Aaron Leupp is the proud CEO of PromoAffiliates, one of the most popular CPR agencies in the world. They have simple, effective business model: the company generates promotional codes for their clients, and then advertises those codes across the web with sponsored content. Their clients include quite a few big names, such as Uber, Lyft, Drizly, and DoorDash.
I sat down with Aaron to talk specifically about what he’s doing on Youtube. He’s certainly the person to talk to, since the sponsored videos he has set up have led to millions of views and thousands of conversions. Aaron was happy to provide us with some key takeaways from his experience using Youtube micro-influencers: independent channel owners (vloggers, pranksters, etc.) who are willing to produce sponsored content.
1. You don’t need the channel with the most subscribers
When he first started using PromoAffiliates, Aaron and his colleagues would only set up sponsored videos with the top 3,000 channels on Youtube. However, they eventually realized that a sheer number of subscribers did not necessarily mean big wins on ROI. Instead, Aaron recommends picking channels that best match the product you’re trying to sell, in both subject matter and content format.
“You have to ask yourself, is top Youtuber PewDiePie going to help launch my lipstick? The answer is no. Yes, a massive gamer or prankster could have millions of subscribers, but if you are a nail polish company, you might do better with a female “story time” type micro-influencer. Relevance is more important than how many followers/subscribers they have.”
2. Keep the pitch brief
Aaron also stressed the importance of not sending an endless thesis when you first make contact with your micro-influencer. They are business owners, just like you are, and are likely flooded with emails. If you keep your pitch short, you can set up a live meeting later to go over more details.
“Keep the email or DM pitches simple. Start off with intro sentence of who you are, and then a sentence about your brand. Then end with how much your budget is, followed by your name with an attached URL to your brand or company website. That’s really all you need!”
3. Make sure you set clear expectations for content
Just because your micro-influencer is popular on social media, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re planning to share the content they create with you.
“If you do a Youtube deal, then yes, some influencers will also share the video on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat. But it’s better to make sure that’s included before you sign off. Working everything out together, before deal is closed, will give you best bang for your buck.”
4. Don’t forget to share yourself
Speaking of social media sharing, never forget to share your video yourself. Sharing has a way of growing exponentially. One of the quickest ways to get the ball rolling is to have everyone at your company be the first to like, comment, and share.
“It’s so funny how people sometimes forget this step. All search results on Google and Youtube are generated by an algorithm — and sharing is a huge factor. When you share the content on your company’s own social media, Google will see this as a good thing. They’ll boost it up for people searching for the micro-influencer, or for things about your brand in the future. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
5. Be prepared to pay a flat rate
As you embark on your Youtube promotions journey, you’ll find that many of the micro-influencers you talk to charge a flat rate fee. Aaron explained this is to be expected. However, you can usually negotiate for a lower fee, combined with a cost per referral commission.
“Most micro-influencers are looking for a flat rate, since it costs them money and time to create the content. Equipment, editing software, travel, props; they are investing a lot of their own income to bring these things to life, so a budget really goes a long way for them. We like to offer a solid budget plus a CPR (cost per referral) deal on top of that. That way you give the micro-influencer what they need to succeed, but also the incentive to keep pushing it.”
6. Consider posting on the influencer’s channel
Remember, your ultimate goal is more conversions, not more subscribers to your own channel. Aaron finished off his interview with a story illustrating this principle. Uber contracted a popular celebrity to do a video with them, and although it did well, it could have done better.
“Uber did a video with massive celebrity and DJ Deadmau5. As this article is being written it has around 480K views, which is pretty good. But a quick look at Deadmau5’s own channel tells you it could have easily gotten millions of views by now. Their video doesn’t come close to the one we did with Coby Persin on his own channel, which now has over 10 million views.”
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