How to scale influencer marketing: 10 key tips

How do you scale influencer marketing?

Hot tip: it’s not just by spending more money. There’s a lot more to being great at influencer marketing than just throwing fat checks out the door.

I recently chatted with influencer marketing expert Yuliya Gorenko, cofounder at Mishka Agency. She’s scaled influencer marketing programs to 8 figures (!!!) has over a decade of experience in this still-young field, and has worked with over a thousand creators. 

She’s also a former PR and marketing specialist with L’Oreal.

Hit play, then keep scrolling for some of the key highlights:

How to scale influencer marketing: Yulia Gorenko’s key tips

1. Maintain operational excellence

Running a handful of influencers at a time is relatively easy. But to scale influencer marketing to dozens or even hundreds is much harder. 

“ Each influencer is a unique human being,” says Gorenko. “An individual wants to feel like you care about them, that their requests are being processed in a timely manner, that they’re provided with full onboarding information about your product, your creative expectations …”

Key tips:

1. Ensure each influencer feels valued and respected
2. Provide timely responses, thorough onboarding, and clear creative guidelines
3. Invest in resources (team members or agencies) to manage influencer relationships effectively

That last tip matters. 

You can’t scale influencer marketing without also scaling resources. Yes, there’s software that can help, and agencies. But you’ll need to ensure you have a team that can manage it too.

2. Use diverse platforms

Instagram is big, but if you’re truly scaling, you might outgrow your niche there. And the same is true for TikTok or YouTube. To truly scale influencer marketing, you need to look at diversifying your channels and partners.

“ There are so many other platforms and they all convert,” says Gorenko. “Believe me, from my hands-on experience, I can tell you that all these platforms work great organically.”

Key tips:

1. When you start saturating one platform (e.g., YouTube), expand to others like TikTok, Instagram, or podcasts
2. Different platforms can provide new audiences and fresh engagement

Diversification is key to keeping costs down as well as accessing new audiences. It does require software — like Singular — to efficiently track spend and return on multiple platforms and partners.

3. Think beyond your niche

The right influencer for your product, app, or brand might not even be in your niche. To keep costs down but also to reach adjacent markets, think of your target market as a series of converging Venn diagrams. 

Some of those circles contain gold. Not all of them might be right in the crosshairs of your imagined target audience.

Key tips:

1. Explore influencers outside of your primary category. For example, a fitness brand can collaborate with parenting or lifestyle influencers. A sports brand can partner with men’s grooming or women’s clothing influencers.
2. This approach helps you reach new audience segments, avoid competition saturation, and stay fresh while keeping costs down

“ For instance, if you are a fitness app, maybe you want to get started with creators who are known for their fitness content,” says Gorenko. 

“But at the same time the fitness creator space might be already so cluttered with other fitness apps, training programs, supplements, you name it, that maybe you want to think outside of this fitness box and go explore some other creator categories, like lifestyle. Or maybe your product works really well for young mothers who want to get back in shape.”

4. Focus on long-term relationships

One-offs have 90% the overhead of longer relationships, and all that getting-to-know-each-other has to be done and re-done and re-done. Ouch!

Don’t waste your time. Find good influencers and keep them.

Just like repeat customers, you’ll ultimately spend less. And you’re likely to get more out of the marketing campaigns, too.

Key tips:

1. Especially for industries like fitness and health, aim to convert influencers into brand ambassadors rather than one-off partners
2. Authentic and consistent use of your product by influencers fosters trust and credibility

5. Utilize performance measurement techniques

Ultimately it’s about performance: sales and revenue. 

Early on in influencer marketing days, brand-focused marketers could get very excited about top-funnel metrics. Today, performance marketers demand incremental growth if they’re going to scale influencer marketing.

That’s a bit harder with influencer marketing than with in-app ads, for instance. But just because you can’t click on an Instagram post doesn’t mean it’s not measurable.

“ Influencer marketing is a very strong performance tactic,” says Gorenko. “It’s proven by so many brands: you see them spending 7, 8 figures a month just on this influencer channel alone, which means that they’re probably seeing some good return.”

Key tips:

1. Track performance with unique URLs and coupon codes for each influencer
2. Use customer questionnaires asking: “How did you hear about us?”
3. Be prepared for variability in performance, as not every influencer will deliver the expected ROI

Old-school is fine: some of the best performance marketers in the world use it. And, of course, you can also use MMM, if you’re set up for it, or incrementality testing.

6. Leverage storytelling and experiences

It’s not just about the cash. There are other ways to incentivize and reward influencers for working with you … especially when they are micro influencers.

Key tips:

1. Create unique experiences for influencers (e.g., beauty brand events with photo opportunities)
2. For entertainment and media, focus on creative storytelling and organic promotion aligned with the content of the release

When influencers feel special, they engage. When they’re treated like stars, they soak it up. 

And that makes them more likely to post authentically about your brand, app, or products.

7. Adapt pricing to the value provided

You don’t have to go out and pull a Monopoly Go and hire Jason Momoa, Will Ferrell, Keke Palmer, and Chris Pratt. That’ll cost millions of dollars and have uncertain results.

Instead, adapt the amount you pay to the value you receive. And think of creative ways of providing non-monetary value to influencers.

Key tips:

1. In travel and hospitality, consider offering experiences or discounts instead of high fees, especially for mid-tier influencers who already receive significant value from a free flight or hotel stay
2. In retail, getting the product for free might be enough for micro influencers

8. Vet influencers carefully

Ensure that whatever agency you use vets all its influencers very carefully, or do it yourself. The last thing you need is a Jared Fogle situation.

Key tips:

1. Vet influencers for their values, ethics, and reputation to avoid backlash or misalignment
2. Be even more cautious in sensitive industries like fintech, crypto, and kids’ apps

9. Find diverse influencers

Not all of your fitness influencers should be perfectly trim, fit, skinny, and muscled. Not all of your beauty influencers should be undiscovered supermodels.

Getting what you consider to be the perfect influencer for your brand runs the risk of alienating potential customers, app users, and game players that you need if you’re planning to grow. So scale influencer marketing with diverse people.

“ 20 years ago, all models looked kind of the same,” says Gorenko. “Now be relatable. Be real.”

Key tips:

1. Look for different body types, genders, races
2. Sometimes the least traditionally obvious contender for a good influencer for you is the best
3. People resonate with imperfect
4. Sometimes perfect inspires a backlash (think Martha Stewart)

10. Be ready to fail and optimize

Your most recent ad on TikTok probably doesn’t look much like the first ad you ran. The same is true for influencer marketing: you need to try, test, and optimize.

Not every influencer is going to work out, just like not every ad works out.

Key tips:

1. Not all influencer partnerships will succeed 
2. Be prepared for trial and error: learn from failed tests
3. Scale those that perform well

Much more in the full podcast!

If you’re truly serious about getting more insight into how to scale influencer marketing, check out the full podcast and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

These strategies can help ensure your influencer marketing scales effectively while maintaining quality, authenticity, and ROI. And, of course, while working: driving ROAS.

Here’s what you’ll find:

• 00:00 Introduction to Influencer Marketing
• 01:36 The Early Days of Influencer Marketing
• 05:16 Evolution and Current Trends
• 09:13 Scaling Influencer Marketing Programs
• 15:49 Measuring Success in Influencer Marketing
• 20:03 Final Thoughts on Scaling and Measurement
• 20:51 The Realities of Influencer Marketing
• 22:26 Rapid Fire Tips for Key Verticals
• 22:32 Beauty Industry Insights
• 24:10 Fitness and Health Strategies
• 26:55 Tech and Gadgets Recommendations
• 27:46 Travel and Hospitality Tips
• 29:53 Gaming Community Building
• 30:55 Parenting and Family Influencer Ethics
• 33:04 FinTech and Financial Services Caution
• 34:22 Entertainment and Media Storytelling
• 35:44 Conclusion and Final Thoughts