Brand Ambassadors, Influencers, Creators - What’s The Difference?

Although affiliate marketing has been around for decades, it truly began to take off within the last 10 years when the term “influencer” started to gain traction.

This was around the time when everyone was taking photos of their food and YOU were probably wondering “what the heck are they doing”.  Now foodie photos are the norm right aside selfies!

The same photo-taking people have since realized their social media following size is equal to monetary value and have decided to capitalize on this opportunity by asking brands to market to them in exchange for compensation.

The Creator Economy was born! But what is a creator? Are they the same as an influencer?

Sure it may sound a bit confusing, but it’s a lot easier to understand than you think.

_{But, what does it all mean?}

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Here is my quick breakdown of each title you will generally hear about when chatting about affiliate marketing.

Affiliates: Individuals or organizations who sell products on behalf of another company in exchange for a fixed fee or a commission on sales. The term “affiliate” is a general term that includes brand ambassadors, creators and influencers - essentially anyone selling for you on a third-party basis typically by posting social media content.

Brand Ambassadors: These fall in the bucket of being an affiliate; however, they are more of your passionate affiliates because they are familiar with your products and already love your brand. They are your best resellers and the type of affiliates you want to recruit and nurture. At the end of the day, you want Brand Ambassadors on your team over all other types of affiliates. We highly recommend our merchants to recruit their customers to become a part of their Brand Ambassador Program.

Career Affiliates: These are affiliates who move between different affiliate programs, usually chasing the best compensation opportunities. They are typically short-term sellers who are not necessarily passionate about your product and are primarily in it for the income.

Creators: When you hear the term “creators”, they are generally referring to social media content creators. Influencers fall into this bucket as they create social media content for your brand, then market it in exchange for a fee.

Influencers: Influencers are affiliates with large followings ranging from 10K all the way to infinite. Influencers generally charge fixed rates for their posts and their rates can get expensive fast as there are different tiers of influencers. Around $250 per post for lower tier influencers and around $5,000 per post for mid-tier influencers. Learn more about Influencer Costs here.

Now that you are one step closer to understanding what types of affiliates there are, you can create different affiliate programs.

Generally, bigger brands have two affiliate programs - (1) A Brand Ambassador Program, typically converting your customers and offering them a lower commission rate and (2) an Influencer Program, typically with higher commissions and fixed fees involved. 

Psst! With Jump - you can do all the above.

_{Looking for an Affiliate Platform to Help Grow Your Brand?}

Jump is an all-in-one affiliate platform that can be used to recruit, manage, and pay your affiliates. Plus we are the only affiliate platform with scaleable affiliate storefronts!

You heard right! Your brand ambassadors can now have their own personalized storefront that lives natively on your website where they can suggest specific products, share UCG, share promo codes and more. Book a time below for a brief demo or click here to try it on Shopify Apps - for FREE.