Comparison
A few creators, discount codes and a spreadsheet: DIY is quick to start. It gets expensive afterwards, because every mistake in selection, price or analysis comes out of your budget, and the spreadsheet rarely shows what a creator really sold. Here's when DIY is enough and when experience from over 20,000 campaigns makes the difference.
Three ways to build influencer marketing. None is always right, and each has a cost.
The invoice shows creator fees and perhaps a tool licence. It doesn't show the hours spent alongside day-to-day work.
Tools, your team executes on the side
Not on any invoice
Internal hours alongside day-to-day work
Execution including IDA
Included
Indicative figures based on typical tool and salary costs, for orientation rather than an exact calculation. Whether it pays off for you is something we clarify upfront in the potential analysis.
DIY usually starts with a few collaborations. It only becomes an acquisition channel once every booking builds on the last.
Individual collaborations without a shared learning base
Discount codes in a spreadsheet, no valid proof of ROI
Creator selection by gut feeling, hard to repeat
Every new campaign starts from zero again, without benchmarks
Internal scepticism remains: “Influencer marketing doesn't scale”
A 3-phase system in which every campaign builds on the last one
Clear CAC, ROI and CLV reports, down to the individual creator
Creator selection and forecasts based on data instead of gut feeling
Experience from over 20,000 campaigns from the very first booking
Proven to scale, as a fixed part of the mix alongside Meta and Google
Finding a few creators is the smallest part. It only becomes a channel once someone takes these five steps. If one fails, an entire campaign can deliver no return. With us, all five are part of a 3-phase system: potential analysis, testing roadmap and scaling.
Contact creators, follow up and check that they are interested and not tied to a competitor.
Agree fee, format and usage rights, one creator at a time.
Brief every creator, ship products, review drafts and approve them before anything goes live.
Create a discount code and UTM link per creator so every order is matched to the right placement.
Which creator sold and which only brought views? That decides who gets the next budget.
This is what the list looks like in most first calls. It looks tidy and still leads to the wrong decisions: whoever looks good in the list gets rebooked. Whoever actually sold gets cut.
300+ stores successfully scaled
by turning creators into a reliable acquisition channel
Once creators need to become a predictable acquisition channel, competing for budget with Meta and Google, you need a system. That's when a conversation is worthwhile.
A few collaborations show how creators work and how your audience responds.
You test with little money first, before the channel gets budget.
One person on the team who looks after creators alongside day-to-day work.
Our 192-page playbook and the Creator Learning Suite are freely available.
New customers, CAC and revenue from real client campaigns. From a single placement to a channel delivering a fifth of all new customers.
„Working with Ad Specialist has been a great decision for us. Few agencies combine such deep expertise with an ego-free approach to adapting strategies to the client. They are flexible, and their goal is always the greatest possible growth.“
Fabienne FreundMarketing Manager DACH, Upway
Upway liegt vorn.
Yes, and your past campaigns will be valuable. During onboarding, we review the creators, platforms and verticals you've already tested. Those findings feed directly into the potential analysis.
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.
We need your target KPIs, store and tracking access, products for creators and a dedicated approval contact. We handle scouting, negotiation, briefing, booking and reporting.
We stop there. You receive the findings — response rates, verticals and audiences — and an honest recommendation, even if it is not to build the channel yet. No retainer, no commitment.
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.
