How much are you willing to pay for influencer promotion of your product?
At a time when everyone allows themselves to build any solution using AI, it is difficult to differentiate themselves, and makers are betting on more aggressive distribution.
Some differentiate themselves with good tech support, some build their personal brand as a founder, and some pay influencers.
I recently came across a graphic showing how much influencers should earn based on their followers (see pic).
How much are you willing to pay for paid collaboration as a product owner?
What does such a form of collaboration look like?
(one-time/long-term; only sponsored post/post + commission rate from an affiliate/just commission rate; social networks where you used influencers + post format)The last – MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: What results did it bring you, and what were the influencers like? (Theri follower count)
Replies
Vomyra AI – Voice AI Agent
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@sumitgoel For brand awareness, yes.
For purchasing products: naaaah :D
FastMoss
@sumitgoel @busmark_w_nika TBH UGC creators on TikTok, especially for beauty and skincare products, are great for driving sales. However, most YouTube influencers tend to be overpriced.
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@sumitgoel @qiwap I know you are talking about. One YouTube influencer asked for $10k :D Didn't know that TT UGC is so sales-driving. Do you have any examples of videos that worked well for you? (link is welcome) :)
FastMoss
@sumitgoel @busmark_w_nika I actually have a list to show how many sale each TikTok shoppable video made. Check out this link and u will know what I'm saying https://www.fastmoss.com/e-commerce/hotvideo?region=US
Vomyra AI – Voice AI Agent
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@sumitgoel How much would you pay then? If anything.
@sumitgoel my experience taught me, this is a "depends" question, depends on if your product value and proposition aligned with influencers viewers base. Don't expect too much real "growth", about 20% ish would be a fair share.
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@sumitgoel @mellodiii_59 Mellodii, what results have you had with influencers?
@sumitgoel @busmark_w_nika long-tail tracking then we had some returns, signups came in a few at the very end time. But, impressions and CTR would tell you immediately if you chose the right ones.
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@sumitgoel @mellodiii_59 Wait! Did you promote those influencers' posts? (I mean supported with paid ads).
Vomyra AI – Voice AI Agent
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@sumitgoel what / who should that influencer be?
@sumitgoel
If you need users - Yes
If you need customers - Maybe
If you need paying clients on a high ticket MRR - No.
I've worked in one of the top influencer marketing agencies for a year and have seen people draining their money. You need to find good influencers with a genuine following that respects their endorsements - It works like a charm, just onboarded 700 users from a single reel last week (that didn't even go viral yet)
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@sumitgoel @sanskarix My opinion is that agencies/brands should not rely on influencers when they want to sell (priority). Tho, for brand awareness it is good.
We don't have the budget for this, haha, it's a joke
For startup teams, we often choose medium to small influencers (5k-20k) ourselves, based on their video views and engagement data, generally we offer $100-500
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@andrew_jameson111 That's pretty cool. I have seen a quite big AI company offering $25/post. :D
@andrew_jameson111 Interesting approached, feels like you're much more likely to get aligned, high value customers/users. But what is the investment cost on your end? Especially in terms of time.
Thanks! i will use these numbers as a ballpark. May i know how did you come up with. these numbers?
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@ai_bhai I have seen them in one LinkedIn profile.
We are trying to grow PingPolls through affiliate marketing, not one-off influencer shoutouts. Still figuring out the right partners, but the idea is to let creators earn long term by sharing polls that their audience actually wants to fill in. Engagement feels better than paying for static posts, but finding the right affiliates is the hard part.
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@azvyae If you wanna go with affiliate, you need to first create a brand that people naturally want. Because from my own experience, when you are less known and wanna promote something via influencers, they are more likely to ask for money beforehand. But when you are a prominent product, people will be sharing it with prodness.
@busmark_w_nika That's a good point. I guess using affiliate marketing will be difficult for a new small product. It does feel like you need to already be popular to get the promotion to become popular, though.
In your experience, what are the most effective ways for a lesser-known product to build that initial momentum?
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@azvyae I would say ask relevant people to use it (who have an impact on the community) and give them products for free, also actively communicate on social media and ads. It is not only one thing.
Vagus+
Didn't know about this influencer pricing but it seems fine to me! 💯
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@alexnnd It is just one POV. I bet there are more pricing lists and methods.
It would be nice to compare this to other kinds of product promotion. Best choice totally depends on the goal and who you're talking to, but it's useful to have some other ideas handy
Especially now that the 'Coming Soon' page is no longer available 🫤
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@nelsonnn000 What kind of product promotion do you refer to?
For me, I’d start small, maybe a few hundred dollars, just to test if it works for my product.
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@mae_twyman At least, how many followers that influencer should have worth costing a hundred dollars?
I think paying too much upfront is risky. I’d prefer performance based deals, like commission per sale.
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@jusiy_waller What if the product is not the best fit for the influencer's audience? There will not be a sale, but on the other hand, he/she does a free promo.
It's very difficult to find the right influencer now a days. Most of them do engagement farming and what we see may not be organic.
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@robin_hablani1 How do you fact-check whether the engagement is real and not bots? 💀
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By the way, I had some studies in one of my articles, but I would love to hear something more raw in practice.
Still trying to figure out how to measure the effectiveness of influencer marketing. Wonder why we are not using CPM/CPC for all channels?
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@sanoojs This is very abstract. I think that Influencer marketing is about creating some brand awareness/to impressing someone. It is like having a product on TV. You cannot measure directly whether people purchased it because of that commercial on TV, but you can make sure they are aware of your brand.
Mnemosphere AI
Great thread!
The founder of Emergent (they got $10MARR within 2 months of launch) recently shared how they got there. They basically went big with influencer marketing on X and TikTok
https://youtu.be/dbINkJFfKsk?si=-3beUXcOaHdt-Um5
He describes their playbook from 22:30
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@rajesh_cherukuri TY for sharing with us :)
I usually prefer partnership-style collaborations - working with creators as affiliate partners rather than one-time paid posts. This way, both sides benefit from real results, often leading to long-term relationships and good earnings for everyone.
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@tetianavoronina how do you approach them? Because many ask for money.
@busmark_w_nika I just make them counter offers when they reach out.
I am planning to post information about our affiliate partnership program on our website and spread it across all platforms.
By the way, Nika, would you be interested in becoming our ambassador?
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@tetianavoronina For which tool/Product? :)
@busmark_w_nika We're launching soon SaaS Fundraising Launchpad PRO 🚀 - the extended PRO version of our MVP, SaaS Launchpad by Voronina & Partners, which we previously launched on Product Hunt.
The PRO version is a complete fundraising preparation system for Pre-Seed & Seed SaaS Founders. It includes a GAAP-compliant SaaS financial model (verified by ex-KPMG, certified by Eloquens), 100+ investor-proven pitch deck slides, GTM & business planning templates, a Notion-based VDR + CRM, and even ready-to-use investor outreach, follow-up, and update emails.
In short, it’s everything a SaaS founder needs to look investor-ready from day one.
PS. By the way, following up on your question about promoting upcoming launches without Coming Soon Product Hunt feature, I found a promising solution: PeerPush.
In a world where AI makes building easier than ever, distribution is the real moat. I’ve seen makers win through tech support, personal branding, and yes strategic influencer collabs. Personally, I’ve tested both one-off posts and long-term affiliate setups across Instagram and YouTube. The sweet spot? Micro-influencers (5k–50k followers) with high engagement and niche alignment. Results vary, but when the fit is right, ROI beats paid ads every time. Curious to hear what others have paid and what actually moved the needle
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@vivek_sharma_25 If you have tips on a specific influencer, feel free to share his/her profile :D
Finden
This is useful to use as a ballpark, we have started reaching out to influencers and UGC creators. I will be sure to share the results for anyone wondering!
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@randeep_wilkhu Will you be sharing the results anywhere? 👀
On the basis of follower numbers - NO!
On the basis of what opportunities and value they might bring in for me, I would be happy to pay and collaborate with them. In fact, for a service project, we are getting insanely good results by collaborating with the right influencers.
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@bhargav5394 Who (which influencers) have brought you great results? Can you name?
The last question:
Follow count vs. Engagement? :D :)
@busmark_w_nika sorry, cannot reveal the names of the influencers, but yes - one is micro and two of them are in the ballpark range of 100k followers each.
If you are promoting a brand, till one reaches 2500 followers, I would choose keeping an eye on the number of follower's metrics while running some paid ads.
Once the numbers are there, focus on engagement and hook rate for each content being deployed under brand's name and influencer collaboration!
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@bhargav5394 Wait – do you mean that a company brand reaches 2,5k followers or that influencer?
The brand,@busmark_w_nika ! Influencers without engagement/reach would not create a lasting impact. Sad, but true.
I’ve noticed long-term collabs with micro-influencers work best - usually a mix of posts + affiliate commission so it feels authentic. One-offs rarely help much
This season we’re actually testing something a bit different too: launching a new content marketing offer to help brands keep consistent without relying on influencers. Curious to see how both approaches play out
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@zhenia_norenko "launching a new content marketing offer to help brands keep consistent without relying on influencers." – can you please ellaborate how it works and what you expect from that?
Really insightful discussion here 👏.
From what I’ve seen, influencer marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all game, it’s more about alignment than follower count. Micro-influencers with strong niche credibility often outperform bigger names because their communities trust them.
I think the most powerful approach is treating it less like a transaction and more like a partnership: combine a small upfront payment (to value their time) with affiliate-style performance incentives. That way, the creator is invested in the product’s success too.
At the end of the day, ROI comes from relevance + authenticity, not just reach. If an influencer genuinely uses and believes in your product, their content feels organic. and that’s when you see conversions rather than just impressions.
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@beginners_blog I think that the combo (commission fee + small fee for promo) is still good. And when the collab is really successful, it is beneficial for both.
Made a quick Claude artifact based on this thread discussion to find the best prices https://claude.ai/public/artifac...
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@ngmi That's pretty cool – I think that Substack should be there as well (because it is not completely a newsletter, it is more like a blog). But it showed me I should ask $250 for the LI post :D Where is the pricing data from?
I have been trying to promote ImageSlim through my own social media accounts, but the cost of advertising is too high.
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@fangjunyu What is your follower count on socials + engagement?