The right way to work with influencers
Okay...so I have been hearing these questions for a while in this sub:
Does influencer marketing work? Is it still worth it in 2026? What are the best influencer marketing tools?
I'll try to cover all these questions and more in this post. I have worked with 60 or so brands in the last 7 years and noticed a clear pattern of what works and what doesn't?
Does influencer marketing still work?
It it doesn't, people like me will be unemployed and brands won't be spending millions in this channel.
But yes, there are cases where it won't work. If you resonate with either of these, you probably shouldn't focus on influencers at this time:
-You are treating influencers as a sales channel. This is a big NO. Influencers generally bring indirect revenue in terms of brand awareness, cheaper CAC/CPC's, spike in organic traffic, follower growth. To sum up, trackable sales are just 20-30% and rest is indirect revenue.
-You are selling cheap/dropshipping products that has no real value. These are commodities which is being sold in every other website. Ever experienced no response from creators? This might be the reason why.
-Stay away from one-off campaigns. You'll just lose your time and resource trying to score working with just a handful of creators.
Now, we have established what doesn't work, I'll share what I've seen actually work with influencers?
-Play the long-term game, give at least 3-5 months and that's when the real impact starts to show. We have seen increase in overall sales week by week and month by month. There have been instances where brands were running out of inventory every single month but this part comes much later (month 5/6 onwards).
-Whether you are running a seeding/affiliate/paid campaign. You should have a clear objective of how many influencer you should work with every month. I'd recommend at least 25 every month for affiliate/seeding campaign and 10-15 for paid campaigns. This isn't enough but still a decent number to move the needle for you.
-Double down on what's working. There will be top-performers every month and your job will be to identify them and lock-in 2x-3x more collaborations.
Influencer marketing is operationally heavy and it requires a lot of time and proper systems to make it work.
If you don't want to spend too much on tools and agencies. Just do it on your own. You can even hire VA's from Upwork who can take care of prospecting.
But if you have the budget, tools will make your life easier. Another great addition would be to hire an influencer marketer, you can find good ones for <$10/hour.
These are some of the tools which I believe is value for money.
Mighty Scout- This is cheaper than the rest and have a month on month plan.
Modash- They have the best influencer discovery imo, but they'd cost you a bit more.
Influencer Hero- This is also a good tool but have a 3-month commitment.
DO NOT waste money on over-priced tools which will lock you in on a yearly plan and cost you $15k+. They are just a waste of time and money.
DM me if you need any guidance or have any questions.