Influencer Marketing Platforms

How We Rank Influencer Marketing Platforms

We’re cautious about what products we include here and how we rank them. To help you understand how each of the platforms got its place in our table, we will explain our evaluation criteria thoroughly by listing all the factors that affect the final rankings.

Classification

While not affecting the evaluation process, categorization is crucial for understanding the platforms and their target audience.

Industry Focus

Most solutions are general, meaning they can connect you with a range of influencers. Still, some platforms specialize in specific areas. For example, one influencer software may focus on building a network of fashion Instagram stars. In contrast, another solution may work with travel bloggers only.

Deployment

Software, in general, can be cloud-hosted or on-premise. The first option is available on the web. You access it via an Internet browser by using your login details. The latter is hosted on your servers and doesn’t require a connection.

Here we must also mention influencer marketing agencies. These aren’t quite software solutions but instead function as a marketplace. They help brands and social media celebrities, similarly to influencer marketing platforms.

Supported Channels

Fashionistas, Instagrammers, Facebook personas, Vloggers, YouTubers, bloggers. All these individuals are relevant to your social influencer marketing. Still, not all platforms can help you connect with all types of social media celebrities. That’s when supported channels enter the picture. Here are the most popular social networks featured on promotion services:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter
• YouTube
• Pinterest
• Blogs
• Tumblr
• Snapchat

Types Of Collaboration

This is another crucial classification aspect of influencer marketing services. You can collaborate with social media personas in different ways, and what works for businesses that sell clothing doesn’t necessarily work for brands that offer beauty treatments.

So, before you decide to hire influencers through a platform, make sure it supports your preferred collaboration type. Here are the most common options:

• Creating Content
• Running Giveaways
• Promoting Services and Products
• Reviewing Services and Products
• Promoting Posts
• Brand Ambassador Programs

Key Capabilities of the Best Influencer Marketing Platforms

Let’s see what makes for the right solution for managing your social media celebrity marketing. Below, we will go over each must-have feature that earns the products in our table boosted rankings.

Campaign Management

Most businesses will launch various campaigns using the service. Being able to manage and track them via a single dashboard is critical. Notable aspects here include managing content and graphics. You should also be able to set deadlines, duration, hashtags, mentions, and any other essential details.

Track influencer lifecycles from discovery to outreach and activation. Check payment status, analyze results, and, if necessary, make changes. These are additional influencer tools that help in the management of influencer campaigns.

Another point of interest here is the option to have experts manage your campaigns for you. This is a useful tool for those without any experience in the field.

Influencer Discovery and Evaluation

Influencer marketing statistics reveal that 92% of businesses found collaborating with social media celebrities an effective communication channel. Still, to achieve good results, you need the right individuals. That’s why you want a platform with robust influencer discovery and evaluation capabilities.

A built-in system for finding suitable collaborators earns better rankings for the products listed here. Robust filtering is a must too. You want to quickly browse the influencer database and filter based on age, location, target audience, etc.

Here, we give extra credits to systems with fake follower analysis. When anyone can buy likes and followers, it’s crucial to find actual celebrities. Influencer analytics will provide details on organic reach, engagement, and other KPIs. This means ensuring that you’re not overpaying individuals with a fake audience. Useful tools here include audience health score, overlapping, twin discovery, and brand affinity.

We must mention the networks of the influencer marketplaces too. It’s crucial that the platform has a vast number of collaborators brands can contact. Leading services work with millions of social media celebrities. Also, some solutions focus on nano and micro personas, while others accept all kinds of influencers. A larger number of contacts earns better rankings.

Influencer CRM

Outreach, engagement, and communication are the cornerstones of influencer CRM. You want your influencer networks to be a trusted and reliable place for your collaborators. Otherwise, you won’t be able to build strong relationships and run multiple campaigns. Reputation is everything in this industry, and you should work on yours too.

Critical tools here include contact lists, data import/export, response tracking, and chat windows. These help you with influencer relationship management, which is crucial for getting the best campaign results.

ROI Tracking

Conversion attribution, reach, performance, number of likes and comments, number of mentions. Whatever your goal is, you must be able to track how your strategy is performing. 87% of businesses investing in influencer marketing spend $100k or less on campaigns. This is a considerable amount for SMBs. So, if you can't track ROI with your influencer marketing platform, you may end up wasting money.

Permissions and Data Control

These two are related to who can access the information in your account. Set roles for various people within your organization. Give or restrict access as needed. Build knowledge retention, protect your marketing strategies and exchange information with relevant workers.

Fraud Detection

There have been thousands of cases when collaborators commit fraud by soliciting false engagement. To prevent this from happening, the best influencer marketing platforms employ fraud detection practices, and some even boast their proprietary AI-based solutions. Fraud detections save you from paying for fake reach, so it’s a highly valued feature.

Payments

What is your preferred payment method? Does the platform support it? These two questions can save you a lot of headaches when it comes to payments. Other things not to overlook here include supported currencies, accepted countries, and compliance.

Reporting

Story measurement, live reports, reach metrics, auto-reminders, and multi-platform influencer marketing analytics are critical here. The top influencer marketing platforms help you track and measure your campaign success. Some may even provide tips on how to boost your performance for future campaigns. That’s why we always appreciate solutions with robust reporting features.

Accessibility

Services that are user-friendly and easily accessible always rank better. The platform should be easy-to-use, regardless of whether it serves professional marketers or rookies. Here, we prefer intuitive dashboards and simplicity.

Since the world is going mobile, mobile readiness is crucial as well. Users must be able to access the social media influencer platform on the move. It doesn’t matter if this is achieved via responsive design or native mobile apps.

Price and Free Trials

Instantly finding a list of suitable social media celebrities that target your audience comes at a price. Still, we stay away from overpriced solutions that will drain your entire budget. Instead, we focus on software that gives excellent value for the money. All of the options here are priced in line with the average brand influencer marketing standards.

Solutions that give clients a free trial and/or a money-back guarantee get better rankings too.

Reviews of Influencer Marketing Platforms

Upfluence

At a Glance

Agencies, B2C and B2B businesses, and individuals can boost their brand awareness with Upfluence. Over 700 companies, including Microsoft, Nestle, and Ralph Lauren, already use the platform to build their social media presence. Upfluence is packed with a plethora of critical features that guarantee unique and highly effective influencer campaigns.

Pros

• Payments
• 20+ filtering options
• Profiles and ratings
• Analytics
• Team collaboration

Cons

• No free trial
• No mobile apps

Features

This influencer platform prides itself on its smart marketing tools. With a user-friend UX, Upfluence guarantees ease of use and smooth user experience. Its robust functions are categorized into seven sections.

• Search – create and export lists, optimize discovery, AI-powered recommendations, database. 20+ search criteria
• Profiles – over 3mln influencers, price comparison, audience demographics, eight social networks, performance analysis, influencer rating
• Relationship management – collaborators roster, activity tracker, follow-ups, lists, communication
• Outreach – one-to-one emails, private conversations, bulk emailing, email scheduling, personalization, email templates
• Campaign management – multiple campaigns, accepted and rejected offer tracking, adjustments, budget management, social media influencer tools
• Team collaboration – briefing, discussions, payments, goals, feedback, one-click automation
• Analytics – click tracking, ROI tracking, individual tracking lists, influencer analytics, real-time stats, competitor tracking.

Pricing

Upfluence doesn’t offer a free trial of its platform and provides pricing upon request. Factors that affect the offer you’ll get are the number of user accounts and influencers emailed. Certain features like audience demographics data also boost the total price. Upfluence is a SaaS you can get on a subscription basis.

HYPR

At a Glance

Mommy bloggers, travelers, fashionistas, and fitness gurus are among the 12+ million celebrities within the HYPR influencer network. This valuable brand promotion tool is used by hundreds of Fortune 500 companies like Pepsi and Revlon. With its strong automation capabilities, HYPR streamlines your marketing campaigns, CRM, and payments.

Pros

• Comprehensive database
• 20+ filters
• Brand safety checks
• One-to-one communication
• Campaign workflows

Cons

• Occasional filtering glitches

Features

HYPR handles all critical areas of influencer management with a robust set of features. All its tools are classified into several categories, depending on what task they perform.

• Search and discover – includes a influencer search tool, multi-platform, 20+ filtering options, 30,000+ topics, daily updates, 12+ million profiles
• Evaluation – covers report pages, audience overlap detection, audience health score, safety checks, twin discovery, like-for-like discovery, fraud detection
• CRM and payments – Salesforce powered payments, one-to-one communication, mass outreach, response tracking, compliance

• Dashboard – campaign workflows, contract management, campaign management
• Reporting – live data, KPI tracking, automatic reminders, and updates, cross-platform analytics
• Data control – grant and restrict access, knowledge retention, knowledge sharing.

Pricing

Marketers can test this top influencer marketing software either by taking a product demo or subscribing to a free trial. Pricing is provided upon request and depends on your specific needs, number of accounts, and a few other factors.

HYPR is offered on a subscription basis only. So, this may not be the best option for those who want to run a one-time campaign via the platform.

AspireIQ

At a Glance

Enterprises, growing businesses, agencies, and creators will find a reliable companion in AspireIQ, which is another contender for the best influencer marketing platform title. The service is present in various industries such as beauty, fashion, health and wellness, and tech. With over 150,000 personas and plenty of features, AspireIQ has everything for marketers to run successful campaigns.

Pros

• Extensive database
• Machine-powered recommendations
• CRM and communications
• Automated performance tracking
• Discovery and search engine

Cons

• No free trial
• Filtering needs improvement

Features

AspireIQ impresses with its long list of capabilities. Clients get to browse an extensive collaborator database using lots of filtering options. Users can search based on hashtags, keywords, demographics, mentions, and more. All the influencer marketing data is within the platform, which enables machine-powered recommendations.

Like all the best influencer networks, AspireIQ lets brands build strong relationships with their creators. This includes single-click invites, CRM software, and seamless communications via chat, SMS, and mass messaging. The system lets clients automate workflows like content reviews, payments, reminders, and contracts. Automated results tracking is supported too.

AspireIQ enables users to manage all their campaigns through an intuitive dashboard. It also provides data-driven insights on performance and discovers the most robust ROI. All these valuable tools can be shared with your team. This influencer marketing software also enables easy content management and allows quick data exports.

Pricing

There is no free trial offered for interested AspireIQ consumers. There is, however, product demo on the menu.

Pricing is provided upon request. Still, there are three plans you can choose from – Basic Pro, and Enterprise. The respective number of active campaigns and users they support is one, four, and 10. All plans come with the essentials. Only the Pro and Enterprise influencer marketing programs include advanced functions like ROI tracking and mass invites.

Traackr

At a Glance

Used by brands, agencies, and benchmarking, Traackr is a reliable platform for boosting your social network game. Traackr serves multiple purposes, including discovery, vetting, and managing influencers. With more than six million celebrities with different backgrounds, the solution works for businesses in any industry.

Pros

• Brand safeguards
• Streamlined campaign management
• CRM
• Competitive insights
• Discovery and evaluation

Cons

• No payment tracking
• No free trial

Features

Traackr is among the top influencer networks thanks to its extensive database and many supported platforms. The only aspect where the system underperforms is payments. Namely, Traackr doesn’t let you pay directly from the service and doesn’t support payment tracking.

Other than that, this is a top-class solution for discovering reliable collaborators. Users get to browse through a global database and use lots of filtering options. Some of these include audience criteria and attributes. The service also provides vetting insights, audience quality, performance analysis, and value alignment. In addition to the robust influencer identification tools, the platform offers CRM functionalities.

Running campaigns is smooth and straightforward with Traackr. Brands can streamline workflows and automate processes. Essential brand safeguards are part of the service too. Traackr doesn’t disappoint with its reporting capabilities either, with clients getting valuable insights and even competitor benchmarking reports.

Pricing

Anyone interested in testing the Traackr software can request a free demo by contacting the vendor. Pricing is provided upon request and after filling out a simple form.

Affable

At a Glance

Those looking for the best influencer programs for reaching Instagram personas should definitely check out Affable. This tool, with its extensive network, helps businesses of any size and industry to improve their social media presence. Affable comes with tons of features and easy setup.

Pros

• Influencer discovery
• Audience reach analysis
• Follower growth trajectory
• Bulk emailing
• Campaign tracking

Cons

• Focused on Instagram
• No payments

Features

There are two significant drawbacks of using Affable. The first is the platform’s focus on Instagram, while the second is the lack of processing payments. That said, this is a top-class influencer search tool that uses AI-powered analysis and insights.

Affable comes with advanced filtering capabilities. Users can find suitable collaborators based on brand affiliation, gender, niche, and location. Audience reach and health analysis are provided with the platform too. Marketers can even track past brand partnerships and follower growth trajectory.

The platform’s fake follower analysis saves clients money, while in-depth insights help them create smart marketing strategies. Affable comes equipped with CRM, meaning brands can build and nurture relationships with their creators.

Other classic features of influencer marketing platforms here include campaign management and analytics. These help users avoid under-performing influencers and stick to active celebrities. The system further provides brands with competitor analysis and market trends.

Pricing

Customers can test Affable by requesting a free trial. Afterward, they can keep using the Personal plan for $90. It comes with limited features and 30 credits. One credit can be used for getting a single influencer rating or 40 search results.

Those in need of advanced influencer marketing tools should go either for the Pro or Enterprise plans whose pricing is provided upon request. These come with unlimited discoveries, hundreds of analytics, reports, and CRM.

Adinject

At a Glance

Marketers, agencies, and affiliates are Adinject’s most frequent customers. This service enables clients to reach suitable creators across the world at a reasonable price. The platform is packed with functionalities and capable of covering all the essential areas of social influencer marketing.

Pros

• Multi-currency payments
• Prospect discovery
• Automated emailing
• Avoid spamming
• Comprehensive campaign analysis

Cons

• No CRM

Features

Adinject is among the fastest-growing social influencer networks. The service has essential and advanced features that guarantee successful marketing campaigns. With Adinject, brands can discover and manage their prospects. The platform offers filers so clients can find precisely the Internet celebrities they need. Contact import and export are possible too. Plus, the service lets users share lists with their team members.

As an AI-powered solution, Adinject has several smart functions. Users can send automated emails and use email templates. The system further provides intelligent keyword suggestions. Brands that use this influencer platform get to manage and track campaigns. Adinject also helps toward avoiding spamming.

Pricing

Any business or marketer can subscribe for a 15-day free trial of Adinject. Then, they have the following options:

• Startup – $9/month/2 users/100 keyword searches/5 campaigns
• Business – $99/month/10 users/unlimited keyword searches/25 campaigns
• Enterprise – $299/month/100 users/unlimited keyword searches/unlimited campaigns

Subscribing to annual billing will get you discounted prices.

HypeAuditor

At a Glance

HypeAuditor is a social influencer platform used by thousands of famous brands and individuals. Businesses can build their social media image with the platform and discover collaborators. Influencers use it to analyze their audience's health and track their progress. With over seven million profiles, the service is the perfect source of prospects for your marketing campaigns.

Pros

• Multi-source audience data
• Advertiser dashboard
• Audience quality reports
• 7+ million profiles
• Progress tracking

Cons

• Instagram and YouTube only
• No payments

Features

HypeAuditor is one of the influencer platforms that focus on discovery and analytics rather than on CRM and payments. This is reflected in the service’s four essential capabilities – reports hub, discovery hub, progress tracking, and campaign tracking.

With these tools, clients get to generate insights and analyze their social media game. The discovery hub comes with keyword searches and multiple filters. HypeAuditor especially prides itself on its powerful fraud detection engine. So, brands can use it to detect and avoid collaborators with a fake audience.

Clients get valuable data with the HypeAuditor social media influencer tools for progress and campaign tracking. These are especially important to those who want to analyze their own profile. New follower dynamics, number, and engagement rate growth are a few metrics here. Users of HypeAuditor also get access to campaign reports, KPI calculations, and fraud-checks.

Pricing

Marketers and individuals who want to discover and track profiles with HypeAuditor can request a demo to test the product. If monitoring a linked Instagram account does the trick for you, you can use the free plan. It includes report previews, basic account tracking, and discovery trails.

Those who need reporting influencer tools can purchase one, 10, and 50 reports for $30, $149, and $349, respectively. Users can, alternatively, subscribe to the Starter plan for $299 per month. It features basic campaign tracking, 30 reports per month, and simple discovery. HypeAuditor in its full glory is available with the Pro Plan, whose pricing is provided upon request.

Analisa

At a Glance

Growing businesses, marketers, and individuals in need of a budget-friendly influencer marketing platform should consider Analisa. This web-based solution provides in-depth and AI-powered analytics of public Instagram and TikTok profiles. Analisa performs amazingly for those who need analyzed data but lacks some critical features.

Pros

• Social media monitoring
• Influencer mapping
• Audience demographics and authenticity
• Content analysis
• Audience activity

Cons

• No discovery and CRM
• No payments
• No campaign management

Features

Analisa markets itself as an analytics tool, and, as such, covers the essentials. Platform users don’t have access to any discovery tools, CRM features, and payment processing. Instead, they get deep insights into individual profile performance on Instagram and TikTok.

Some critical functionalities of this social media influencer platform include audience and profile analytics. These provide analysis of demographics, authenticity, and overall engagement. Clients can save and export reports on historical performance, top hashtags, posting activities, and top contributors.

The system provides geolocating mapping and competitor analysis. Analisa will analyze the content, track your campaigns, and offer optimization tips as well.

Pricing

Visit the vendor’s website to find report samples of Analisa. Those who need basic engagement rate analysis can sign up for the Analisa Free Plan. Brands that need advanced influencer marketing software reporting capabilities have three premium options:

• Premium – $69/month/no follower analytics
• Plus – $149/month/follower analytics for 10 profiles per month
• Pro – $239/month/follower analytics for 25 profiles per month.

All plans – freemium and premium – include unlimited TikTok analytics. Annual subscription earns clients a discount of up to 21%.

Heepsy

At a Glance

More than 10,000 big and small companies like Ikea, Ford, and Red Bull use Heepsy to find reliable collaborators. This network, with an influencer database of over seven million profiles, is equally suitable for ecommerce businesses and digital marketing agencies. Heepsy covers discovery and analytics, but doesn’t handle payments and campaigns.

Pros

• Outreach
• Audience filters
• Brand collaborations
• Authenticity score
• List creation and export

Cons

• No payments
• No campaign management

Feature

Heepsy is a discovery and analysis tool. Plus, it provides outreach via phone and email. It serves its purpose but doesn’t offer advanced functions. So, clients who need influencer marketing platforms for launching campaigns and processing payments should skip it.

As for the Heepsy feature list, it covers all the essentials.

• Search tool – 7+ million profiles, AI-powered filtering, category and location, KPIs, list creation, aggregated metrics, engagement rate, outreach
• Analytics tool – fake follower analysis, authenticity score, audience demographics, cost estimates, brand collaborations, follower growth rate, comment/like ratios.

Pricing

Request a demo to test the full potential of Heepsy. Those who need essentials only can opt for the Free Plan to get a single report and keyword search.

The advanced functions of the Heepsy influencer network come with the premium plans only. Find their monthly pricing below.

• Starter – $49/10 reports/basic tools
• Plus – $99/60 reports/advanced tools
• Pro – $199/125 reports/advanced tool/multiple devices
• Gold – $269/200 reports/full feature pack/multiple devices

Those who need more reports per month should contact the vendor for a custom offer. Users can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel their subscription at any time.

iFluenz

At a Glance

This is one of the best influencer marketing software for brands that want to build their presence by running campaigns. iFluenz helps businesses of any size to double their customer acquisition and boost brand awareness. This is a simple tool that comes with a 10-minute setup, numerous features, and a pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Pros

• Campaign management
• Conversations
• Analytics
• Payments
• No subscriptions

Cons

• No fake follower analysis
• Basic profile analytics
• Modest influencer network

Features

iFluenz specializes in social media campaigns, meaning it lacks lots of advanced filtering and analytics features. Compared to other top influencer marketing platforms, it underperforms in providing insights on fake followers, engagement rates, and brand affiliations. Still, it’s an excellent solution for those who want an affordable tool to run a successful campaign.

Users can set up a campaign within 5-10 minutes. The platform provides relevant profiles based on your criteria. It has some essential filtering capabilities. Once a campaign is created, the admin can invite influencers or wait for proposals.

Brands can accept or reject proposals with a single click. Once a campaign starts running, users receive in-depth reports on performance. All payments are processed through the social influencer platform which is another benefit that comes with using iFluenz.

Pricing

This online service has a pay-as-you-go model. This means you don’t have to subscribe or commit to any monthly charges. iFluenz instead applies commission on all payments processed through the platform.

There isn’t any official pricing provided, but the company used to charge 15% on payments. So, if you pay an influencer $100, the total collaboration cost will come in at $115. Depending on your budget, you may qualify for lower commission rates.

How to Select Influencer Marketing Software for Your Needs

Investing in the right platform for your specific needs goes beyond price and popularity. So, follow the simple steps below to weed out any unsuitable solutions and find the best solution for your influencer marketing needs.

Step 1: Remove Unsuitable Platforms Based on Classification

Categorization is the first step that will take you to the right social media influencer platform for you. If you work in the travel and leisure industry, you don’t need platforms that collaborate with fashion influencers only.

The type of product plays a role here too. Are you a brand looking to promote services, run giveaways, or sponsor content? You want a system that offers whatever you’re looking for.

What type of influencers does the platform work with? Some solutions collaborate with nano and micro-celebrities exclusively. If you want to run campaigns through personas with 100k followers, these shouldn’t be your first choice.

Step 2: Shortlist Based on Key Features

What are the crucial influencer marketing tools for your business? Do you want to contact celebrities yourself or let other people do it? Is fraud detection a must? Will you be analyzing ROI? For this step, you should define your needs and then remove any platforms that don’t meet them.

Step 3: Define Your Acceptable Investment Size

Finally, you’re one step away from the best solution for your marketing strategy. Decide how much money you can and want to invest. Once you have your monthly or annual budget, just compare it against the pricing of the remaining influencer marketing platforms.

You can shortlist your finalists one last time by focusing on products with a free trial and/or a money-back guarantee.