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