Twelve influencer advertising and marketing software program instruments to strive in 2022

Influencer marketing has become big business. From 2019 to 2021, the size of the influencer marketing market has doubled to $13.8 billion. 

On YouTube, brands pay influencers $6.6 billion annually to market products to a collective audience of 2.24 billion people (roughly 28% of the world’s population). And on Instagram, brands have sponsored 6.12 million posts from influencers. 

Naturally, many marketers are working hard to grow their influencer marketing campaign’s Return On Investment (ROI) this year. 

However, managing your influencer marketing profitably isn’t always easy. You need to recruit influencers, plan and schedule posts, and track each post’s performance. 

So, how do you juggle influencer marketing on top of your existing marketing duties?

That’s where influencer marketing software comes in. This article will cover twelve influencer marketing platforms to help you find the right one. 

Table Of Contents

What is influencer marketing software?

Leveraging influencer marketing is fantastic for growing ROI. Influencers that showcase your products on social media make them look desirable, expose your brand to a larger audience, and boost your sales conversions. 

However, influencer marketing has a lot of moving pieces. You need to manage internal content creation, research influencers, commission posts, approve posts, and manage your budget. 

Using influencer marketing software helps you plan, manage, and evaluate influencer campaigns in a single program. 

Influencer marketing platforms offer these benefits:

• They help you connect with influencers you wouldn’t have found otherwise 
• They provide data on an influencer’s audience and interactions with other brands
• They help you sort “real” influencers from accounts with fake followings 
• They provide you with high-quality data so you can boost your conversions and ROI

Over half of marketers in 2020 believed that influencer marketing drove better ROI than traditional channels. But without the right software in place, you can’t track your results.

Additionally, influencer platforms can help you build an influencer marketing plan. This plan is a detailed strategy that maps out which influencers you’ll partner with, when the influencer will publish posts, and the contents of each post. 

Budget is also a key consideration of any plan. Influencers charge based on the size of their following and the type of post you commission — so it’s difficult to summarize the average costs of influencer marketing.

However, you don’t have to pay an arm and a leg to get started. Social media consultants say that brands can expect to pay within these ranges:

• $10—$100 for a post from a nano-influencer (someone with 1–10K followers)
• $100—$500 for a post from a micro-influencer (someone with 10K—100K followers)
• $500—$5k for a post from a mid-influencer (someone with 100K—500K followers)
• $5k—$10k for a post from a macro-influencer (someone with 500K—1 million followers)
• $10K+ for a post from a mega-influencer (someone with over 1 million followers)

All that said, every influencer platform is different and offers unique benefits. In the following sections, we’ll review twelve platforms across the following categories:

Best Influencer platforms for micro-influencers 

Many brands get caught in the “more followers = more engagement” trap and disregard micro-influencers. This is a mistake (especially for niche brands). 

Micro-influencers have a uniquely close and authentic relationship with their followers. 

As proof of this, let’s look at a study of 800 micro-influencer followers by Experticity. The study found that 82% of consumers are “highly likely” to follow recommendations from micro-influencers. Additionally, micro-influencers sell hard — they have 22.2 times more conversations about products with followers than average consumers do. 

With that in mind, here are the best platforms for partnering with micro-influencers:

1. #Paid

#Paid is a content creation and collaboration-driven platform geared towards brands with niche target audiences. It allows you to search for influencers with audiences specific to your needs. Influencers can also find you and pitch content concepts their followers would like. 

#Paid includes influencers from many social platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. #Paid also manually approves every influencer on the platform, so you don’t need to worry about quality or fraud.

Top brands in many industries use #Paid, including Visa, Uber Eats, H&M, Volvo, Canon, and Misen. 

Features:

• Influencer marketplace
• Influencer follower analysis 
• Fake follower detection tools
• Internal payment processing 
• Content amplification 
• Message features

Pros:

• Connects with Facebook Ads manager 
• Influencers state rates upfront (so no negotiation is required)
• You can produce whitelisted ads with it (these are ads you post through an influencer’s account with their permission)
• Allows you to automate reminders 

Cons:

• More expensive than other platforms
• You must purchase creator licenses and advanced audience demographic data separately on some plans 

2. Julius

Julius’s platform is based on a robust search engine that analyzes influencers’ posts to help you choose potential influencers with high engagement and conversion rates. Julius was formerly known as “Hypr.” 

Their influencer database includes 10 million influencers, so it’s an excellent platform for finding micro-influencers (as some smaller platforms exclude them). 

Julius’s competitive advantage is its comprehensive research tools. You can use the platform to search for influencers by hashtag, audience, and demographic data. Julius also has an automated social listening tool. 

Features:

• Social listening
• Fake follower detection
• Influencer lists
• User activity monitoring 
• Message features

Pros:

• Thorough data analysis tools for conversion tracking
• Internal payment system
• Workflow automation

Cons:

• You must contact sales to demo Julius

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Most affordable influencer marketing platforms 

Influencer marketing platforms can cost you thousands of dollars per month, depending on capabilities and target market. As that price point isn’t right for every brand, here are the two most affordable influencer marketing platforms:

3. Rewardful

Rewardful isn’t your typical influencer marketing platform. Instead, Rewardful combines affiliate marketing and influencer tools, allowing you to seamlessly plan and manage affiliate campaigns with influencers. 

Rewardful currently offers four non-custom plans: 

1. Performance, which costs $29 a month and has a 9% transaction fee
2. Starter, which costs $49 a month (no transaction fee)
3. Growth, which costs $99 a month (no transaction fee)
4. Enterprise, which costs $299 a month (no transaction fee)

Each plan offers the following features:

Features:

• Integrations with popular apps
• Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Chat and email support
• Mass payouts on Wise and PayPal
• Unlimited affiliates 

Pros:

• Integrates with your website if you choose
• Customizable influencer programs 
• Affiliate finder tool 
• Automatic campaign tracking

Cons:

• Offers limited content creation tools

4. Afluencer

Afluencer is a straightforward and reliable platform with a network of 9,530 influencers in 50 niches. Afluencer is a self-service platform where you post a potential collab so that interested influencers can find you. Alternatively, you can search for influencers by niche, audience, and demographic. 

Afluencer currently offers three plans for brands:

1. VIP, which costs $49 a month
2. Concierge, which costs $99 a month 
3. Boss, which costs $199 a month 

Features:

• Internal messaging system
• Shopify integration
• Influencer spotlights 

Pros:

• Offers custom video production
• Manage up to 100 collabs simultaneously 

Cons:

• Afluencer has a smaller network than other platforms
• Limited automation

Best influencer marketing platform for creators 

Some influencer marketing platforms have strong reporting and management tools, while others have strong content creation tools. Here are the two best platforms in that latter category: 

5. Aspire

Aspire (formerly “AspireIQ”) is a self-service marketing platform that hosts over 150,000 influencers from social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Aspire allows you to store the content that influencers have created for you to revisit later. 

Aspire also offers other content creation tools, including a search tool to find similar content, a content approval process, and a tool to boost the reach of high-performing content via Facebook and Instagram. 

Brands on Aspire have full image rights (so they own all the ads they commission).

Features:

• Shopify integration
• Expert management services
• Creator marketplace
• Relationship management tools 

Pros:

• Aspire can match brands to suitable influencers 
• Easy content management 
• Wide range of campaign assessment metrics

 Cons:

• Aspire is a smaller scale operation with only 400 or so brands

6. Captiv8

Captiv8 started as a social listening tool in 2015 but has since grown into a giant influencer marketing platform that hosts 1.5 million influencers. 

Captiv8 has a built-in content calendar tool and campaign management workflow so you can plan, commission, and assess content quickly and easily. Captiv8 also has a nifty feature that tracks trending content so you can capitalize on it quickly. 

Features:

• Post amplification 
• Inbuilt payment system 
• Predictive analysis 
• Social listening 

Pros:

• Robust research tools 
• Search tool powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Cons:

• Captiv8 has a large audience of mid-influencers and micro-influencers, but few macro-influencers and celebrities

Best free influencer marketing platform 

Not all platforms require you to open your wallet before you can start using it. Here are two platforms that offer free plans:

7. Buzzsumo

Buzzsumo is a content marketing platform that includes influencer marketing tools and features. Buzzsumo currently offers four plans:

1. Free, with no upfront cost
2. Pro, which costs $99 a month
3. Plus, which costs $179 a month
4. Large, which costs $299 a month

These plans offer the following features (though more expensive plans have more features):

Features:

• Influencer searches 
• One year of data 
• Unlimited projects (except on the free plan)
• Custom feeds
• Chrome extension

Pros:

• You can address your influencer and content marketing needs with a single tool
• You can automate reporting and create your own automations

Cons:

• Geared more towards research than management 

8. Brybe

Brybe is an influencer marketing platform with a freelancer platform angle. Influencers post content pitches on Brybe, and interested brands can connect with them via the platform. Brands can also post requests. 

Brybe offers a free plan with limits on some features. Brybe’s Business Pro plan starts from $59.99 a month. 

Features:

• Project tracking
• Escrow for payments 
• Invoice generation
• Messaging system

Pros:

• Features a range of freelancers, content creators, influencers, and celebrities 
• Secure marketplace
• Sorts pitches into catalogs for easy viewing

Cons:

• Brybe charges an additional service fee

Best influencer marketing platform for small businesses

Some platforms are better suited to multinational corporations, while others serve different audiences. Here are the best platforms for small businesses:

9. Grin

Grin is an all-in-one platform built for e-commerce companies and online retailers. Grin has tools for influence marketing, affiliate marketing, Public Relations (PR), and Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) commerce. 

Grin features influencers from Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. 

Features:

• Payment tools 
• Relationship building and management tools
• Robust data tools that track metrics like conversions, engagement, and ROI
• Workflow automation 

Pros:

• Integrates with Gmail, Slack, and Microsoft for communication
• Integrates with WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud 

Cons:

• More expensive than other influencer marketing tools

10. Tagger 

Tagger Media’s influencer marketing platform “Tagger” hosts 6 million creator profiles, including influencers from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Over 300K brands from 70 countries currently use Tagger. 

Features:

• White-labeled message templates
• A Content Management System (CMS)
• Automated data analysis
• In-built contract and payment system

Pros:

• Tagger shows you real-time data and helps you create reports quickly
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) compliant 
• Tagger Media also offers social listening and brand ambassador tools

Cons:

• Some users have noted that Tagger sometimes categorizes influencers into categories incorrectly 

Top influencer marketing platforms based in the USA 

Finally, if you want to support the local economy, here are two platforms run by US-based companies:

11. Traackr

Headquartered in San Fransisco, Traackr is a data-oriented tool trusted by large brands like Coach, Samsung, and Revlon. Traackr helps you discover, assess, and recruit influencers, then manage campaigns seamlessly. 

Traackr has over 6 million influencer profiles and 3 billion posts to search through. It covers 50 countries and 26 languages. 

Features:

• Smart campaign management 
• Budget optimization
• Influencer discovery tool
• Vetting tools 
• Workflow automation 

Pros:

• You can use Traackr to benchmark your conversions against competitors
• Global coverage 
• Hosts a wide range of influencers of every level 

Cons:

• Traackr is expansive, so it takes time to learn how to use the platform

12. CreatorIQ

Based in Los Angeles, CreatorIQ is a data-driven platform with over 20 million creators in its database. CreatorIQ helps you find influencers according to your needs, organize campaigns with them, and approve posts. 

CreatorIQ also provides real-time analysis of your campaign performance and in-depth analytics tools to help you track ROI. 

Features:

• Inbuilt payment tools that work across 190 countries and 120 currencies
• Payment automation
• Approval process
• Influencer vetting tools

Pros:

• Offers API to integrate CreatorIQ with your internal systems
• You can customize what each team member can do in CreatorIQ
• Offers automated post whitelisting 

Cons:

• It may take time to learn to use CreatorIQ

Improve Influencer Marketing ROI With ActiveCampaign’s Marketing Automation Software

Influencer marketing platforms aren’t just nifty management tools. Using them can help you make cost-effective and data-based decisions, ultimately improving your campaign ROI. 

Once you’ve mastered managing influencer marketing with one of the platforms mentioned in this article, use ActiveCampaign to move influencer Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) into email campaigns that automate the lead nurture flow until the MQLs turn into Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs). 

Sign up for a demo of ActiveCampaign here.