How can influencer marketing agencies access data from creator economy platforms?

The changing face of the Creator Economy

Creators are no longer driven solely by the desire to create content.

Content creation has proved itself a lucrative career path, and creators are arming themselves with all necessary skills and resources to stay relevant.

The social media boom has completely redefined the creator ecosystem. What was being governed in the past by a handful of influencers and celebrities, is now being shaped by the rising creator middle class that is ready to experiment outside the traditional social platforms and monetization models.

This brings a fresh set of challenges for influencer marketing platforms since they have been the trusted gateway between brands and creators.

• A rising need to target and profile micro-influencers who were earlier not targeted. Brands are no longer interested in just the top 2% of creators, but also in deploying campaigns with the long-tail of middle-class creators. These creators are more relatable with their content, and help brands build deeper connections with their consumers.
• Tracking multiple platforms for creator content. Creators are not only engaging with their fans on YouTube and Instagram but on many more platforms - TikTok, Twitch, Twitter, Pinterest, Discord, Snapchat, Udemy, Shopify, Patreon, OnlyFans, etc.
• The sheer volume of growing creators (~200M amateurs - source)
• Increase in content formats from images and videos to disappearing posts and short videos.

Changing data needs for Influencer Marketing platforms

The above shifting dynamic can mean a lot for influencer marketing platforms, especially as their customers see them as a trusted source of creator’s information.

But here are some newer challenges that have been emerging for them:

Verifying creator’s identity: With millions of creators showing interest in campaigns, Influencer Marketing platforms should be able to verify that the creator is who they say they are.

Providing authentic data to brands: Getting true and trustworthy data on creators is critical as campaign selection criteria, success parameters, and creator payments rely on it. With a surge in the number of creators and their distribution across newer channels, getting this data has become extremely difficult.

Third-party data agencies and data scrappers have failed influencer marketing platforms time and again:‍

• They are unreliable as many underlying platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, etc. discourage scrapping. Hence high chance that the data quality is irregular

• They provide only publicly visible data but not private information such as post impressions, which is an important metric for many brand engagement/ CPM calculations
• Leave the onus of creator verification to the influencer marketing platforms.
• Do not provide trusted audience demographics directly from the underlying platform as this data is private to the creator. Hence audience profiles are approximations and vary from one third-party provider to another for the same creator
• Data Authenticity can be the true moat for influencer marketing platforms. The more trusted the data, the lesser conflict with brands and creators, which will lead to the better players joining the platform and attracting more brands and creators respectively. This can transition into true network effects.

Solving the data problem for influencer marketing platforms

At Phyllo, we solve this problem for influencer marketing platforms by providing them with the simplest way to get trusted creator data:

• One API across multiple creator platforms
• Almost all the data comes from platform APIs
• Consent-driven and hence access to private data

Solving for data authenticity

Using Phyllo, developers can get access to creators' and independent workers' consented data directly from source platforms (e.g. YouTube, Instagram, Twitch, TikTok, Shopify, Upwork, and more). We work with these platforms and not against them to ensure the data is trustable.

Solving for creator identity

We use the native platform apps that ask for a native platform login from the creator. This ensures that anybody who shares their data knows what they are sharing and there is an automatic verification of the source of data.

Solving for coverage

We cover every leading platform where creators engage their audience including Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Discord, Twitch, YouTube, etc.

We provide various API products to simplify the data needs:

• Identity: Identity API verifies a user's identity and returns unique identifier information about the creator such as name, email id, etc. depending upon the source platform.
• Engagement: Engagement API gives you data about content created by a creator and the reputation of a creator from the source platform (e.g. subscribers, followers, etc.)
• Audience: Audience APIs provide information about their audience’s demographics (age-gender pairs, interests, state/country, etc.)

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Types of Data Available from Creator Economy Platforms

Data is the cornerstone of successful influencer marketing campaigns. Various platforms provide rich insights into the performance of content and engagement with audiences. Key types of data include:

• Engagement Metrics: These include likes, comments, shares, retweets, and other interactions that indicate how well content resonates with an audience. Engagement is a strong indicator of audience interest and content relevance.
• Audience Demographics: Creator economy platforms often provide insights into the demographics of followers, such as age, gender, location, interests, and device usage. Understanding the audience’s profile helps brands target their marketing efforts effectively.
• Content Performance: Platforms track how individual pieces of content perform. This includes video views, impressions, watch time, and click-through rates. Brands can assess which types of content (e.g., videos, posts, stories) resonate best with an audience.
• Growth Metrics: Data on followers and subscriber growth over time helps agencies understand an influencer’s reach and popularity trajectory. Growth is important for long-term brand partnerships.
• Conversion Data: Conversion tracking helps marketers determine how well an influencer’s audience takes action, whether that’s clicking a link, signing up for a service, or purchasing a product.

Why Data is Essential for Optimizing Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Data enables agencies to make informed decisions, allowing them to craft campaigns that resonate with the audience and meet business goals. By analyzing data from creator economy platforms, agencies can:

• Refine Targeting: Data helps agencies pinpoint specific audience segments that are more likely to convert, leading to more efficient targeting.
• Measure ROI: Data allows agencies to track the effectiveness of campaigns, calculating metrics like conversion rates, sales, and customer acquisition costs, ensuring that marketing budgets are being spent effectively.
• Optimize Content Strategy: Data reveals what content formats work best with specific audiences, guiding the creation of future content that drives engagement and performance.

Ways Influencer Marketing Agencies Can Access Data from Creator Economy Platforms

Platform Analytics

Most creator economy platforms offer built-in analytics tools to help influencers track their performance and engagement.

• Overview of Built-In Analytics Tools: Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok provide native analytics dashboards for creators to track content performance. These tools give agencies access to valuable data such as views, engagement rates, audience demographics, and follower growth. Agencies can use these insights to gauge the success of campaigns and optimize strategies in real time.
• Metrics Available: Commonly available metrics include engagement rates (likes, comments, shares), follower demographics (age, location, gender), content performance (views, impressions, video completion rates), and growth metrics (follower/subscriber count over time). These built-in tools provide a clear, easy-to-understand snapshot of influencer performance.

Third-Party Influencer Marketing Platforms

Third-party platforms consolidate data from multiple creator economy platforms, providing a more comprehensive view.

• Tools like Upfluence, Traackr, and Influencity: These platforms aggregate data from various social networks, providing agencies with a centralized hub for influencer discovery, campaign management, and reporting. They offer advanced analytics features, allowing agencies to access cross-platform data and compare influencer performance in a standardized format.
• Benefits of Centralized Analytics and Cross-Platform Reporting: Using third-party tools enables agencies to evaluate influencers across multiple platforms and track performance in one place. It simplifies data management, reduces fragmentation, and makes it easier to measure ROI across various channels.

API Integrations with Creator Economy Platforms

Platform APIs provide deeper access to data by allowing agencies to pull specific insights directly from creator economy platforms.

• Accessing Data through Platform APIs: APIs like the Instagram Graph API and YouTube Data API enable agencies to extract data beyond the native analytics available. By leveraging APIs, agencies can create custom reports and pull more granular data, such as follower activity, engagement trends, and video-specific insights.
• Benefits of Deeper, Customized Insights: APIs offer greater flexibility and control over the data, allowing agencies to tailor their analysis based on specific campaign needs. Agencies can also integrate API data into their internal systems or custom dashboards, making data analysis more seamless.

Custom Dashboards and Analytics Tools

Agencies can create custom analytics dashboards to aggregate and visualize data from various sources in one place.

• Tools like Google Data Studio, Tableau, and Power BI: These tools allow agencies to pull in data from multiple platforms and create customized visualizations and reports. For example, an agency might create a dashboard that consolidates Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok data, enabling them to compare performance across platforms easily.
• Aggregating and Visualizing Data from Multiple Platforms: Custom dashboards make it easier to track influencer performance across multiple creator economy platforms in a single view. These tools also help in visualizing trends, audience demographics, and engagement metrics, facilitating more informed decision-making.

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