Cringey. Scary. Risky.

Influencer negotiation doesn’t come naturally to most marketers.

What do you do — lay all your cards on the table and share your budget? Or wait for their anchor rate? What if the creator refuses to engage if you lowball them too much?

Negotiating with creators doesn’t have to be so puzzling and spine-chilling. Not when it’s done right.

Here are nine tips & strategies to negotiate with influencers to get the best rates for your brand, while being fair & keeping everyone happy.

9 ways to negotiate with potential influencers for your brand

Before we begin: this article isn’t a guide to underpaying influencers. Content creation is hard work, and influencers should be compensated fairly for their toil — whether that’s a YouTube video or an Instagram Story.

Let’s get into it! 👇

1: Use influencer analysis tools for a data-backed negotiation

Having data about an influencer’s audience & content performance will help you confidently enter the negotiation conversation.

You can get this either by manually asking them for screenshots, or using an influencer analysis tool like Modash.

In Modash, profile analytics look like this:

Equipped with that data, firstly, you can set & share your expectations — like “I expect X% reach/sales/clicks from you with your engagement rate and average views” — and have a solid ground to stand on for the anchor number you choose.

Additionally, you can better understand what percentage of the influencer's audience are relevant to you. For example, maybe only 60% of their followers are in your target country (e.g. USA). Or 10% of their followers appear to be fake.

(Be careful with outright telling influencers they have fake followers though. Even though it's normal, many people take it badly.)

In those cases, you can justify whatever is the maximum your brand can afford to offer. For example, you might say:

"Since our goal is to reach a US-based audience, and a decent chunk of your following & views come from outside the US, the maximum we could offer is X. Totally understand if that's below your usual rate, but let me know if we can make it work."

As always, the influencer is well within their rights to say no, but this approach will have a higher success rate than just throwing out a lower number with no context & reasoning.

2: Consider negotiating a "minimum KPI guarantee"

Some people love 'em, some people hate 'em. But increasingly, brands are starting to ask for minimum view guarantees (or other KPIs).

Effectively that means if the video doesn't hit X views, then something happens. Usually an extra deliverable for no additional cost.

Luke Raben of Parfumado recently tested & expanded their usage of minimum guarantees in influencer contracts.

Luke Raben

Growth Manager Parfumado

We initially only used them with high-cost & high-risk partnerships, but now we started always including them. We learned that, if conversions are down, in most cases, it's due to low video views. Not the landing page or audience/product fit.

So, it makes sense for brands as a way to de-risk each paid collaboration. But what do influencers & talent managers think about it?

Here's Luke's experience:

Luke Raben

Growth Manager Parfumado

Most managers and influencers are okay with this, as long as you bring it up early, and you're open and honest from the start. We do get a handful that are very against it - which I can understand, but largely, they are open to minimum view guarantees.

The biggest potential friction point is what exactly the brand gets if the number isn't hit. If it's a full reshoot of a dedicated YouTube video, managers & influencers are likely to be strongly against the idea.

Luke typically asks for an Instagram Story. Why?

• It's typically lower effort for the creator, so more likely to be accepted
• His goal is sales, so link clicks are important
• It helps reach a slightly different audience when the initial collaboration was on TikTok or YouTube

If you're just getting started with this type of negotiation, find a smaller ask that is likely to be accepted. It's a great way to de-risk your paid partnerships, if you can figure out a reasonable ask.

3: Reduce the base fee in exchange for higher performance bonuses

If you're able to offer performance-based pay (e.g. sales commissions), try negotiating a lower activation or base fee in exchange for a higher performance bonus.

For instance, if you pay an influencer a base fee of $300 per post and 7% of every sale, try negotiating it to $200 in exchange for offering a 9% cut of every purchase (if your margin allows). This way, you reduce your fixed costs associated with each creator and only pay a bigger chunk when an influencer brings you enough revenue.

If you don’t already practice performance-based payments, start by combining your influencer marketing campaign with an affiliate program like Savvy Rest.

📝 Further reading: 11 Ways To Find Affiliates For Your Brand

4: Negotiate the scope of work instead of the influencer rate

Steal this negotiation tactic out of my freelance playbook: you don’t always have to ask the influencer for a lower fee, you can also ask them to increase their scope of work for the same rate.

For instance, if an influencer is charging you a $300 base fee for one Instagram post, ask them if you can also add two Instagram Stories to their influencer brief at that rate. This strategy requires some wiggle room in your influencer marketing budget, but it’s worth the shot.

Another example: you can ask an influencer to throw in X days of content licensing for you to repurpose the content without extra cost.

5: Offer long-term collaboration in exchange for a discounted influencer rate

You know how Modash (or literally any other subscription service) gives you a discount if you buy a yearly subscription over the monthly one? 😉

It’s a negotiation principle you can use in your influencer deals: ask the influencer for a discount in exchange for a long-term contract.

Why would the influencer agree to this offer? There are three reasons:

• It gets easier to create different assets for the same brand because they understand your expectations
• Creators love the stability of knowing where their next paycheck is coming from
• Consistent partnerships with one brand look more authentic on their feed

It’s also an A-card for you:

• Partnering with the same influencer means less time spent finding new influencers
• You build trust and gain visibility with a new audience because a creator posts about you consistently
• Managing influencer relationships is less work because you’ve already done the legwork in the beginning

How to offer a long-term collaboration if the influencer demands a higher fee? Tweak this template:

“Hey {influencer name}, we love working with you and would be ecstatic to continue our collaboration.Currently, our budget is $XXX for {the type of deliverables you’re expecting from the influencer}, but we’d like to find a way to continue working with you. In exchange for the negotiated rate, we’re happy to commit for a longer period to offer some income security. We can sign a contract of X months, to begin with.What do you think?”

Have an open and honest conversation with the influencer about your budget and expectations. Don’t be afraid to renegotiate with other perks — like free products — if the long-term contract alone doesn’t cut it for them.

⚠️ Remember: only offer long-term influencer contracts to creators you enjoy working with and who give you the most bang for your buck. You don’t want to get tied to a six months contract with an influencer who doesn’t give you tangible results.

6: Provide non-monetary rewards instead of paying a higher influencer fee

If you have a tight influencer marketing budget, I have excellent news: money isn’t everything.

You think Rihanna performed at the Super Bowl for free just cuz ✨ tradition ✨? Nah. She did it for her brand, Fenty Beauty — which reportedly earned $5 million in media impact value in just 12 hours after the performance.

There are plenty of ways to pay influencers — and not all have to be some moolah in their wallet. Some other ideas include:

• VIP access to company events
• Gifting products and merchandise
• Travel expenses for the campaign
• First access to new product launches
• Resharing their content on your social media
• Promoting their content in your company newsletter
• Sending your own film crew to take some production burden off their to-do list

7: Do a product seeding campaign to get your foot-in-the-door

Getting someone to agree to a small request increases the likelihood that they’ll agree to your second, larger request. It’s called the foot-in-the-door technique.

(It’s not a guarantee, but if you’ve ever negotiated with a toddler to sleep by asking them to brush their teeth first, you know what I’m talking about.)

Influencer product seeding — or giving your product to relevant influencers for free, no strings attached — makes for a great foot-in-the-door technique. You just ask them for their address first and get your foot in the door before you negotiate a bigger deal.

📝 Further reading: A 7-Step Guide to Influencer Product Seeding (With Examples)

8: Tailor your messaging to the influencers’ goals and needs

As much as I love templates, they aren’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to influencer negotiation. Why? They don’t consider your specific influencer’s current needs and priorities.

For example, a micro-influencer might be tempted to partner with you in exchange for free products and a cut of sales they bring in. But macro-influencers receiving hundreds of monthly PR packages will shoo you away without an activation payment and/or base fee.

Patrick Campbell tested data from 18.3K customers reading a landing page and noticed the phrasing “Save you money” leads to a 28.6% increase in conversions, while “Make you money” only brings in a 6.7% conversion increase. Why? Because customers think they’re in a recession right now.

Whether it’s landing pages or negotiating with a creator, how you phrase your email is crucial. Avoid aggressive terminologies like “rejecting” or “accepting” and instead use more cooperation-friendly terms like “mutually beneficial” and “brainstorming solutions” to give the perception of it being a conversation and not an influencer vs. brand battle.

9: Use social proof to build trust with potential influencers

You examine creators by checking how they have collaborated with other companies + how their branded content has performed. Influencers vet you the same way.

If you have worked with influencers before, ask for testimonials about their experience and showcase them when negotiating with other creators.

Lululemon uses this tactic and has a “get to know our ambassadors page” for every local and global brand ambassador they have onboard.

You can also take it up a notch by highlighting why influencers love working with you and the results they have achieved since collaborating with your brand. Social proof makes your proposal rock solid and gives you some bricks to stand on as you negotiate.

Negotiating doesn’t have to be spooky ☠️

As daunting as negotiating sounds, with the right mindset and strategies under your belt, it’s a cakewalk. Remember, the goal is to arrive at an agreement that makes sense for both you and the influencer.

The best part? It gets easier (and less icky) with practice.

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