New Data from Captiv8 finds that Influencer Strategies Are “Most Important” to Driving Commerce Sales

New survey findings from industry leading creator marketing platform, Captiv8, reveal that brands are increasingly focused on ROI-driven channels like influencer-led affiliate marketing, and are seeking new attribution solutions to get a 360 view of where creators fall in the consumer journey.

In this latest report, Captiv8 gathered insights from 1100 of senior- to mid-level marketers within enterprises and SMBs and found that, more than ever, influencer marketing is resulting in a full-funnel impact. This rise, and success, of social commerce trends has led to a convergence of brand and performance marketing, where creators are at the helm. Key takeaways include:  

• 41% of brands look to influencer partnerships to drive purchase, and 84% have an influencer-centric affiliate marketing program in place.
• 40% say that influencers are most important in driving their affiliate campaigns, overtaking blogs (31%), social (18%) and email (10%).
• 'Influencers made me buy it' trends on social are most effectively driving performance through use of creator coupon codes (38%) and influencer try-ons or tutorials (32%), shrinking the path to purchase.

To help streamline and scale these increasingly important influencer-led affiliate strategies, Captiv8 is launching its new Affiliate Marketing Program, the Creator Collective, enabling performance-based partnerships with creators that reduce risk for brands, diversify revenue for creators, and most importantly drive real growth for brands.

Byte, the at-home teeth aligner solution and Captiv8 client, has generated over $170K in sales directly from creator affiliates. "We work with hundreds of creators with the goal to drive conversions and sales. It is mandatory to be able to seamlessly send product, generate trackable links, and discount codes, without our IT department or Salesforce. Captiv8's [Creator Collective] has saved us so much time and more importantly, our influencers really appreciate how easy it is for them to have everything in one place." says Ebony Haley, Influencer Marketing Manager at Byte  

By leveraging strategic relationships with 40% of Fortune Top 20 and premiere talent agencies such as UTA & WME, Captiv8 has facilitated over $100M in creator payouts over the years. These relationships and established trust with influencers have been the backbone for recruitment and growth of Captiv8's affiliate creator network.  

"To date the industry has largely bifurcated creator solutions for either brand marketing or performance marketing. However, accelerated digital trends have created new opportunities to optimize brands for eCommerce environments and cash in on phenomenons like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt," says Krishna Subramanian, CEO of Captiv8. "Now, rather than activating and cultivating creator relationships without any guarantee that content will drive sales, the Captiv8 Creator Collective, allows brands to activate tens of thousands of creators within days and pay creators on performance without any risk."

The Captiv8 Creator Collective enables alignment across brand and performance marketing efforts, teams and partnerships while accommodating brands that are looking to scale social commerce quickly. New features include:

• Automated recruitment: For the first time, creators can hand-raise to join their favorite brands' affiliate campaigns and be automatically added if they meet the criteria.
• Attribution modeling: Brands can fully customize how affiliate creators are attributed to sales, including attribution windows and commission structures.
• Tracking link management: Creators get their own automatic, unique referral links per social platform to drive their audience to brand product pages – making tracking attribution seamless.
• Full-funnel conversion tracking: Using the new Captiv8 proprietary pixel, reporting measures the full funnel from content platform clicks, website visits, product page visits, add-to-carts, and conversions on desktop, mobile web, and mobile app.
• Commission payments: Captiv8 Creator Payments automatically calculates how much a creator is owed based on performance, and can require brand approval for issuing a payment.  

As a one-stop shop that enables marketers more flexibility, control, and transparency over their creator relationships, Captiv8 helps marketers with their full-funnel needs, while consolidating duplicative marketing tools in their technology stack.

To learn more about the Captiv8 Affiliate Marketing Program, visit https://captiv8.io/commerce/