How TP-Link Scaled Influencer Marketing With Data, Creative Fit, and Paid Amplification

In this episode of Influence At Scale, we sat down with one of our clients, TP-Link, to review how the brand evolved its influencer program from an awareness-first, high-volume strategy to a performance engine powered by curated creators, strategic paid amplification, and a clear measurement framework. Along the way, we share what earns leadership buy-in and what makes an agency x brand partnership actually work.

Key takeaways:

• Moving from a high-volume to a curated, brand-aligned creator strategy
• Building long-term brand ambassadors across niches
• Expanding beyond tech into lifestyle and home DIY
• Matching creator narratives to distinct product needs
• Adding paid amplification to extend reach and prove ROI
• Redefining performance beyond last click
• Turning audience insights into future briefs
• Securing leadership support with clear results
• What to seek in a fast, transparent agency partner
• Common tracking pitfalls and how to avoid them

Trevant (formerly AdParlor) is the performance-native influencer agency built to solve the chaos of enterprise scale. Moving beyond isolated viral moments, Trevant provides the operational infrastructure to manage always-on creator ecosystems by combining "Creator Soul" with "Performance Architecture". 

With a foundation of 17 years in paid media and over $650M in managed spend, they bridge the gap between authentic storytelling and attributable ROI, offering brands a unified system for safety governance, omnichannel amplification, and measurable business growth.

Learn more at: https://trevant.com/influenceatscale

Transcript

Welcome & Session Goals

Speaker 2 0:28

Welcome everyone. We are very excited to have you in the first of many of our upcoming series where we bring in different subject matter experts to discuss all of the hot and important topics in the influencer space and then also help give you some of those tangible takeaways to help you improve performance and scale when it comes to influencer marketing. So now let's kick off with some intros. I am Kristina Coughlin. I am general manager of Ad Perller. AdPur is the leading full service influencer marketing agency for brands who really need support managing highly complex performance-driven strategies. And now I will introduce Michaela, Michaela Valoria. She's the senior marketing manager at TP Link. TP Link is a leading global provider of networking and technology, offering products such as Wi-Fi routers, mesh systems, security cameras, connected home devices, and so much more. Thank you for being here with us, Michaela. Excited to be here. We're just talking about how we've been working together for the better part of what four years now. So time flies when you're having fun. But we'll give a little bit of an intro to the partnership between TP Link and Ad Perl to help kind of set the stage and then we can kind of dig into the good stuff. So set the stage a bit, Mikaela came to AdParlor a couple of years ago to help her and the TP Link team better scale their in-house influencer effort. So during this webinar, what we'll do is we'll walk through an example of how AdParlor and TP Link collaborated closely together on their influencer strategy. Um and also what an ideal of what a successful agency and advertiser partnership could could really look like. And so based on that, the goal for the session and what you'll get out of this is four things. One is a framework for measuring influencer performance across that full funnel. Next is some practical tips to help for balancing influencer quality cost as well as impact. How to integrate paid amplification for stronger ROI and measurement. And then also the actionable steps to help strengthen that brand and agency collaboration. So with that, Mikaela, you ready to dig right in? Yeah, let's get into it. All right, let's do it. So let's set the stage of kind of the before picture. So we know that influencer marketing has gone through a lot of different phases and evolved a lot over the years and continues to evolve a lot over the years. So first we're in that what I call like the reach era, which was big creator counts, big awareness. And then we went into that efficiency era, which is the time of post-privacy changes, budgets were scrutinized, brands were demanding clearer ROI and rights to the in-house creator content to leverage for multiple use cases, which we're continuing to see. Now we're in that performance and commerce area where creator content fuels not just awareness strategies, but paid media, retail media, and also direct sales. So we're going to walk through a little bit about how TP Link made that leap from more of that volume-based approach to that measurable performance-based approach with their creator strategy. So, Michaela, let's start at the beginning. So, what what did TP Link's influencer marketing program look like when you first started on the T Link team?

From Volume To Curated Creators

Speaker 3:48

Yeah. So when I first started here, I was tasked with really really building the influencer program from the ground up. And what that started with is sourcing a lot of tech-focused content creators to really make dedicated YouTube videos. And that was what we were focusing in on that one social platform. And this worked really well for us. But as time went on, we were ready to expand to other platforms and needed a team that would act as an extension of the brand, which led us to AdParlor. At the time when we were working up on different campaigns and strategies, they were initially very volume-driven, often working with 100 plus creators ranging from small creators to mid-tier per campaign. And this worked really well to just maximize impressions because we were aiming to expand our sheer voice. And for us, we wanted to show, you know, a large volume of creators all talking about the brand and the products. But that does end up coming with some limitations, as you know, when looking to drive those full funnel results and we could tie directly to sales.

Speaker 2 4:55

Did you notice that there was like that particular moment or gap that you recognized when you realized things that were really needed to evolve from what you were currently doing today?

Speaker 5:07

Yeah, it wasn't so much that the campaigns weren't performing, but when you're focusing on such a large volume of creators, you know, things tend to slip through the cracks, whether that's, you know, you have a whole team managing all these relationships directly. That means limited time to think of um stories to help with the creators to think of their content. And we also needed, you know, measurement tools to help scale beyond where we were. Um, we just overall knew we were missing a few pieces, um, limited organic, limited reach just based off organic audiences only, um, and limited ROI tracking. So it was great to, you know, find and partner with AdParlor to be an extension of the brand.

Speaker 2 5:52

Of course, naturally love to hear that. Yes.

Speaker 5:56

It's so much easier when, you know, you're working with the brand and it doesn't feel as like that exact exchange. It's more, yeah, you know, you're part of the team. And AdParlor was really great at doing that early on.

Speaker 2 6:07

And honestly, likewise, too, right? I think as an agency and running from the agency perspective, we always love working with the clients where we do feel like we are truly part of their team and they give us that look under the hood and we can really collaborate together. And also there's that that trust and that honesty between the two teams. I think that's the biggest part of that is to your point, it's easy for us to do our jobs well when you give us the playbook and everything that we need to be able to do it. And that trust is there to say, hey, yes, you are you are also a team of experts. Let's figure out how to drive the best performance together.

Speaker 6:42

So that's definitely like as you just said, a team of experts. One thing that I think is really important for brands that are looking to partner with agencies is to remember, yes, you do have your own playbook and your own strategies, but you're leveraging, you need to leverage that agency partnership as they are also the expertise. And that's what you ended up coming there for. So just remembering that if if they're providing you some insights and some ideas to pivot, you know, listen to them.

Speaker 2 7:11

I love that. And I also know that we've had a lot of conversations about different ways to pivot. And it has been great because you have been so open to those conversations and saying, you know what, based on the data, what we're seeing, that we're seeing XYZ, and you're like, you know what, interesting, tell me more, which is the best case scenario because allows us to write. You know, we have we've seen our own experiences from working with different clients and have our own playbooks, you have your own, and to be able to come together and figure out the strategy that works best for TP Link is best case scenario. 100% agree. Um, now to going back to the topic of volume, right? And volume of creators, I know, you know, you're kind of hit upon the fact that the volume play, you're right, it's it's a lot of work, right? It's a lot of engagement. You're working with human beings at scale, which is always kind of crazy. What was that realization that sparked a deeper look about working with and working smarter when it comes to working with creators and talking about that shift when it comes to a creator volume perspective?

Building Brand Ambassadors

Speaker 8:16

Yeah, definitely. I think overall, you know, also being someone that works directly with creators, you also realize that maybe these large volumes might be, you know, a little not dangerous, but at times difficult to manage. Um, so we kind of realized while working with AdParlor and just talking through it, that it was focusing on solely volume of creators was really limiting our ability to scale up. Um, it was just really high operational load. Like I said, focusing on just volume of creators in the end kind of leads to inconsistent quality, just overall impact wasn't growing in proportion to the effort. Um, the initial plan was to leverage a high volume of small creators to increase overall impressions and an efficient cost. And for us, you know, a lot of creators means a lot of people are talking about the brand, but that doesn't necessarily always mean that you're going to get that high amount of impressions each time. So when working directly with AdParlor, we identified that maybe think about shifting to a smaller group of a mix of both mid-tier creators and small creators, and see these, you know, they could be more brand aligned rather just focusing on a wide fishnet. And it really did actually increase our total impressions, clicks, and everything without increasing our overall cost, which was really great to show to leadership. And it just kind of opens that door as well when you're focusing on these um creators who can serve as, you know, brand ambassadors. I think we all kind of follow our own favorite creators that we have. And, you know, you like you follow them because you trust them and you like them. And so as they start to recommend recommend more brands, yes, of course, we know there's brand partnerships. But to us, in the end of the day, when you start to watch more of your favorite creators and see them naturally integrating it into their life, it feels um a little bit more, you know, stronger and you build that trust within them.

Speaker 2 10:16

Yeah, and and you're right, it's powerful. And it's also an interesting takeaway, too. So going with more of that more highly curated, more brand aligned, performance-aligned creators can save on budget and potentially also drive more efficient results and really dig better into that. Stronger storytelling, which you're right, it's like with working with a lot of creators, and there's definitely a time and a place to do that more high-volume creator play. But you're right, there's also nuances and challenges to it when it comes to creative quality and you what you're gonna get from one microcreator isn't necessarily the same level of output that you're gonna get from another one. And it's you know, the QA of it and the time that it takes to manage a campaign like that, it's it's a lot, right? And I think sometimes it's doing more of that highly curated campaign can be the better for solution for some brands to drive more of that performance-driven strategy.

Speaker 11:16

Um, definitely. And kind of you mentioned there with the storytelling. I think also, you know, as working with creators, it is really great to also provide them with some ideas or inspiration. So maybe not so not having to focus so much on here's a huge volume volume of creators to work with, but then you can take a step back and you know, take that 15 minutes that you'd be sourcing more creators to give them a story and it you can really tell through the content and and it comes through.

Expanding Beyond Tech Niches

Speaker 2 11:46

It's you do have the time and ability to really invest more into the creators that you're working with, which also digs into the output that you're gonna receive because you can be a true partner with them versus when you're working with a hundred creators at any given time, you you just don't have the bitumen to be able to do that, right? You're giving breath, you're telling them what you do, you're having those communications and you're hoping for the best results possible. And sometimes that's okay. But if you're really looking for more of that stronger brand ambassador type of a partnership, you do you have that extra time to be able to invest in that, which is which is super powerful. Um next topic is as we think through the highly curated creators, and you kind of talked about brand ambassadors a little bit. I know with TP Link being in the consumer tech space in the past, you've done a lot with tech creators, not surprisingly, right? Tech creators, of course, are a huge opportunity for a brand like TP Link. But what let's talk about kind of breaking out of that and testing different niches and different verticals of creators, um, and what ultimately prompted that. So, so for you, what caused you to start testing different verticals outside of the tech space? What inspired that shift and what did that look like?

Speaker 13:01

Yeah, great question. I think overall, um, when first building the influencer program, um, we wanted to tap into those tech creators and you're ultimately working with it, it is a big group, but at the same time, it's still niche. It is so you're working with those same creators time and time again. Um, and for us working on different types, types of content, um, but there really was a need to think, okay, you know, as a consumer myself, when I'm looking up a new product, maybe I'm not necessarily going to look at just a tech creator. Maybe I don't know who that is. So, how can we find and leverage these new creators and and and find these new audiences? Um, so you know, with working with AdParlor team, that was something that was important to us. Um, and we wanted to leverage that. And, you know, being in the tech space, maybe we don't know as much of on the lifestyle side. And maybe we don't know who these um home improvement type of creators are. And that's really where we worked very well with AdParlor to start to build and run an experiment. So we compared our usual influencer strategy using that large number of small creators against a new approach where we use maybe a little bit fewer, but bigger and more brand aligned creators while also mixing in um home DIY. That was really and home renovation. That's really important for us, especially with our security cameras. Um, you know, everyone's wants to install something, wants to know how do I install this, or if I'm getting the security camera, where can I put it in the outside of my home, whether that be your backyard, your side gate. And so really shifting that perspective was one thing where we wanted to try to leverage these new creators. And it just kind of helped us serve as um, like I said kind of earlier, those longer-term brand ambassadors, because these home improvement or lifestyle creators already have an audience that follows them and, you know, listens to what they have to say. And they're looking too, as new homeowners or um renters, that they're looking for more ways to improve their home. And that's these are the kind of people that they're going to.

Matching Creators To Products

Speaker 2 15:06

Yeah, absolutely. And one topic that you're leading into is that balancing the niche revalence, but also the creative strategy and how the different verticals and niches that you're testing really impacts ultimately what that creative strategy is going to look like. And I know for working with with you and in your team, Michaela, you are so great about thinking through, okay, yes, we have these different niches of creators, and how do we use these different niches and different verticals to our advantage when it comes to what that creative strategy looks like, knowing that they're all going to keep go at it from completely different angles to your earlier point. Obviously, a tech YouTuber is going to be doing such a different form of content than a lifestyle mom on TikTok as an example. So, what was your approach when it came to really balancing niche revalence, uh revalence, relevance? Can't even speak today, relevance with your creative strategy.

Speaker 16:07

Yes. So for us, we really want to ensure that we didn't lose sight of our, you know, our tech creators and our tech audience. So we did still want to um leverage those within our strategy and approach. And so when working with AdParlor, when we're planning these campaigns, we're looking at it like, okay, yes, we want to ensure that we have this amount or, you know, around this amount of tech creators while also ensuring that we're tapping into this amount of lifestyle and home DIY. And that was really important for us because as a brand, you want to build more, you know, especially when working with influencers and create these creators, want to build more of that brand awareness. And so if we're only focusing on the tech space, you're losing its sight to all those other potential audiences that are that are out there. And so when working with like the new genres from home DIY and home improvement creators, um, it was really great to start leveraging those and to tap in and see, oh, wow, these are starting to perform better. And if not, you know, at times just as good as any of our tech creators. They all have their own place. Um, but you know, you were seeing a great amount of impressions and views and clicks and whatnot. And so seeing that data really helped us say, okay, this is something that we should include into our strategy moving forward.

Speaker 2 17:28

Yeah. And that's a great insight and super interesting how you can leverage different creators for different use cases and have that, you know, what I'll call kind of complex multi-layered campaign that still ladders up from a brand level, but especially with a a brand like TP Link, where not only do you have different creators that you're testing in different verticals, but like you mentioned, also very different products. You know, obviously you have how how you're going to advertise the, you know, the deco products and Wi-Fi routers is going to be completely different than how the type of creators and the creative examples that you're going to use for a more consumer-focused Tapo product, like the doorbells and things like that. So you can run these multi-layer campaigns all all at once, leveraging different creators, promoting different products for different use cases and being really intentional about that. So and I think you, you know, you did a great job in terms of the collaboration between on your side and the TP Link side and on the agency side of you know, having all of that ideating around what that process looks like and figuring how to bring that to life.

Speaker 18:33

And I think remembering too, as a brand that yes, we do have like um the networking, the the deco, as you spoke of, and Wi-Fi routers, but needing to remember that that that product and that audience, you know, when people are looking to upgrade their Wi-Fi, they're looking for those technical um feeds and speeds. Whereas maybe so much on the Tapo side that someone wants to, you know, add a new video doorbell to their home. Um, they're just wanting to improve security and they're looking for things in their life of, oh, I'm not able to see when the package arrives, or um, I'm not able to um see when my gardener enters the side gate. Um, things like that is a little bit of a different philosophy than just like the networking products. So scaling that back within the influencer space was really important.

Why Add Paid Amplification

Speaker 2 19:21

Yeah, that makes total sense. Now let's dig into we got that process, we have the creators, we have the verticals, contents going live. Now what? Right? So the next stage of the process. So for us, let's dig a little bit into a topic that I love, which is the pay amplification component of an influencer strategy. So before working with Ad Parler, TP Link hadn't really done a lot of testing with amplification strategies in the past, correct?

Speaker 19:51

Correct. Yes. Um we have our own hit advertising in terms of the influencers and creators we're working with. Uh, we had not tapped into amplification. So this was great to work with ad parler on.

Speaker 2 20:01

Awesome. When as you kicked off this amplification strategy, you know, what were one, what kind of prompted this to happen and realizing yes, we do need to add a paid amplification component component to the influencer strategy. Um, and then once you did, what were some of those results that really stood out as you blended organic and paid distribution together?

Speaker 20:25

I think when working with creators, um, one of the main things you're doing is creating great content. And so one of the things you want to remember is how can I get more eyeballs on this content and that I already have. And so, you know, when talking with AdParlor, it hadn't been something that we had tapped into before, but we had did a small test at first just to see how it would work. Um, and yeah, you're right, amplification was initially untapped. So discussing, you know, overall how organic reach with paid boosted, um, it was really great to have these strong um creator videos go live and be able to amplify that and then see the results. So, oh, from that video, we were able to exceed our add to carts and, you know, especially within our holiday campaign um five times incremental sales and really drive multi-product awareness around not just um on our direct retailers, but our store and on Amazon. Um, so just combining this overall was really impactful. But of course, as you know, when working with paid amplification, then you of course are to get more more data. And so that's something that's really important to the brand as well. And overall in marketing, you want to have as much data on your customers as possible. And so starting to understand this and know, oh wow, like this audience is really interested in our product. So we could really tap into that more, I think was really beneficial.

Results From Boosting Creator Content

Speaker 2 21:51

Yeah, absolutely. And that's a perfect segue into the next topic, which is as you think through data leads really nicely into measurement because I think a big component to whether it's an organic andor paid influencer strategy is how are you appropriately measuring the success of those campaigns outside of just the screenshots that we can be collecting on the creator's back end analytics. Um, and also knowing that there's that investment level that goes into whether it's influencer on the organic andor paid side, and just being able to have that attributable measurement and insights to be able to help inform future strategies and so. Important. So let's dig a little bit into what that measurement and also that performance approach looks like for TP Link. So knowing that measurement as you think of measurement and also as you think of performance, it can mean different things to different advertisers. What did performance really look like for TP Link before this shift?

Speaker 22:50

Yeah, before the shift, you know, we're really just focusing on total views and total amount of influencers that were going live. And so with including amplification, um, we're able to see that, oh, maybe even with this pool, we're able to, you know, the smaller pool, we're able to not maybe not double or triple our results by using amplification and having those, you know, direct cart um attributions there. So we really started to learn a little bit more about our target audience and who this content was really resonating with. And, you know, that helps us have a bit a deeper understanding of not just who's viewing and watching and engaging with the content, but who's actually converting. So that shift really allowed us to refine our target audience with our ad parlor and with far more precision in the future campaigns that we ran together. And I would say one of the biggest learnings was around creators fit and concept direction with adding in paid amplification. We could actually see exactly which types of creators and narratives carried that strong impact overall. Whether that was a DIY storyteller or a tech explainer lifestyle family. These insights just really helped us pinpoint the creative angles and audience segments that consistently drove that strong engagement and action.

Redefining Performance & Measurement

Speaker 2 24:17

Absolutely. And you're bringing up also, I think that something that's super important when it comes to an influencer strategy that is a what I think I would consider it a undervalued piece of creators, just not just the the data and the measurement, but the learnings and the insights that you gather as well. I know you mentioned we learned a lot about our target audience, right? And I think that's also a huge part of running an influencer strategy is that you're learning more about your target audience or being able to test different audiences, what's resonating, what's not resonating. And that just not only impacts your influencer strategy, that can really impact your whole holistic marketing picture and the things that you're doing is the information that you're gathering from some of these campaigns. And I know, especially as you're adding whether it's organic and paid and be able to run more campaigns at scale, also gives you the opportunity to get more data and more insights at scale, in addition to, of course, the performance that you're you're driving as well.

Speaker 25:15

Yeah. And I would say too, even some of those creators that you know we were maybe we were expecting as just nice to have ended about performing those traditional tech voices. So that kind of gave us the roadmap and insight to say, okay, let's make sure we're implementing this moving forward.

Speaker 2 25:34

Yeah. It's it's fascinating. And we on the ad parler side, especially coming from the agency, we we do like to sometimes push our clients a bit to say, hey, what about this type of creator or this type of vertical or this segment or this type of creative strategy? And well, there's been dozen I would say dozens, probably much more times than that where the advertisers like, I don't know. I don't know if that's necessarily necessarily aligned with our target audience or who we're looking to reach. And it's like, well, let's let's just do a small test. I know you kind of mentioned that earlier with on the amplification side. Doing that small test to start just to prove it out, because if it doesn't work out, it's just a small test and you didn't waste a lot of resources on it and you still got some good data out of it. Um, but it might just work and might just be something that helps inform the strategy moving forward. And you're right, sometimes those creators that the advertiser was like, I never thought that these would work, end up being the top performing creators that we end up working with and we get a ton of success out of it. So it always is true that it can't hurt to do those small tests and and make those little bets because that can drive amazing performance, but also amazing data as you think through how to inform your your future strategy.

Speaker 26:53

Yeah. Anyone, you know, partnering with the agencies, it's important to listen to the agency and if they're telling you to do small tests, just try it out.

Speaker 2 27:03

Love love hearing you say that, knowing conversations we've had about let's do a test on this, Mikaela. What do you think? How can we get this approved? Love it. Um what you know, as we think through that kind of measurement framework, what were some of these frameworks and how do they influence how you worked with creators or how you worked with structured campaigns moving forward? So kind of taking, you know, what some of these changes that you implemented and and how did that impact future strategy?

Turning Insights Into Strategy

Speaker 27:40

Yeah, I think having the added data that was super impactful. And it kind of let us build on what we learned and we understood who we're engaging with and what actually moved them to buy, whether that was the video on exactly how to install the product or a video on the creator explaining how it's helped their lives. Um, these kind of pieces really helped us understand, okay, when we're creating content and when we're amplifying, how it how will this work with those real-time um performance? Um, additionally, we did ensure, you know, taking comments into um into vision here on creator posts just to help learn what customers are valuing. I think that's something we forget overall as brands to listen to the customers, see their feedback, and it just really helps you, you know, learn and make improvements. Um, and then handpicking those top performing creators to re-engage in future campaigns is really successful. There were some that just performed really well. And by leveraging those top performing creators, you could really see that in amplification in terms of impressions and clicks and revenue. And just honestly, as I kind of spoke about earlier, it's so important as a brand to make sure that you're using those repeated collaborations. Um, I think that's something we tend to forget is we just work with that creator and it was great and go on from there. But by continuing to work with them several times throughout the year, you really build that authenticity and trust as well as results. So whether that, you know, some someone, one of their viewers watched it early on, and now maybe now they're time to buy. Now they're at a time where they're looking to upgrade um their home Wi-Fi or their security cameras. So I think those are some key insights that really help leverage um moving forward.

Speaker 2 29:44

Absolutely. And and you're right, it's sometimes about just meeting the consumer where they're at in that in the life journey, right? And sometimes they might not need a Wi-Fi router, or they might not need a smart doorbell in that moment, but they're constantly being retargeted. And then you hit them at that right time where they just moved into a new house, or they're just starting up a new business or whatever stage in their life, their old one broke and they need to get a new one and they're all of a sudden the market for it. And they're seeing that creator that they really know, like, and trust that have now talked about the products on an ongoing basis. And it seems like they actually really enjoy the products and are using it, and it's not just a one and done partnership. And that's and that's where they convert. And yeah, we we do see most consumers, it takes, you know, as we know, a lot of touch points to get even the general consumer to be able to convert. So I also think that's a huge part of the strategy is finding those great brand ambassadors who are genuinely excited about the partnership and working with them on a long-term basis.

Speaker 1 30:47

It's it's so powerful. All right. So let's dig into leadership, right?

Winning Leadership Buy-In

Speaker 2 30:55

So getting leadership buy-in into making adjustments to the influencer strategy. So for those brands that are still really focused on, we'll say, awareness metrics and more upper funnel, maybe they're focused on more of an organic strategy versus leveraging peed amplification to the mix. What advice would you give to those folks that are in the day-to-day that are trying to get their leadership on board with more of a performance-oriented type of approach?

Speaker 31:26

Yeah, great question. I think overall awareness metrics are, of course, extremely powerful, but that performance approach is definitely what moves the needle and is what take makes it take to the next level of driving conversions, which ultimately executives care about, and understanding, you know, your audience even more deeply. So in the end of the day, you know, leadership doesn't necessarily care about hitting impression benchmarks. If the results aren't reflecting on the bottom line, so it's really important there to show leadership, especially with paid amplification strategy. Not only do you get more usage out of the content that you're already paid for, but you have access to more audience insights, kind of as I said earlier, um, and give you the ability to engage with them beyond the initial organic reach and being able to communicate that with the team. So maybe there's additional teams that would like this kind of information. And it helps them understand, oh, I didn't realize that, you know, the home renovation section was so um interested in in our products. How can we um leverage that for the future? So I think making sure that you communicate, you know, all the insights that you're receiving, not only on performance, of course, but as well as um the market insights is really impactful.

Speaker 2 32:50

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, what we see too is with when you get that clarity in measurement too, in addition to, you know, as you're driving through a more performance-focused strategy and really fine-tune measurement. Measurement also helps unlock often incremental opportunities and budget efficiencies too, and especially when it comes to those topics of leadership, because you're right, they are not always focused on upper funnel metrics. They want to understand that full picture and what does that look like and how is it driving, whether directly or indirectly, business outcomes. Um, so that really drives that conversation away from just purely cost to yeah, what is what does ROI look like and how can we drive it, leveraging this strategy?

Speaker 33:34

Yeah, it's super beneficial for leadership to see that information and it will definitely help you um get things going.

What Great Agency Partnerships Require

Speaker 2 33:44

Yeah, definitely. And then our our last section before we kind of dig into kind of our recap and next steps is my favorite topic of the session, which is the agency and brand collaboration and partnership. So, how brands and agencies can get the most from a partnership with with an agency. So, from your perspective, Michaela, what um what made the partnership between TP Link and AdParlor the most successful? So I know you talked about a lot of things over this session. If you were kind of to narrow it down for the top things, what would what would that be in terms of what you look for the most in an agency partner and what you were able to get from AdParlor specifically?

Speaker 34:27

Yeah, I think when you know, looking for an agency, you don't only focus on, you know, a new vendor. You want to make sure that they're a partner and um someone that really acts as an extension of the team. And for us, it's really important for that trust, transparency, um, and flexibility and speed. I think as we are as a brand, it's important to be quick on our feet and there's maybe going to pivot and change when we need an agency that can help support that. Um, so early on, you know, having those conversations with Ag Parlor, if we need to make a change, it was no problem. And so I think that is really key when when choosing an agency, um, having to also share your goals and just an open communication of this is what we're looking for from the partnership um early on, and kind of have that conversation because I feel like we work together very well. But as you start to have that communication early on, you're able to set the stage and just push to test new things, which is really great and important. And that helps us strive, you know, improve performance as well. And I said it earlier, but I think what makes AdParlor stand out from the rest was just your flexibility and speed. The reality is that our industry moves really fast. Um, launches can shift, maybe budgets change, a new opportunity comes up, and AdParlor was always, always, always willing to adapt. And whether it was rethinking the creator mix, as we kind of talked about here earlier today, um, testing new content formats or just building, you know, a measurement framework from scratch. Um, you guys really moved with us, and that really is what made us continue to um work with out of parlor time and time again.

Speaker 2 36:16

I'm so happy to hear all of that. It was always so great to hear from clients themselves of what are the things that you value, truly value the most in the partnership. Because there's especially in the influencer space, as you know, there's so much nuance to it, and there's so much between the strategy and the execution and the partnership and communications, there's so much that goes into a successful partnership. So it's always helpful to know what exactly those top things are that you as the client really, really value. So thank you for sharing that. And yes, I really appreciate that.

Choosing The Right Agency

Speaker 36:45

Of course. And definitely overall, um, you know, I felt that you we were an extension of the team and you do treat us just as a partner, not as a vendor. I think working with different agencies and in different spaces, there's times where you definitely like, I am a vendor to them. And so when working with AdParlor, um, we always felt that you guys have um have us in our corner. And so that's really impactful for us. And it just helps us build success and know what's realistic.

Speaker 2 37:13

Yeah, amazing and and so true. And I know you've had the opportunity to hire quite a few influencer agencies in your time of working at TP Link. I know you talked a little bit about what you value the most at agency partnerships. And I don't know if there's anything else you'd want to dig into that for that. But for those looking for an influencer agency, anything else that you would call out as, hey, definitely look for this, or maybe on the flip side, definitely be careful for something like this and determining whether it's the right agency for them.

Speaker 37:46

Yeah, I definitely think that your agency should really push you to try some new formats. I think early on we're very focused on okay, we're doing uh YouTube creators, and AdParlor is great about also adding that, okay, we also need to add in some short form. Um, and just looking in with those new creator categories as well, that's key. Um, so I think as a brand, if you are looking at some new agencies that you want to partner with, um, you're doing it because you want to make a positive impact and and some changes there. And so I think it's really important to know that you're when you're looking for these agencies, um, they should be giving you additional ideas and opportunities and not just saying yes to everything that you have in mind. Um, because from there, that's just your framework and your ideas. But in order to succeed and and really move forward, you want to leverage these agency partnerships and really lean into their expertise. So I'd say if you're just looking for an agency that says yes to everything that you're asking for, um, you're not gonna have as strong or as positive results as as you'd want.

Testing New Verticals Smartly

Speaker 2 38:59

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I know, I know there's always those clients out there that that just want the executional agency to be that yes agency. And that's fine. But you're right. I think the true performance does come from that iterating that, hey, have you have have you tried this? Can we test this? Have we tried pushing this channel yet? Can we try testing this and having that ongoing communication? You're right. It's like it comes to that true partnership and that true collaboration, shared goals, clear feedback, and ultimately that trust and that room to to test and grow together. So 100%, that really makes a huge difference in that agency uh advertiser partnership. Right. So you talked about breaking out of niches, so seeing success in home, DIY, or lifestyle. What advice would you give brands that are hesitant to test outside of their vertical?

Speaker 39:56

Yeah, I think what's really important to try is um in the beginning, if that's not something that the brand is looking to do, at least set apart a few that you could try. Um, and showcasing those results internally will really help um the brand see, oh wow, these this niche of creators uh actually performed much better than I anticipated. So I think just at least having that conversation internally and being able to go from there is really great because um you can start to do those small tests, whether that's just in creators. I know we talked about it more on amplification, but you could do on the creator side.

Common Measurement Mistakes

Speaker 2 40:34

So speaking about tracking and measurement, what's one measurement and or tracking misstep you still see brands consistently making when it comes to influencer marketing? For I'll take the beginning part of this one and then Mikaela, super interested in in your answer on this one as well. I would say the first one that I tend to see a lot is treating influencer marketing as an afterthought instead of designing the campaign around that KPI. So measurement is usually okay, something that we need to do as part of the campaign versus, hey, this is our primary KPI, this is what our goal is. Everything that we do then moving forward is around what that KPI is. So as we think through the creative briefs we put together and that creative hook, um, the creators that we're working with and the ones that might be really good, strong storytellers that really align creatively and also have that strong target audience alignment, how we manage the briefing process and the draft and submission process, how we handle our amplification strategy and what we're optimizing toward, really making sure that's constantly tying back to ultimately the KP, the campaign KPI, because that's going to also impact measurement and performance. Um, now I would say on the more tactical side, also assuming things like clicks or last touch conversions represent a full impact of influencer performance, knowing that influencer is absolutely a multi-touch channel, it really impacts that holistic marketing strategy. So if you're measuring only on last click, sometimes you're missing potentially 90% of the value that you're actually driving for the campaign. So there's really, as we think through influencer marketing, ideally not thinking of it as a silo. And that's why things like adding amplification to the mix and also leveraging influencer as part of your holistic strategy is so critical.

Closing Thoughts & Takeaways

Speaker 42:36

Mikhaila, anything that you would add to that? I think two points from my side, and and similar to Kristina, if you're only measuring, you know, that last click, you're kind of forgetting that for a brand, many people are could be going to a store or later opening up a different app to go quickly search it. So if you're just focusing on the clicks and those direct conversions, you're forgetting about all the other touch points that there were, and that additionally that you want the customer to remember the brand. And that's also impactful within um creator partnerships, is you're using it not just for that direct purchase, but for more of that brand affinity and awareness of the products. Um, and then overall, I think we do get a little fixated on okay, this is our creator that we need that we're having, and this is the influencer. Whereas you do also have that relationship with them. Um, and as creators feel like they have that, you know, and you also need to build that. They build that relationship with whether it's the agency or the brand, you'll have better success.

Speaker 2 43:38

Michaela, thank you so much for being here today. Really appreciated having you.

Speaker 43:44

Yes, thank you for having me. And it was great to, you know, chat through once or marketing today. And, you know, I'm really excited for what's cut.