Comparison · All-in-one platforms

Ad Specialist vs. Linkster

Linkster connects creator discovery, campaigns and conversion tracking into your store. It handles booking and measurement; within the software, your team chooses creators, negotiates and scales the channel. See when the platform is enough and when an agency adds more.

IDA Bookings view

What Linkster does well

Linkster is an influencer marketing platform from Hamburg for D2C and enterprise brands, with measurement at its core. As of October 2026.

  • Measurement to ROI

    Clicks, conversions and revenue per campaign, with a web store connection in the larger plan.

  • Search and briefs

    Creator search and automated campaign briefs.

  • Bulk management

    Manage many creators in parallel, across several markets.

  • Three campaign types

    Fixed fee, barter and affiliate in one interface, plus training and a managed service.

Where the work beginsFrom measurement to scale

Linkster shows which campaign brought clicks, conversions and revenue. That is a lot. Within the software, the decisions before and after are made by your team. We bring benchmarks from over 20,000 campaigns and build the channel in three phases: potential analysis, testing roadmap and scaling.

  1. Before

    Selection

    Which creators do you approach, and does their audience really fit you?

  2. Before

    Price and brief

    At what price, with which brief? Without benchmarks, gut feeling often decides, and every mistake comes out of your budget.

  3. During

    Measure

    Linkster shows clicks, conversions and revenue per campaign. What that means for the next round is your call.

  4. After

    Learn and rebook

    Which creator sells for you, why, and where do you find the next one who works just as well?

The real calculationLicence fees plus internal hours

The licence is the smaller cost. The bigger one never appears on an invoice: the hours of whoever works with the tool. And without benchmarks, gut feeling often decides which creator gets the next budget.

With Linkster

Software, your team executes

Discovery (offer)
€299 instead of €399 / month
Suite with web store
from €999 / month
Creator fees
on top

Not on any invoice

  • Search
  • Outreach
  • Negotiation
  • Briefing
  • Analysis
  • Next selection

Your team's internal hours

What you pay in the endLicence + creators + your hours

With Ad Specialist

Calculated per new customer

Creator budget
approved by you
Retainer
monthly

Included

  • Code and UTM link per creator, synced with your store
  • CAC and ROAS per placement
  • Top performers get rebooked
  • Every round learns from the last
  • IDA, our analytics software
What you pay in the endCreator budget + retainer

Prices according to the provider's website, as of October 2026. Discovery is a limited-time offer on a monthly or annual plan; the suite starts with a three-month pilot and an annual contract. Whether it pays off for you is something we clarify upfront in the potential analysis.

The comparisonat a glance

Kriterium
Scope
Internal effort
Time to launch
Data foundation
Measurement
A good fit when
IDA + execution
Strategy, scouting, negotiation, briefing, booking, tracking and reporting in one team
Target KPIs, store access, products for creators and an approval contact
Testing from week five, after onboarding and potential analysis
Experience from over 20,000 campaigns plus your own store data
Revenue, CAC, ROI and CLV per placement, updated daily from Shopify, KLAR and Google Analytics
you want creators to become a predictable acquisition channel without first building a team
Linkster
Platform for discovery, campaigns, CRM and conversion tracking, with optional training or managed service
Your team selects, negotiates, briefs and analyses
Discovery on a monthly or annual plan, three-month suite pilot; campaigns launch once your team has booked creators
Millions of creator profiles, according to the provider
Clicks, conversions and campaign revenue through store integration
your team wants to manage and measure fixed-fee, barter and affiliate campaigns itself

Linkster or Ad Specialist?Let's run the numbers with your data

  • 50 minutes
  • Your real costs
  • Tool, team or us
Book a call
Victoria BorganLilia YanichevskiCarolina BartelsFabienne FreundMichael Haberger

300+ stores successfully scaled

by turning creators into a reliable acquisition channel

What IDA measures differently

Linkster measures what a campaign generates in your store. IDA does too, with each booking considered alongside results from over 20,000 campaigns that inform our next selection.

Campaign tool

Revenue per creator

  1. 2 on the go€3,105
  2. Shania Bo€3,080
  3. TK Vanlife€3,000
  4. svallalaa€1,953
  5. notizenvonunterwegs€1,620

Sorted by revenue: whoever sold most comes first.

IDASample data

Cost per new customer by creator

  1. notizenvonunterwegs€22
  2. svallalaa€23
  3. Shania Bo€25
  4. 2 on the go€26
  5. TK Vanlife€28

The same creators, sorted by cost per new customer. High revenue does not automatically mean cheap new customers.

Every new proposal includes expected views, effective CPM and total costs in IDA before you approve the creator.

  1. We analyse
  2. Rebook top performers
  3. Find similar creators

End the influencer tool chaosMake IDA your single source of truth

IDA brings your data together, updated daily. Every booking recommendation we make is backed by evidence—giving you a solid foundation for profitable, scalable influencer marketing.

Every campaign at a glance

See every booked campaign: creator, status, audience, vertical, launch date, expected views and cost. Once it goes live, conversions, CAC and ROAS appear in the same row.

  • Booking status

    From enquiry to briefing, approval and launch.

  • Forecast vs. results

    Expected views beside actual views. Costs beside conversions.

  • Go straight to the content

    Open the published video or Reel in a click.

IDA Bookings view: booking status, audiences, costs, conversions, CAC, ROAS and upcoming launches

When Linksteris the right choice

If no one internally will run the channel, or what you mainly lack is benchmarks for which creator works at what price, the gap is execution, not software.

  • You run campaigns yourselves

    Your team decides on selection, price and brief.

  • You manage many collaborations in parallel

    Bulk management and CRM are built for that.

  • You want revenue straight from your store

    The larger plan connects your web store.

  • You mix fixed fee, barter and affiliate

    All three models run through one interface.

See IDA in actionTake a tour of the platform

From creator proposals and tracking to analysis: see how IDA works day to day.

IDA Bookings view used as the demo video preview
Play the demoVideo coming soon

Your questions answered

Yes. Your team can continue using Linkster for its own research and analysis. You don't need a separate licence for campaigns we run: we handle scouting, negotiation, briefing, booking and reporting, with measurement in IDA.

There is no universal figure; we assess every case individually. A typical starting point is €5,000–€10,000 in monthly creator spend plus our retainer. We assess the potential before any budget goes to creators.

After four weeks, you receive the potential analysis: response rates, suitable verticals and a budget recommendation. The testing roadmap typically identifies the first top performers within three months. From month four, we scale what works.

With IDA, our own analytics software. It combines codes, UTM links, store data and platform reports, breaking each placement down into CAC, ROI and CLV at creator level. That tells us who deserves more budget.

Exclusively from the provider's official website, as of October 2026. We quote prices only where the provider publishes them. Features and pricing change; the provider's offer is always authoritative. If you spot an error, please let us know.

No time for a call?Tell us a little about your business

Tell us what you sell, where you are today and what you want to achieve with creators. We will review your store and email you an initial assessment.

  • No meeting required
  • Initial assessment by email
  • A reply within 24 hours
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Your influencer marketing experience*