Influencer Marketing Platform or Creator Marketplace? Find The Right Tool For Your Marketing Strategy

Running a successful campaign with the right creators on board is the biggest challenge for any brand in the creator economy. Second, to enhance marketing performance, which must align with user behavior and creative trends. Capable of doing so are platforms for influencer marketing, as do the creator marketplaces on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat.

Creator Marketplace is a collaboration platform to connect brands with influencers on social media channels. Likewise, an influencer marketing platform is a third-party tool performing the same function but more like an all-in-one solution to run end-to-end influencer campaigns.

Both influencer marketing platforms and the creator marketplace have three goals - driving revenue for creators, running measurable brand campaigns, and reaching the target audience with authentic content. The question is how this partnership can be seamless as there are various pain points, such as identifying the right influencers that fit your brand and the relevancy of influencers to a brand's niche market.

Furthermore, there are bottlenecks when implementing a campaign, like determining a sizable social community of influencers, how well they can inspire action, measuring ROI, and many other campaign workflow-related tasks. So,  what to choose - a creator marketplace or an influencer marketing platform?

Before you decide what to opt for the next influencer marketing campaign, let us walk you through the multiple factors that differentiate an influencer marketing platform from a TikTok or Instagram Creator Marketplace. 

Influencer platforms, for example, include any creator with a public account, whereas the creator marketplace only works with influencers who have explicitly signed up with the marketplace. Given influencers' reach and impact, brand safety is a critical consideration when brands collaborate with influencers. Brands want to know whether the influencer's followers are genuine or fabricated. It is not in the creator marketplaces' best interests to share this data with brands.

As a third-party solution, an end-to-end influencer marketing platform, on the other hand, provides access to all global influencers relevant to a brand's niche. It improves transparency and helps brands choose the right influencers. It gives a cross-channel CRM, allowing brands to execute and manage influencers and campaigns across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram without switching platforms.

Finally, while the creator marketplace is limited to likes, impressions, reach, and views, the influencer marketing platform goes beyond social performance. It easily integrates with third-party platforms such as Shopify to help attribute sales conversions to the influencers.

Let us dive deep into each of these aspects. 
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‍1. Influencer Discovery 

Organizations' approach to influencer marketing is generally identifying and managing influencers in-house. Or sometimes, they identify influencers in-house and then use a specialist agency to manage efforts. Some use a specialist agency to identify influencers who will subsequently manage in-house.

Whether in-house management or campaigns run through agencies, influencer platforms are the most sought-after due to their large database of vetted influencers. You can select these influencers using multiple filters like audience interest, brand affinity, branded content distribution, influencer's followers' timeline, engagement timeline, etc. 

Creator Marketplaces have only a limited number of influencers. Only those influencers who have subscribed to the marketplace after fulfilling some of the pre-requisite requirements. For any brand looking to have a hybrid mix of mega, micro, and nano influencers to run a specific campaign in your particular niche becomes difficult. Secondly, the creator marketplace has the same roster of influencers. There is a possibility the influencer you might have selected will be working with other competitor brands.

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2. Campaign Management

Marketing managers spend most of their time maintaining spreadsheets for different campaigns. Since the creator marketplace lacks the tools required to streamline the workflow, there is a high likelihood that users will switch between several websites to individually manage each of these steps. However, an influencer marketing platform has a built-in CRM to handle numerous tasks quickly and conveniently. It contains:

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a. Mode of communication: You cannot directly communicate with the creators through the marketplace. You can only send invites for the collaboration on the marketplace or drop a comment on their posts. While on platforms like affable.ai, you can contact influencers via email and use the built-in chat feature to make communication with them simple.

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b. Product Gifting: It is a crucial component when managing a campaign. If you decide to use a marketplace on any social media channel, the task must be completed manually. Influencer marketing platforms like affable.ai automate the procedure. It integrates with Shopify and other eCommerce stores to make it simple for you to import the goods you want to give influencers as gifts. It gives you the option to choose the product's size and variety. You can also decide how many products influencers will be able to select from.

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c. Negotiation and Agreements: Handling the negotiations, agreements, and contracts take a lot of time. Marketplaces for creators do not have this feature. Brands must manage negotiations manually or invest additional time and resources. As a result, the campaign's execution period is extended. Some influencer platforms, such as affable.ai, offer built-in features like the Creator Portal, which streamlines the entire process from sending the campaign brief to assigning tasks and obtaining content rights. 

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3.Cross-Channel Integration to Run Campaigns

Cross-channel planning in influencer marketing is crucial. Ideally, you don’t have to switch between multiple social channels to run a campaign. Through influencer platforms, you get access to run campaigns across YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter from a single point. It eliminates spending countless hours developing campaigns for various social channels. It is not yet an option for creator marketplaces, as each marketplace is restricted to its respective social channel.

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4.Campaign Analytics 

Post reach percentage, follower growth rate, engagement rate, comments per post, hashtag performance, and best time to post are all provided by Creator Marketplace. But it cannot integrate with the third party to track conversions driven through influencer marketing on their e-commerce stores, like sales generated through influencers. 

Advanced influencer marketing platforms allow D2C brands with Shopify stores to create affiliate codes and links. Generally, brands create influencer-specific discount codes within Shopify while ensuring they only apply to specific products. The affiliate links and promotional codes are manually copied and pasted into the proposal. Influencers enter the discount code when placing an order for those particular products on the Shopify brand store. This entire process is time-consuming for both brands and influencers. 

‍Read more: How affable.ai’s creator portal helps you perform these tasks seamlessly. 
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5. Competitor Analysis

Another feature of an advanced influencer marketing platform is its ability to conduct competitor analysis. It gives entirety to your marketing strategy by giving clues about the closest competitors' strategies and their interactions with the target audience. It keeps you updated on the existing trends and identifies market gaps in your niche. 
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For a competitive assessment, an automated tool like affable.ai can extract all these details from various social media platforms using different filters. It streamlines the entire procedure and produces a thorough report that is data-driven. It has insights into your competitors' partnerships with influencers and customer interactions on sponsored posts. You get all the details to decipher a competitor's strategy in just a few clicks. Although the feature is available on creator marketplaces, its scope is limited.

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Key Differences: 

                  Infographic:  Difference between Creator Marketplace and Influencer Marketing Platform

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Creator Marketplaces On Different Social Media Channels 

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1. TikTok Creator Marketplace
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                                    Source: TikTok Creator Marketplace

Encouraging users to share their creative expressions, TikTok has built a community of 500,000 creators across 24 countries on its Creator Marketplace. It is, however, currently banned in India. The marketplace has only those influencers having 100,000 followers. Brands can find relevant creators for their campaigns using performance metrics, such as audience demographics, video topics, and more. 

Within the marketplace, the creator profiles tab shows the influencer's most recent videos and performance over time. It shares creators' performances and analyses their audiences. Another feature, direct contact, allows you to collaborate with the influencer within the platform. Creators can receive invitations from business partners in the app and choose the collaboration. Its reporting tool lets you track a creator's overall performance, including the overall number of videos each creator made and the total engagements driven by them. 

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2. Instagram Creator Marketplace
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                                    Source: Instagram

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Following the footsteps of TikTok, Instagram launched the Creator Marketplace in July 2022. The tool is available on an invite-only basis to brands and creators in the U.S. Discovery, partnership messaging, projects, and payments are some of its built-in features. Creators can select their pertinent industries under discovery and list their passions and subject areas that relate to their work. At the same time, businesses can identify creators who fit the tone or industry of their brands.

Brands can also see creators who have expressed interest in work. And also, see creators who have tagged them or follow them via a “tags and follows” tab. 

The Partnership Messaging feature allows brands to send messages to influencers. They can also add creators to saved lists. The Project feature comes next, where brands can share campaign information, specifications, and payment terms after a confirmed partnership. Creators receive the message via the partnerships messages folder. However, the payment feature is yet to be functional. Under this, creators can receive funds from a brand through the Instagram app. Through a dashboard, brands can track all payments.

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3. Facebook -  Brand Collabs Manager
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                                    Source: Meta

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Facebook's Brand Collabs Manager existed much earlier than Instagram's Creator Marketplace. The prerequisite for a brand collab manager is that an influencer should have a minimum of 1000 followers, 15,000 post engagements in the last 60 days or 180,00 minutes viewed in the last 60 days, or 30,000 one-minute views for 30-minute videos in the last 60 days. It is a way to demonstrate how a particular influencer can add value to the brand's messaging. 

Influencers create a portfolio by submitting details like info, interests, and the type of content they make. Brands using the tool can search for the creators they would like to partner with. Likewise, Influencers can target specific brands they want to work with. Under the Project Brief tab, influencers can share names, application deadlines, status, compensation range, and campaign dates. Then there is a Partnerships tab where influencers share their audiences list with advertisers. After the partnership, the Insights tab evaluates how branded content is performing when the influencer's content goes live. 

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4. YouTube Brand Connect 
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                                    Source: YouTube

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Called FameBit until 2020, YouTube BrandConnect is currently operational in the U.S., Canada, and the UK. YouTube BrandConnect is only available to influencers with 25,000+ subscribers who sign up directly in YouTube Studio. But as of right now, it is only by invitation. BrandConnect has matchmaking tools to match creators with the brand. If a deal that matches a creator’s interest is found, either it is emailed or notified in Studio. It does not guarantee the availability of deals. But, according to YouTube, the average deal size across the full-service product has grown by more than 260%.

A creator is only compensated for their genuine and impactful branded content after the video goes live. The tool has features like Brand Interest Lift and Influencer Lift to assist brands in getting real-time results for their branded content and organic views through conversation.

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5. Snapchat Creator Marketplace 
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                                   Source: Snapchat

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Snapchat offers collaborations for branded content projects, augmented reality collaborations, and more. It is only available by invitation after influencers who have set up their public profile and become Snap Stars by producing interesting content and winning over a devoted following. It finds creators by applying filters like budget, language, and specialization. But it depends upon the creator to share their audience insights to let brands analyze audience demographics, interests, etc. 

After being invited, influencers have the opportunity to highlight the Lenses or videos to showcase their creativity. Additionally, creators choose which projects to work on and set their prices. Like other social media channels, brands can contact you directly through email. To crack the deal, it is a must for a creator to showcase past brand deals when highlighting a Lens or video. In the case of brands, only those with a business account can connect with top AR Lens Creators for custom Lens creation projects.

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Wrapping Up

There are various ways to conduct an influencer marketing campaign. But an ideal way solves the pain points and serves the brand objective. An influencer marketing platform like affable.ai can help you run end-to-end campaigns by giving you access to 6M+ vetted influencer profiles, managing all campaign management workflow, and measuring ROI. Get a free trial to learn more about affable.ai!

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