How To Negotiate With Amazon Influencers [EXAMPLES]

Usually but not always, Amazon Influencers will be able to present some sort of a rate card or media kit that shows their suggested rates and content packages. 

Some Amazon Influencers may stick to those rates.

But not all.

At the end of the day, both sides are conducting business and many will be open for negotiation.  

That said, there are a few key details you should have worked out prior to a negotiation with an Amazon Influencer.

Key Details To Work Out Before Negotiating

• Know exactly what type of content and how much of it you want from the influencer.
• Know how long you intend to partner with the Amazon Influencer.
• Know your campaign structure.  Would you like to get included on a top 10 article, then have them do an op-ed review for you, then do regular giveaways and coupon codes for their audience throughout the year?
• Make sure you have a Brand Identity Kit with your logo, talking points, product images, awards, certifications, videos & more ready to send to the Amazon Influencer so they can make the best content possible.

What’s more, you will want to know How To Evaluate Amazon Influencers before discussing compensation for content.

Here are the most effective negotiation tactics and strategies to use when negotiating with Amazon Influencers. 

1) Free Product For Content

This is the most simple negotiation tactic with Amazon Influencers.

Many Nano-Influencers and Micro-Influencers may be interested in trading content for products.

One item of note, it may not be a large piece of content such as a dedicated YouTube video or a long-form Op-Ed style blog post, but something within reason is certainly on the table.

If you attempt to work with someone on YouTube or Amazon Live but their rates are a little higher than you’re interested in paying, perhaps they also have an audience on TikTok or Instagram where you can get a meaningful piece of content in exchange for a free product.  

What’s more, you can sweeten the deal by offering more free products on a regular basis to be used as a giveaway to their audience.  

2) Pay For Performance

Offer the Amazon Influencer a fair and reasonable percentage of what they are asking for the content you are looking for.

Then, ask the Amazon Influencer to share their Amazon Associates Dashboard with you at the end of the month to see how many sales they contributed.

Or, you can provide the Amazon Influencer your own Attribution link so you can see the sales attributed to this Influencer.

This would make you eligible for the Brand Referral Bonus Program.

Going this route would prevent the Amazon Influencer from earning commission from Amazon, so you would need to replace this.

Set a fair goal and if they meet the said goal, offer to kick in an extra percentage above what they were asking for. 

You could also mix negotiation tactics here.

For example, if they meet the goal, you could match their commission. 

If they earn 5% commission for their product category, you can contribute another 5% on top of each sale they made. 

That would double their commission.

3) Pay Half Upfront and Half After Delivery

If you’re concerned about an ethical transaction or if the quality of the content would meet your expectations, offer to pay 50% to start the project and then 50% once the deliverable has been completed.

This is a great tactic for one-off pieces of content in an ad-hoc campaign.

This wouldn’t be ideal for an ongoing campaign.  

4) Negotiate Rights Usage (Only Purchase Content For One or a Few Platforms)

One way of getting a more economical price when negotiating with Amazon Influencers is to only request the rights for one or a few platforms.

For example, let’s say that you partner with the Amazon Influencer on getting included in an op-ed style product review blog post.  

Typically, the content they would create, such as the images would also be able to be used on your own social media, email list and elsewhere.

In this case, you could negotiate with the Amazon Influencer to let them keep all of the content with no other usage rights other than being included in the review. 

5) Commission Match

A very popular negotiation tactic with Amazon Influencers is commission matching.

Amazon will likely never release API’s that let software like Referazon know how many sales came from a particular Amazon Influencer, but Amazon Influencers can let brands know this.

Brands can ask the Amazon Influencer to share a screenshot of their Amazon Associates Dashboard reflecting the sales they contributed of your product.

From there, you can offer to match the commission they receive.

For example, if they make 4% for each sale of a product in your product category, you will offer to add 4% on top of their 4%.  

Instead of asking them to share a screenshot of their earnings, you could offer them your own Amazon Attribution link and then let them know you’d give them their commission and then in essence double it by adding on top of it if they’re willing to use your Attribution link instead of their own Affiliate link.

6) Package Deals For Content

After looking at The Best Amazon Influencer Marketing Campaign Examples Amazon Influencer Marketing The Complete Guide and also Amazon Influencer Examples, you’ll likely have an idea of the different types of content you’d like to have to promote your brand.

What’s more, you will also know that working with Amazon Influencers in a one-off capacity typically doesn’t bring in a steady flow of external traffic to Amazon, which helps you rank in Amazon SEO.

So, with that said, offer to buy in bulk and inquire about a bulk discount.

You can spread the content you receive from them out over a year-long campaign or more.  

For example, you could ask to be included in a top 10 YouTube Video, then a haul video, a product review and an unboxing and even to be included in a blast out to their email list. 

7) Commit To A Long Term Relationship

You are likely seeking a long-term mutually beneficial relationship with your Amazon Influencer partnerships, so let them know that up front.

The comfort level you get on both sides is extremely valuable.

That said, when negotiating with an Amazon Influencer, let them know up front that you’re looking for a long-term relationship spread over possibly years that could grow and see if they’d be willing to adjust the upfront payment required to partner with them on content.

8) Exchange Professional Services for Content

For this one, it is also known as bartering.

Your brand may be particularly suited to offering something that your Amazon Influencer would need.

Perhaps it could be, that the Influencer is getting married soon and you offer free products as gifts for the bridesmaids and groomsmen.  

Or, you could offer the services of your team to help them with a project they’re working on.  

The key here is to think creatively.

9) Offer Them Their Own Line of Your Product For Promotion

As a brand, you know how to source, manufacture and produce products.  

You also know how to list and launch products on marketplaces like Amazon.

This is not an area of expertise for Amazon Influencers.

Offer to give them their own line of your products that features their name, slogan, or their branding in exchange for them promoting the line.

10) Trade Content for Ad Spend (Advertise the content they made for you, driving traffic to them)

The shoe company All Birds made this ultra-popular several years ago.

Here’s how it works.

You get included in an Op-Ed style review.   

Then, instead of simply relying on whatever traffic that Amazon Influencer has on a monthly basis, or people finding the content via searches, you amplify the content.

You would run Native Advertising style ads to the piece of content.

You would ask the Amazon Influencer to be included in the content for free or a very low cost, perhaps free product, then you would pay for the ad traffic to the piece of content which lives on their website.

Then, customers would see your glowing review and click over to your Amazon Product Listings to buy. 

This tactic is called Content Amplification.

You can see it in action here from All Birds.

All Birds partnered with the popular product review website Reviewed.com on this piece of content.

NOTE:  See the title?  “The Internet Is Obsessed With AllBirds Sneakers – Are They Worth It?” — This could have been titled “AllBirds Sneakers Review” but instead, they partnered on a click-worthy Op-Ed style review that increases the perceived value of the brand instead.

As you can imagine, this is a very glowing review.

So, instead of running ads directly to their website or Amazon Product Listings, All Birds amplified this Op-Ed style review by running Native ads to it like this:

This is an ad inside the popular topic and news aggregation app called Flipboard.

See the Sponsored tag at the bottom?  It’s sponsored by All Birds, not Reviewed.com.

This is a very smart tactic.

All Birds is making sure before the customer is sent to their product page, they are pre-sold and pre-staged first, then by the time they visit the product page, they are ready to buy thus increasing their conversion rates. 

It’s ingenious.