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
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? 💀
As a product owner, I’m honestly not willing to pay much upfront for influencer collaborations — mainly because too many influencers have inflated or bot-driven follower counts, which makes the ROI questionable.
Form of collaboration: I’d lean more towards affiliate or commission-based models rather than large one-time fees. If there’s a flat fee, I’d keep it very limited and only with influencers who show real engagement.
Networks & format: Micro-influencers on LinkedIn/Instagram with niche communities, where the content is more authentic (short reels, case-style posts, or product demo integrations), tend to be more valuable than celebrity shoutouts.
Results: From what I’ve seen and heard in the ecosystem, larger follower counts don’t guarantee conversions. Often, a creator with 5K–10K highly engaged followers drives better outcomes than one with 500K+. That’s why I believe in using influencer intelligence tools (like KlugKlug) to verify authenticity before committing budgets.
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@atique_bandukwala1 Are there any influencers who brought significant purchases? I really do not like the scenario where big influencers promote every product. It feels so fake.
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@atique_bandukwala1 Is it KlugKlug trustworthy? I have never heard about them.
@busmark_w_nika yes they are 100% safe and trustworthy..the thing is i also hadn't heard about them but once i saw what they have built and how it works..it blew my mind..they have recently also raised an undisclosed big amount of funding (can't mention)....
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@atique_bandukwala1 Wow, you are so top secret person :D
Sparky
Thanks for sharing the numbers!
I feel like influencer ROI is getting lower and lower though. For me, as someone bootstrapping my own project, putting significant money into influencer marketing is really stressful. The ROI is dropping significantly - to maintain the same revenue or profit, I need to invest way more upfront now
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@liu_kexin IMHO – the best influencers are founders who have built their personal branding over the years. That's why built in public approach is so good for that.
I'm working with many youtubers these days and sponsoring them on behalf of dev tools companies. it starts from as low as $1k and ends with as high as $50K/ video. Insane money but a Insane distribution.
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@theankurtyagi It depends on the industry, I would say. I see tech as a space where there is a huge amount of money.
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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.
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
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?
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 I need to reconsider my pricing :D
@busmark_w_nika possibly, but it seems substack was not discussed a lot in this thread
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?
@busmark_w_nika I don't have many followers yet. I've been trying to promote AI-generated videos. Reddit is currently the best platform for promotion. I've had two posts get 15,000 views before, but unfortunately, my account got banned because I promoted so many posts. Other platforms are quite unpopular.
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@fangjunyu How many posts did you promote? :D