Influencer marketing platforms are software solutions that help brands discover, collaborate with, and manage social media influencers for their marketing campaigns. These platforms typically offer features such as influencer search and discovery, campaign management tools, analytics and reporting, and payment processing capabilities.
Influencer marketing platforms serve as a comprehensive toolset for brands and businesses to execute influencer marketing campaigns. They facilitate the entire process, making it easier for brands to find and work with influencers to promote their products or services.
Key features of influencer marketing platforms include:
- Influencer discovery based on specific criteria
- Campaign management for planning and collaboration
- Performance analytics for assessing campaign effectiveness
- Payment processing for smooth transactions between brands and influencers.
These platforms aim to streamline and automate various aspects of influencer marketing, enabling brands to create successful campaigns and measure their impact.
Top Influencer Marketing Platforms to Boost Your Campaigns:
1. Brandwatch Influencer Marketing Software
Brandwatch offers a suite of tools that assist marketers in three main areas: business intelligence, social media management, and influencer marketing. All together, they make a potent collection, but each of these platforms on their own are robust enough to be game-changers for their users.
What makes Brandwatch’s influencer platform so compelling is the ease with which you’ll manage your influencer relationships. But this management isn’t just designed to make it easy to tread water, it’s built to scale so you can, too. If you like old-school influencer discovery, you’ll be right at home with Brandwatch’s tool, which lets you search, sift, and refine your way through 30 million influencers on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook, and Twitch.
But also: this is a tool built for large, well-known brands—the kind that influencers want to work with. Brandwatch offers a way for influencers to apply through a landing page, a process that you can customize to filter out those who don’t meet your criteria before you ever see their application. With Brandwatch’s research tools, you can identify creators that already have some influence with the audiences you want to connect with, the kind of authentic collaboration that made influencer marketing so powerful in the first place.
Once in your database, Brandwatch acts like a full-scale CRM for your entire network of influencers, storing data like their contact info and banking information for payments, but also custom fields for any of the first-party data you get from them connecting their social channels. Files, like contracts and portfolios of work, can also be attached. Brandwatch is designed to be a one-stop shop—marketers who spend their days bouncing from tool to tool will appreciate how everything can be centralized onto the platform.
One of the most time-consuming aspects of influencer management is all the communication required with the influencers themselves. Brandwatch again goes to great lengths to keep everything in the platform and connected to the big picture. The messaging features work like a purpose-built email marketing platform.
You can automate a lot of follow-up emails, like when a contract is accepted, or when content has been submitted and then again when it’s approved or declined. You can do mass emails out to your influencers, as a whole or in segments. And the email tracking features let you monitor all these communications so you’re never left on Read.
Finally, Brandwatch’s reporting is like the area rug that really ties the room together. The platform monitors social channels for any keywords or hashtags you associate with your campaign, and the data’s tidy visualization becomes the ammo you need for your next campaign. It’s real-time reporting that goes real deep, telling you much more than the expected engagement metrics.
You’ll know your views on videos, but you’ll also know which were Reels and which were Stories. On TikTok, and through Brandwatch’s integration with the TikTok Creator Marketplace, there’s a wealth of information available—Average Views, Completion Rate, Audience Genders and Ages, and more.
Brandwatch gives marketers everything they need to stay organized and ahead of the game, a true end-to-end solution.
Key Features: Global Influencer Payment, Influencer Discovery, Influencer directory management, Creation of private influencer network, Campaign management and reporting, Broad platform coverage, Automated reporting,
Channels: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Twitch, TikTok, Shopify
2. Sprout Social
If you’re looking to build a robust influencer marketing strategy, Sprout Social provides a seamless experience from finding the right influencers to managing your campaigns and measuring their success.
Trusted by leading brands like HP, Atlassian, UNICEF, and Canva, Sprout Social provides detailed reports and analytics to help brands understand the impact of their influencer marketing efforts, ensuring effective and data-driven decisions.
Sprout Social recently acquired Tagger Media, which enabled them to expand their influencer marketing offering by providing customers a dedicated influencer marketing and social listening platform.
Sprout Social’s IM platform works by enabling you to find influencers who embody authenticity, which is the key to successful social media interactions. Whether you’re targeting influencers with vast followings or micro-influencers with niche audiences, Sprout Social helps you identify and connect with individuals whose audiences align with your brand’s values and goals.
This is all possible through Sprout Social’s powerful search and filter capabilities. You can vet potential influencers by examining their follower count, average engagement rate, and audience demographics.
Sprout Social’s integration with Tagger allows you to analyze the performance metrics of over 10 million profiles, ensuring you find the best match for your brand’s audience. This feature is invaluable as it saves you countless hours of manual searching and provides you with data-driven insights to make informed decisions.
Once you’ve identified your ideal influencers, Sprout Social streamlines the entire campaign management process. You can handle negotiations, submit contracts, and collaborate on content creation.
Moreover, you can monitor campaign performance all within the platform. You can track real-time performance metrics, generate detailed analytics reports, and gain insights into how your campaigns are performing. These insights help you optimize your influencer strategy by identifying what’s working and what needs adjustment.
Sprout Social also offers robust budget management features. You can set and track your campaign budget, ensuring you stay within your financial limits while maximizing the return on investment. The platform’s payment features allow you to pay influencers in any currency, making it easier to manage global campaigns without the hassle of currency conversions and international payment issues.
Recognitions and Awards
Awards
Sprout Social has garnered significant recognition and accolades in the industry, cementing its reputation as a leader in influencer marketing and social media management.
- Shorty Awards 16th Annual Audience Honoree for exceptional work in social media data visualization.
- PR Daily’s 2024 Social Media & Digital Awards for providing top-notch mobile experiences for users.
User Reviews
These awards are backed up by positive user reviews. One user said:
“I used Sprout Social at two different companies, and I will use it again in my own digital agency. It’s a great tool for organizing, scheduling, and publishing social messages. You can follow keywords and easily see influencers, so it’s useful for listening for the buzz about your company or industry. Their data visualizations are easy to understand and share, too. Love it!”
Notable Campaigns
A notable example of Sprout Social’s impact is demonstrated through Trello’s influencer marketing campaign.
The goal was to increase brand awareness and attract new users through a targeted hashtag campaign.
Strategic Approach
Trello launched a campaign around New Year’s resolutions titled #ReadySetGoal, strategically supported by social influencers. The campaign was guided by insights from Sprout Social’s Brand Keywords, which revealed that notable influencers like Tim Ferriss, author of “The 4-Hour Workweek,” were already using Trello. By engaging Ferriss and other influencers to tweet with the #ReadySetGoal hashtag, Trello significantly amplified its campaign reach.
The tools and tricks Tim Ferriss uses to maximize daily #productivity & focus. https://t.co/6wXnXAeryF #ReadySetGoal pic.twitter.com/VcMUD0Gr4b
— Trello by Atlassian (@trello) January 14, 2016
The Results
The results were impressive. After just one month, Trello saw a 71% increase in Twitter followers, a 33% boost in @mentions, and a 7% spike in impressions per Tweet. These metrics highlighted not only an increase in Trello’s brand awareness but also the acquisition of new users, all tracked by Sprout Social throughout the campaign.
3. Modash
Modash is an influencer marketing platform that provides a comprehensive solution for discovering, analyzing, and monitoring influencers across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The primary goal of Modash is to help businesses find the right influencers who align with their target audience, monitor their performance, and ensure the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. The platform supports influencers with at least 1,000 followers and offers a variety of tools to enhance influencer marketing efforts.
The first key feature of Modash is its discovery tool. This tool allows users to search for influencers based on various filters such as location, follower count, gender, interests, and engagement rates.
For example, if you are a company selling yoga mats to young women in Germany, you can use Modash to find influencers who match this specific demographic. The search functionality also includes a look-alike feature, which helps users find influencers similar to those they are already working with, ensuring a consistent target audience. Additionally, Modash provides access to influencers’ contact details, making outreach straightforward and efficient.
Modash also offers detailed analytics for each influencer. These analytics include metrics on followers, engagement rates, and audience demographics, such as location, age, and gender.
The platform utilizes image and text recognition to analyze the content and understand the interests of an influencer’s followers. It also has robust mechanisms to detect fake followers by comparing behavior patterns against known normal activities on social media platforms. This ensures businesses can make informed decisions about which influencers to partner with, based on authentic and engaged audiences.
Another significant aspect of Modash is its monitoring capability. Once a campaign is launched, the platform automatically tracks and captures all content created by the influencers about the brand. This feature saves time and effort as users no longer need to manually check social media platforms for updates. The monitoring tool also provides notifications if an influencer fails to disclose a paid partnership or misses required tags and mentions.
Modash’s export functionality is another valuable tool. Users can create lists of influencers and export their profiles, complete with analytics and contact information, to spreadsheets. These lists can then be uploaded to email automation tools like Mailchimp or CRM systems like HubSpot for streamlined communication and campaign management. This feature is particularly useful for managing large-scale influencer campaigns and ensuring that all influencers are properly engaged and tracked.
Key Features: Influencer Discovery, Influencer Analytics, Influencer Campaign Monitoring, Influencer Management,
4. Upfluence
Upfluence is a comprehensive influencer marketing platform that combines a suite of powerful tools designed to transform creators into revenue-driving partners. Whether you’re running an affiliate program, managing brand ambassadors, or building relationships with creators, Upfluence provides brands with the resources to streamline campaigns, discover influencers, and track results easily.
Influencer Discovery Made Easy
What sets Upfluence apart is its data-driven approach to influencer discovery. Instead of just finding any creators, Upfluence helps brands identify the right influencers based on content, performance, and audience fit.
Their robust database allows brands to discover influencers across social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and more. A standout feature is Upfluence’s ability to surface influential customers who already love your brand.
These influencers are 7 times more likely to collaborate, ensuring that your partnerships are authentic and resonate with their audience.
Managing multiple influencers can quickly become overwhelming, but Upfluence simplifies this with its Creator Relationship Management (CRM) tool. The platform’s customizable workflows let brands track everything in one place—from the influencers hired, content drafts, and sales generated to payments issued.
This organized workflow reduces the time brands spend managing relationships and frees them up to focus on building meaningful connections.
Upfluence even offers AI-powered tools to further streamline influencer hiring and outreach. Automated email templates and contract options ensure you’re not bogged down by repetitive tasks, while the AI mailing assistant speeds up communication, allowing brands to stay ahead of the curve.
Drive ROI with Data-Driven Campaigns
Upfluence doesn’t stop at discovery and management—it also excels in tracking and optimizing influencer campaigns. The platform provides brands with in-depth performance metrics, enabling them to measure ROI and optimize campaigns in real-time.
With personalized dashboards, brands can track influencer engagement, sales generated, and commissions owed, ensuring complete visibility into campaign performance.
Whether you’re running an Amazon affiliate campaign or a traditional influencer marketing campaign, Upfluence tracks the key metrics that matter. Brands can use individual tracking links to monitor which influencers bring in the most traffic and revenue. The precision of this tracking makes it easy to see which creators are contributing the most to your bottom line.
Simplifying Influencer Payments
Another notable feature is Upfluence Pay, which automates influencer compensation across 120+ countries. Brands can pay creators through wire transfer, PayPal, or Stripe, and all payments are tracked in the platform’s dashboard.
This system makes paying creators a breeze, eliminating the usual headaches of managing commissions and payouts manually.
Upfluence also offers an influencer gifting system, where creators can select products directly from your store to promote. This feature saves time on logistics and makes the process of shipping products as easy as a single click.
All-in-One Campaign Management
Upfluence is truly an end-to-end solution for brands looking to maximize their influencer marketing efforts. From influencer discovery to campaign execution and payment, the platform covers every step of the process. It’s an ideal platform for brands that want to scale their influencer programs efficiently without sacrificing quality.
You also benefit from custom reporting and analytics, which allows you to generate shareable reports that combine engagement metrics with sales data. This helps you evaluate your influencer campaigns from every angle, making data-driven decisions that lead to better results.
Key Features: Influencer Search & Discovery, Relationship Management, Campaign Management, Third Party Analytics, Automated Recruiting, Influencer Lifecycle Management, Team Collaboration Tools, Content Review, Campaign Reporting, Audience Analysis, E-commerce Tools, Product/Gifting Tools, Payment Processing, Social Listening, Affiliate Management, Affiliate Campaigns,
Channels: Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitch, Tiktok, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogs
5. VN Secure
Best for: Medium to large businesses
Notable clients: Meta Quest, Walmart, PUBG, Energizer,
Pricing: Available upon request
Viral Nation develops and launches impactful influencer marketing campaigns. The agency handles different campaign types, including influencer marketing and social experiential marketing, for several major brands. For each campaign, they come in with custom strategic approaches designed to help brands meet—and even exceed—their goals.
In 2022, Viral Nation launched Viral Nation_Secure, an AI-powered solution for brand safety. Viral Nation_Secure enables brands to comprehensively screen and monitor social media conduct. It helps brands protect their reputation, ensure that creators align with their brand values, and mitigate potential crises.
Viral Nation_Secure for Brand Safety
By tapping into the capabilities of best-in-class technology, Viral Nation_Secure empowers brands to pursue social-first transformation, all while being able to protect their reputation from new threats and risks brought about by changing social realities.
Viral Nation received wide acclaim for its proprietary technology. Just recently, Viral Nation_Secure was awarded the coveted SXSW Innovation Award for Social Media, which honors the world’s most exciting and innovative digital projects. This particular award is given to projects and platforms that help create healthier communication channels.
Official SXSW announcement for the 2024 SXSW Innovation Awards
Aside from receiving this recognition, Viral Nation_Secure has also earned the trust of many top brands. A leading retail giant is leveraging the capabilities of Viral Nation_Secure to monitor and scale its creator program. Within six months, VN Secure was able to screen more than 7.6 million videos. If done manually, this endeavor could take well over 23 years.
Viral Nation Awards and Recognition
As one of Deloitte’s fastest-growing tech companies in North America in 2023, Viral Nation has seen an impressive 292% growth.
Viral Nation’s 2023 Technology Fast 500 ranking
To date, the agency has received 35 awards, including the 2019 Influencer Marketing Awards for the Best Large Agency globally and several Platinum Winner awards from the AVA Digital Awards for their campaigns for Activision Blizzard Esports and Meta Quest 2.
Viral Nation awards
Viral Nation’s Capabilities
The agency is one of the pioneers in the influencer marketing field, getting its start when the industry was still new and growing. Today, they’ve grown to offer precise and scalable solutions for influencer marketing, providing their clients with tangible and measurable campaign results. The agency also activates more than 100,000 creators annually for global brands across industries like lifestyle, beauty, consumer tech, gaming, and more.
They use historical data and proprietary technologies to ensure that brands are matched with influencers who best fit their needs and align with their core values. And Viral Nation doesn’t just work with celebrity influencers. They also work on campaigns featuring micro-influencers.
Staying true to its social-first approach, Viral Nation develops custom strategies, solutions, and specialized services that promote social transformation. Aside from influencer marketing campaigns, Viral Nation also develops ambassador programs, campaign accelerators, and brand integrations, among other offerings.
Notable Marketing Campaigns
Viral Nation has developed and launched several successful influencer marketing campaigns. Below are a few select examples of standout campaigns over the years.
ViewSonic
ViewSonic needed to grow brand awareness and drive sales for specific products. Viral Nation offered its influencer marketing, campaign strategy, and talent management services.
Working with 18 influencers like Kevin the Tech Ninja and SoldierKnowsBest, Viral Nation helped put ViewSonic on top of people’s minds during the holidays. The campaign exceeded ViewSonic’s targets by an impressive 142% and even received the Best Digital Campaign Award at the AVA Digital Awards.
Meta Quest 2
Viral Nation’s award-winning Meta Quest 2 campaign produced significant results. The VR launch for Resident Evil 4 received over 60 million impressions and 15.8 million views.
For this campaign, Viral Nation partnered with major creators across platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok. They had early access to the game, allowing them to create fresh and engaging content like livestreams and gameplay compilations for their fans to enjoy. Viral Nation also worked with cosplayers and gamers to create a truly impactful and memorable launch experience.
Main Features:
- IP & brand detection
- Ongoing screening
- Copyright infringement protection
- AI-powered deep content analysis
Pros:
- Also works great as a social listening tool
- Has customizable tolerance scoring
- Can thoroughly scan historical data
Cons:
- Specifically geared for medium to large businesses
Key Features: Influencer Analysis, Moderation Tolerance Feature,
Channels: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter
6. Influencity
Influencity is another standout because of its reliance on data. With a robust discovery module and in-depth performance analysis, Influencity has the potential to be overwhelming to non-data scientists out there, but its interface does a great job keeping everything easy to digest.
A case in point: Influencity’s Discovery features. Searching for influencers is a breeze, despite there being an absolute ton of filters to narrow down your options. The platform’s marketing boasts over 100,000 filter combinations, and ensures highly targeted searches. Go beyond basic demographics like age and location and delve into psychographics like interests and brand affinities. These filters can be applied to influencers themselves, their audiences, or both.
For even greater efficiency, Influencity offers a powerful lookalike search feature. If you’ve found one perfect influencer, the platform makes it easy to find other accounts just like theirs. Unlike generic lookalikes on other platforms, Influencity considers influencer content, audience data, and your specific criteria. Lookalikes don’t necessarily have to have the same size audience, so much as they’ll have like minded people. Imagine finding micro-influencers with high engagement from an audience who share similar interests to a celebrity like Kim Kardashian. Influencity’s lookalike search makes this possible, saving you valuable time.
Search results on Influencity are clear and informative. You’ll see a summary of the filters applied alongside the influencer list. Each influencer profile displays how well they match your chosen criteria. For example, if you require at least 50% female audience, the platform reveals the exact percentage for each influencer. Influencity goes to great lengths to match your criteria and then to back up its suggestions with data, leaving doubt behind.
The Influencer Relationship Management (IRM) module is a real highlight, going beyond simple list building. You can dive deep into any influencer profile to explore audience demographics, performance metrics, brand affinities, and audience data—all alongside standard CRM data that lets you organize and understand the creators you work with. A key feature of Influencity is the way the platform aggregates all this data at the group level. This means that if you’ve shortlisted 15 influencers to work on a campaign, the IRM module provides a collective view of their audience reach and earned media value. This instant perspective on the return you’ll get for your investment ensures you never end up with the wrong group of people. There’s no better way to boost campaign performance than to see predictive analytics on its performance before you’ve even posted your first piece of content.
At all levels, the platform empowers data-driven campaign management. Similar to influencer discovery, campaign performance data can be analyzed in multiple ways. The platform answers the crucial question: “What was the return on investment?” Detailed breakdowns reveal the audience actually reached and their engagement levels. Identifying top performers allows you to refine your influencer selection for future campaigns.
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Influencer Lifecycle Management, Influencer Relationship Management, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Fake Follower/Fraud Detection, Exportable reports, Team/Collaboration Tools,
Channels: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch
7. LTK (formerly rewardStyle)
Launched to the public in 2022, LTK Connect builds upon LTK’s extensive experience in influencer marketing. The platform was developed as an internal tool for LTK, which provided a managed influencer marketing service for brands. The data and tools found in the platform are the very same ones used internally, offered as a self-service option for brands or other agencies.
There’s a kind of “marketing command center” feeling to the platform as, upon logging in, you’re greeted by a comprehensive dashboard giving you the lay of your own landscape. Monthly spend, sales figures, and conversion rates are front and center, while easily customizable date ranges allow for in-depth analysis at your fingertips. Of course, without any campaigns at first, there’s not going to be much here at first.
Campaign creation starts with a familiar form, but evolves into a guided experience. LTK assigns a dedicated representative to assist with your first campaign and offer ongoing strategic advice. A unique feature streamlines content requirements: Selecting desired post types (Instagram Story, post, TikTok video) automatically populates detailed (and customizable) requirements for each, saving you time and ensuring consistency. Little touches like this streamline the whole content submission process, too, giving creators a little checklist to work off of and eliminating a lot of back-and-forth over minor details.
LTK Connect operates like an influencer marketplace, but it is very much a curated platform. Influencers are vetted for skills, talent, and professionalism. Discovery is facilitated by categorized lists based on vertical (think: beauty or fashion) or performance (top converters, rising stars). Regardless of the categories, every influencer has been screened by the LTK team before you ever see their profile.
At all subscription levels, you gain access to creator data beyond basic metrics. One of the most valuable is being able to see historical conversion rates influencers achieved on past campaigns, empowering informed decision-making. While compensation is flexible (cash and/or products), keep in mind influencers can view all this historical data, too: they’ll know their worth as well as you. Once you’ve agreed on what they’ll earn for their participation in a campaign, payments are streamlined through the platform, and payment methods are stored securely for automatic payouts upon content approval.
LTK Connect’s biggest selling point, though, is its shopping app. The app itself is a go-to destination for the fashion and beauty set to see what’s new and what’s trending—and then to actually buy these things. That means your influencers are creating content meant to drive sales, and it all happens in one place. That also means LTK Connect integrates seamlessly with the LTK shopping app, providing an unrivaled view of campaign performance. Go beyond vanity metrics and delve into the kinds of numbers bosses like to see: total sales, clicks, conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS). Clear visualizations and an easy-to-read layout leave no question about the campaign’s financial impact.
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Content Review, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Product/Gifting Tools, Forms and Compliance, Payment Processing,
Channels: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Blogs, LTK App
8. Creator.co
Creator.co excels at simplifying influencer marketing campaigns for brands and agencies of all sizes. More than this, though, it treats influencer campaigns as just a small part of a larger marketing ecosystem: affiliate marketing integrations take campaigns to the next level, while creator content is stored for future use and redeployment in paid ads, social media, website collateral and more. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
With Creator, everything starts with campaigns, and campaigns start with its intuitive Campaign Builder. This step-by-step guide walks you through defining your goals, target channels (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or custom options for premium plans), and campaign strategy (user-generated content, product reviews, giveaways, etc.). It even allows uploading reference photos for visual clarity, letting creators know the vibe you’re going for.
Before launching your campaign, Creator.co offers a valuable service: a team review. Not your team: theirs. It’s a manual intervention that feels like automation, ensuring all details are clear and avoiding potential issues once content creation begins. This quality check applies to all plans, including the self-service option.
Having passed the review, your campaign is broadcast out to 175,000 registered creators. To make finding the right fit easier, both brands and creators benefit from a robust search system. Brands can specify what kind of creators get to see and apply to the campaign brief based on their areas of expertise, categories, platforms, and desired content types. On the other side of things, creators can browse through the Creator.co network to find opportunities that align with their own interests and goals.
One of Creator.co’s strongest feature is its “Deep Insights” reporting. While the initial dashboard provides basic information, a downloadable report offers a wealth of data. These in-depth reports go beyond basic metrics like follower count. They analyze engagement rates compared to industry benchmarks, identify key content themes, and reveal audience demographics and interests. It’s worth noting that this analysis is limited to the audience members who actively engage (like and comment). Impressions are nice, but who needs to know anymore about the people who scrolled right past your content?
This detailed influencer data extends beyond standard campaigns. Creator.co integrates with various affiliate marketing platforms, allowing you to manage performance-based campaigns within its dashboard. Furthermore, you can leverage your influencer insights to target creators with highly relevant audiences on these affiliate platforms. This level of audience targeting is exceptional within the affiliate marketing landscape.
This level of targeting is just one benefit of the insights and data available with Creator.co. User-friendly dashboards to track the progress of active campaigns, while the reporting goes deep on the ones that have been completed. You’ll get clear views of campaign opt-ins, performance metrics, and submitted content.
Creator.co’s reporting system goes beyond basic engagement metrics. It translates them into a dollar amount—a kind of earned media value but much more specific. So, for example, you’ll learn that a post garnered 100 comments, but you’ll also get an understanding of how much those hundred comments were worth, an interesting way to track your return on investment. For organizations that live and die by their data, Creator.co gives the tools for marketing success and also the tools to prove you succeeded.
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Automated Recruiting, Influencer Relationship Management, Influencer Marketplace, Content Review, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, E-commerce Tools, Product/Gifting Tools, Fake Follower/Fraud Detection, Payment Processing, Social Listening, Competitor Research, Creator Marketplace,
Channels: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok
9. InsightIQ
Best for: Mid to large-sized businesses and e-commerce brands looking to optimize ROI from influencer marketing campaigns across multiple platforms including YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
Notable clients: Impulze.Ai, Passionfruit, Control Console
Pricing: Pricing is available only on request
InsightIQ has etched its identity as an indispensable tool in the intricate world of influencer marketing, specialising in social media channels like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. A repository of over 250 million creators across diverse platforms, InsightIQ, guarantees not just quantity but quality, ensuring brands align with influencers poised to echo their voice authentically.
Creator search and campaign tracking are two pillars that elevate InsightIQ’s stature. The platform makes the ordeal of finding the perfect influencer akin to an art, with powerful filters aiding in sifting through vast data, honing in on creators whose audience resonates with the brand’s Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). The comprehensive tracking tools ensure every campaign is not a gamble but a strategic move, with metrics like Cost Per Engagement (CPE) and Total Media Value (TMV) offering real-time insights.
The integration with Shopify underscores InsightIQ’s commitment to tangibility in results. Every sale’s origin, every creator’s contribution is mapped in real-time, affording brands an unobscured view of the impact of their influencer collaborations. This level of transparency is not a feature but a cornerstone, ensuring that influencer marketing transcends beyond buzzwords and manifests in measurable outcomes.
InsightIQ’s adeptness at simplifying the complex arena of influencer marketing, coupled with its tangible, real-time metrics, presents a compelling proposition for mid to large-sized enterprises eager to optimize their influencer campaigns’ ROI and foster genuine brand-influencer synergies.
Main features:
- AI-powered tools for enhanced ROI
- API solutions for customized influencer marketing tools and campaign tracking
Pros:
- Extensive database of diverse creators
- Real-time metrics
- Adaptability
Cons:
- The abundance of features might have a learning curve for users new to influencer marketing platforms
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Fake Follower/Fraud Detection, Visual Discovery, LinkedIn Creator Search,
Channels: Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, LinkedIn
10. Skeepers
Best for: Medium and big eCommerce businesses
Notable clients: Lacoste, Decathlon, Clarins, Besson
Pricing: Pricing is available upon request
Skeepers is the quintessential influencer marketing platform, where building trust with influencers is the core philosophy. Connecting you with a community of 100,000 nano and micro-influencers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, Skeepers excels in generating genuine, engaging content.
Skeepers streamlines campaign management, freeing you to focus on relationships with influencers, and content rights from influencers are yours to leverage for a decade, enhancing your brand’s image and boosting conversions. Precision in influencer selection is ensured with the “Influencer Marketing” solution allowing you to find the right one among 100,000 influencers using this platform. Simply use the “Personal Profile” functionality to refine your search and discover ambassadors who align with your brand image, ensuring the availability of high-quality, user-generated content (UGC). Meanwhile, real-time analytics help optimize your campaigns. A simple four-step process guides you through campaign creation, profile selection, content generation, and data leverage.
From the retail sector to fashion and beauty, it has consistently delivered results and demonstrated its impact on building connections, fostering relationships, and achieving marketing goals. For example, it has made it easier for a major brand like Decathlon to leverage UGC. The result – more authentic and engaging video content.
Main features:
- Campaign management
- Content licensing
- Influencer sourcing
- Real-time data monitoring
Pros:
- The consumer reviews module enhances the complete influencer experience
- An influencer credit system ensures accountability
- Live Shopping introduces a fresh approach for influencers to promote and sell your brand
Cons:
- Limited audience data available
- Some users express concerns about the Messaging function’s robustness, desiring features like auto-replies and email integrations
Key Features: Campaign Management, Influencer Discovery, Social Media Monitoring, Faceted Search / Filtering,
Channels: Tik Tok, Instagram, Shopify, Retail Sites, Brand Website
11. Ubiquitous
Best for: Small brands
Notable Clients: Netflix, Amazon, Target, Spotify, Lyft, McDonald’s, DoorDash, Adobe
Pricing: Free
Influencer marketing platforms that promise to streamline operations and enhance effectiveness are always in the spotlight. Ubiquitous emerges as a noteworthy contender, presenting a suite of tools designed to cater specifically to the needs of brands seeking to harness the power of influencer collaborations without straining their budgets.
First and foremost, the platform offers a robust creator search tool that stands out in the crowded market of influencer databases. With access to over 100 million creators across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, the platform ensures you can identify influencers that not only align with your brand’s identity but also possess genuinely engaged followings. This vast database is enhanced with powerful filtering options, making the search process both efficient and effective.
One of the platform’s most compelling features is its real-time campaign monitoring and performance tracking. Ubiquitous allows you to manage multiple campaigns simultaneously, providing real-time insights into each campaign’s performance.
The platform is particularly beneficial for marketers who need to make quick, data-driven decisions. The ability to export this data with a single click further adds to the convenience, offering you a seamless way to report and analyze your campaign results.
The competitive brand analysis tool is another feature that makes Ubiquitous particularly appealing as an influencer marketing platform. It gives a detailed look at what your competitors are doing, including how many influencers they work with and the engagement rates they achieve. This insight is invaluable for looking to stay competitive in a fast-paced market.
Recognition and Awards
The Ubiquitous influencer marketing platform has a 4.1-star rating on Trustpilot, with one reviewer saying
“10/10 Would Recommend! I thoroughly enjoyed working with the team at Ubiquitous, specifically Bree! She was on top of the program every step of the way and made sure to provide active updates, making my job 10x easier! I hope to work with this team again in the near future.”
Notable Campaigns
CASETiFy, a company creating high-end and durable phone cases, looked to increase their brand awareness and reach hundreds of thousands of Millennials. Settling on a strategy to leverage influencers, CASETiFy used the Ubiquitous influencer marketing platform to recruit 84 influencers and create 168 videos. The campaign was a massive success, with CASETiFy hitting 9.5 million impressions and expanding its target audience through TikTok.
@casetify @amandas.adventures took this inside joke to a whole new level ? #CASETiFY #customephonecase #trampwall #fyp ♬ original sound – CASETiFY
In another collaboration, Bloom Nutrition utilized the exact same approach as CASETiFy. Bloom Nutrition, a wellness brand offering high-quality greens and superfoods, leveraged the Ubiquitous influencer marketing platform to look for the perfect creator to help them boost brand awareness and maximize the potential visibility that comes from being featured on Amazon’s landing page.
Through their platform, Bloom found Gabbie Egen. The creator then made a few TikTok videos, reaching tens of thousands of views and achieving a CPM of $3.57.
@bbyegan_ Greens on the go ? @Bloom Nutrition #bloompartner ♬ original sound – Gabbie Egan
Key Features: Influencer Search & Discovery, Campaign Management, Content Creation, Influencer Marketing, Full Campaign Design,
Channels: TikTok, Instagram, YouTube
12. indaHash
Best for: Small, Medium, and Large Brands and Agencies
Notable clients: Coca-Cola, Disney, Sony Pictures, Amazon, Google, Samsung
Pricing: IndaHash offers flexible pricing options tailored to your needs, including packages like Creator Discovery, Campaigns Management, Agency Pack, Managed Services, and Enterprise. For precise pricing, you can request details directly.
As you navigate the landscape of Top Influencer Marketing Platforms, IndaHash distinguishes itself, especially for Instagram-centric campaigns. IndaHash’s suite of tools, features, and advanced capabilities is designed to meet your diverse influencer marketing needs. The platform’s standout feature, the Creator Discovery tool, uses AI algorithms and over 20 filters to ensure you find influencers who perfectly align with your brand’s values and target audience.
With IndaHash, you can effortlessly manage your influencer campaigns. The platform offers engagement rate analysis, in-depth audience demographics, audience overlap checks, competitor analysis, and a crisis detection tool.
This comprehensive approach simplifies campaign management and reporting, allowing you to efficiently track your influencer campaign performance.
Main features:
- Task Management
- Content Autodiscovery
- Personalized Creator Onboarding
- Comprehensive CRM Solution
Pros:
- Seamless discovery of influencers from a pool of verified talent
- Comprehensive data analytics for informed decision-making
- Flexible pricing suitable for various business sizes
Cons:
- Lack of specific notable client information on the website
- Pricing details require direct inquiry
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Influencer Relationship Management, Team Collaboration Tools, Content Review, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, White Label Reporting, E-commerce Tools, Fake Follower/Fraud Detection, Visual Discovery,
Channels: Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook
13. Digimind - An Onclusive Company
Best for: Medium and large businesses
Notable clients: Audi, Canon, Nike, Lenovo, Dentsu
Pricing: Pricing is available upon request
Digimind is much more than just an influencer marketing platform. Instead of labeling itself as an influencer marketing software exclusively, it chooses to use the phrase “intelligence software”. In addition to helping you gain information about influencers, you can also use it to gain insights about consumers, competitors, and trends.
With regards to its influencer marketing features specifically, it can help you to find the right influencer to generate a buzz about your brand. It will help you to identify opinion leaders who are already talking about your brand online. To make it easier to digest this wealth of data, you can, for example, sort these brand mentions by location or reach.
Though, for your influencer marketing campaign to be effective, it needs to generate engagement and not just vanity metrics. To help you with this, Digimind will also determine an influencer’s social authority.
Then, to help you prove that the influencers really did make an impact, it will also measure the ROI. Not only will it list the top-performing influencers, but it will also identify areas that can be optimized.
Digimind has many case studies that prove its value. One such example is how it has helped Hart Inc., an independent, full-service marketing firm, to create communication strategies for their clients. The agency, for example, used its social listening feature to identify micro-influencers who they could include in pitches. They could then also track the engagement rates and other relevant metrics using the platform. Before Digimind, all of this had to be completed manually.
Main features:
- Social listening
- Influencer comparison by media type
- Analytics
- Reports
Pros:
- Multiple integration capabilities
- Exhaustive data collection
- Trend tracking and competitive analysis
Cons:
- Customer service can be slow
- LinkedIn integration can be glitchy
- Some functionalities are confusing
14. #paid
Best for: B2C and D2C brands as well as agencies
Notable clients: IKEA, Hershey’s, Unilever, Sephora
Pricing: Pricing is available upon request
#paid shies away from traditional models of influencer marketing. It was one of the first platforms to target campaigns for the different sections of your sales funnel. It also recognizes that influencers have that status because they create content so good that it has built them an audience. #paid believes that influencers should both be creating exciting content and also be a good fit for a brand. This is far more important than reach.
As with many influencer marketplaces, brands can use #paid to create campaign briefs describing campaign goals, the scope of desired content, and a little about the ideal creator. However, brands can go further in determining their ideal influencers. They can use Whitelisted Ads, where they whitelist specific creators and content for use with paid Facebook and Instagram ads. You can easily connect with Facebook Ads Manager and push ads into timelines and feeds under the creator’s handle. The shared content will still carry the Sponsored Post tag but appear more authentic because it doesn’t come from the brand’s account.
Influencers can signal a wish to participate in a brand’s campaigns, using a Handraise. They “raise” their hand to indicate interest. Potential influencers write a message describing why they believe they are a good fit for a campaign, and what their strategy might be. #paid has a team who vets every creator who submits a pitch.
For example, when Sephora Canada wanted to appeal to their South Asian customers, they turned to #paid to launch a Diwali campaign. The result — a positive sentiment of 96%.
Main features:
- Influencer matching
- Centralized communication
- Automated reminders
- Creator licensing
- Insights and reporting
Pros:
- Whitelisted Ads automates paid advertisements distributed through an influencer’s account
- A well-engineered messaging module safeguards and conveniently organizes your conversations
- Human-vetted influencers/creators result in a higher-quality talent pool
- Offers excellent post-campaign analysis
Cons:
- Limited audience analysis capabilities
Key Features: Influencer Marketplace, Automated Recruiting, Content Review, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Payment Processing, Influencer Whitelisting, Creator Marketplace,
Channels: Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Tiktok
15. IQfluence
If you’re looking to supercharge your influencer marketing efforts, IQFluence offers game-changing, AI-powered tools designed to help agencies and brands grow. With an impressive 148 million influencers in its database and 9 years of experience in the industry, IQFluence makes identifying and qualifying the right influencers faster and easier than ever.
AI-Powered Discovery: Faster, Smarter Influencer Search
IQFluence’s AI-Powered Discovery tool is built to help you find the perfect influencers in record time—on average, just 3-5 seconds. The platform’s AI-driven search capabilities ensure that you’re not just finding any influencers, but the ones that are truly the best fit for your brand.
You can enjoy unparalleled speed, finding influencers 10 times faster than traditional methods, all while benefiting from a user-friendly interface that makes navigating the platform simple and intuitive.
One of IQFluence’s standout features is its ability to qualify influencers quickly and accurately, helping you focus on creators who are most likely to drive success for your campaigns. They cite a 99.9% success rate and overwhelming satisfactory score among brands.
Streamlined Influencer Discovery and Detailed Analytics
One of the challenges of influencer marketing is identifying the right creators and making data-driven decisions. With IQFluence, this process is simplified. Their platform features clear functionality and convenient filters to ensure that you’re targeting the right influencers, whether you’re looking at audience size, engagement rates, or niche topics.
You’ll also gain access to detailed analytics, which provide you with the insights you need to make informed decisions and optimize your campaigns. The data-driven nature of IQFluence ensures you’re not just running campaigns—you’re running effective, optimized campaigns that yield real results.
IQFluence offers tailored solutions to help you avoid repetitive outreach and low-performing influencers. By allowing you to upload your campaign data and blacklist underperforming influencers, the platform helps ensure you’re consistently working with creators who drive value.
This helps you avoid wasting time and resources on outreach that doesn’t yield results, making your campaigns more efficient and focused.
Scaling Your Influencer Success
If you’ve already experienced success with influencer marketing and are looking to scale, IQFluence’s Lookalike System is designed to help you take things to the next level.
By analyzing data from your most successful influencer campaigns, IQFluence can identify similar creators who match your criteria, allowing you to scale your campaigns with influencers that have a higher likelihood of success.
This AI-powered system helps you expand your reach and impact with minimal effort, ensuring that your influencer marketing efforts continue to deliver results as you grow.
Advanced Precision for Niche Campaigns
For experienced marketers who need precise solutions to find the perfect influencers, IQFluence introduces TopicSensor®, an AI-powered tool that takes influencer discovery to the next level.
TopicSensor® not only analyzes big data to offer detailed insights but also dives into specific topics within your niche, ensuring that you’re connecting with influencers who resonate with your audience on a deeper level.
With tailored recommendations and AI-driven precision, IQFluence helps you filter through the vast number of influencers to find those that are truly aligned with your brand’s goals and values.
Key Features: Influencer Search & Discovery, Campaign Reporting, Analytics/Reporting,
Channels: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube
Key Features to Consider When Choosing an Influencer Platform
Here are some key features to keep in mind when choosing an influencer platform.
Creator Search Functionality
The platform should have a robust search functionality that allows you to filter and find relevant creators based on various criteria such as demographics, location, niche, engagement rate, etc.
Some platforms, such as Influencity, also let you filter by aesthetics. If that's important to your brand or campaign, make sure the platform you choose has this feature.
Don't settle for a platform that only has macro-influencers in its marketplace. Micro and nano-influencers have become more desirable to brands over the years due to their low cost but optimal results.
Campaign Management Tools
An influencer platform should offer campaign management tools like:
- Contract templates
- Automated messaging and communication
- Collaboration tools for creators to share content ideas
- Affiliate link tracking and reporting
- Performance analytics
Real-Time Reporting
The influencer marketing tool must also provide real-time reporting for your campaigns. Ideally, the dashboard should show your performance across all platforms.
Our influencer marketing benchmark report shows that 70% of brands track ROI for influencer marketing campaigns. The platform should have a dedicated section for ROI reporting.
Some platforms also offer data insights and competitive analysis. For example, Creator.co shows you audience demographics and reachability to help you understand the potential impact of working with a specific creator.
Payment Automation
Our benchmark report shows that 15.2% of brands work with 50 to 100 influencers, while 13.5% work with 100 to 1,000 influencers.
Depending on the size of your brand, you might work with hundreds of creators on a monthly basis. Handling payments manually can quickly become an administrative nightmare.
The influencer platform should offer payment automation to streamline the process and ensure timely payments for creators.
Also, it should allow you to pay influencers through PayPal or a third-party payment service. Since 27.2% of brands use the former and 18.5% use the latter, it's useful to have the option for multiple payment options.
Cost
Many influencer marketing platforms do not have a set cost. Instead, they negotiate prices and commission rates with brands and creators on a case-by-case basis.
Work with a platform that's transparent with its pricing. You don't want to be caught off guard with unexpected costs or hidden fees later.
Understanding Platform ROI: Cost vs. Value
Here’s the thing about cost when it comes to influencer marketing technology, the price can vary significantly. You’re basically looking at spending anything from $100 per month to more than 20 times that. You would also have noticed that most don’t publicly share any pricing details on their websites, making it more difficult to do a cost analysis.
On average, though, you’re looking at spending between $500 and $800 per month.
A self-service influencer platform generally works out cheaper. For example, Webfluential’s package works out at only $100 per month, with Influence’s option slightly more expensive at $349 per month.
That said, the true value of influencer marketing technology is found in the time that it will save you. So, while you might pay only a hundred bucks for a self-service platform, you’ll lose out on the main benefit.
Timesaving, however, is a difficult concept to quantify.
For a better idea of what your potential ROI can look like, let the case studies guide you.
Let’s take Creator.co as an example. Pricing starts at $391 per month. You’ll also need to spend a one-time onboarding fee of $395.
However, it has helped clients to increase sales between 55% and 70%.
Add that to the time that their clients have saved and the potential return on investment quickly becomes very attractive. For example, with the self-serve subscription, you can save up to six hours per week already.
With a tool like Influencity (which is one of the cheapest options with pricing starting at less than $200 per month), brands have reported cutting the time spent on influencer search in half.
And, if you want to prove the value of your own campaigns, many of these tools can make calculating ROI straightforward too!
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Influencer Marketing Platforms
No solution is perfect and just like with any other digital marketing strategy there are several common mistakes. When it comes to choosing and using your new influencer marketing platform, avoid the following:
- Ignoring a platform because its influencer marketplace has only nano and micro influencers
- Choosing a platform that supports only limited social media platforms
- Setting unclear goals or limiting your influencers’ creative control
- Not using it to track data from your influencer marketing campaign
- Using an increase in sales as your only metric to determine the success of a campaign
- Expecting results overnight or after only one campaign
- Ignoring the relationship that you’ve fostered with your influencers after a campaign has ended
Insights from Industry Leaders: Expert Perspectives and Trends
If you still can’t make up your mind about whether you need to invest in a platform to find influencers, consider what some of the following thought leaders have to say. Here’s more insight into the strengths and weaknesses of a couple of the above-mentioned influencer marketing tools.
Shae Sattler, former Head of Partnerships and Community Marketing at Outer - a D2C outdoor furniture brand, highlighted Aspire’s support and intuitiveness:
“I highly recommend Aspire. Their team is SO available and helpful, and the platform saved me so much time and increased my results by a ton.”
Brandwatch Influence is another tool that’s praised for its level of customer support. Alex Garcia, Head of Partnerships at Insta360, added the following:
“Customer support is very responsive and teaches you when in doubt or helps you report/solve technical problems. At an enterprise level, you get assigned an account manager that helps you keep it more personal and is someone who understands your company needs very well.”
In addition to customer support, he also highlights automatic post collection, live data update, and reporting as strengths.
One area where Brandwatch Influence can improve, though, is the campaign feature that you can use to track the releases and report. For Insta360’s use case, there are two limitations:
It supports only 150 accounts per campaign.
Alex explains,
“Sometimes we work with 300+ influencers in one campaign across all regions. This makes us have several campaigns for the same project.”
The second weakness is the 90-day limitation.
“For some one-off campaigns it's not a problem, like a product launch, but for always-on projects that require tracking during the whole year it's annoying because it makes us duplicate the campaigns every three months, with the same influencers in it but just another timeframe.”
Limitations aside, Insta360 still manages to generate loads of engagement. They’ve recently won the YouTube Streamy Award for Brand Engagement for their “No Drone? No Problem!” campaign. The campaign’s hashtag #NoDroneNoProblem generated 238.9 million views on TikTok alone.
If you want to combine video content with ease of use, gen.video is a tool that stands out.
Denise Vitola, an award-winning marketing pro and VP of Brand Integration PR, Social and Influencer at Bayer, the multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company, has this to say about gen.video:
“I think the biggest strength is the ease of use, being able to view campaigns, influencers and content in one place. Being able to look things up and review metrics for each campaign right on the platform.”
While she also appreciates its sharing functionality, the content editing capabilities are lacking.
“I think the editing content could be better. Instead of a cut-and-paste feature, I would like to track changes.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the top influencer marketing platforms?
We have looked at a considerable number of influencer marketing platforms in this article. Each has its advantages with a different focus. This means that we can’t recommend one overall top influencer marketing platform. You first need to decide what you are most looking for in a platform. Are you trying to discover new influencers? Do you want a platform to help with your influencer or campaign management? Perhaps you are most interested in third party analytics. We review platforms in more detail here.
What are influencer marketing platforms?
Influencer Marketing Platforms are online tools designed to assist brands in their Influencer Marketing Campaigns. Most provide influencer discovery tools for brands and agencies. Some feature massive searchable databases of potential influencers; others prefer an opt-in method for influencers. Many influencer platforms now also offer relationship management, campaign management, influencer marketplaces, third party analytics, and influencer content amplification.
What is Instagram influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing takes the idea of celebrity endorsement and places it into a modern-day content-driven marketing campaign. The results of the campaign are collaborations between brands and influencers. Influencer marketing involves a brand collaborating with an online influencer to market one of its products or services. Instagram influencer marketing features influencers who have built their name, have sizeable followings, and post regularly on the Instagram social network. Brands contract them to make posts on their behalf.
What social media platform is best for marketing?
A critical factor that you need to consider when selecting an influencer platform is the social media platforms for which they can find influencers. Some of the bigger influencer platforms cover nearly every major social media platform. Others specialize in one or two social networks. Ultimately you need to market where your potential customers are. So, for instance, TikTok or Instagram may be best if you sell to young women, LinkedIn if you sell B2B, Twitter for the politically aware, and Facebook for older people.
What are the different marketing platforms?
There are quite a few different types of marketing platforms. This article focuses on influencer marketing platforms – online software that assists you in finding influencers. Content marketing platforms provide services that support their clients with content marketing. Another way of viewing marketing platforms is as a marketing medium. From this perspective, marketing platforms include television, direct mail, and telephone, along with online mediums such as email, social media, pay per click (PPC) marketing, search engine marketing, and mobile marketing.
Comparing Influencer Marketing Platforms
These platforms cater to a wide range of industries, including Fashion & Beauty, Health & Wellness, Gaming, Technology, and Lifestyle, among others. Explore the sections below for an overview of Influencer Marketing Platforms categorized by:
- 23 US-Based Influencer Marketing Platforms
- Top Influencer Marketing Platforms for Creators
- Top Influencer Marketing Platforms for Agencies
- 28 Best Influencer Marketing Software For 2024
- 18 Best Influencer Marketplaces
- Top eCommerce Influencer Marketing Software & Platforms
- 12 FREE Influencer Marketing Tools to Find Influencers
- Top 16 AI-Powered Influencer Marketing Platforms for 2024
Is there a marketplace for influencers?
Yes, there is. Influencer marketplaces are highly common platform solutions that provide brands the option to browse through a selection of influencers. The brands can then get in contact with the individual influencer and begin collaborations. Popular options include:
- Brandwatch Influence
- Modash
- Creator.co
- SproutSocial
- LTK
- Influencity
- Viral Nation
