: Macro-influencers boast large follower counts, while micro-influencers have smaller, more engaged audiences. Both have their advantages, depending on your campaign goals.
2. Niche Experts: These influencers focus on specific topics or industries, often commanding deep trust and authority within their communities.
3. Content Creators: These individuals excel in crafting compelling content across various formats, including blogs, videos, podcasts, and social media posts.

Platforms of Influence

The digital sphere offers numerous platforms for influencers and creators to showcase their talents. Here are some of the most popular:

1. Instagram: Ideal for visually-driven content, Instagram is a hotspot for fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and food influencers.
2. YouTube: The go-to platform for video content, YouTube hosts a wide array of creators covering topics ranging from tutorials and reviews to vlogs and entertainment.
3. TikTok: With its explosive growth, TikTok has become a powerhouse for short-form video content, appealing to younger demographics and fostering viral trends.
4. Twitter: Known for real-time conversations, Twitter is favored by influencers for its ability to spark discussions and share quick updates.
5. Blogs: Despite the rise of visual platforms, blogs remain relevant for long-form content and niche expertise, attracting dedicated audiences.

How to Recruit Influencers and Creators

There are a few different ways to tap influencers. Let’s break it down into the following:

• Curated (Outbound)
• Paid (Outbound)
• Earned (Inbound)
• Tech-Enabled (Inbound)
• Tools and Partners

We’ll go into details for each of these below.

Outbound Recruitment Methods

Curated Recruitment

Curation is the good old-fashioned approach to list-building. This organic approach is really important when you’re in an alpha or beta version of your program’s build-out. 

Even though this approach requires manual effort, we recommend keeping this in the mix early on. It’s essential for program efficiency and speed to profitability. It’s also important to test a lot of different influencer segments and channels. See what segments work and what segments don’t, then worry about scale and how to execute that scale with your winning segments. This way, you’re not blowing your program budget on paid recruitment tactics, PR, or additional technology only to power up a bunch of influencer segments that don’t work. 

Key Benchmark: Your reply and opt-in rates on cold outbound recruitment are a great indicator of program interest in your pitch. Strong programs clock opt-in rates ranging from 25% to 40%. 

There are plenty of ways to aggregate these cold outbound lists once you’re armed with your segment criteria. Most of the social media channels have started building their own directories of verified creators (TikTok Creator Marketplace, Pinterest for Creators, Facebook for Creators). Additionally, if you have the budget, you can tap any of the creator marketplaces and influencer management tools that are out there. Depending on the platform, you’ll be able to utilize its creator index, social listening tools, and/or done-for-you list-building products. 

Important Note: We recommend carefully considering your cold outbound strategy. As with any outbound campaign, sending mass amounts of email from a single address can create issues for your account, and potentially flag the domain. We recommend a dedicated domain (e.g., www.mybrandcreators.com) with various send-from email addresses that can be warmed up over the first few test cycles as your messaging is dialed in.

Paid Recruitment

In addition to native curation tools, many platforms will also offer CPL/CPA-based recruitment support. Pricing varies widely, but it’s a good thing to keep in mind as you’re signing a software contract. You may be able to negotiate that recruitment rate depending on the length and size of the contract. Third-party recruitment support can be super helpful if you’re working with a small program management team.

In addition to your software partners, you can also use paid strategies to purchase verified lists and tap segment-specific networks. Or, you can put some budget towards building your own program marketing ad creative. This is one of our favorite tactics once you have some momentum behind the program and a handful of successful influencer affiliates that are open to providing testimonial content that can fuel ads for the program itself. Social proof is a tremendously powerful recruitment technique, and we love to use it right at the top of the funnel.

Inbound Recruitment Methods

Earned Interest

Earned interest can result from both organic and paid effort. Once a program has been dialed in, we see a lot of success with a coordinated PR effort. The creator economy continues to be a hot topic, and major brands have launched these influencer affiliate communities with abundant fanfare. 

We caution that this approach can generate a huge spike in inbound interest. If your team isn’t prepared, these are wasted dollars. Once influencers churn, they’re exponentially more difficult and expensive to win back.

With that said, once an influencer affiliate program is humming, managers can expect an uptick in inbound interest. Influencer communities are very collaborative, and word spreads quickly around well-managed programs — and around poorly managed programs. When creators see their category’s top influencers and their peers utilizing a brand toolkit, they’re apt to hop on board!

Tech-Enabled Recruiting

This recruitment strategy involves investing in additional technology and a willingness to hook these influencer affiliate programs into your brand’s central customer journeys. We’re starting to see e-commerce brands of all sizes include a program sign-up offer in their post-purchase flow with tremendous success. 

How does this work?

• The brand includes a simple pop-up that introduces the affiliate program and invites customers to submit their social media information in exchange for a discount. These pop-ups can be introduced after a first purchase, upon return to the site, or at the point of sale.
• The integration generates a list of potential influencers who are also, most importantly, your customers first. 
• On the back end, program managers build a segmentation strategy or leverage technology like Gatsby.ai to filter these inbound social media handles by follower count, verification status, location, channel, etc. 
• Once everything is in order, you can create a system of rules and onboarding flows that automatically funnel your customers into the program with tiered logic. Customers with verification marks or massive social media followings follow one path with personalized communications and generous offers; meanwhile, other customers can follow another set of paths that are tailored to their degree of influence. You can also create a flow that gracefully exits customers who aren’t a fit for your brand at this time.

The beauty of this strategy is that it automatically scales as sales grow. As more and more influencer affiliates are onboarded, more sales are generated, and an entirely new crop of potential affiliates hit the system. 

Tools and Partners

Finally, tools like Publisher Discovery and partners like those available in the TUNE Marketplace can help brands of all sizes find the right influencer affiliates for their programs. Some helpful partners and tools:

• Publisher Discovery
• MagicLinks
• Aspire IQ
• Find Your Influence
• SARAL
• Gatsby: Growth From Community
• CreatorIQ

How to Engage Influencers After You Recruit Them

No matter how good of a communicator you think you are, it’s smart to spend time testing recruitment and messaging strategies. The key paths to consider during recruitment are program qualification, program onboarding, and program decline. 

Program Qualification

With program qualification, you’re going to be focused on dialing in your pitch and tailoring it to your influencer segments. We recommend taking small segments and A/B testing subject lines, core copy, and follow-up sequences. Optimize these communications over the course of your first few months and then go wider with the winning segments and their winning communications. 

Other tactics during program qualification may include invite-only webinar events, one-to-one discovery calls, and a content drip that includes social proof, case studies, and program success narratives. 

Program Onboarding

The same test and learn strategy goes for your program onboarding flow. You’ll want to hit new sign-ups with a very simple welcome that includes an easy to digest onboarding checklist. We also recommend building a video-driven welcome series that helps orient new influencers. In both cases, approach your creative with an MVP (minimum viable product) mindset, and then expand and refine it as you start fielding real-time questions. 

A variety of issues you didn’t anticipate will arise during your alpha and beta launch phases. As you go, make sure you leave yourself some time and flexibility to figure out the resources and processes needed to address these issues. Until your influencer affiliate program is a well-oiled machine, the approach should remain agile.

Finally, don’t forget to take time to understand the why behind the “no.” When an influencer declines program participation, it’s important to try to understand why. A couple ways to do this are with a simple, personally directed follow-up question, or an incentivized exit survey that thanks them for their time. Gathering data on why someone decided not to join can help guide your outreach to future partners. 

Get Started with Influencers and Creators

Recruiting social media influencers and content creators for your affiliate program is a strategic endeavor that requires careful planning and execution. As you think about recruitment, you’ll want to build A/B testing strategies for your communications that address cold outbound recruitment and qualification stages, the onboarding stage, and an exit stage. Start small. Test over two-week sprints. Optimize. And expand! 

To learn more strategies for recruiting today’s top content creators and influencers, download the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint: Building High-ROI Creator Communities or watch our on-demand webinar.

Check back soon for Part 4 of our series!

Need a tool to measure your influencer-affiliate programs? The TUNE platform is your go-to solution for flexible, affordable partner management and tracking tools. With in-platform payments, creative asset management, campaign automation, and more, it’s your one-stop shop for performance-based influencer marketing. Request your demo today.

When social media influencers first stepped onto the scene, there were limited options for marketers to work with them. Sponsored posts, free products or services, and flat fees were the norm. Now influencers and creators are embracing performance-based advertising, opening a world of opportunities for themselves and the brands that partner with them. This doesn’t mean, however, that influencers and creators are the same as traditional affiliates. While both groups aim to drive conversions and boost brand visibility, they operate in fundamentally different ways and use distinct strategies to achieve their goals.

We’re covering the basics of influencer affiliate marketing in our new series, the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint. For an introduction to the series and the e-book it’s based on, read Part 1 or watch our on-demand webinar.

In this post, we’re diving into the differences between the two groups and why influencer-affiliate programs are gaining momentum in today’s marketing landscape.

Download the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint: Building High-ROI Creator Communities

How Do Affiliates and Publishers Differ from Influencers and Creators?

Traditional affiliates and publishers, rooted in the digital advertising ecosystem, have long relied on metrics like impressions, engagement rates, and clicks to measure success. In some cases, this focus on metrics can come at the expense of user experience. Navigating cluttered websites, wading through obviously AI-generated text, scrolling past pages of intrusive ads — it all harms the quality of users’ interactions with the content they’re looking for. When these less-than-ideal experiences add up, consumers can easily become frustrated, disinterested, and distrustful of the brands associated with them.

On the other hand, today’s influencer programs lean more toward authenticity and trustworthiness by leveraging the personal connection between social media creators and their dedicated followers. Brands that recognize the value of genuine engagement over sheer reach can foster deeper connections with audiences through relatable content and endorsements from trusted influencers. From this perspective, the affiliate industry’s leap to influencers makes sense, as it allows brands to create real connections and communities through their own ambassadors — without the corporate side of marketing getting in the way.

What Makes Influencer-Affiliate Programs Different?

Influencer-affiliate programs share the same pillars as traditional affiliate programs, but they require a different framework and fulfillment strategy. This is most evident in four areas of the program.

Program Strategy

Influencer programs come in all shapes and sizes. They can take a diverse range of approaches, categorized based on scope and the influencer’s degree of influence. From micro-influencers with niche audiences to macro-influencers commanding broader reach, brands have the flexibility to tailor their strategies to align with specific campaign objectives and target demographics. We’ve put together a graphic to illustrate this concept below:

Offers and Payments

Influencer programs also differ from traditional programs in their offers and payments. Unlike CPA (cost-per-action) offers, the bread and butter of affiliate programs, offers in influencer programs usually prioritize a tiered and blended approach. This means encompassing metrics beyond sales, such as views, likes, and shares. This multifaceted payment structure acknowledges the diverse contributions of influencers, incentivizing them to create compelling content that resonates with their audience while driving conversions.

The way you pay influencers and creators can also vary from the way traditional affiliates are paid. We go into this more in our e-book and on-demand webinar — you can watch a quick clip below.

Creative Production and Control

Creative is, hands down, the main differentiator between traditional affiliates and influencer affiliates.

Influencer-affiliate programs redefine creative production by moving beyond conventional banner ads and sponsored articles. Successful brands collaborate with influencers to craft authentic narratives and tell stories their audiences are interested to hear. This empowers creators as brand advocates rather than just another paid advertiser. This personalized approach nurtures brand loyalty and fosters deeper connections with consumers and communities.

For an example, check out ZeroTo1 (our e-book partner) and their Instacart case study here.

Tracking Technology

Influencer programs need specialized tracking technologies to effectively attribute conversions and measure campaign performance across channels. This is because the most popular social media platforms for creators are mobile-first, and the tracking works differently on mobile than on a desktop browser. For brands that are already running a traditional program, getting started with creator affiliates can be as simple as integrating an influencer toolkit. Adding dedicated influencer marketing tools to your existing tech stack will provide a holistic view of engagement metrics and ultimately allow you to run more effective, measurable campaigns.

How to Get Started with Influencer-Affiliate Marketing

As consumer preferences continue to evolve, influencer-affiliate programs offer a dynamic and adaptable approach to affiliate marketing. By prioritizing authenticity, fostering genuine connections, and embracing flexibility and creativity, brands can navigate the ever-changing digital landscape and forge lasting relationships with their target audience. Whether partnering with Instagram micro-influencers or the biggest names on TikTok, the key lies in building trust and telling stories to drive engagement and drive business results.

To learn more about the differences between creators and traditional affiliates, download the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint: Building High-ROI Creator Communities.

Check back soon for Part 3!

For digital marketers, understanding the intricacies of mobile web tracking is no longer a choice. Today, it’s a necessity to stay ahead of the curve in this fast-paced industry. That’s why we’re diving into mobile web tracking in Part 4 of our blog series, based on TUNE’s Ultimate Guide to Mobile Partner Marketing.  

In Part 1, we introduced the guide and how mobile user acquisition and affiliate marketing programs overlap. Part 2 compared mobile measurement partners to partner marketing platforms. In Part 3, we explored why mobile apps are critical to a program’s success.  

In this latest installment, we’re tackling the process behind tracking conversions on mobile web. After all, if you want to manage a successful partner marketing program, you have to be able to measure it first. So let’s get started! 

How to Track Conversions in a Mobile Web Environment 

For years, third-party cookies served as the go-to method for tracking conversions on the web. However, recent browser developments have rendered third-party cookies ineffective, pushing marketers to adopt cookieless tracking methods. This shift brings desktop and mobile web measurement closer to campaigns in the mobile app ecosystem, where cookieless tracking is a requirement. 

For mobile web, there are two primary methodologies for cookieless tracking: server-side postbacks and JavaScript SDK. We’ll go into the basics of how these both work below. 

Server-Side Postback Tracking 

The server postback tracking method is the most reliable for tracking campaigns on mobile web. It has been TUNE’s recommended approach for years and is a native feature of the platform.  

Let’s assume the implementation process has been completed, so all the required code and settings are ready. Here is how postback tracking works: 

1. When a user clicks on a tracking link, TUNE generates a unique alphanumeric ID (Transaction ID).
2. TUNE passes the Transaction ID to the brand’s landing page, where it is stored and associated with the user.  
   • Brands can choose from several methods for storing the Transaction ID, including storing it in a database, using first-party cookies, or passing it via page URLs. Most developers should be familiar with this process and able to implement a solution. 
3. Upon the user’s conversion (e.g., purchase, lead capture), the brand fires the Transaction ID back to TUNE in a postback URL.
4. TUNE leverages the stored information about the click to attribute the conversion accurately to the partner responsible for driving the conversion.  

The first question about this process that many marketers ask is how to store the Transaction ID, which is answered in #2. The second question is how to pass the ID back to TUNE for Step #3. To do this, the brand makes an HTTP request to the postback URL via cURL (on the server side), which logs the conversion in TUNE. 

JavaScript SDK Tracking 

The JavaScript SDK method uses a web browser’s LocalStorage to get around the inaccuracies that come with third-party cookies. This method writes conversions back to TUNE, similar to postback tracking.   

Here’s how JavaScript SDK tracking works:  

1. TUNE passes the Transaction ID into the browser’s LocalStorage upon the user’s click. This works with both redirect links and direct links. 
   • When implementing the JavaScript SDK, you add a snippet of code to the head of the website, an identify code line to the landing page, and a convert code line to the conversion page. This allows TUNE to store the Transaction ID on click in the web browser, and then send the ID back to the TUNE platform when the user ends up on a designated page.  
2. When the user reaches a conversion point (e.g., post-purchase Thank You page), TUNE accesses the Transaction ID stored in the browser and sends it back to the TUNE platform.  

While this tracking methodology is set up using postback protocols, it is still considered client-side tracking, as the browser (not the brand) stores the Transaction ID.  

The JavaScript SDK method is best for tracking in-session conversion points and removes the requirement for the brand to store the Transaction ID. It also integrates well with existing technologies, such as Google Analytics and Shopify, and can track and attribute organic traffic. 

For more detailed explanations including flow charts and diagrams, download the Ultimate Guide to Mobile Partner Marketing.

Mobile Web Tracking and Privacy 

Cookieless tracking methods like the ones above are designed to provide accurate attribution without compromising privacy. It’s a big reason TUNE has always advocated for server-side tracking solutions and first-party cookies versus third-party cookies. However, simply using these methodologies isn’t enough. It’s still crucial to maintain data security and privacy best practices in every aspect of your partner program, and to follow all applicable rules and regulations around data handling. 

As tracking technologies advance, remember to always put consumer privacy first. A few simple steps that every marketer should follow include:  

• Obtain user consent for tracking and data collection.  
• Implement transparent privacy policies that clearly communicate tracking practices.  
• Provide users with opt-out mechanisms for personalized tracking. 

TUNE In to Learn More 

Understanding how mobile web tracking works is essential for marketers seeking reliable conversion tracking methods in 2023. Using cookieless tracking enables today’s program managers to effectively track and attribute conversions in the mobile web environment.

However, it is equally important to prioritize user privacy and adhere to ethical tracking practices. At TUNE, we believe that by striking a balance between effective tracking and privacy considerations, marketers can achieve their program goals while building trust with partners and consumers. (Our customers are proof of that.)

Check back soon for Part 5, where we’ll delve into mobile app attribution and how MMPs operate. Can’t wait? Download the full e-book and get all your questions answered! You can also start a chat to ask one of our experts in person.

Happy reading!

Welcome to Part 3 of our Mobile Partner Marketing blog series! In this series, we are covering some of the insights and information found in our newest e-book, The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Partner Marketing. Whether you manage an affiliate program or run marketing for mobile apps, this e-book can help you bridge the knowledge gap between the two to unlock their full potential.  

In Part 1, we introduced the guide and outlined what readers can learn from it about mobile marketing and affiliate programs. Part 2 explains the similarities and differences between a mobile measurement partner and a partner marketing platform. 

In Part 3 of our series, we’re reviewing the why behind the what of mobile partner marketing: why apps are critical to a program’s success. Let’s get started. 

Why Mobile App + Affiliate Program = Success  

In short? Synergy. 

As the saying goes, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A mobile app on its own can be valuable. An affiliate program, even when run separate from other marketing efforts or in a silo, can also be valuable.  

Real return on investment, however, happens when you put the two together.  

While there are lots of benefits brands see when they combine the power of mobile apps with the guaranteed ROI of performance marketing, we think the following are the most impactful. 

Closer Relationships with Customers 

A huge advantage to using mobile apps in your partner marketing strategy is being able to foster better relationships with your customers. Push notifications, location-based marketing, and a wealth of personalization options make this possible. 

Take push notifications. They are efficient, customizable, and always front-and-center on a smartphone user’s screen — unlike, say, an email that sits ignored in an inbox. This adds up to a channel that often outperforms email, the traditional choice of brands for communicating with customers: 

• In 2021, the average email open rate was around 22%, while the average push notification open rate was 28%. (Source: Campaign Monitor, Omnisend) 
• A push notification sent to new subscribers in the first week following app installation can increase retention rates by up to 71%. (Source: Invespcro) 
• In 2021, email campaigns had an average conversion rate of 0.1%, while 38% of people who clicked on a push message went on to make a purchase. (Source: Omnisend) 

The depth of personalization that a mobile app can provide also brings programs and partners closer to their customers by helping to give them more of what they want. Using mobile app data like engagement and location, brands can tailor messages, share proximity-based offers, and suggest relevant content for smartphone users in ways that other channels can’t.  

Better Experiences for Users 

When it comes to user experience, mobile apps have technological advantages over mobile websites. It’s ideal for a user to be deep linked directly where they want to go in an app, instead of redirected to a clunky mobile webpage or left hanging with a broken link. This is why the mobile app ecosystem leads to both higher conversion rates and higher spending in apps when compared to mobile web. (One example: as effective as push notifications can be, the click-through rate for in-app messages is 25–30X higher.)  

Today’s consumers expect smooth, intuitive, native experiences when engaging with brands on mobile. Anything less, and you risk frustrating and ultimately losing your customers.  

Historically, though, affiliate marketers have shied away from using mobile apps to their full potential. This is because tracking links can introduce challenges when used across operating systems (such as iOS and Android) and experiences (such as mobile web to mobile app). Today, there are solutions and partners available that can handle these and other app-specific challenges for affiliate programs. TUNE has integrations with all of them.  

ROI that Proves Program Performance 

The amount of time U.S. consumers spend on the internet continues to rise every year. As it does, the gap between mobile device and desktop usage is widening, with a growing majority of time spent on mobile, and time on desktop steadily falling. 

By 2018, retailers with shopping apps and mobile websites were already seeing their apps bring in double the revenue when compared to mobile web. What’s more, their apps were driving nearly as many sales as desktop and mobile web combined. By 2020, almost 90% of all mobile internet time was spent in apps. In 2021, in-app spending increased 55% year over year, and e-commerce app installs increased 48%.  

Too often, the affiliate programs associated with these numbers (and by extension, the marketers who run them) are not getting enough credit for their efforts. Fortunately, marketers can combat unattributed channel performance from mobile apps with technologies like server-side tracking. Adding another revenue stream to a program boosts its value, and proving the program’s contributions to the overall business can help secure the budget needed to make it an even bigger success.  

Just like we said: synergy. 

Stay TUNEd to See What’s Next 

We’ll be back with Part 4 in a few weeks. Until then, check out the TUNE Blog for more information on mobile partner marketing, or download the full e-book here.

Whether you manage an affiliate program or run mobile acquisition campaigns, this e-book will help you bridge the knowledge gap between mobile and affiliate to unlock their full potential.

With any partnership, it’s important to know your strengths and your weaknesses. The same goes for your affiliate program. To have the best chance of success, trust the experts for the technology that powers your program — especially when it comes to attribution.

But does every program need a mobile measurement partner? Is an MMP the same as a partner marketing platform? And do you need both to run an affiliate program, or can you do it all with just an MMP?  

In part 2 of our series, we’ll answer these important questions with information found in our newest e-book, The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Partner Marketing. Let’s dive in! 

What Is an MMP? 

MMP is an acronym for “mobile measurement partner.” The term comes from Facebook’s name for the first group of tech providers that integrated with the social media platform to track app installs. 

A mobile measurement partner is exactly what it sounds like: a third-party technology partner that measures mobile app performance. Usually, this means attributing downloads and installs, which is done via a piece of code called an SDK (software development kit). MMPs can measure post-install activities as well, such as in-app registrations, purchases, and engagements.

The major MMPs in the market today are Adjust, AppsFlyer, Branch, Kochava, and Singular. (Fun fact: TUNE was technically the first MMP, as we created the very first mobile app attribution SDK, known at the time as MobileAppTracking. It was eventually rebranded as Attribution Analytics and acquired by Branch in 2018.) 

What Is a Partner Marketing Platform? 

A partner marketing platform (PMP) is an end-to-end SaaS solution for building, managing, and growing affiliate programs and networks. These platforms can handle all the operations needed to run a program, including conversion tracking, commissioning, offer/creative/partner management, communication, invoicing and payments, traffic management, and more. They should also be customizable enough to enable third-party integrations, custom development, and additional functionality via API. Most importantly, a true partner marketing platform operates as an unbiased, third-party software provider.  

While there are many offerings in the market today that label themselves as PMPs, most of these function more like traditional affiliate networks rather than software providers.  

Why You Shouldn’t Use an MMP to Run an Affiliate Program 

The short answer? MMPs specialize in mobile app attribution, not partner program management.  

While you can use your MMP to add individual partners, share links, and track their performance, there are other activities that are vital to running a program that your MMP is not built to handle. That’s where your partner marketing platform comes in. Check out the chart below to see how these two solutions complement each other by handling different activities across your mobile app and partner marketing efforts.  

How to Tell If You Need an MMP 

Do you have a mobile app? Do you run user acquisition campaigns?  

If you answered yes to either question, you should invest in an MMP, as they provide the most reliable and accurate measurement for today’s mobile app ecosystem.  

Master Mobile Partner Marketing with TUNE 

If you enjoyed Part 1 and Part 2 of our series on mobile partner marketing, you’re in luck! We’re back with more insights, advice, and information in Part 3.

Download the new e-book today

Our industry might hate to admit it, but it’s true: There is a knowledge gap that exists between mobile marketing and affiliate marketing. And it’s been holding advertisers back for years.  

We’re here to change that with a new resource designed to bridge the gap: The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Partner Marketing. In our newest e-book, TUNE VP of Sales Nate Ivie covers everything marketers need to know to expand their affiliate activities to the mobile ecosystem. 

Download the new e-book for free!

Why Focus on Mobile Partner Marketing? 

While partner marketing has grown exponentially over the last five years, that success has rarely included mobile apps as a point of conversion.  

In the affiliate marketing industry, the general understanding of mobile web tracking remains underrepresented. We see it all the time in conversations we have with prospective clients. It doesn’t matter whether they are just starting a partner marketing program or looking to migrate from their current solution. Most of the time, there is a disconnect between how they think about mobile and how they think about affiliate. 

After over a decade at TUNE serving customers at brands, networks, and publishers across web and mobile, it’s become apparent that user acquisition managers and partner marketers must align their goals and strategies to succeed. To be able to do this, they must first understand what it is the other does. With that as the foundation, they can then learn the tools they each work with, and finally, figure out how fit it all together to maximize their return. This is how we’ll bridge the gap between mobile marketing and partner marketing. 

What You’ll Learn in the Ultimate Guide 

This one-of-a-kind e-book was designed to give user acquisition teams and partnership teams the knowledge they need to effectively expand affiliate marketing activities to the mobile ecosystem. Our goal in creating this guide is to empower these groups to do that in three specific ways:  

1. Equip partner marketers to understand completely how tracking and attribution work on both mobile app and mobile web  
2. Enable user acquisition managers to understand the possibilities partner marketing can provide  
3. Provide some common knowledge that both partner marketers and user acquisition managers can act on to work more closely together  

No matter your field of expertise, this unique e-book is sure to be a valuable resource for information and insights on the industry and your colleagues. But don’t take our word for it: download The Ultimate Guide to Mobile Partner Marketing and see for yourself! 

Ready to learn more? Head over to Part 2 of our blog series to discover the differences out why an MMP is not the same as a partner marketing platform.

Traditional PR firms are fading into the sunset, and with so many big-box stores and small- and midsized businesses transitioning to an online business model to stay afloat, partner marketing has re-emerged as one of the most successful revenue-generating solutions for brands to incorporate into their partnership strategies.

To keep up with client-side demand, some PR agencies are redesigning their business models to offer full-service marketing plans and affiliate program management. This has been a bit of a challenge for them, mostly due to a broad lack of education in affiliate marketing, while at the same time, having limited or no experience with the important tools and data analytics required to manage partners on SaaS-based platforms. Looking for more immediate, but effective results, brands have begun cutting out the middleman by shifting their focus and media budgets into developing direct partnerships with digital content creators and social media influencers.

Why? Because these individuals possess a full awareness of the nuances and challenges associated with performance-based metrics, data analysis, KPI targets, and of course, customer engagement.

The Year of the Influencer

According to leading industry experts and sources, brands are projected to spend $15 billion on influencer marketing in 2022.

While average consumers are enjoying the new freedoms of working and shopping from home, some have found ways to turn their personal hobbies and creativity into lucrative business ventures as content creators and influencers. Social media has become the new Hollywood, and brands are learning the value of “partnering under the influence.”

In the past, many brands sought relationships with big-name celebrities and mega-influencers (those with 100K+ followers) to post and share branded content. The results were less than stellar, mostly due to a heavy reliance on vanity metrics, such as a high number of followers. Popularity didn’t always equal profitability, and slumping sales were the proof. In fact, many of those followers turned out to be bots and bogus accounts.

In 2019, influencer fraud, which included the creation of fake personas and followers, cost brands an estimated $1.3 billion. Advertisers suddenly found themselves confronted with an eye-opening truth: most celebrities and mega-influencers didn’t necessarily manage their social media pages. They were usually maintained by personal assistants or paid social media managers. Many of them also had no direct interaction with their followers, or used the products appearing in their posts. Loyal audiences scrolled and swiped in search of personal glimpses into the private lives of their favorite personalities, not because they were interested in making purchases. All of that changed when COVID-19 suddenly appeared the following year and made the world a different place for all of us.

At the beginning of the pandemic, consumer demand for basic necessities spiked, but as people shuttered indoors, brick and mortar businesses suffered significant losses. Brands and agencies were also no exception. Those who were able to operate with limited resources lowered costs by eliminating “non-essential” services, which in most companies, included PR and marketing budgets. As a result, ad spends were reduced across all traditional and digital media platforms, but with more people turning to social media for inspiration, things would soon change again. In an unexpected turn of events, the hole created in the advertising space would soon give rise to a new group of marketers and smaller influencers, while simultaneously exposing brands to a new pool of talented content creators and niche influencers.

The Value of Content Creators

Content creators have an artistic connection to the work they produce, and spend countless hours producing work that inspires audiences to like, copy, and share with others. Whether it’s a new dance challenge, vegan chili recipe, or new home-fitness workout, regular people have turned their smartphones and their respective app stores into high-quality, low-cost production studios.

By sharing original work (user-generated content, or UGC) on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, these creators are attracting new followers and boosting engagement algorithms with no specialized industry training. Even pets have dedicated media channels with thousands of subscribers, thanks to daily uploads of cuddly moments shared by their owners. By working with content creators, brands can be exposed to a potentially limitless pool of talent and creativity, but more importantly, they can tap into the high engagement rates in social communities across multiple platforms.

What Niche Influencers Bring to the Table

Micro-influencers have followers anywhere between 10,000 to 100,000. They may not have the same reach as mega-influencers in terms of scale, but their audiences are dedicated followers who tune in for occasional social commentary or inspiration.

Nano-influencers have a follower count in the range of 1,000 to 10,000. While some promote affiliate links and pages in their social media profiles, they mostly create personal content based on special moments or hobbies most likely to resonate with “regular people.” Their audiences are typically made up of people with similar interests, but who also want a personal opinion or review from someone with whom they can relate.

Regardless of the title, what these creators lack in followers, they undoubtedly make up for in visibility and that is what ultimately leads to sales. Customers are more likely to buy products if they are recommended or seen being used by people they like and trust.

More often than not, many of today’s niche influencers are business-savvy entrepreneurs; because of their smaller size, they often dedicate more time to developing brand-centric content, while simultaneously promoting their personal brand and influence. They also understand that performance and engagement (rather than vanity metrics such as follower count) are what matter most.

Social app platforms are also making it easier for creators and niche influencers to collaborate with brands. By using built-in analytics and creative tools, both sides can gain measurable insights into content acceptance versus performance and use them to drive deeper partnerships and measurable results.

What Are You Waiting For?

In conclusion, influencers are here to stay. Brands still have a long road ahead of them in terms of full economic recovery, but perhaps now the road to success won’t be so lonely. 

Let me know what you think about brands working with niche influencers in the comments below!

Ready to learn more about affiliate partnerships and niche influencers? Download our Ultimate Guide to Partner Marketing.

Universal links provide the best possible experience for mobile users of your product or service. They give you the ability to link directly into your mobile app if the user has it installed, the web if they don’t, or even defer deep linking until after the user installs the app. All of this goodness does take a bit of work to set up, but thankfully things are now much easier since TUNE is integrated with AppsFlyer’s OneLink. 

Without diving too deep into the technical details (you can read our help article for that), the crux of the issue is the redirect. Most networks and partner marketing platforms utilize a click redirect URL as part of the tracking process, but that does not play nice with universal links. On iOS specifically, the universal link domain must remain constant for the mobile device to properly open the app at click time. 

So, how do you keep measuring the clicks and conversions from your partners without redirecting the end users through a different domain? Server-side clicks to the rescue! Once AppsFlyer is selected as the universal link platform for your offer in TUNE, your partners will be able to generate an AppsFlyer OneLink automatically from the TUNE Partner Interface. The OneLink will have some special parameters appended that tell AppsFlyer to send TUNE a server-side click when a user clicks the OneLink, and the rest is business-as-usual. 

We can’t wait to see what kind of partnerships this new integration will enable! 

Did you know TUNE also integrates with AppsFlyer’s Aggregated Advanced Privacy framework? Read our blog post for more information, or email us your questions at sales@tune.com.

On October 27, Instagram announced they were expanding the ability to add links in Instagram Stories to all accounts. (Yes, even yours.)  

Once a feature only accessible to verified accounts or those with 10,000+ followers, Stories links are now available to everyone. That’s a big change for influencers, brands, and the affiliate marketing industry, not unlike the NCAA’s NIL rules change earlier this year. How it will ultimately play out is still to be determined. In the meantime, here’s what marketers need to know. 

Stickers: A New Way to Add Links in Instagram Stories 

All users can now use the new Link sticker feature to add external links to an Instagram story. The sticker, a new feature introduced in August, replaces the “swipe up to see more” functionality users are used to seeing at the bottom of linked Stories.

Users are redirected once they tap on the sticker, which can be placed anywhere (as opposed to stuck at the bottom of a screen). 

How to Add a Link Sticker 

1. Capture/upload content to a story
2. Tap the sticker tool in the top nav bar
3. Tap the “LINK” sticker, add the destination URL, and tap “Done”
4. Place the sticker on the story and adjust as you would any other sticker, or tap it to see color variations
5. Tap “Share” to set the story live for 24 hours

Here’s a gif of the process: 

(If you don’t see the option to add a Link sticker in your account, try updating your app, or closing and restarting it.) 

Benefits of Link Stickers  

According to Instagram, the Link sticker provides multiple benefits over the swipe-up experience, including: 

• A more streamlined creation experience in Stories 
• More creative control — stickers can be styled, resized, and placed anywhere 
• More engagement, as users can react/reply to posts with a link sticker (but couldn’t with the old swipe-up link) 

Note that accounts are not allowed to promote posts with Link stickers as ads (which still use the swipe-up functionality). A story can have a Link sticker and be marked as branded content, but brands cannot use the Paid Partnership tag if there is also a Link sticker present. 

Some analysts believe this change was prompted by the rapid growth of TikTok, another influencer-focused platform. TikTok provides users with tools that encourage real-time engagement and creativity over planned-out promotions. This in-the-moment authenticity has been a driving force behind TikTok’s success, and is something that other social media companies will likely try to replicate in their own platforms.

Link Sharing Versus Tracking Links in Instagram

The expansion of Stories link sharing to all users does make it easier for micro-influencers and small businesses to drive valuable traffic with a wider audience. However, Instagram still does not allow clickable links in unpaid posts — you can add a URL, but it won’t be hyperlinked, so the user must copy and paste it into a browser. This is the reason companies that specialize in “link in bio” functionality, such as Linktree, are popular on the platform.  

In addition, Instagram does not allow multiple redirects in links. That’s a problem for performance-based advertising campaigns, as affiliates often use tracking links that redirect two to three times, sometimes more. If influencers can’t redirect through different publishers and tracking servers, is performance marketing even possible on Instagram? 

In a word, yes. TUNE solves this issue with Direct Links, a tracking link that doesn’t redirect through TUNE’s tracking servers. Since Direct Links take the user straight to the landing page, these links provide SEO value and reduce the potential number of site redirects. They also allow offer and partner ID information to be passed in the URL to the landing page itself, streamlining the information sharing process for advertisers and affiliates. 

While not as granular as Direct Links, promo codes (e.g., clickless tracking) also allow brands to track partner performance on Instagram, through podcasts, and in almost any other channel. Promo codes are easy to use and have minimal technical requirements,  which is the reason they have been a staple in traditional advertising and on social media platforms for years. 

Making the Most of Marketing on Instagram 

Now that anyone can put a link in Instagram Stories, the platform is sure to experience change. Will consumers see this as a good thing? Will influencers and brands?

We’re guessing yes. Here at TUNE, we believe in opening up opportunities to creators and businesses of all sizes. It’s what partner marketing is all about. This change is hopefully one of many that continues to move the ecosystem in the right direction.  

If you would like to know more about Direct Links and other TUNE tracking solutions, please email sales@tune.com. 

If you’ve been searching high and low for influencers to work with on TikTok, you’re not alone. As more brands have added the platform to their influencer marketing strategies, more marketers have been tasked with finding the right content creators to partner with. If you’re one of them, we’re here to help.

In this blog post, we’ll explain how to find TikTok influencers that align with your brand and take your marketing to the next level.

First Things First: What Is TikTok?

TikTok is a social media platform similar to Instagram. Instead of pictures, though, TikTok focuses on short-form videos, often accompanied by music, hashtags, and memes — so many memes.

The app is incredibly popular with younger adults, especially Gen Z (hence the memes). And that popularity is only expected to grow. By 2023, eMarketer predicts TikTok will overtake Snapchat in total number of U.S. users (89.7 million versus 89.5 million).

Instagram still leads the U.S. with 127.2 million users, but TikTok is closing in. Worldwide, TikTok’s estimated 1 billion users trails Instagram’s 1.5 billion — but what’s half a million people when you’re the hottest app on the planet?

TikTok has been available on iOS and Android since 2018. Yet the short-form video app has only recently gained popularity with advertisers, thanks to its astronomical user growth in 2019 and 2020. In fact, TikTok for Business, the app’s own how-to website for marketing on TikTok, just launched in Summer 2020. 

Now that you’re all caught up, let’s dive in to actually using the platform and finding TikTok influencers to work with.

How to Find TikTok Influencers

TikTok is a platform unlike any other. Its young user base, fast-paced content, social awareness, and collective understanding of memes and current pop culture make it an intimidating space for brands to enter. 

Unless, of course, you’re working with TikTok influencers. These content creators are masters of the platform, know what works and what doesn’t, and can help your business resonate with your target audience. Here’s how to find them.

Google It

It’s an obvious answer, but we have to say it: just google it first. Try starting broad and then narrowing down once you have a feel for who’s out there. For example, you could search for “top TikTok influencers,” and then narrow it down by niche or vertical, as in “top TikTok fashion influencers.”

Search for Hashtags

Hashtags are an essential part of TikTok; almost every post has them.

Simply searching for hashtags in your industry or niche can lead you to content creators that would align well with your brand. When you find a TikTok influencer who uses a hashtag your business relates to, it’s likely that influencer’s followers are interested in the hashtag, too. 

Keep a list of relevant and trending hashtags to look up. Note which ones point you in the right direction (and which ones are duds) to refine your search as you go. Things move quickly in the world of TikTok, so leverage the app’s Discover feature to stay on top of trending hashtags.

Once you find an influencer who matches your goals, reach out to them. If they don’t provide contact info in the platform, do a little extra searching to find them outside of it. (Remember, “outside” of TikTok includes other influencer-focused platforms like Instagram, where anyone can now share links in Stories.)

Research Areas of Interest

What’s your ideal influencer interested in? Are they all about exercise and healthy eating, or are they passionate about traveling on a budget? 

Finding influencers who match your main industry can be as easy as searching like you would for hashtags. Try searching a variety of terms related to your vertical or brand, as content creators may not use the exact keyword you’re used to. 

It may also help to dig a little deeper to look into an influencer’s bio to find out what they’re truly interested in. And don’t forget that they are likely active on other social media platforms, too. Cross-referencing their TikTok bio with their Instagram or Facebook profile may give you insights you would have missed if you looked at TikTok alone.

Check Out the Competition

What are similar brands doing on TikTok, and who are they working with? Checking out your competition is an easy way to find the content and creators that are already resonating with your target audience. You can search for a brand both to find out who shows up in their videos (or tags them in theirs), and to see related brands and influencers in TikTok’s suggested accounts.

Whether or not you want to work with the exact same influencers as a rival is up to you. Once you know who they are, though, you can use that information to find similar influencers — ones who aren’t already tied to a competitor.

Use a Specialized Tool

Of course, you can always go straight to a specialized solution. Influencer marketing tools like Tagger and HypeTrace were built specifically to search and compare influencers on social media platforms. You can use these tools to filter influencers by channel, topic, location, number of followers, and more.

A quick Google search will give you multiple options for tools for finding influencers on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms.  

Hire an Agency

Like TikTok influencers, agencies are also valuable subject matter experts. Their expertise lies in helping brands like yours connect with the right content creators for your business goals. In addition to facilitating new partnerships, an agency can help you manage partners, create and optimize campaigns, or even run your entire affiliate marketing program. How much or how little they do is up to you.

If you’re finding the search process too difficult or time-consuming, reach out to an influencer marketing agency. 

Influencers: The Key to TikTok Success

TikTok is unlike any other social media platform. Like its heavily Gen Z audience, it’s young, full of creativity and potential, and focused on living in the moment. In other words, brands can’t simply set up shop and expect to advertise on the platform the same as on Twitter or Facebook. 

The most successful marketing on TikTok is achieved when brands fit in, participate, and remain authentic. And partnering with content creators who know the platform and its people is an excellent way to get started.

For more tips for finding influencers and other marketing partners, download our our Ultimate Guide to Partner Marketing. You can also find tips for working with mobile measurement partners in this blog post, or read up on sharing links in Instagram here.

Tell us in the comments: How do you currently work with influencers on TikTok, and how do you discover new ones? 

When Apple announced iOS 15 at WWDC in June, they stirred up quite the fervor with the latest privacy updates (a predictable pattern for the last couple of years). “No more IP address in Safari” seemed to be the big takeaway. Now that we’re getting closer to the September release of iOS 15, some of the details are becoming clearer. Using the iOS 15 public beta, I was able to test out some of these new capabilities. Here’s what I found. 

Safari Will Hide IP Addresses for “Trackers” Whether You Have iCloud+ or Not in iOS 15

In the settings for Safari, there are three options to hide your IP address: 

• Trackers and Websites 
• Trackers Only 
• Off 

The default setting is “Trackers Only,” and this does not require a subscription to iCloud+ to use. If you choose “Trackers and Websites,” you’ll be prompted to subscribe to iCloud+ and enable Private Relay. Although it does not specify here what a tracker is, I can only assume it will use the same on-device machine learning algorithm employed by Intelligent Tracking Protection (ITP) since 2017. 

There Are Two Settings for IP Address Location with Private Relay 

When iCloud+ Private Relay is active, there are two settings for IP Address location:  

• Maintain General Location 
• Use Country and Time Zone 

I believe the first option is meant to be more granular, and the second option is much broader. Unfortunately, these options were not fully operational in the beta test I ran. Even when I chose “Maintain General Location” (the default), Private Relay gave me an IP address in El Cajon, CA, which is quite far from my actual location in Seattle, WA. I fully expect this to change when iOS 15 is released. 

TUNE Postback Tracking Will Still Function Over Private Relay 

While I didn’t expect Private Relay to have any effect on our postback tracking, I tested it to make sure. I clicked a TUNE tracking link with Private Relay enabled, then triggered a conversion by visiting a confirmation page. The transaction ID was passed as normal, and the conversion fired.

Since server-side tracking doesn’t rely on a cookie or the user’s IP address, Private Relay should not cause any issues to your offers using postbacks.  

Messaging Around AppTrackingTransparency Continues to Be Frustrating 

Various wording in the tracking settings has changed with iOS 15, and it highlights the stark difference between Apple’s description of their own tracking practices versus the AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) prompt for all other developers. 

As you can see above, in Apple’s own prompt, they clearly frame personalized ads as a good thing. What’s more, they highlight the fact that opting out of personalized ads does not reduce the number of ads you receive. I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions about ATT: the average consumer likely believes that opting out of tracking will reduce the number of ads. 

In the ATT prompt on the right, the difference is night and day. They put it on developers to mention anything about personalized ads (as DoorDash has done in this example) and use aggressive anti-tracking language that makes it sound very bad. 

The Only Constant Is Change 

In such a fast-moving industry, the only thing we can count on is that it will keep changing. Many businesses are caught in the crossfire between tech giants like Apple and their endless jockeying for position, so we’ll do our best to keep reporting on the changes and their impact on partner marketing. 

Questions or comments about iOS 15? Let us know in the comment section below or reach out to us at partnermarketing@tune.com.  

The big privacy push that Apple began last fall, then was delayed until spring, is finally at hand. With the upcoming release of iOS 14.5, Apple will start enforcing the AppTrackingTransparency framework and requiring mobile app users to opt-in to tracking before advertisers will get access to their IDFA. That’s the change in a nutshell, but let’s unpack what that means for the partner marketing industry.

What We Know

1.   Apple iOS 14.5 will require users to opt-in before sharing their IDFA with advertisers.

2.   SKAdNetwork is Apple’s mobile app attribution solution.

• Big walled-garden ad networks have integrated with SKAdNetwork:
  • Google
  • Facebook
  • Snapchat 

3.   Apple stated in their most recent FAQ that they will not allow fingerprinting without an opt-in.

4.   MMPs are taking various stances on these changes, with AppsFlyer leading the way:

• AppsFlyer created Advanced Privacy Mode to address fingerprinting concerns in a privacy-friendly way.
• Adjust was acquired by AppLovin, so they have been quiet on the innovation front.
• Branch and Kochava are stating that only opted-in users can be attributed.
• Singular is going all-in on SKAdNetwork, but they do believe fingerprinting can be done under certain circumstances.

5.   Apple has separately introduced Private Click Measurement as a new privacy-friendly web standard for measuring clicks and conversions.

What We Don’t Know

1.   How many mobile advertisers will adopt SKAdNetwork:

• It is non-trivial to implement SKAdNetwork in mobile apps, and it places an extra burden for launching campaigns.
• Advertisers may decide to shift focus to mobile web instead.

2.   How Apple will update SKAdNetwork in response to industry feedback. 

3.   How strictly Apple will enforce their “no fingerprinting” stance in iOS 14.5 and beyond. 

• Will AppsFlyer’s solution be acceptable to Apple? 

4.   Whether browsers other than Safari will adopt Private Click Measurement and make it a true web standard.

Summing It All Up

2021 is going to be a bumpy year for advertisers, networks, and publishers alike. But keep in mind that partner marketing is not the primary target of these iOS 14.5 changes by Apple: it’s Facebook and Google.

On the contrary, partner marketing has been more privacy-friendly from the beginning. Our industry is based on relationships between advertisers and publishers, not massive lookalike audiences built on cookie profiling and personal data. That’s really the difference between adtech and martech when you break it down: adtech requires information about the end user in order to serve relevant advertising, and martech doesn’t.

That’s why, despite the upheaval from industry giants and platform providers, I’m as bullish as ever on the future of partner marketing. TUNE has enabled privacy-friendly attribution from the beginning with tools such as our Server Postback with Partner ID protocol. This allows us to track what matters, how many conversions each partner sent to each advertiser, without identifying the end user at all.

For mobile advertisers facing the enforcement of iOS 14.5, the biggest thing to do right now is take stock of the places you are running traffic and decide if you will need to implement SKAdNetwork. If you are spending on Facebook, Google, Snapchat, or the other big walled-garden ad networks, you will likely want to implement it. But if you are focused more on partner marketing and smaller channels, you can wait and see how it plays out.

Publishers, influencers, content creators, and partners of all types need to make money in order to continue providing free content on the internet. And advertisers need to get their products in front of people who may be interested in them. In 2021 and beyond, partner marketing remains one of the most cost-effective and privacy-friendly ways to do that, fueling the modern web and helping to keep the internet free.

Questions about iOS 14.5 or partner marketing? Contact us to learn more.