Marketers bear more risks on influencer campaigns than on media campaigns

Even if a view isn’t the same thing as a sale, the ROI on sponsored videos depends a lot on views made by the video:  campaigns which don't reach expected views will, all things being equal, generate less sales or conversions.

When compared with reserved media campaigns, there no view guarantees on influencer campaigns. Some brands have tried to force creators to bear the risk of underperforming campaigns by asking them to guarantee a level of views. But creators aren’t willing to take that risk, because they don’t have control over the views of their videos. 

Brands thus take an additional risk by choosing to do an influencer campaign vs. a media campaign : views performances can greatly vary from a video to another.

To increase chances to reach expected views, distributing risk by increasing influencer count in your campaign can be an option: 

• Either you spend more but overshoot your budget or
• you split your budget among smaller influencers but the cost of managing the campaign is higher

With Wizdeo marketers pay less if views are lower than expected, while influencers get paid a fixed price whatever the views. 

In a test campaign below (HappyGames), costing 139K€, the sum of median views for each creator is 5,73M views: this is usually the metric that marketers use to “forecast” campaign’s views.

But how low can the campaign go in terms of views? What is the risk taken by the brand which pays for all the videos?

Often, marketers take as a worst case the lowest 10% of videos, (in terms of view performance), and add those worst cases up to evaluate the worst case. This means, for our campaign, a worst case of 3.1M views, 40% under the potential. In other words, in the worst case, the brand ends up paying the agreed139K€, for a campaign worth only 76K€…

With Wizdeo, the guarantee proposed, based on our proprietary risk assessment, is on 92% of median views. In the worst case, the brand pays 139K€ for a campaign worth 120K€. This is hugely less risky than going at it alone. 

How is Wizdeo able to take the risk of guaranteeing a campaign's views ?

Our Influencer Access tool, with free access for Brands, calculates the dispersion of views for each YouTubers. This means, not only the median 30-day views, but also the min/max views, and all points in-between. This is done every day, which means it is refreshed every day the video is published.

With this data in hand, Wizdeo knows exactly, for each creator, what are the risks of over/under performing: thus we can guarantee views. Furthermore, we also recalculate globally the risk for a campaign of several videos, by pooling the risk for each creator.This, of course lowers the risk - and means higher view guarantees. Lastly, we have also identified clearly in which specific cases video views cannot be guaranteed, because the videos will have a very different performance: for example, videos with an age limitation (reduces views), or videos dedicated to a sponsor - as possessed to integrating a sponsor-, and whose subject is so different that views are also reduced. We ask creators not to post such videos.

Wizdeo is thus able, just like in a media campaign, to guarantee you a certain level of views for your campaign, and thus guarantee a cpm. 

Certain conditions apply in order to provide guarantees : 

• For now, guarantees only apply to YouTube videos : not available for Instagram, TikTok posts, Twitch streams...
• Videos should be integrations or mentions: dedicated videos, where the sponsored product is the subject, may be guaranteed in the future for certain products (games for exemple)
• Videos should only be VOD (no live/streaming or replays). Live streaming may be guaranteed in the near future also.

Important! If Wizdeo manages the campaign, you get the guarantee for free: the cost will be included in our commissions, which are either 15% or 20% depending on our relationship with the creator.

Also important: All worldwide creators are eligible for our view guarantees, but guarantees are higher for our priority creators, because we have more data on their performances. Often, we are actually able to guarantee more than 100% of median views for those priority creators ! 

What happens if my guaranteed campaign doesn’t reach views ?

At the end of the campaign, if guarantees are not reached, Wizdeo shall :

• either deduct from its billing of the campaign an amount corresponding to the shortfall in views on guaranteed videos, or
• if the client accepts, generate additional organic views on new sponsored videos accepted by the client and paid for by Wizdeo

If you'd like to get guaranteed views on your next campaign, let us know !