URLgenius is a cloud-based platform that allows marketers to create links that intelligently open specific screens within mobile apps.

By eliminating the friction of web logins and misrouted app openings, URLgenius enhances user experience and preserves valuable metrics for brands and creators.

The company serves tens of thousands of marketers globally and, in Q4 of 2023, helped drive over $1.3B in commerce revenue. Recently, it has focused on the diverse needs of the dynamic creator community and enabled those who often lack the technical teams to fully capitalize on their social followings. 

One of the company’s key figures is Chief Marketing Officer Scott Allan, who boasts a background spanning enterprise technology marketing at IBM and EMC to marketing services at Rakuten.

In Scott’s words, his career has come full circle with his current position, which combines working with influencers with elements of enterprise-grade software.

“We’re talking about making the ecosystem more efficient and finding ways to make influencers more productive,” he says.

As the holiday shopping season approaches and budget-conscious consumers turn to trusted influencers for guidance, smooth app-to-app transitions become increasingly important. 

Therefore, URLgenius partnered with impact.com to conduct the “Commerce Creator Lightning Survey,” exploring brand-creator dynamics ahead of the holiday season. 

“Consumers in this challenging economy are ever more deal-conscious,” Scott explains. “At the same time, you have this incredible growth of influencers, and consumers are turning to influencers for advice on valuable products.”

The survey aims to identify alignments and disconnects between brands and influencers, guiding closer collaboration.

Scott gives his professional take on optimizing partnerships, refining compensation models, and leveraging the power of commerce creators to drive holiday sales.

Brand-Creator Partnerships in a Budget-Conscious Market

As consumers increasingly seek value amid economic challenges, brands are turning to creators to reach budget-conscious audiences. 

“Consumers live in the apps that they like,” Scott explains. “Influencers can play a role of surfacing products and value to consumers in ways that are different without influencers.”

With an overwhelming volume of products and deals, especially during the holiday season, consumers rely on trusted influencers for guidance. 

“When you find influencers you trust, they become your advisor in finding the right products across all categories,” Scott points out.

However, a divide exists between creators seeking creative freedom and brands wanting tighter control. To bridge this gap, Scott suggests creating an “authenticity framework” that allows influencers to maintain their style while aligning with brand attributes.

The survey reveals that over half of brands prioritize brand control, while about 35% of influencers desire complete creative freedom. 

Scott sees this as an opportunity for better collaboration, stating, “I think brands and influencers can look at this as a fun exercise to find some middle ground.”

Compensation Models and Performance Metrics

As the creator economy matures, compensation models are shifting to address brand and creator concerns.

“What we’re seeing is a gravitation toward an upfront fee plus a commission,” Scott explains. This model combines fixed payments with performance-based incentives, aligning with brands’ need for measurable results.

Scott predicts a segmentation of influencers based on their role in the marketing funnel. He also highlights the growing importance of “commerce influencers” who educate consumers about products and drive sales.

However, effective measurement remains a challenge, particularly in app-to-app consumer journeys. 

Scott notes that many influencers have hundreds of thousands of followers but don’t have websites.

This shift necessitates new technologies to accurately measure performance in app-based environments. Scott warns that friction in these journeys can lead to misinterpretation of campaign effectiveness.

The executive anticipates three key trends: “We’re going to see a bigger focus on compensation models that reward both fee and performance. We will see more mechanisms and tools to pay for that model. Third, we’re going to see more focus on the app-to-app consumer journey and app deep linking, linking from one app to another and being able to measure performance.”

Commerce Creators and Affiliate Marketing

Commerce creators play an increasingly vital role in driving holiday sales, which is why Scott highlights the need for brands to identify partners to help them scale influencer relationships, especially for global brands.

He sees affiliate marketing as a key driver in this shift. 

“The creator economy is in many ways breathing new life into that channel because that technology is perfectly suited to solve some of the problems we’re discussing,” he explains.

The focus has shifted from websites to app experiences, emphasizing seamless transitions between social media and e-commerce platforms. 

“It’s being able to go from the social media part of the ecosystem to the e-commerce part of the ecosystem smoothly in order to measure your results,” Scott notes.

The CMO predicts a surge in tools for both influencers and brands. 

“We’re going to see those evolve quite rapidly because the influencers if they’re taking on the role of sorting through all the deals and all the products, need tools to make them more productive,” he says.

Streamlining Collaborations for Effective Holiday Campaigns

As the holiday season approaches, brands must refine their strategies for working with creators to ensure successful campaigns. 

So, how should brands optimize these partnerships? According to Scott, step one is providing creators with comprehensive product information. 

“Creators are storytellers,” he explains. “The more details they have about a product—where it’s from, where it was manufactured, the history of the product, the ingredients—the more they can authentically tell that story about the product.”

Scott advises brands to initiate conversations early and clearly define campaign metrics to eliminate friction around compensation models. 

He stresses the importance of having the right technology to deliver on these metrics, stating, “If the technology does not match those metrics and enable you to deliver on those metrics, then you’re going to have that disconnect.”

Scott advocates creating a smooth consumer journey to achieve sales goals. 

“If you’re not creating a smooth consumer journey from Instagram to that product page in Amazon or sending them to the login or the wrong page in the Amazon app, that will dramatically suppress your conversion,” he warns.

Addressing potential friction points, such as QR codes that don’t open to the correct location or links that send users to login pages, is crucial to mitigate campaign success. “All of these different friction points can impact your campaign results,” Scott explains.

Key Insights for Brands to Optimize Creator Partnerships

Scott believes that clear communication and alignment are critical. 

“Make sure that you’re aligned in terms of the campaign goals,” he advises. “Also, consider what it means to be authentic to the influencer and what it means to be authentic to the brand.”

Scott encourages brands to analyze their influencer agreements and results to develop long-term strategies. 

“Influencers and creators want predictability in their income,” he notes. “They want some creative freedom in how they talk about products, and they want the support from brands to give them product details and marketing materials to help them tell their story.”

Scott’s final point focuses on optimizing the app-to-app consumer journey. 

“‘Is my app-to-app consumer journey optimized?’ That’s an important question for every CMO to ask themselves,” he asserts. “If you’re sending traffic to a web login or that QR code doesn’t open the right screen, you are simply wasting money.”