Quickstart
The challenge
Cutting through noise, creator fit and proving ROI. We'll cover it all.
The fix
From ‘hope this lands’ to outcomes you can prove, and a clear path to scale.
Inside this playbook
Navigate to the campaign checklist, success stories or launch plan.
Influencer marketing: the challenges
The average daily scroll is 300 ft, the height of the Statue of Liberty. And getting a customer to pause on your brand in a feed that long is a daily challenge.
As a marketer, you know influencers can stop the scroll, but turning that attention into results is far from simple. Here’s what to consider.
The scale of the creator economy
1.5 million full-time creators contributed to the influencer economy in 2024. There are 3.78 million Instagram influencers based in the US today. Finding the perfect ambassador for your brand can feel like a needle in a haystack.
The money at stake
Influencer ad spend grew 14% to $33B in 2024, that’s faster than digital advertising’s growth. Allocating budget towards big creator fees can feel risky. You need to know you’re paying the right amount for your share of the pie.
Measuring ROI
When metrics are soft or tracking is patchy, it’s harder to prove success. And the C-suite’s demand for clear ROI makes it tougher to keep influencer in the plan, even when your gut says it’s worth investing in.
A shifting landscape
Trends move fast and “proven” formulas date quickly. With nonstop updates across search, ads, privacy and email to juggle, influencer doesn’t need to be another thing on your plate.
High-risk decisions
Handing your brand story to a creator can feel like giving your car keys to a stranger. When it goes wrong, it can be disastrous: think Fyre Festival’s influencer-led hype and collapse, or Pepsi’s Kendall Jenner protest ad.
We get it. When it comes to influencer marketing, knowing where to start and how to win can feel impossible without the right support and tech in place.
brands take advantage of the creator economy with our influencer management solutions
retailer revenue driven from creators in 2024 (+23% YoY)
advertiser investment in influencer marketing in 2024
Introducing the affiliate channel: where influencer marketing works
The affiliate channel operates a pay-for-results model. Brands work with partners, track their efforts, and only pay or reward them when a defined action takes place. That action could be anything from a completed sale, to a defined number of hits to your site.
Each action is tied to a clear KPI. You only reward influencers for delivering what your business really needs, whether that is building brand awareness or driving conversions.
If awareness is the goal, the action might be saves, organic mentions, or shares. If conversion is the goal, it could be final sales or revenue. The affiliate channel makes it possible to prove ROI while also supporting wider objectives, from brand visibility to long-term customer loyalty.
The diversity and accountability of the channel mean you can shape influencer activity around whatever outcomes matter most to your business.
Influencer and affiliate make the perfect match; you get clearly-tracked insights you can trust, transparent payment models, plus brand-safety guardrails and a simple way to scale what works.
The result? Performance you can measure and report on with confidence. And influencer activity your C-suite can finally understand and back.
You can shape influencer activity around whatever outcomes matter most to your business.
© 2025, AWIN Ltd. All rights reserved. Awin is part of Axel Springer Group. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.