“Influencers generally receive financial compensation from sponsored content deals, and that’s not unimportant. Brands, though, walk away with potential traffic and sales spikes, plus a stream of data that not only tells them if creators’ sponcon was effective, but can also offer insights into which products (and colors of products, and sizes, and so on) are particularly appealing to a specific kind of creators’ audiences.
“So, how could things change for influencers if they also had access to that valuable data? What if they could use real-time sales numbers alongside views and engagement to show brands their overall value? What if they could see for themselves which products interest their viewers, and tweak their content strategy accordingly?
“These are the questions influencer tech company MagicLinks set out to answer when it launched in 2015. Cofounded by Brian Nickerson and Christian Levy, the business works with more than 19,000 creators and more than 3,000 brands, providing affiliate links to be used in both organic and sponsored content and serving as a bridge to hook up influencers with companies in their space. Crucially, MagicLinks also provides both brands and creators with dashboards full of information about how their affiliate links are performing.
“‘One of our core values is transparency,’ Nickerson (who’s also MagicLinks’ CEO) tells Tubefilter. ‘Helping the influencer understand what sales are happening through their channel, so they can use that information to create better content that resonates with their fans.’”
