Back in 1996, Bill Gates famously declared that “content is king.” Nearly three decades later, that statement rings truer than ever. High-quality content marketing is one of the best investments you can make for your brand. It increases brand awareness, builds credibility, and — most importantly — great content marketing tips put into practice will generate more revenue than any paid advertising campaign.

A well-crafted blog post or informational video can keep earning for years without requiring ongoing investment. Let’s dive into what content marketing really involves and how to do it effectively.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is a marketing strategy focused on creating, publishing, and distributing relevant, valuable content for a target audience. The ultimate goal, of course, is to increase sales or other conversions that the marketer is tracking.

Content marketing encompasses not just the creation of quality content, but also its planning and distribution across all marketing channels.

Content marketing is used to acquire new customers, expand brand awareness, and naturally boost conversions. Through content marketing, you build a customer base and increase customer loyalty. It’s also a brilliant tool for establishing brand credibility.

Types of Content Marketing

• Blog articles
• Informational websites
• Product and informational videos
• Infographics
• Podcasts
• Social media posts
• Newsletters
• E-books and books
• Informational brochures
• Influencer marketing (partially)

Why Should You Invest in Content Marketing?

You might be wondering — is content marketing really worth the effort? In 2019, we took on a client in the health and nutrition space. Without spending a single penny on PPC or Facebook ads, we managed to drive 50,000 visitors to their website in the first year of creating quality content alone. That’s modest, sure — but look at what happened next: in the second year, traffic jumped to 350,000 visits, and by the third year, the company blog was pulling in nearly 470,000 visitors. How many blog posts did we produce? Just 2–4 per month, sometimes even fewer.

Of course, creating content that actually gets read isn’t easy. You also need to understand the basics of copywriting, SEO, and link building. Writing a high-quality article is usually just the first of several steps you need to take to lay the groundwork for organic traffic.

TIP 💡: Want to learn how to write articles that earn money and drive traffic, step by step — plus get a sample brief for copywriters? Check it out on our Patreon.

30 Content Marketing Tips for a Winning Strategy

Creating content sounds simple enough, but if you do it without a clear plan, you can end up spending a fortune on copywriters and social media specialists with nothing to show for it. Here are 30 content marketing tips to keep in mind when building your strategy.

1) Develop a Content Strategy

Creating a solid content strategy should be the springboard for effective content marketing. It’s typically the first thing we build with our clients. For it to work well, it needs input from company leadership, an SEO specialist, and a content marketing specialist.

A content strategy lays out a thematic plan (blog, newsletters, social media), outlines the topics you should cover, and tells you which channels to use for each.

It also includes a publishing calendar with key dates, seasonal topics, and events. With a well-crafted content strategy, you should never find yourself stuck wondering what to write about or what content to create.

If you’re putting together a content strategy for the first time, tools like ChatGPT can also lend a hand.

2) Set Realistic Goals

With content marketing, the results of some activities won’t show up immediately — it can take several months. While the ultimate goal is usually to increase conversions or traffic, a better initial target is to define the path you want to take rather than fixating on a specific number that would be more guesswork than a realistic estimate.

For example, you might decide that:

• You want to publish 35 articles according to your thematic plan over the next year,
• Create two email automations focused on the core topics of your business,
• And produce four informational videos that help people solve the problems they most commonly face.

3) Define Your Brand’s Tone of Voice

Tone of voice refers to the way your brand communicates. Smaller companies often overlook this, thinking it’s unnecessary because everyone already knows how the brand sounds.

Setting a consistent communication tone is a foundational pillar of content strategy and is crucial for building a unified brand identity. A consistent tone of voice should run through customer support, email marketing, social media, and blog posts alike. It helps align your advertising copy with what you write on your website and how you interact with customers. Everyone in your organisation should know your tone of voice.

4) Conduct a Content Audit

Before you start creating content based on your new strategy, run a content audit. This means evaluating the content you already have. Find out what’s working, what just needs a refresh, and what hasn’t delivered results. A content audit gives you specific recommendations for improving or reworking your texts, videos, social media posts, and web pages. This will help you work much more efficiently.

5) Create Buyer Personas

A persona represents your ideal customer. You need to identify what problems your customer is trying to solve. Where do they typically live, what are their hobbies, what’s their income, and what do they want your products to deliver? If you sell a fairly wide range of products, you may have several different personas.

You might have passionate mountaineers who research every piece of gear down to the last detail and compare every specification. But you might also have busy city professionals who hit the mountains a few times a year and don’t want to wade through specs — they just want to buy the best gear that also looks great.

If you have a wide product range, one of your customer segments might also include those who love the outdoors but need the most affordable gear, whether because they’re thrifty or simply can’t justify the cost of premium equipment.

These personas don’t need to be deeply complex, but they help you step into your typical customers’ shoes. How do you figure them out? By analysing the questions people ask your customer support team, what they search for (via SEO analysis), and even through UX analysis that reveals how they navigate your e-shop or what they look for on your blog. Smartlook is a fantastic tool for this.

Marketing textbooks often make persona creation sound like a deep, involved process where you need to imagine your ideal customer’s dreams, appearance, and wardrobe.

Some people even like to sketch their persona. Sure, go ahead — but what really matters is knowing who your customer is (outdoor enthusiast / stay-at-home parent) and what problems your typical customer most commonly faces (I have allergies — what’s the best air purifier?). Where they work may not be relevant (allergy sufferers work in offices, warehouses, and boardrooms alike). Unless, of course, you sell workwear or professional tools.

6) Do a Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis doesn’t just mean browsing your competitors’ websites and social media to see what content they’re producing. A thorough competitor analysis also includes an SEO component, typically prepared by an SEO specialist, that tells you which keywords your competitors are ranking for in search engines.

7) Involve Your Customer Support Team

When building your content strategy, make sure to involve your customer support team. This means your support staff should be logging the questions (along with answers) that people ask — particularly those whose answers can’t be found on your website. It’s also worth tracking frequently asked questions (though we don’t mean things like “when will my parcel arrive”).

Both types of queries can uncover interesting topics for content creation, and sometimes they even reveal poor website structure.

8) Work With Keyword Research

Keyword research is a content strategist’s best friend. Just keep in mind that whoever works with the keyword data should understand how to use it and how it was compiled.

“We had keyword research done by this SEO specialist, but it was a complete waste of money” — that’s the kind of review you’ll find online, and it’s exactly why some SEO specialists, ourselves included, refuse to deliver keyword research without a training session on how to use it.

Getting a list of keywords related to your business from an SEO specialist is just the starting point. Simply stuffing them everywhere on your site probably won’t make any difference.

After keyword research, you need to develop a content plan and a publishing schedule. The content plan may include suggestions on where and how to incorporate keywords (for example, by rewriting product descriptions), while the publishing schedule tells you which topics to cover in articles or video content.

9) Prioritise Content With the Greatest Business Potential

When creating content, always remember to prioritise the topics that can generate the most revenue.

Choose based on three criteria. If you’re creating content to sell products, the primary criterion should be profit margin (how much you earn per sale).

The second is search volume for relevant keywords, and the third factor is how competitive the topic is. Or, as an SEO specialist would put it: “How difficult is it to rank for this particular phrase?” In other words, how strong is the content your competitors have already published on this topic.

10) Keep a Functional Marketing Calendar

It’s essential to have a functional marketing calendar. Personally, after years of working in this field, the tool that’s served me best is a marketing calendar in Google Sheets. I have a slightly different version for each client, tailored to their needs. The key is that everyone on the team can understand it.

I’ve tried several — perhaps even dozens — of paid tools before ultimately coming back to good old shared spreadsheets. I’ve been using them since at least 2017 and have gradually moved all my marketing activities into them.

💡 You can create your marketing calendar (content plan) from scratch, or save 1–2 hours and download the template we’ve prepared for you.

11) Keep Your Content Simple and Clear

Even if you’re an expert in your field, never forget that whatever you create — whether it’s a blog post, video, or podcast — should be understandable to everyone. Create content like a journalist: clear and straightforward, so that anyone can grasp your message. Keep this in mind every single time you produce content.

12) Invest in Link Building

Link building is the practice of acquiring links to your website from other websites. In SEO jargon, these are called backlinks.

Earning backlinks from high-quality websites can pass authority to your site and help you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).

Advanced link building often requires hiring a specialist, but you can secure plenty of links on your own.

Sometimes it’s as simple as reaching out to your suppliers and asking if they can add a link with your logo to their website. You can also provide content for other websites in exchange for backlinks.

Link building is extremely important for search engines because Google and Bing (among others) use backlinks to assess which pages are relevant and trustworthy. The more authoritative pages can then rank higher in search results.

However, be cautious when hiring a link builder. Some link-building tactics provide zero benefit and can actually harm your site’s performance in search engines. Search engines can detect artificially created backlinks to a certain extent, and their official guidelines recommend against actively acquiring links. Fortunately, a good SEO specialist can assess this for you.

13) Set Up Email Automations

Email remains one of the most powerful remarketing tools out there. For our clients with 60,000–70,000 contacts in their database, we can easily generate monthly revenue well above €40,000 through email marketing alone.

With email automations, you can take things even further.

If you sell vinyl records, for instance, you could create an email automation for fans of 70s music (specifically those who’ve already purchased this type of music from you), sending them interesting facts about Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, and Queen. Alongside the engaging content — period photographs, behind-the-scenes stories, and even stats — you’d also include tips on vinyl records they can buy.

You can build dozens of email sequences like this. If you sell garden tools, you can send seasonal tips on how to care for the garden.

The beauty of email automations is that once you set them up properly, they run virtually forever. We’ve tested numerous mailing tools, and among the best are:

• Mailchimp (a solid all-rounder),
• Ecomail (great for the European market),
• MailerLite (especially good for bloggers),
• and ActiveCampaign, which is excellent too, though it can be quite robust for smaller businesses.

14) Brainstorm as a Team

As the saying goes, two heads are better than one — and your employees and colleagues are a goldmine of topics and insights. During regular team meetings, discuss the topics planned for the coming month and invite opinions. Encourage your colleagues and team members to get involved in brainstorming content ideas. You’ll be surprised at how many article and video ideas suddenly surface.

15) Update Your Existing Content

Some topics will be more crucial for your business than others. Focus on those, and if your content isn’t performing, try updating it. Did you write a guide on how to fix a washing machine a year ago, but nobody’s reading it?

Try refreshing it. Run a competitor analysis, review the keyword research with an SEO specialist, and get advice on what you could improve.

Perhaps your guide is too brief, has an unappealing headline, or your competitors simply have far more backlinks pointing to their version.

16) Conduct Interviews

When you’re running low on topic ideas, start doing interviews with people in your industry. You can also interview your own employees.

If you sell outdoor clothing, for example, you could interview one of your cycling experts about what to look for when choosing a tent, sleeping bag, and other gear for a multi-day bikepacking trip.

17) Create Webinars

Do you have a digital product — like an online course? Host webinars where you teach people one chapter from the course, for example. Always pick one of the most compelling topics to attract the largest audience possible. Record your webinar with a quality camera and microphone so you can repurpose the content on YouTube later.

18) Interlink Your Content

Whatever type of content you create, don’t forget to include links to other relevant pages, articles, and products. If you’re writing about how to choose a tent and you have an e-shop selling tents, make sure to link from your products to that article. Don’t forget to add links within the article to other relevant pieces too — like a guide to choosing a sleeping bag or a fascinating interview with someone who climbed Mount Everest.

Likewise, from a video about choosing a tent, always link not just to your tents but also to any related article. Some people watch the video but then want to read more. And of course, the reverse is true as well.

19) Repurpose One Piece of Content Across Multiple Channels

Written a detailed article about how to replace a vacuum filter? Don’t forget to turn that content into a video as well. You could also create a simple photo-based graphic for Pinterest. Then you might shorten the article into an email automation for everyone who’s purchased that vacuum, timed to land in their inbox exactly when it’s time to replace the filter.

If you’ve written an article on how to save money while travelling, you can turn the text into a video, record an audio version for a podcast, and then cut the video into shorter clips for social media.

20) Spend Time on Your Headlines

The title of a video, article, or email (subject line) is the very first thing people notice. That’s why it’s extremely important to craft a headline that grabs attention. Instead of “Summer Tents,” try using a verb or a number in your headline — for example, “10 Tips for Choosing the Perfect Summer Tent.“

21) Structure Your Content

Whether you’re creating a social media post, blog article, or video, always aim to structure your content well.

On social media, you can use emojis for this. In articles, don’t forget a table of contents, and on YouTube, use video chapters.

In Facebook groups and on your website, you can also use bold text to make content more scannable for readers.

22) Put Effort Into Metadata and Descriptions

Writing a quality article, creating an infographic, shooting a photo series, or producing a video is really just the first part of the job. The tasks that follow often take even longer.

For articles, never forget to fill in the social sharing fields on your website. For photos, take time to name image files according to what they depict and add alt descriptions.

On social media, use relevant hashtags and location tags. On YouTube, don’t forget to add cards and other elements that help interlink your content.

It might seem like tedious work, and it probably annoys many of you — but these are precisely the details that can make a difference in search engine rankings.

23) Don’t Forget Quality Visuals and Photos

Once you’ve prepared great content, make sure you also create compelling visuals to go with it. This means preparing a cover image for your YouTube video, a featured image for your article, and images optimised for sharing on social media.

Don’t forget to break up longer articles and guides with quality photographs — this is standard practice nowadays, and without it, your content may not perform as well as it should. Over the past year, Instagram has dominated social media, and Pinterest is one of the fastest-growing platforms — both channels that thrive on strong visuals.

24) Leverage User Reviews

Do you have glowing reviews for your services or products? Use them in articles, email marketing, and social media posts. Reviews also work brilliantly in ads and Pinterest pins.

25) Choose the Right Button Colours

I’ll keep this simple: if you’re adding a call-to-action button to an article or email (e.g. “Buy Now” or “Read More”), make it red.

According to every study we’ve come across, red significantly outperforms other colours. When your designer is working on your brand identity, make sure they create an ideal shade of red that complements your brand colours.

26) Be Honest About Negatives Too

Do your services have downsides? Is there something users should watch out for when using your product? Don’t shy away from the negatives when creating content. People appreciate honesty about a product.

27) Evaluate Your Results

As we mentioned earlier, some activities won’t show results for several months. So if you’ve started creating content for your website, wait at least six months before evaluating its effectiveness.

Email sequences are a different story — there, it depends more on the size of your database, or whether you decide to promote the content through PPC advertising. If you find that you’ve written 20 articles but only three are driving meaningful traffic to your site, that’s perfectly normal.

Just make sure to audit the underperforming articles and try to optimise them. Consistent, dedicated effort always pays off in the long run.

28) Monitor Your Content and Links

There are tools that can help you check whether your pages contain broken links. Even so, you should periodically review older content and update it where needed. You can do this as part of your regular content interlinking routine.

29) Recycle Your Content

Keep track of which content performed well and don’t be afraid to recycle it — whether in email campaigns or on social media.

Very few people remember content they saw on social media a year ago, and if it was successful, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. For your own peace of mind, you can tweak it slightly. But never write a brand-new article on the same topic — instead, expand and improve the original.

30) Promote Your Content Smartly

Written a brilliant piece about how to choose a lawnmower, but can’t wait until winter for it to start ranking? Don’t beat yourself up for not writing it last winter — instead, coordinate with a PPC specialist to start promoting it now.

Sure, that means the traffic won’t be free, but for content that has the potential to generate revenue, paid promotion makes perfect sense.

When growing your online business, you’ll need to leverage a range of strategies and tools to support your e-shop’s development. Marketing campaigns can prove extremely beneficial, but have you also considered using price comparison websites to drive sales and gain a competitive edge?

How Do Price Comparison Websites Work?

For consumers, price comparison websites like Google Shopping, PriceRunner, Kelkoo, or Modio.cz essentially function as search engines and catalogues that display products side by side, comparing features such as product images and prices.

The comparison platform typically charges the e-shop a fee and requires you to submit photos, descriptions, prices, and other product information so your items can appear in relevant searches alongside other comparable products.

It’s easy to see why online shoppers love price comparison tools, but how can you, as an e-commerce retailer, benefit from these platforms?

💡 While it might seem counterintuitive to place your products on the same comparison site as your competitors, the reality is that this strategy can help you gather valuable competitive intelligence and accelerate sales.

Comparison websites don’t just help customers pick the best product — they also offer you, as a retailer, a wealth of data about the current marketplace and where your brand or products stand.

By using a comparison tool in your sector, you can stay continuously informed about who’s selling what, product costs and trends, and even identify gaps in your competitors’ offerings or the products and services being sold.

Beyond helping you keep tabs on market indicators, these tools can benefit your business in many other ways.

• Since most customers using a price comparison site have already decided to buy, you’ve already won half the battle — your products are just one click away from being purchased. The customer is now trying to find the best product at the best price. This is your opportunity to capture their attention and drive them to your website.
• The biggest advantage of using comparison sites is the increased traffic to your website, which in turn improves your search engine rankings. You can therefore also leverage comparison sites for SEO optimisation. For small and medium-sized online retailers, this can be the fastest and most cost-effective approach that enables you to compete with major brands.

Using Price Comparison Websites to Grow Your Business

Greater Reach

Price comparison websites allow you to extend the reach of your online shop and discover new customers who might never have found you through traditional search alone.

More Conversions 🥇

A potential customer may visit your website through a price comparison tool after seeing your product image, noting the price, and reading about your brand or shop. Because shoppers on comparison sites are more inclined to click on products that catch their eye, there’s a much higher chance of converting them into paying customers.

Discover Who’s Selling What 🥈

A comparison site lets you analyse competing products in one place, giving you a clear overview of the market. You can search for similar products and find out who your competitors are and what makes each of them unique — do they offer better customer service or a more user-friendly website? It’s also worth discovering what else your competitors sell, because your shop might be missing popular products, which means you could be losing out on lucrative business opportunities.

Set Attractive Prices for You and Your Customers 🥉

Retailers constantly adjust their prices in an effort to stay ahead of the competition. Regardless of your business size, your products should never carry outdated pricing. While competing on price alone may not be your strategy, you should always make sure you’re offering your customers a competitive deal. Comparison websites provide a straightforward way to benchmark your pricing against the rest of the market.

Look at All the Details

Most customers don’t simply choose the cheapest option available. Before making a final purchase, they also consider additional information, including shipping costs, service guarantees, and the seller’s reputation. As a result, many shoppers are happy to pay a little extra if a shop stands out in some way. This opens up an opportunity for you to examine all these details across your competitors and find ways to differentiate.

Check Ratings and Reviews

It’s crucial for every online shop to maintain a strong reputation among its customers, and many price comparison websites support word-of-mouth feedback through customer ratings and reviews. By monitoring the ratings and reviews posted by customers, you can identify which products receive the highest praise.

What’s more, most reviews include criticism of the service alongside the product review itself, so you can gauge how well your competitors are meeting customer expectations. This is where you can spot opportunities to do a better job.

Keep an Eye on Popular Products and Trends

Many comparison sites highlight top products or feature trending items on their homepage. By keeping track of market trends, you can ensure you have the right stock on hand and are selling it at a competitive price to fully capitalise on increased demand.

Final Thoughts

To stay ahead in the world of e-commerce, businesses must find ways to attract a fragmented consumer base and deliver what they’re looking for quickly and easily. A price comparison tool can be an extremely effective channel — not only for growing revenue, but also for staying one step ahead of the competition.

Beyond using these comparison platforms as part of your marketing strategy, they provide a quick snapshot of important market trends, freeing up your time to focus on other areas of promoting your business.

Influencer campaigns have been a hot topic in digital marketing for years. Big and small brands use influencers on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and other platforms to promote their products. But how much do influencers actually cost, and what real impact do they have on sales? Understanding influencer earnings is key for both brands and creators alike.

A year and a half ago, we launched a test campaign together with Online Jazyky (a major online language school) and several other clients. Since then, we’ve run dozens of campaigns with influencers, collected and analysed data, and arrived at some surprising results that we’re sharing with you today.

In this article, we specifically mention the client Online Jazyky, the largest online language school in the Czech Republic, but data was gathered from several companies. The others preferred to remain anonymous.

We’ll tell you how much influencer campaigns cost, but more importantly, we’ll reveal how to run an effective campaign that generates profit for both you and the influencers. We’ll also cover how to choose the right influencers to work with, how to evaluate their profiles, and how to select them.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing typically refers to a type of online marketing that leverages so-called influencers — influential people, bloggers, or accounts with large followings who promote products or services on their channels (social media, blogs) in exchange for payment or barter (receiving a product in return).

Influencer marketing is highly effective because it capitalises on the relationship followers have with the person or account recommending the product — people trust their recommendations. From psychology, we know that when someone we feel close to recommends something, it has a far greater impact than a recommendation from a stranger.

Who Is an Influencer?

An influencer is simply a person who has influence. They can be bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers, celebrities, or even people who run interest-based groups on Facebook or LinkedIn.

One big advantage of working with influencers is that many of them focus on a single niche — food, personal development, travel, or fitness, for instance — which allows brands to target their promotions much more precisely.

How Much Does an Influencer Campaign Cost?

This is the most common question from companies — and from influencers themselves. How much does a campaign with an influencer cost? How much should I charge? It’s not a straightforward question. Online, you’ll find that influencers in the US are paid $10–25 per 1,000 followers per post, which works out to roughly €9–23 per 1,000 followers. If we adjust for European markets, you’d be looking at approximately $4–10 per 1,000 followers, or around €3.50–9 per 1,000 followers.

The problem is that follower count is just one factor among many. In reality, you need to evaluate an influencer based on their follower count, engagement rate (a metric showing how many people interact with published content), and — crucially — the frequency of sponsored content and how the influencer presents brands.

As we’ll show later, these last two factors have an enormous impact on results. Our clients paid influencers anywhere from a few hundred euros up to more than €24,000 for a single 14-day campaign.

What Are the Types of Influencer Campaigns?

There are several types of collaborations between brands and influencers. They can be categorised by duration as well as by the type of compensation.

By Duration:

Short-Term Collaborations

The influencer works with the brand on a one-off campaign with a clear start and end date. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a barter deal (the influencer receives a product in exchange for promotion) or a paid collaboration with a financial reward.

Long-Term Collaborations

Many brands look for ambassadors — influencers who commit to long-term partnerships. This means the influencer agrees to promote the product on a regular basis. In this case, brands should be particularly careful from a legal standpoint when drafting contracts with influencers.

For legal guidance on influencer marketing, we recommend looking into specialist courses on advertising law and influencer contracts — they’re well worth the investment compared to learning the hard way.

Long-term collaborations can also take the form of repeated short-term partnerships, where there’s no single long-term contract but rather new agreements or amendments signed for each campaign.

Long-term influencer partnerships are mutually beneficial. The influencer becomes associated with the brand, so followers trust the collaboration more. It also looks far better than promoting a different product every week. When followers see that the influencer remains happy with and continues to promote a brand, they develop greater trust in it.

By Type of Compensation

Collaborations are also divided by how the influencer is compensated. Options include barter (product only), a fixed fee, a fixed fee plus commission, or a purely commission-based arrangement. From the influencer’s perspective, commission-based collaborations often yield the highest influencer earnings.

With a commission-based campaign, an influencer can earn up to 1,525% more than with a fixed fee

Based on our data, an influencer with 15,000 followers earns between €160 and €320 from a fixed fee for a 14–30 day campaign (9 stories, 1 post). However, with a commission-based campaign, Instagrammers with the same follower count earned between €440 and €2,600. That’s up to 1,525% more than a fixed fee arrangement.

Barter Collaborations

A barter collaboration is one where the influencer is compensated solely with a product. This is most common with micro-influencers or for higher-value products. Even in this case, it still counts as advertising and should be disclosed as such.

Fixed Fee

The most common form of paid collaboration. It works well for companies that have a well-designed campaign, can select quality influencers, and have an influencer marketing manager who ensures that posts and stories are published as agreed.

If you opt for a fixed fee, you should agree with the influencer not only on the number of stories but also on timing. The scheduling during a campaign is absolutely crucial.

Commission-Based System — Ideal for Quality Influencers and Quality Products

A commission-based system is the most rewarding for high-quality influencers. For physical products, commissions typically range from 5–15% of sales, while for digital products (such as online courses), commissions can reach up to 30% of sales. If influencers genuinely care about their followers and have a strong relationship with them, accounts with just 10–15 thousand followers can earn as much as €2,600.

This was a shocking discovery for us — the number of followers barely mattered. We had influencers with 50,000 followers who couldn’t sell a single online course, and then we had influencers with 150,000–200,000 followers who earned over €24,000.

Smaller influencers on commission-based campaigns can earn more than influencers with tens of thousands more followers

This model is becoming increasingly popular with brands, precisely because the influencer only earns as much as they sell. With commission-based deals, you don’t dictate how or how often they should post (though you can recommend what works best).

The key is to keep the influencer informed during the campaign about how much they’ve earned so far — it keeps them motivated to push for better results. Influencers on a 10–30% commission earned an average of €0.052 per follower (ranging from €0.0016 to €0.18 per follower) and generated an average revenue of €0.17 per follower for the client (ranging from €0.0056 to €0.61 per follower).

Case Study: Online Jazyky, 30% Commission

How Much Did Influencers Earn

As the table clearly shows, smaller influencers on commission-based campaigns can earn even more than influencers with tens of thousands more followers. It all comes down to the quality of the influencer themselves.

Tip: The more influencers earn, the higher the amounts they can invest to build passive income. The most successful ones buy property to rent out or put money into stocks, ETF funds, or cryptocurrency.

Fixed Fee + Commission

This compensation model is less popular with companies because it’s the least advantageous for them. Not only do they need to monitor whether the influencer fulfils the brief, but they also pay a sales commission on top. Commission rates here are significantly lower for the influencer, usually between 5% and 10%. This model is typically reserved for large influencers where strong results are virtually guaranteed.

How to Choose a Quality Influencer

We’ve already covered selecting quality influencers in our blog post How to Build a Good Collaboration with Influencers — YouTubers, Instagrammers, and Bloggers. Don’t just look at follower counts, likes, and comments on photos — pay close attention to how they present the brands they work with. If an influencer is doing one sponsored collaboration after another, steer clear. These influencers tend to deliver the worst results.

Look for influencers who genuinely care about their followers and only promote products they believe in. The product you’re offering should be something they enjoy or love. The best influencer collaborations we ran were ones where the influencers approached us first. That was the case with an influencer who had fewer than 15,000 followers but generated over €8,000 in revenue for the company and personally earned €2,600.

What drove that kind of success? This influencer had already been using Online Jazyky as a student, was happy with the product, and reached out directly to the brand about a partnership. They’d been mentioning Online Jazyky in their posts and stories long before the campaign — and continued after it ended. Their followers could see they were promoting a product they genuinely loved.

The worst collaborations were ones where it turned out the influencer just wanted the money — and while they pretended on Instagram to be studying the course, they actually only opened it to film an Instagram Story. Followers aren’t stupid. They can tell when someone is promoting a product sincerely versus just going through the motions for a payday.

One last thing: Don’t beat yourself up when a collaboration doesn’t work out. Sometimes an influencer seems enthusiastic about working with you, only to turn into the type who never opens the product or poses with it without even knowing what they’re actually promoting.

How to Measure Campaign Results

For measuring campaigns, we recommend using a discount code — it’s an elegant way to track each influencer’s impact on sales. For influencers who operate on Instagram, measuring via affiliate links doesn’t make much sense. Based on our data, affiliate links only capture about one-third of the conversions an influencer actually generates.

How Much Do Influencers Earn for Companies?

Before we dive into the numbers, it’s worth noting that influencer campaigns aren’t suitable for every brand or product type. While you can find dozens of influencers for fashion, if you’re selling industrial bolts, you’ll have a much harder time finding the right fit. It’s not impossible though — you might find a DIY enthusiast. But let’s be honest, you’re probably not going to turn screws into a love brand on Instagram.

Looking at Online Jazyky, who sell language courses: in a single 14-day campaign, one influencer generated nearly €80,000 in revenue for the company. Across all campaigns, influencers generated between €0.0056 and €0.61 per follower in revenue. On average, influencers brought in €0.17 per follower.

The power of influencers can be truly staggering. A single Instagram Story from an account with 200,000 followers brought in 600 orders. For a company that averages 300 orders per day, that’s a massive difference.

Of course, there are also campaigns that completely flop. An influencer with great engagement and thousands of followers might bring in conversions you can count on one hand — either because they simply couldn’t be bothered with the product, or (perhaps even worse) they did a brilliant job but their audience just wasn’t interested in the product. Perhaps the most famous example is Arianna Renee, who had 2 million followers but couldn’t sell even 36 T-shirts.

How to Run an Effective Campaign

Whether you’re an influencer or a brand, if you want to successfully promote a product, you need to invest time in both preparation and execution. The influencer must have enough time to get to know the product. If it’s a course, they need time to actually try it. If they don’t dedicate enough time to it, the collaboration simply won’t work. If the influencer isn’t happy with the product, this is also the stage where they can agree with the brand to cancel the campaign and return the product.

We divide campaigns into two phases: the pre-campaign and the campaign with a discount code. For 14 days before the influencer shares the discount code on their channels, a pre-campaign runs where the influencer gradually introduces the product into their content. By this point, the influencer should already be well acquainted with the product. Some influencers even hint during this phase that a discount code is coming, so they don’t miss out on potential commission.

After those 14 days, the actual campaign begins. For the best results, the influencer communicates the discount code at the start of the campaign, in the middle of the campaign, and during the last 2–3 days. The final days of the campaign typically drive the most conversions, as the discount code is about to expire.

To make sure the campaign runs smoothly, don’t forget to communicate with your influencers throughout. For commission-based campaigns, you can update them halfway through and before the end on how much they’ve earned. For fixed-fee deals, send them reminders to post their content and fulfil their contractual obligations.

Is It Worth Running Mass Campaigns with Multiple Influencers?

Mass campaigns involving more than 5 influencers turned out to be our biggest flops. Influencers in these campaigns achieved 50–80% lower results on average compared to having an exclusive campaign or sharing it with a maximum of two other influencers. This was likely because followers felt bombarded with the product from all directions.

With shared campaigns of 2–3 influencers, we didn’t observe similar problems. So if you’re planning a larger campaign with multiple influencers, opt for a smaller number with different target audiences.

Thanks to our colleagues Gábi Dvořáková and Lukáš Konečný for their help with data collection and campaign analysis. A big thank you also to our clients, especially Online Jazyky, who agreed to make their data public.

Want to incorporate influencers into your marketing but still not sure how? Get in touch with us. 😊

BONUS: Online Course on Legal Aspects of Influencer Marketing

Very few people ensure that influencer collaborations with brands or agencies are legally compliant. Beyond potential issues with regulators, this can erode follower trust in the influencer, damage the brand itself, and make the agency look unprofessional.

An online course by Petra Dolejšová called Law in Influencer Marketing is useful for any marketer, influencer, or brand manager who wants to do their job properly and within the law. The course is just 30 minutes long. Note: the course is in Czech, but the legal principles around disclosure and advertising law apply across the EU.

What you’ll learn:

• How collaborations should and shouldn’t be disclosed
• What influencer marketing looks like from a legal perspective
• Which products and goods influencers are prohibited from promoting
• What counts as advertising for an influencer and what doesn’t
• How to handle barter deals and gifts
• What to watch out for in influencer collaborations
• What contracts with influencers should look like