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The Power Duo: Gifting and Affiliate Marketing in Influencer Campaigns
In 2024, UK brands flocked to gifting and affiliate campaigns more than any other style of influencer marketing. These complimentary campaigns allow brands to connect with their target audience with no upfront costs.
But how exactly do these strategies work? Let's explore the rise of these campaigns and how you can benefit.
Two businessmen communicating and solving puzzles
Key Takeaways:
- In 2024, gifting and affiliate campaigns are the most popular types of campaigns for UK brands.
- Combining gifting and affiliate strategies helps brands scale effectively with little financial risk.
- Gifting drives product awareness and familiarity, while affiliate marketing encourages more secure collaborations and conversions.
- Gifting can work as a trial for influencers. If you like their content, you can safely transition to affiliate and perhaps other more secure long-term campaigns.
Key statistics from the Kolsquare x NewtonX study
Influencer marketing platform Kolsquare teamed up with NewtonX to conduct an in-depth survey of influencer marketing in Europe. We designed it to establish key benchmarks, track trends, and compare data across various markets. One of the key questions was about types of campaigns.
The UK results really surprised us.
The first discovery is that affiliate campaigns are the most used by UK brands. On average, they run 63 affiliate campaigns per year. The second most popular influencer activation is gifting. Brands run an average of 61 gifting campaigns every year.
UK brands rely on these low-risk options much, much more than other EU countries. To add context, the average Italian brand only runs 12 affiliate campaigns per year, and the average French brand only runs 9. While German brands come close, running 60 affiliate campaigns per year. But their activation of gifting is much lower at 35 per year.
So, UK brands tend towards low risk. Let's explore these campaigns in-depth to understand why UK brands run these types of campaigns so often.
Fancy having a look through the report yourself? It's packed with insights about influencer marketing campaign types, budgets, pain points, and more.
How combining gifting and affiliate marketing can amplify campaign results
Let's define terms. Gifting campaigns involve sending free products to influencers with the hope that they will share their authentic experience of the product on their social media channels.
Affiliate marketing also eliminates upfront costs, but it works differently. Brands give influencers unique links or promo codes to share with followers that tell the brand how many conversions came from them. The brand then pays them on a commission basis for every action – usually a sale. So, the influencer only receives financial compensation if their ads are effective.
Combining these two strategies is super valuable. Here's how a dual approach can benefit you:
Increased Authenticity and Product Familiarity
Gifting allows influencers to experience products first-hand, leading to genuine, unforced content. This genuine interest is a great way to build trust with their audience and can enhance product credibility.
Enhanced Engagement and Organic Promotion
Combining gifting with affiliate marketing can drive higher engagement rates, as influencers are encouraged to create more high-quality content featuring gifted products.
Data-Driven Insights and Measurable ROI
Affiliate marketing adds an extra layer of data and tracking that gifting alone cannot achieve. Through unique tracking links or promo codes, brands can monitor exactly which influencers drive traffic, clicks, and sales. But, keep in mind that many of the benefits of influencer marketing are indirect, such as increased awareness and better brand sentiment.
Long-Term Relationships and Brand Loyalty
Gifting can serve as an introduction to affiliate partnerships, allowing brands and influencers to test compatibility before forming a long-term relationship. If an influencer’s audience responds well to the gifted product, the brand can then offer them a commission-based affiliate deal. This gradual approach builds trust with the influencer and their audience. It also makes them more likely to stick with your brand.
Inspire UGC (User-Generated Content)
User-generated content (UGC) is powerful for building trust and engaging communities online. By integrating affiliate marketing and gifting strategies, brands can activate a large number of influencers to create genuine, shareable content that sparks conversations and motivates social media users to get involved. Mixing this with unique, fun hashtags helps inspire more people to get involved. Remember the #ALSIceBucketChallenge? These campaigns have the chance to go viral on TikTok and Instagram.
Activating Nano and Micro-Influencers
Brands are increasingly turning to nano- and micro-influencers for their influencer marketing strategies due to their high engagement rates and niche audience appeal. Nano-influencers (1,000-10,000 followers) and micro-influencers (10,000-100,000 followers) are seen as more authentic and approachable. Gifting and affiliate campaigns allow brands to activate many of these niche creators to reach highly targeted audiences in a cost-effective manner.
Dominating Conversations
Leveraging gifting and affiliate strategies can help you dominate conversations on social media and increase your share of voice within your industry. It also helps brands keep up with trends by allowing influencers to create their own content. After all, influencers are experts in speaking to their audiences.
Strategies for integrating both approaches in influencer marketing
So affiliate marketing and gifting campaigns work well together. But what are the best practices for creating a lasting impression through these campaigns?
Here are a few tips:
- Start with Gifting: Initiate partnerships by sending potential influencers free products and see how they respond. If they love your product and create effective content, they may be a great match for an affiliate campaign.
- Use Unique Codes: Combine gifting with affiliate links by including unique tracking codes or discount coupons along with the gifted products. This allows influencers to not only share their honest opinions but also track any resulting sales.
- Reuse Reviews and Testimonials: Once an influencer has received a gifted product and shared their initial thoughts, use their reviews, testimonials, and photos across your own social media channels, email marketing, and website to make the most of their endorsement.
- Create Campaign-Specific Landing Pages and Banners: Design unique landing pages or promotional banners for influencers who are gifted products and also participating in your affiliate program.
- Use Data to Improve Campaigns: Monitor the performance of gifted products alongside affiliate sales to identify which influencers are generating the best ROI. Use platforms like Kolsquare to gain real-time reports on your campaigns quickly and easily.
- Create a Structured Affiliate-Gifting Program with Clear Guidelines: Develop a structured program that clearly outlines expectations, compensation, and promotional guidelines for influencers. Ensure influencers understand how to incorporate both gifted items and affiliate links into their content seamlessly.
Do influencers have to declare gifts?
Yes, influencers in the UK must declare gifts from brands! The Competition and Markets Authority and Advertising Standards Authority guidelines state that influencers should label posts with terms like “#gifted” or “#ad.” These tags make it clear that the content includes items received from brands.
Real-life examples of brands that have successfully merged gifting and affiliate tactics
The following brands managed to combine the two effectively.
GlossyBox
GLOSSYBOX has effectively combined affiliate marketing and gifting strategies to expand its reach and increase customer loyalty.
What is GlossyBox? GlossyBox collabs with 100+ beauty brands to curate monthly beauty boxes packed with luxury and niche products.
How does their strategy work? The company engages influencers through its affiliate program, offering commissions ranging from 2% to 10% for subscriptions and product sales, depending on the item type and duration of the subscription. It also gifts affiliates with free products in exchange for videos, as seen below.
One interesting campaign + results? This content promotes products but also drives subscriptions through personalised referral links and discount codes. For example, during a recent partnership with the pet brand Pooch & Mutt, GLOSSYBOX used its gifting and affiliate strategy to introduce a targeted promotion that resulted in over $19,000 in revenue.
GlossBox works with many micro and nano-influencers whose content feels authentic.
HelloFresh
HelloFresh uses social media marketing with content creators to show the meals it offers. Its affiliate marketers are often gifted products to create content.
What is HelloFresh? Most people have heard of HelloFresh. It's a meal kit delivery service that collaborates with influencers to show off its tasty, ready-to-cook recipes.
How does their strategy work? HelloFresh gifts influencers meal kits, encouraging them to share their cooking experiences in an authentic, relaxed way. Influencers post videos and photos of themselves preparing the meals, giving their honest reviews, and showing how HelloFresh fits into their lifestyle. In addition to these freebies, HelloFresh sets up affiliate deals, where influencers get commissions for every sale or subscription driven through their unique links and discount codes.
One interesting campaign + results? HelloFresh’s recent campaign with micro-influencers on Instagram and TikTok really paid off. They collaborated with the agency IMA for the #RefreshWithHelloFresh campaign, enlisting 15 micro-influencers and celebrity Davina McCall as the face of the campaign. Over 21 days, influencers shared cooking videos and photos using gifted meal kits while also leveraging affiliate links for their followers. The campaign resulted in a 274% increase in impressions and 325% more content creation.
Above is a video from a micro-influencer @lifewith_mummy_c. She shared an authentic video explaining how HelloFresh helps with her busy lifestyle.
Best practices for brands looking to leverage this dual approach
This approach is more low-risk. But you still need to take the right approach to succeed.
Here are a few tips:
- Identify Relevant Influencers: Choose influencers who already show interest in your brand and niche, ensuring an organic fit for gifting. If you choose the right influencers, they will have a deep understanding of your target audience and be much more effective. Consider using a tool like Kolsquare to help. It transforms what could be days of in-depth influencer searches into a few minutes work.
- Combine Gifting with Trackable Links or Promo Codes: When sending gifts, include unique affiliate links or discount codes to seamlessly track sales and conversions, encouraging influencers to share their experiences authentically.
- Create Clear Guidelines but Allow Creative Freedom: Provide guidelines on how to use and present the product, but allow influencers the flexibility to express their personal style and voice.
- Prioritise Long-Term Relationships: Begin with gifting, and if results are positive, transition to a more structured affiliate partnership. This builds trust and ensures sustained collaboration.
- Monitor Performance and Optimize: Use tools to track influencer performance, engagement, and sales generated through affiliate links. Use this data to refine strategies and identify top-performing influencers for future campaigns.
Influencer Marketing Gifting Platforms: Kolsquare and Gifta
Influencer marketing platforms can help you run campaigns more easily. They offer databases of influencers, campaign management, reports, and more.
Kolsquare
Kolsquare is a comprehensive influencer marketing platform designed to help brands manage their influencer collaborations more effectively. Here's what it can do:
- Efficient Influencer Management: Kolsquare’s platform simplifies influencer collaborations, enabling brands to manage gifting strategies and partnerships seamlessly.
- Massive Influencer Database: Access over 3 million influencers worldwide, filtered by metrics like engagement rate, audience demographics, and social networks for targeted campaigns.
- Comprehensive Performance Tracking: Use detailed analytics to monitor influencer performance, calculate ROI, and optimise campaign strategies based on real-time data.
- Versatile Campaign Capabilities: Blend gifting strategies with affiliate marketing or paid partnerships to create dynamic, multifaceted campaigns that drive results.
Gifta
Gifta is a specialised gifting platform that simplifies the process of sending products to influencers. With Gifta, brands can automate gifting campaigns, track product deliveries, and monitor the content shared by influencers. It helps brands scale their campaigns and makes it easy to maintain a steady flow of authentic content and engagement without the complexities of full influencer management.
The dynamic future of influencer marketing activations
UK brands are opting for more low-risk campaigns. By sending gifts to influencers, you can reach consumers for little cost. The goal is to spark interest and generate authentic reviews of your product. Launching an affiliate campaign with successful influencers and gifting your affiliates allows you to create stronger, more genuine bonds with creators and their audiences.
For more details on influencer marketing in 2024, check out the Kolsqaure Benchmark Report!
Summary
Does gifting influencers work?
Yes, gifting influencers can be an effective strategy for generating authentic content and increasing brand awareness. By sending products without requiring a formal partnership, companies encourage content creators to share their genuine experiences on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. It often results in organic, relatable content that resonates with their followers. This approach works particularly well with micro and nano-influencers, as they are more likely to create engaging posts around gifted products. According to a study by Influencer Marketing Hub, 61% of marketers report that gifting campaigns have positively impacted their brand perception and engagement.
How do i send an influencer a gift?
Whether you're planning a campaign on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, here's a short guide to sending influencers gifts:
- Research and Select Influencers: Identify content creators who align with your company values and have an engaged audience. Tools like Kolsquare can help with this process.
- Reach Out: Contact the influencer via email or direct message, introducing your company and expressing interest in sending them a gift. Be clear that there are no obligations to post.
- Request Details: Ask for their shipping address and preferred product options if applicable.
- Personalize the Package: Include a personalised or even handwritten note or message explaining why you think the influencer would enjoy the product. Small businesses will have to make an extra effort if their product is unknown to the influencer.
- Follow Up Politely: After sending the gift, you can follow up to see if they liked it, but do not pressure them to post unless there is an agreement in place.
What is the difference between influencer gifting and paid collaboration?
The main difference lies in expectations and compensation:
- Influencer Gifting: The brand sends a product to the influencer with no formal agreement or payment involved. The influencer is under no obligation to post or create content, making it a lower-risk and lower-cost strategy for brands.
- Paid Collaboration: In a paid collaboration, the brand compensates the influencer partner with money or additional benefits in exchange for specific content, such as posts, stories, or videos. This arrangement typically includes a contract that outlines expectations, timelines, and deliverables.
About Kolsquare
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, offering a data-driven solution that empowers brands to scale their KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing strategies through authentic partnerships with top creators.
Kolsquare’s advanced technology helps marketing professionals seamlessly identify the best content creators by filtering their content and audience, while also enabling them to build, manage, and optimize campaigns from start to finish. This includes measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors.
With a thriving global community of influencer marketing experts, Kolsquare serves hundreds of customers—including Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, Lush, and Hermès—by leveraging the latest Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning technologies. Our platform taps into an extensive network of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers across 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat.
As a Certified B Corporation, Kolsquare leads the way in promoting Responsible Influence, championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations that inspire positive change.
Since October 2024, Kolsquare has become part of the Team.Blue group, one of the largest private tech companies in Europe, and a leading digital enabler for businesses and entrepreneurs across Europe. Team.Blue brings together over 60 successful brands in web hosting, domains, e-commerce, online compliance, lead generation, application solutions, and social media.
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