Tool Shortlist
Here’s the list of the best influencer marketing systems that I’ll cover in this article.
- Grin - Best web extension tool
- #paid - Best for automating negotiating & contracting
- Klear - Best for large enterprises
- Upfluence - Best for leveraging user generated content
- Refersion - Best choice for SMBs
- IZEA - Best for outsourcing influencer management
- CreatorIQ - Best for competitor benchmarking
- NeoReach - Best for data-driven companies
- Captiv8 - Best for diversity & inclusion
- Brandbassador - Best for gamified engagement
Working with influencers isn’t always easy. A typical campaign involves multiple people, each with different platforms, audiences, and styles. You have to find suitable partners, create deals, and then manage them throughout the campaign. And the experience becomes even tougher if you manage multiple campaigns at once.
Influencer marketing software can help. They streamline the entire process, from searching for influencers to making payments. This article will look at what I think are the best influencer marketing software platforms currently available.
What is Influencer Marketing Software?
Influencer marketing software helps brands connect with influencers and then manage the campaigns. Features typically include a searchable database of creators, communication tools, and campaign management. The software may also have tools to help with other parts of your digital marketing campaign, such as affiliate marketing and paid ads.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Influencer Marketing Software Solutions
Here’s a brief description of each influencer marketing platform to showcase each tool’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
1. Grin - Best web extension tool
Grin is an all-in-one creator management platform. It has features that help you run your entire influencer marketing program, from finding talent to reporting and analysis. Grin has a simple web extension tool that lets you collect potential partner profiles as you scroll through social sites in real-time.
Why I Picked Grin: Grin has a huge list of over 32,000,000 creators you can search through to find potential influencers. Each profile contains information such as the social networks the creator is active on and how many followers they have. You can also bring over your existing list of partners if you have one. Once you have found your content creators, the app simplifies the communication process. You can reach out to your partners from within the app and provide everything they need to create great content.
Grin Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include robust reporting and analysis that you can use to track campaigns in real-time. Use this to see metrics like revenue, conversions, ROI, and engagement rate. Another cool feature is the live URL. This is a proposal page you can create and send to influencers. It helps simplify campaign management by including all the information influencers need, as well as some self-service style features. For example, they can use this page to request products or view their contract terms and conditions.
Integrations include a ton of relevant tools, including social channels and ecommerce providers like Shopify and WooCommerce.
PROS
- Browser extension for collecting social handles
- Access to 32,000,000+ creators
- Live proposal page with shareable URL
CONS
- Pricing prohibitive for small biz
- Learning curve
2. #paid - Best for automating negotiating & contracting
#Paid is a platform with specific features for matching with top creators and then turning influencer content into assets to use for paid ads. It stands out due to the unique way it connects creators and brands. Rather than using an influencer search engine, the tool automatically recommends creators who are a top match for your brand.
Why I Picked #Paid: The creators chosen through #Paid are all pre-qualified and have audiences that match your target market. They will even pitch ideas so your marketing team will get an idea of the type of content they will create for your campaign. When you find someone to work with, there are plenty of tools to streamline communication and help with content management. You can share feedback with creators within the app to ensure it meets your needs exactly.
#Paid Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include its ad whitelisting features. If you like a particular piece of content, you can use it to build ad sets for Facebook or Instagram. You can then see key campaign metrics such as the number of people you reach and the Return on Ad Spend. They also have tons of workflow automations, meaning all negotiating, contracting, payments, rights, and legal considerations can be taken care of without human intervention.
Integrations include Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok.
PROS
- Automatically recommends relevant creators
- Ad whitelisting turns content directly into ads
- Ability to automate negotiating & contracting
CONS
- Few integrations available
- Not approrpaite for small businesses
3. Klear - Best for large enterprises
Klear is an influencer marketing platform with all the features you need to manage campaigns. They are geared towards larger enterprises with big marketing budgets and offer access to over 30 million influencers and creators across a variety of social platforms.
Why I Picked Klear: The influencer discovery tool lets you search through profiles to find the most relevant creators for your campaign. You can narrow down the list based on filters such as location, category, and level of influence. Once you have a shortlist, it’s easy to see each person’s statistics, such as follower count, the platforms they are active on, and the engagement each post receives. Klear also has plenty of features for managing influencer relationships, such as a CRM and communication platform. This makes it easy to share the information influencers need to run successful campaigns, such as briefs, content approval, and payments.
Klear Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include a brand safety tool that highlights potential issues such as fake followers or frequent explicit language use. I also like that you can see an influencer’s previous brand affinities from within the search platform. This provides crucial insight into your competitor’s marketing strategies.
Integrations include Shopify, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Slack.
PROS
- Offers some free tools
- All-in-one influencer marketing platform
- Access to 30 million+ influencers
CONS
- Not approriate for small biz
- Learning curve for advanced features
4. Upfluence - Best for leveraging user generated content
Upfluence is influencer marketing software with all the features you need to manage campaigns, from finding talent to analyzing results. It has powerful search features with in-depth details about each person’s reach, audience, and the platforms they operate on.
Why I Picked Upfluence: Upfluence allows you to search and identify relevant influencers based on specific criteria such as industry, audience demographics, location, and social media reach. Brands can communicate their goals, provide guidelines, and share campaign details. Influencers can then create and share content in line with the brand's requirements. Upfluence offers tools for curating and organizing user-generated content. Brands can browse through the content created by influencers and select the most impactful pieces to feature on their own platforms, such as websites, social media channels, or marketing campaigns. This helps you tap into content that already exists and use it for your benefit.
Upfluence Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include built-in payment systems, which are useful if you work with a large number of influencers across different regions. The tool handles payments to people in over 200 countries. It also has an algorithm that analyzes each creator to advise you on how much to pay for a campaign. Social listening is another feature I like. It tracks all mentions of your brand and your competitors across different channels.
Integrations include plenty of CMS, affiliate, analytics, and communication tools, like Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Klaviyo, Magento, Hootsuite, Outlook, Gmail, PayPal, Refersion, and hundreds of others if you connect them through Zapier (may incur additional costs).
PROS
- Leverage user-generated content
- Pay creators in over 200 countries
- Social listening for reputation management
CONS
- Integrations may cost extra through Zapier
- May have to add influencers manually
5. Refersion - Best choice for SMBs
Refersion is a platform that helps you connect with influencers to run affiliate marketing campaigns. It has a marketplace that makes it easy to connect with affiliates, or you can bring your own contacts into the platform. It has fair and transparent pricing that is affordable even for smaller brands or startups.
Why I Picked Refersion: Creating an affiliate campaign is easy. You just have to connect your ecommerce store provider and then create commission offers. It’s possible to create tiers so you can offer different percentages to specific groups of referrers. You can also create coupon codes that turn customers into affiliates by paying out if a friend they refer buys. Refersion makes it easy to pay your affiliates. You can create custom commission schedules and then automate payment via common methods like PayPal or bank transfer. The platform will also take care of any taxes and manage forms like W-9 or 1099s.
Refersion Standout Features & Integrations
Key features a range of advanced attribution models that allow businesses to accurately attribute conversions to the appropriate affiliates. While many affiliate marketing platforms use a last-click attribution model by default, Refersion goes beyond this and provides options like first-click, multi-touch, and custom attribution models. They also have a unique focus on affiliate programs, letting you quickly and easily create affiliate links to products/services you want to highlight and offer commission rates for those who sign on.
Integrations include Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, PayPal, Trolley, and Amazon, as well as access to developer APIs for more DIY options.
PROS
- Price inclusivity for SMBs
- Advanced attribution models for reporting
- Build and manage affiliate programs
CONS
- UX could use updating
- Unlimited order conversions for highest plan only
6. IZEA - Best for outsourcing influencer management
Izea is a selection of influencer marketing tools that you can purchase separately. It’s a good option if you have specific influencer marketing needs. It has a huge database of influencer profiles with in-depth information about each person. Some influencers even have pre-made offers that you can choose from to get started quickly.
Why I Picked Izea: Izea is a leading influencer marketing platform that excels in streamlining and outsourcing influencer management. By leveraging Izea's platform, businesses can offload the time-consuming and complex tasks associated with influencer management to a dedicated team of experts. Izea's professional team handles influencer recruitment, communication, contract negotiation, campaign coordination, and performance tracking on behalf of brands. This outsourcing approach allows businesses to focus on their core activities while benefiting from Izea's extensive network of influencers and expertise, resulting in efficient and effective influencer marketing campaigns.
Izea Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include BrandGraph, a tool which helps you measure campaign performance based on factors like engagement, mentions, and hashtags. You can also view general trends which is a good way to see information about your industry and benchmark your own campaigns.
Integrations are not listed on their site.
PROS
- Free and cheap tools available
- Outsource influencer management to their team
- Influencers can find and pitch to your brand
CONS
- Not as user friendly as other software
- May need to add influencers into the system manually
7. CreatorIQ - Best for competitor benchmarking
CreatorIQ is influencer marketing software used by huge retailers like H&M, Sephora, and Unilever. The software platform has plenty of the features that brands this size need when building out campaigns.
Why I Picked CreatorIQ: CreatorIQ’s CRM features let you build a customized influencer network you use to manage all creators in a single place. It’s possible to store and highlight relevant campaign data while keeping contracts, payments, and historical data together. You can even create an onboarding experience so creators can fill in their own data so you don’t have to. They offer a variety of social insights, including data around what your competitors are doing so that you can estimate appropriate benchmarks. This can be a great tool for beginners looking for help orienting their goals and KPIs.
CreatorIQ Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include the ability to streamline repetitive tasks. For example, you can create an onboarding process with all the information creators need to get started. You can then reuse this whenever you sign a new creator. Other notable features include the ability to automate payments to influencers and the ability to create combined organic and paid strategies.
Integrations include tools such as Shopify, Google Analytics, Salesforce, and Tableau. You can access the CreatorIQ API if you need to create custom connections.
PROS
- Useful data for competitor benchmarking
- Modern and intuitive platform interface
- Excellent customer service and ongoing support
CONS
- Data management is a bit disorganized
- Some learning curve
8. NeoReach - Best for data-driven companies
NeoReach is an influencer marketing tool that stands out due to its full-service offering. It’s part software, and part influencer marketing agency. If you choose the managed services plan, the NeoReach team will run your entire influencer marketing strategy for you, from sourcing influencers to reporting. It’s a unique solution if you want to completely hand off campaign management to someone else.
Why I Picked NeoReach: NeoReach is a powerful influencer marketing platform that stands out due to its extensive range of native integrations. With a diverse array of integrations available, NeoReach seamlessly connects with various social media platforms, analytics tools, and content management systems. They primarily leverage integrations to make sure you have all the information you need to make data-driven campaign decisions. Their API allows you to mix and match the important datasets from their database to create the exact parameters that you're looking for, be it the fastest growing channel in a niche hobby community or spotting high profile accounts according to native language preferences.
NeoReach Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include AI-powered technology analyzes vast amounts of data to identify influencers who are the best fit for a brand's campaign objectives, target audience, and brand values. By using machine learning algorithms, NeoReach can efficiently identify influencers who have the highest potential to drive engagement. NeoReach also offers advanced features such as automated outreach, content approvals, and centralized communication channels.
Integrations include YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Twitch, TikTok. as well as 400+ network endpoints that can pull and parse advanced data sets into whatever insights you are looking for.
PROS
- Focus on social data collection and sorting
- Great for agencies who work with many brands
- Easy to learn and use, good UI
CONS
- Generally geared towards bigger brands
- May have to upload micro influencers yourself
9. Captiv8 - Best for diversity & inclusion
Captiv8 is a tool with plenty of features to help you discover creators, run campaigns, and measure results. It has a huge influencer marketplace with over 30 million people. While this could be overwhelming, it also has AI-powered discovery features and over 500 filters you can use to narrow this list down to the top influencers.
Why I Picked Captiv8: Captiv8 is a standout platform for influencer marketing, particularly due to its commitment to diversity and inclusion. Captiv8 recognizes the importance of representing diverse perspectives and ensuring fair and inclusive influencer campaigns. The platform offers a comprehensive database of diverse influencers across various demographics, including race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Captiv8's emphasis on diversity and inclusion enables brands to reach and engage with audiences from different backgrounds, fostering authenticity and cultural relevance in their influencer marketing initiatives.
Captiv8 Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include advanced data analytics. For example, you can analyze your competitors’ social activity to see what works for these brands. And you can launch paid advertising campaigns from within Captiv8 to boost campaign impact. Additionally, Captiv8's content search engine is a powerful tool that enables brands to discover user-generated content across various social media platforms. This feature allows brands to identify trending topics, monitor brand mentions, and curate user-generated content for amplification.
Integrations include TikTok, Facebook, instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Shopify, Tableau, and Google Analytics.
PROS
- Focus on diveristy & inclusion in campaigns
- Competitor analytics tools
- Intuitive, easy-to-use platform
CONS
- Complex, multi-step payment processing
- Can't add custom KPIs to the talent list dashboard
10. Brandbassador - Best for gamified engagement
Brandbassador is an influencer management platform. It helps brands manage ambassadors and create effective influencer programs. They offer a unique approach to working with creators by letting inlfuencers join pre-set projects and tasks and then earn rewards by participating in your marketing program.
Why I Picked Brandbassador: The Brandbassador influencer app is an interesting take on relationship management. It gamifies the content promotion process by letting you create tasks with specific rewards such as gift cards, cash, or free products. You can send these tasks to specific groups of ambassadors—which you can define based on factors like their region or their tier. The chosen influencers then choose which tasks they want to complete. As they complete tasks, the platform gathers performance statistics and displays KPIs in your dashboard.
Brandbassador Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include built-in product seeding tools that let you target key influencers and automate the process of getting your products into their hands. You also have the capability to mass message all your selected inlfuencers together or segment them into groups and control communications that way.
Integrations include BigCommerce, Shopify, and Magento. If your platform isn’t included on the list of existing integrations, the product’s development team can help you with custom integration.
PROS
- Fully automated affiliate marketing
- Gamified approach to word-of-mouth marketing
- Design loyalty programs for influencers & customers
CONS
- Need more customizable dashboards
- Influencers report occassional content upload glitch
Other Options
Here’s a few more tools that didn’t make the top list.
- AspireIQ - Connect with a network of over 6 million influencers
- Influence.co - Create briefs and let influencers come to you
- Mavrck - Influencer marketing for enterprise customers
- Influsoft - Generate in-depth insight into influencer marketing campaigns
How I Selected the Best Influencer Marketing Software
Core Functionality
These are the core functions that all influencer marketing software must cover to be useful, no matter their unique slant in the influencer marketing space.
- Effective influencer marketing software should provide robust tools for discovering and identifying suitable influencers for a given campaign. This includes search filters based on factors such as audience demographics, engagement metrics, niche relevance, and location.
- Influencer marketing software needs to have features that streamline the campaign management process. This includes functionalities such as collaboration tools, campaign planning and organization, content creation and approval workflows, communication channels with influencers, and performance tracking.
Key Features
The key features of the tools on this list are influencer directories and management. But they also offer plenty of extras, too. Here are the main features to look out for.
- Influencer directory: An influencer directory is a key part of all these platforms. It allows companies to find creators and also provides important details about each one, such as their reach and the platforms they operate on.
- Filters and recommendations: Many of the databases have millions of influencers. It’s essential that your platform has ways to find the best-suited people. Filters are a common feature, and some tools even have AI recommendations.
- Influencer management: Some of the platforms have influencer management features that allow you to manage your campaigns and communicate with your brand’s influencers.
- Influencer import: If you already partner with influencers, you need a way to bring these relationships into your new platform. The best solutions make this easy to do.
- Payment: Making payments to multiple influencers is a complex process, especially if they are spread across the globe. Some of the tools on this list handle payments for you.
- Affiliate management: If you want to run affiliate campaigns, your influencer marketing software should manage commissions and referrals. Some of the tools on this list have these features.
- Paid ad integration: Some tools integrate with paid ad platforms so you can quickly spot high-performing content and use it in your ads. It’s an easy way to manage and optimize paid digital marketing campaigns.
Usability
Usability is crucial when choosing influencer marketing software as it directly impacts the user experience and the efficiency of managing influencer campaigns. A software platform with good usability should have an intuitive and user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate and use. Important features for good usability include a streamlined influencer search and discovery function with robust filters and search options, efficient campaign management tools such as content creation and approval workflows, clear communication channels with influencers, and comprehensive performance tracking and analytics.
Software Integrations
Integration capabilities enable marketers to streamline their workflow and avoid duplicate data entry. For example, integrations with social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok enable direct access to influencers' profiles and performance data. Integration with customer relationship management (CRM) systems allows for better influencer relationship management and tracking. Integration with analytics tools like Google Analytics or marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot can provide comprehensive insights and enable data-driven decision-making.
Customizability
Different businesses have unique requirements and preferences, and customizable software ensures that marketers can adapt the platform to align with their strategies. Customizability may include the ability to create personalized dashboards and reports, customize campaign templates, incorporate branding elements, set up specific campaign objectives and KPIs, and adjust workflows to match internal processes. Furthermore, the ability to customize influencer outreach and communication templates, as well as integration with existing CRM or marketing automation systems, enables businesses to maintain a consistent brand voice and streamline their influencer relationship management.
People Also Ask
Here are a few Q&As I thought might be useful in the realm of influencer marketing software.
What are the benefits of influencer marketing software?
What influencer marketing software is best for small teams?
How much does influencer marketing software cost?
Other Advocacy Software Reviews
Below, you’ll find other advocacy software reviews that discuss and evaluates other tools that empower others to promote your organization.
- Customer Advocacy Software
- Affiliate Marketing Software
- Social Listening Tools
- Employee Advocacy Software
The Takeaway
Influencer marketing can be a great way to build brand awareness. A recent survey found that 80% of marketers find it to be effective, while 58% say it is the most effective form of marketing. This list will help you find what infuencer marketing software will work best for your campaign ideas and brand needs. Use these tools to find your people and, through them, find new audiences.