인플루언서 마케팅 VS 제휴 마케팅

2017년 이후로 제휴 마케팅 산업은 83% 이상 성장했으며 2030년까지 전 세계 규모가 400억 달러에 도달할 것으로 예상됩니다. 마찬가지로 인플루언서 마케팅 산업은 현재 240억 달러로 평가되고 있습니다.

전통적인 광고는 예전만큼 효과적이지 않습니다. 소비자의 구매 행동이 변화했으며, 많은 사람들이 인플루언서와 소셜 미디어 추천을 기반으로 결정을 내립니다.

제휴 마케팅과 인플루언서 마케팅 모두 전자상거래 및 DTC 브랜드의 판매와 전환을 크게 증가시켰습니다.

그러나 어떤 접근 방식이 귀사에 적합할까요?

이 글에서는 인플루언서 마케팅과 제휴 마케팅의 주요 차이점을 살펴보고 ROI를 최대화하고 성장을 촉진할 전략을 선택하는 데 도움을 드리겠습니다.

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인플루언서 마케팅이란 무엇입니까?

인플루언서 마케팅은 소셜 미디어 플랫폼에서 헌신적이고 상당한 팔로워를 보유한 개인인 인플루언서의 보증과 제품 배치를 포함하는 소셜 미디어 마케팅의 한 종류입니다.

이러한 인플루언서들은 브랜드, 제품 또는 서비스를 홍보하는 콘텐츠를 만들고 공유하며, 자신의 청중과의 신뢰와 신뢰도를 활용하여 참여, 브랜드 인식 및 판매를 촉진합니다. 이 전략은 진정성과 자연스러운 홍보에 중점을 두어 목표 인구통계에 효과적으로 도달합니다.

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인플루언서 마케팅을 왜 사용할까요?

인플루언서 마케팅 산업은 빠르게 성장하고 있습니다. 귀사의 비즈니스에서 인플루언서 마케팅을 사용하는 주요 이점은 다음과 같습니다:

1. 신뢰와 신뢰도 구축

인플루언서는 종종 팔로워들과 강한 관계를 가지고 있으며, 팔로워들은 그들을 진정성 있고 친숙한 인물로 봅니다. 이것이 69% 이상의 소비자가 인플루언서로부터 받은 제품 추천을 신뢰하는 이유입니다.

인플루언서와 파트너십을 맺으면 자신이 존경하고 신뢰하는 사람이 추천한 것이기 때문에 브랜드에 대한 신뢰와 신뢰도를 높일 수 있습니다. 이러한 역학 관계는 소비자가 추천에 대한 개인적인 연결을 느껴 브랜드 충성도를 높이고 전환 가능성을 높일 수 있습니다.

2. 비용 효율적입니다

인플루언서 마케팅은 전통적인 광고보다 비용 효율적이며 더 높은 ROI를 제공합니다. 데이터에 따르면 비즈니스는 인플루언서 마케팅에 사용하는 $1마다 $6.50을 얻습니다. 그리고 3%는 $20 이상을 얻습니다.

브랜드는 다양한 규모의 인플루언서와 협력하여 다양한 예산 제약에 맞추면서도 여전히 영향력 있는 결과를 얻을 수 있습니다.

3. 양질의 고객

전환 생성은 브랜드가 인플루언서 마케팅을 주요 전략으로 사용하는 주요 이유 중 하나입니다. 51% 이상의 마케터는 인플루언서 마케팅이 더 나은 고객을 확보하는 데 도움이 되었다고 말합니다.

그 이유는 인플루언서와 협력함으로써 원하는 인구통계를 정확하게 타겟팅할 수 있기 때문입니다. 이렇게 하면 마케팅 활동이 가장 관련성 있는 청중에게 도달하는 것을 보장합니다.

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제휴 마케팅이란 무엇입니까?

제휴 마케팅은 제휴사(일반적으로 블로거, 인플루언서 또는 웹사이트 소유자)가 고유한 추적 링크를 통해 회사의 제품 또는 서비스를 홍보하는 성과 기반 전략입니다.

제휴사는 자신의 홍보 활동을 통해 생성된 각 판매, 리드 또는 작업에 대해 수수료를 얻습니다. 이 방법은 측정 가능한 결과에 의존하며 제휴사가 목표 트래픽 및 전환을 유도하도록 장려하여 브랜드가 더 넓은 청중에게 도달하는 비용 효율적인 방법입니다.

제휴 마케팅을 사용하는 이유는 무엇인가요?

제휴 마케팅은 브랜드가 전환을 유도하기 위한 가장 효과적인 전략 중 하나로 빠르게 부상하고 있습니다. 다음은 제휴 마케팅의 주요 이점입니다:

1. 낮은 위험

제휴 마케팅은 미국과 캐나다의 전자상거래 판매의 약 16%를 차지하며 80% 이상의 광고주가 사용합니다. 주요 이유 중 하나는 제휴 마케팅이 판매 또는 리드와 같은 실제 전환에 대해서만 브랜드가 비용을 지불하는 성과 기반 모델로 운영되기 때문입니다.

브랜드는 노출 또는 클릭에 대해 비용을 지불하지 않으며, 인플루언서가 판매를 달성했을 때 커미션이 지급됩니다.

2. 브랜드 인지도 증가

Forbes에 따르면 83%의 마케터가 브랜드 인지도를 높이기 위해 제휴 마케팅 프로그램을 사용합니다.

자신의 기존 고객층을 보유한 제휴사와 파트너십을 맺음으로써 브랜드는 새로운 다양한 고객 세그먼트로 도달 범위를 확장할 수 있습니다. 이러한 확장된 노출은 브랜드 인지도 증가와 브랜드 웹사이트로의 트래픽 증가로 이어질 수 있습니다.

3. 구현이 용이함

제휴 마케팅은 구현하기가 간단하며 광범위한 리소스가 필요하지 않습니다. 주요 단계는 각 제휴사에 대한 고유 URL을 생성하기 위한 시스템을 설정하는 것이므로 전환 추적이 주요 작업이 됩니다.

이를 위해 Influencer Hero와 같은 플랫폼을 사용하면 상위 성과 인플루언서에게 보상을 주는 인플루언서 제휴 프로그램을 쉽게 구축할 수 있습니다. 인플루언서 제휴 마케팅 통합을 통해 제휴 링크, 할인 코드를 생성하고 지급을 처리할 수 있습니다.

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인플루언서 마케팅 vs 제휴 마케팅: 주요 차이점

인플루언서 마케팅과 제휴 마케팅의 주요 차이점은 인플루언서 마케팅은 인플루언서와의 협업의 전체 마케팅 프로세스를 의미하는 반면, 제휴 마케팅은 인플루언서가 보상을 받는 기준이 되는 성과를 추적하기 위한 기술적 프로세스라는 것입니다.

본질적으로 제휴 마케팅은 성과 추적 및 보상에 특히 초점을 맞춘 인플루언서 마케팅의 하위 집합으로 볼 수 있으며, 이러한 개념은 구조화된 디지털 마케팅 과정에서 일반적으로 다루어집니다.

두 접근 방식의 주요 요소를 살펴보겠습니다.

도구

인플루언서 마케팅은 콘텐츠 생성, 고객 참여 및 관계 관리를 위한 다양한 도구를 사용합니다. 이러한 도구는 특정 유형의 콘텐츠를 제작하고 인플루언서에게 창의적인 지침을 제공하는 데 도움이 됩니다.

반면 제휴 마케팅은 클릭, 전환 및 전체 캠페인 성과를 모니터링하기 위해 Awin 또는 Refersion과 같은 추적 및 분석 도구에 더 크게 의존합니다.

추적

두 가지 간의 추적 메커니즘은 상당히 다릅니다.

인플루언서 마케팅에서는 도달 범위, 참여도 및 브랜드 감정과 같은 메트릭 추적이 중요하지만 더 질적이고 덜 정확할 수 있습니다.

반면 제휴 마케팅은 데이터 기반이 강하며 판매, 리드 및 기타 직접적인 결과에 대한 명확한 메트릭을 가지고 있어 ROI 계산이 더 간단합니다.

지표

성공을 측정하는 데 사용되는 지표도 다릅니다. 인플루언서 마케팅은 브랜드 인지도, 사회적 증명 및 창의적인 품질과 같은 더 광범위한 지표를 봅니다.

제휴 마케팅은 클릭당 비용(CPC), 획득당 비용(CPA) 및 전체 전환율과 같은 정확한 성과 메트릭에 중점을 둡니다.

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제휴 마케팅 및 인플루언서 마케팅의 장단점

인플루언서 마케팅과 제휴 마케팅을 별도의 마케팅 전략으로 비교할 때 우리는 브랜드가 Awin 또는 Refersion과 같은 플랫폼에 가입할 수 있는 보다 전통적인 제휴 마케팅 모델과 전체 마케팅으로서의 인플루언서 마케팅을 언급하고 있습니다.

인플루언서 마케팅의 장점	인플루언서 마케팅의 단점	제휴 마케팅의 장점	Affiliate 마케팅의 단점
특정 유형의 콘텐츠 / 크리에이티브 지시사항 요청	고정 결제로 작업하는 경우 초기 비용이 높을 수 있음	성과 기반 비용 및 낮은 위험	블로그는 소셜 미디어에서 인플루언서가 제품을 추천하는 것에 비해 개인적일 수 있습니다
고정 수수료 또는 affiliate와 같은 다양한 유형의 보상으로 작업	운영이 더 많이 필요하며 관계를 관리할 전담 담당자 필요	ROI를 더 쉽게 추적	특히 작고 덜 알려진 브랜드로서 확장하기 어려움
브랜드 앰버서더를 통해 소셜 증거 증가	ROI를 측정하기가 더 어려울 수 있음	운영이 적음	콘텐츠 재사용이 어려움
유기 또는 유료 소셜에 사용할 수 있는 고품질 크리에이티브 수집

Cost Comparison: Influencer Marketing vs Affiliate Marketing

Influencer marketing costs can vary significantly based on several factors, including the influencer’s reach, engagement rate, niche, and platform. Typically, costs are categorized as follows:

1. Nano-Influencers (1K-10K followers): Costs range from $50 to $500 per post.
2. Micro-Influencers (10K-100K followers): Costs range from $500 to $5,000 per post.
3. Macro-Influencers (100K-500K followers): Costs range from $5,000 to $20,000 per post.
4. Mega-Influencers (500K+ followers): Costs can exceed $20,000 per post.

Besides the fee for individual posts, you may also incur costs for additional content creation, long-term partnerships, giveaways, and promotional campaigns.

Influencer marketing often involves upfront payments or fixed fees, making it key to asses the ROI carefully.

Affiliate Marketing Costs

Affiliate marketing operates on a performance-based model, meaning costs are primarily incurred when a desired action, such as a sale or lead, is completed. These are its most common structures:

1. Cost Per Sale (CPS): A commission is paid to affiliates for each sale generated. Commission rates can range from 5% to 30% of the sale value, depending on the industry and product.
2. Cost Per Lead (CPL): Affiliates are paid for each lead generated. This could be a fixed amount, typically ranging from $1 to $50 per lead.
3. Cost Per Click (CPC): Affiliates earn money for each click they generate, usually a few cents to a few dollars per click.

Since affiliate marketing costs are directly tied to performance, it offers a lower-risk alternative for businesses, allowing them to pay only for measurable results. This model also makes budgeting more predictable, as costs scale with the volume of successful transactions.

Additional Considerations

When deciding between influencer marketing and affiliate marketing, keep in mind:

Budget Flexibility: Influencer marketing may require a higher upfront investment, while affiliate marketing offers more flexibility with its performance-based model.

Measurement of ROI: Influencer marketing ROI can be more challenging to measure, as it encompasses brand awareness and engagement, whereas affiliate marketing provides clear, quantifiable results.

Brand Goals: If your goal is to build brand awareness and reach a specific audience, influencer marketing might be more effective. For driving direct sales and measurable actions, affiliate marketing is often more suitable.

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Success Stories of Brands Using Influencer Marketing

1. Dyson

Dyson is a British technology company renowned for its innovative home appliances, including vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, and hand dryers.

For one of its campaigns, the company collaborated with five pet influencers, primarily targeting dog owners. The influencers were given creative freedom, with the only guideline being to showcase how pet owners clean up after their pets.

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The results? Dyson had over 1 million views, 115,000 likes and a 10% engagement rate across their campaign.

2. Daniel Wellington

Daniel Wellington is a well-known watch brand that has been leveraging partnerships with influencers, including both macro and micro influencers.

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These influencers showcase the brand’s watches in their everyday lives, helping to build a more authentic connection with their audiences. Additionally, they have creative freedom to produce content that feels genuine and aligned with their personal style.

Whitin just 3 years, the brand sold over $228M in watches, or 1 million watches - this all due to their influencer marketing campaigns. Additionally their UGC campaigns became so popular that influencers started using the hashtag #DWpickoftheday to try to get featured on the brand’s official profile.

3. Bloom

Bloom, a company specializing in plant-based beauty products, partnered with influencers who aligned with their brand values and target demographic. Influencers were chosen for their strong engagement rates and authentic connection with their followers.

The campaign involved influencers creating content that highlighted Bloom’s products in everyday beauty routines. This included detailed product reviews, tutorials, and personal testimonials to showcase the benefits and effectiveness of the products.

One the day of their product launch on Amazon, they partnered with more influencers who redirected people to the Amazon store.

The results? The campaign had 5.5 million views, a $1.47 CMP, and the Bloom product became an Amazon best seller.

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Success Stories of Brands Using Affiliate Marketing

1. Amazon

Amazon’s Affiliate Program, known as Amazon Associates, is a prime example of successful affiliate marketing.

By offering affiliates a commission (1-20%)  for driving sales through their referral links, Amazon has expanded its reach and grown its customer base significantly, contributing to its dominance in the e-commerce space.

2. Gymshark

Gymshark’s affiliate marketing program is designed to leverage influencers and affiliates to drive traffic and sales. Affiliates are provided with unique tracking links and promotional materials to help them promote Gym Shark’s products.

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The affiliate marketing strategy has contributed to significant growth for Gymshark, driving substantial traffic to their website and increasing sales.

3. Adobe

Adobe’s affiliate program effectively targeted creatives and tech enthusiasts through partnerships with bloggers and industry experts. This approach resulted in increased software sales and a broader reach for Adobe’s suite of products.

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Platforms Comparison: Traditional Affiliate Marketing Platforms vs Influencer Marketing Platforms

Traditional affiliate marketing platforms are marketplaces which connect brands and advertisers with publishers. As a brand you can sign up on these platforms through which you will be included in their marketplace.

Publishers can then find you on these platforms, see how much affiliate commission you offer and start creating content and publish articles around your product or service using a personal affiliate link to start earning commission. Examples of these affiliate marketing platforms are Awin and Refersion. 

Influencer marketing platforms on the other hand offer a more proactive approach enabling brands to source through a database of influencers and publishers and then contact these influencers for a partnership. These platforms are often structured to effectively manage these relationships and other aspects related to social media influencers like capturing the content and sending products.

Examples of such influencer marketing platforms are Influencer Hero, Grin or CreatorIQ.

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Affiliate marketing leverages advanced technologies to track referrals and ensure affiliates are accurately compensated for their promotional efforts. This seamless process involves several key technologies working in harmony.

Tracking Links

‍Unique URLs generated for each affiliate to monitor their referrals. In most cases the link adds UTM parameters (Urchin Tracking Module) through which the conversion event can be tracked. 

Cookies

‍Small data files placed in a user's browser to record referral details and track user actions. Cookies allow advertisers to track conversion events even if the conversion event occurs at a later point. This happens for example if a prospective customer clicks on the affiliate link and looks at the website but doesn’t purchase right away. A couple of days later they complete the purchase. In that case the cookie saved in their browser is able to pass over the UTM (which is saved through the cookie) and the conversion can still be attributed to the respective affiliate / influencer.

Voucher / discount codes

‍Besides tracking links, personalized voucher / discount codes can be an effective way to increase attribution in affiliate marketing (more on attribution later). Each affiliate / influencer gets their own voucher code. Everytime this voucher code is being used at checkout the sale will be accounted to the respective affiliate. 

Affiliate Networks

Platforms that connect affiliates with merchants, providing tools for link generation, tracking, and reporting. Examples can be Influencer Hero, Awin or Refersion. 

Tracking Software

Monitors user activities, ensuring accurate attribution of conversions to the corresponding affiliates. These are software companies providing the tools for brands and affiliates to keep track of earnings. Examples are Influencer Hero, Goaffpro or UpPromote. 

Payment Systems

‍After the affiliate has earned his or her affiliate an important process is processing the payouts. Affiliate software providers often offer this feature within their platform.

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How to Track Affiliate Performance

‍If you decide you want to get started with influencer and affiliate marketing it is important to understand how you can track the affiliate performance of your influencers. 

Manually create UTM links and use Google analytics

One way to track the performance is by creating UTM links manually. Google for example offers this easy to use UTM builder through which you can create UTM links. The link would be long and doesn’t look great so we recommend to set up a redirect so you can create personalized links. It could look like this: www.mybrand.com/jessica. This links would then redirect to the UTM link you created. In most cases the easiest way to set up these redirects is within your CMS. This can be Shopify, Wordpress, Webflow or any of the other providers. Once you share the UTM link with your influencers / affiliates and they start posting you can track the performance in Google analytics. Follow the steps below to set this up. 

Log in to Google Analytics

Go to Google Analytics and log in with your account credentials.

Navigate to Acquisition

In the left-hand sidebar, go to Reports > Acquisition > Traffic acquisition. This report gives you an overview of how users arrive at your site or app.

Filter by Campaign

Use the filter option to select your campaign. You can use the search box to find specific campaigns tracked by UTM parameters.

Use the Explore Tab

For more detailed analysis, use the Explore tab to create custom reports. You can use dimensions like Session Campaign, Session Source/Medium, Session Default Channel Grouping, etc.

Set the Date Range

Ensure you set the correct date range to analyze the data for the period you are interested in.

‍Use affiliate marketing software to track performance with influencers

Tracking affiliate performance manually is time intensive and can be complex which is why we recommend using affiliate marketing software to keep track of things. These platforms provide the tools to create affiliate links, discount codes and also provide dashboards which can be accessed by both the brand as well as the affiliate / influencer. 

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Free Influencer Audit Chrome Extension

Analyse fake followers, ER, audience location, forecast sales and much more.

INSTALL FOR FREE HERE

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Best Affiliate Software to Track Performance With Influencers

There are various options you could choose from. If you want to use affiliate marketing for influencer marketing the best options available are:

• Influencer Hero
• Go Affiliate Pro
• UpPromote  

To read more about the best affiliate marketing software you can access our article here.

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Tools Used for Influencer Marketing

As previously mentioned affiliate marketing is used within influencer marketing and is thus only a small part within the whole process of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing often involves the following steps: 

1. Influencer discovery 
2. Influencer outreach 
3. Campaign Management 
4. Collecting the posts and UGC 
5. Processing payments 

Each of these steps can be streamlined and automated using software. We recommend using an all in one influencer marketing platform where you can manage everything in one place. Some options are: 

• Influencer Hero 
• Upfluence 
• Grin 
• Aspire 
• Tagger 

To read more about the best influencer marketing software access the full article here. 

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Important Metrics to Analyze with Influencer Marketing

1. Audience growth 
2. Engagement rate: use our free engagement rate calculator
3. Audience size 
4. Fake followers: use our free fake follower check 
5. Verified accounts 

Our data scientists analyzed over 10K commercial influencer post to determine the correlation between different metrics and conversion. You can access the full research on the metrics which impact ROI here.  

To analyze all the above metrics conveniently while browsing the web you can also use our free influencer audit chrome extension here. 

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‍Attribution and Tracking in Influencer and Affiliate Marketing

What is important to understand is that attribution is rarely 100% in digital marketing. With affiliate marketing even when using the most advanced tracking tools there is always a part which gets lost. Some of the reason tracking is getting lost: 

‍Using a Different Browser

Imagine a prospective buyer sees an influencer posts and clicks on the affiliate link which is included as a link sticker in the influencer story post. The cookie is correctly placed in the browser. The prospect uses Safari on his or her Iphone. A few days later they remember about your product, open their laptop and complete the purchase. On their laptop they use Chrome as a browser which means that the cookie is not saved which disables the system to pass over the UTM link. The result is that attribution gets lost. 

‍Accessing a Website Without Clicking on The Affiliate Link

A common way attribution gets lost especially when affiliate marketing is used with influencers is when the customer does not click on the affiliate link but accesses your website in a different way. 

This can frequently happen for example if the influencer also tags your Instagram next to adding the affiliate link in a link sticker on Instagram. A lot of people will go to your Instagram page first and access your website through your link in bio hence the affiliate link won’t be able to track. If you then also offer a discount directly on your website or through an email popup the customer might use that code in which case both the affiliate link and the discount code won’t be able to track the sale. 

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Can Influencer Marketing And Affiliate Marketing Be Used Together

Yes, influencer marketing and affiliate marketing can be effectively used together to amplify a brand’s reach and sales. Influencer marketing focuses on leveraging influencers' content and credibility to create brand awareness and engage their audience, while affiliate marketing incentivizes influencers to drive specific actions, such as clicks or sales, by offering commissions. Combining these strategies allows brands to benefit from both the broad visibility of influencer campaigns and the performance-based structure of affiliate programs.

Steps To Use Influencer Marketing And Affiliate Marketing Together

• Apply the 80/20 principle: a small group of influencers often generate the majority of returns, so keep initial costs low with new influencers.
• Test influencers with free products and affiliate commissions to gauge their ability to convert audiences before committing to larger payments.
• Build long-term relationships with top-performing influencers, turning them into brand ambassadors.
• Continuously use affiliate links and discount codes to monitor influencer performance and optimize budgets for maximum ROI.

This hybrid approach maximizes ROI by blending brand-building efforts with direct, measurable outcomes, making it a powerful tool for comprehensive marketing strategies.

Nordstrom’s Hybrid Strategy with Influencer and Affiliate Marketing

Nordstrom combined influencer and affiliate marketing to boost brand awareness and sales. By partnering with fashion influencers, Nordstrom generated engaging content that resonated with their audience.

Alongside influencer collaborations, Nordstrom integrated an affiliate marketing program. Influencers were given unique affiliate links, incentivizing them to drive sales in addition to creating content.

This approach resulted in high engagement and a significant increase in online sales, demonstrating the power of blending both strategies to achieve a higher ROI and foster long-term partnerships with influencers.

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‍Conclusion

Understanding the distinct roles and benefits of influencer and affiliate marketing is crucial for crafting a successful marketing strategy. While influencer marketing leverages the authenticity and reach of social media personalities, affiliate marketing focuses on performance-based outcomes with measurable KPIs. Combining both strategies can maximize brand visibility and drive conversions. By carefully selecting compensation methods and tracking performance through appropriate tools, businesses can optimize their marketing efforts and achieve their objectives efficiently.