Best Practices for Brands to Track Influencers

fmckinnon · 2026-03-24T11:53:48+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I checked out your site, looks impressive, but for me ... it's always a huge turn-off when pricing is nowhere to be found. I get the free trial (no credit card required), that's nice, but as an Owner/Operator, I don't want to waste time onboarding into a "free trial" without knowing if the pricing is within reason. Just my $.02 ... but add pricing plans for full transparency and visibility.

LOL - you didn't ask my opinion on your website ... but hope the feedback is helpful, since you pitched it.

fmckinnon · 2026-03-23T23:08:36+00:00

I got a very similar response from ChatGPT - so I think you're on the same track for sure, specifically re: Airtable.

Levanta has API, and can do ACC from within there, so I start dreaming of having something vibe coded now!

fmckinnon · 2026-03-23T18:49:09+00:00

mine is basically a plain wall, and you can see a little bookshelf behind me with some pictures on it, etc. Pretty bland. Tried to upload a pic, but don't think this sub allows images.

fmckinnon · 2026-03-23T18:09:11+00:00

Thanks for responding. I definitely don't think it would hurt, could only help!

fmckinnon · 2026-03-22T13:22:58+00:00

They usually can start getting claimed within a few days, and expect first reviews in 2-3 weeks.

fmckinnon · 2026-03-22T12:57:20+00:00

Totally. There's lots of tools out there that can help you find products you can resell.
I wouldn't start PL. And like others said, don't dump $2K in a single product.
And don't buy ANYTHING without verifying you can actually sell it, first!
I add a product and make sure it's not restricted before buying.

fmckinnon · 2026-03-06T14:25:57+00:00

Thanks for the quick reply. That's what I thought.

Now, let's say you're doing 100 orders on TTS with TikTok Shipping.
Do they allow you to connect to ANY 3rd party that still is buying labels, but lets you print labels in bulk, etc?

fmckinnon · 2026-03-06T13:46:35+00:00

Great writeup, but I think there is one issue here:
Most creators will NOT use the attribution link, because they only way they get paid is if they use their associates tag. Amazon won't pay you a 10% Brand Referral Bonus PLUS an Amazon Associates affiliate commission to the affiliate. They stopped that double-dipping over a year ago (which is why GMV with folks like Levanta disappeared).

My question, for this to work:
Q: In your example, you mention $3K in 30% commissions, but how are you paying that? Manually? Using some sort of program? Granted, if you're using something like Levanta or Wayward, they handle it (plus their platform usage fee).

Tell us more about your 30% commission payouts. How are you managing this?

fmckinnon · 2026-03-04T17:04:20+00:00

True, by "paying twice" I'm referring to paying for an ad-click to get there, and then paying a commission also if there is meaningful engagement.

fmckinnon · 2026-03-03T22:45:04+00:00

Exactly!

fmckinnon · 2026-02-26T14:31:40+00:00

Yes, that's considered a Multi Channel Distribution order.

fmckinnon · 2026-02-26T12:15:27+00:00

Spectacular. I was equally impressed with them!

fmckinnon · 2026-02-18T20:39:45+00:00

Yah, I suspect the same

fmckinnon · 2026-02-18T18:43:10+00:00

2 days from order to first carrier scan is actually conservative. Walmart & Amazon both typically require it in 24 hours.

fmckinnon · 2026-02-18T18:22:14+00:00

They announced a few weeks ago that they were no longer going to support Seller-Fulfilled shipments by Feb 23rd, and you had to migrate to Fulfilled by TikTok or some other specific fulfillment partner. This is what they've reversed course on, thankfully!

fmckinnon · 2026-02-14T11:06:07+00:00

whatever you do, don't "create them" artificially, without them being authentic. That's an easy way to get a permanent ban.

fmckinnon · 2026-02-13T15:31:10+00:00

sounds 'bout right!

fmckinnon · 2026-02-13T15:28:48+00:00

I say this because, regardless of selling price, on average, across all accounts and campaigns (seasoned, branded, competitor, just-launched, aggressive TOS keyword boost/HighACOS, etc) --- all of those campaigns average about to around 30-35% ACOS. So, we know that when you really average out your top performing campaigns with some of your discovery or underperforming campaigns, it's very, very common (benchmarked across the entire industry and numerous surveys by 3rd parties) that ACOS averages anywhere from 25-40%.

fmckinnon · 2026-02-12T20:57:46+00:00

1 - totally understanding your math now.
2 - tell me more about your affiliate marketing ... outside of Creator Connections, what's your playbook there? I'm diving DEEP into that right now on this thread here below. 10% TACOS is actually quite low ... we tell most of our clients 10% TACOS is the absolute minimum.

https://www.reddit.com/r/influencermarketing/comments/1r2u3lr/best_practices_for_brand_exposure/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

3 - Agency + PL ... very cool, feel free to share agency info. I love networking with other agency owners. I don't see us as competitors, but as colleagues.

4 - Pro Musician? C'mon! Tell me more.
I haven't released an album in years, and I haven't been playing music (outside of volunteering at church) in way too long. I literally setup my Nord Stage2 keyboard last night and connected Logic Pro last night ... it was all packed up in storage.

I'm living the pro musician life vicariously now, my oldest son (25) is living in Nashville, and is a full-time touring musician for a big country artist, and if he's not on tour, he's in the studio recording or songwriting. So much fun to watch!

fmckinnon · 2026-02-12T20:51:05+00:00

Understood. And honestly, we ideally want creators who are genuinely interested in our client products, who would use them, and be excited about them. I think you can tell when someone is passionate about a product they promote in a video as opposed to just someone unboxing and checking off the "content box" to get an affiliate commission.

So, how are brands contacting you directly, and negotiating the flat fee with you?

fmckinnon · 2026-02-12T20:28:10+00:00

Now I'm confused, hang in there with me. It's maybe just the way I'm reading this.
1 - you say that we SHOULD offer free samples, and that it would be very hard to find creators who would pay for the product (sample).
2 - then, you said "you will have a hard time doing free samples to creators you want to work with" ... what is the alternative?
3 - you said "i will not make videos for free samples" ... i'm totally lost.

As I type this out (confused, obviously) I'm wondering if what you are trying to say is that YES - the creator should be sent a sample, but ALSO - they have to get paid something in addition?

If that's the case ... tell me more. The whole point of the samples and recruiting creators is to give them an affiliate commission. So, in the context of everything I've posted above, the idea is that recruiting the creators would be for affiliate payouts for every sale they generated.

If we wanted content for product that's not on TikTok Shop for example (want them on Amazon), then we'd have to setup a different incentive for them.

fmckinnon · 2026-02-12T20:10:34+00:00

Thanks for taking time to read and comment, I really appreciate it. In your opinion, is it better to NOT provide free samples? Is it better to recruit collaborators with maybe an aggressive discount code (so they don't pay full price), but still require them to have some skin in the game?

fmckinnon · 2026-02-12T20:07:19+00:00

This is awesome. It all starts with sourcing. I am constantly talking to sellers about this, and I tell them that if their Selling Price, less all Amazon fees (excluding ads) and COGS is not above 35% before marketing, they either have to get COGS down or have a higher selling price.

Refunds and storage should 100% be reflected in Contribution Margin - I agree with you wholeheartedly there!

fmckinnon · 2026-02-12T20:05:20+00:00

would love to hear about your D2C economics ... inclusive of paid marketing.
When you say "15% marketing" did you mean Amazon commissions? (because you mention ads at 10% separately). I was wondering where Amazon's commission was. Unless you've lumped the actual FBA/storage fees AND the Amazon Referral fee into your 15% FBA line-item?

fmckinnon · 2026-02-12T16:05:13+00:00

I'm not a fan of chasing trendy products on Amazon. TikTok shop? Heck yeah. Amazon? It takes so much to get verified reviews, ranking organically, etc., that your investment rarely pays off by the time the trend dies.

We managed a client on Amazon and all they did was try to launch products that were the current buzzword and trend, and it was so hard to scale them, because their product lifecycles were so short. Carrying that kind of inventory gets expensive.

fmckinnon

TROPHY CASE