Brands often run creator campaigns as if every brief has the same goal.

But brand awareness campaigns and performance-driven creator campaigns behave completely differently.

And the way you pay for each should match the job you are asking someone to do.

Let’s compare sponsorship deals to hiring for a job.

If you hire someone for a role with no sales target, you give them a fixed salary.

You want reliability, consistency, and a clear output. No commission because there is no expectation of revenue.

Brand awareness campaigns in influencer marketing, podcast sponsorships and YouTube partnerships work the same way.

You are paying a creator for their time, their content production, and the reach and audience trust they have built.

You are not asking them to close sales; you are asking them to represent the brand well and show up consistently.

So a fixed cost brand deal makes complete sense.

The job is predictable, and the incentive structure aligns with the purpose of the campaign.

But when a campaign has sales goals, brands lose out by treating it like a flat-fee job.

If you hire a salesperson with no commission or bonus structure, do you really expect them to care about how many sales they close?

As long as they do enough to keep their job, they won’t really care.

That’s why, when it comes to hiring salespeople, most companies offer security (salary) and upside (commission) because performance requires incentive.

Creators are no different.

A base fee tells them their time is valued.

An affiliate or performance-based commission layer gives them a reason to push harder.

And that is when creators start testing new hooks, integrating your product across multiple touchpoints, posting extra content, and refining messaging based on audience response to maximise your results from the sponsorship deal

They aren’t just fulfilling an ad read anymore. They are trying to win with you.

For top creators, this even extends beyond affiliates into equity-based partnerships.

But that is a whole other conversation…

Brands often get this completely wrong.

They expect maximum performance from a flat-fee deal.

Or they offer affiliate-only and wonder why they cannot attract creators who are big enough to actually move the needle.

The best salespeople are offered comfortable salaries with high upside and uncapped commission.

Low or no salary? They won’t take the job.

Poor or limited commission structure? They won’t try.

Creators behave the same way.

Treat them like salespeople.

Build partnerships where the influencer, podcaster, or YouTuber feels valued for their time and rewarded for overperforming.

You will get more effort, more creativity, and more genuine investment in your success.

And just like confident salespeople, creators who back their ability to convert will often take a reduced fixed fee in exchange for a strong affiliate structure, because the upside outweighs the base.

Awareness campaigns = fixed cost.

Performance campaigns = fixed cost plus affiliate or commission.

Creators behave just like employees.

Their incentives shape their output.

If you want consistency, pay for consistency.

If you want performance, pay for performance.

Give creators security.

Give them upside.

And they will deliver like part of your team rather than someone you booked for a slot.

Need help structuring your influencer, YouTube and podcast advertising campaigns properly?

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