The Death of the Brand Deal

Is this seriously happening?

A funny (scary) thing is happening.

Brand deals are dying.

I started noticing a change in the influencer space several months back and it’s becoming ever more present week by week.

Here’s what’s happening and where things are shifting in the creator economy…

Are brand deals really dying?

I definitely think so.

I used to see news article after news article in business publications like CNBC, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, and others about new creators emerging and making money online with content creation.

Those stories have slowly started fading away.

I see less people talking about brand deals, in general, and more about related topics like UGC, for example.

And, in my own experience, while brand deals haven’t dried up completely, they are becoming increasingly harder to secure.

It seems like now, only the biggest of the biggest companies are still doing brand deals.

My bread and butter for years has mostly been the smaller brands but, they are shifting their marketing dollars.

Here’s what’s taking over…

Brand deals are being replaced by performance marketing

Performance marketing, aka affiliate marketing is the new player on the field.

The way it works is, you join an affiliate program and they pay you for your performance.

This can vary based on the type of affiliate program they run.

For example, I’m in one affiliate program that pays me 5 bucks per lead. I send people interested in their products to a form they sign up to and the company pays me $5 for each person that signs up.

That makes me $100 to $200 per month passively.

I’m in another affiliate program that pays me per signup. I earn $300 for each person that signs up to a course.

Another awesome source of passive income.

So, instead of brands paying up front for exposure and marketing, they are paying creators based on how well their marketing efforts work.

If you promote a brand on TikTok and your audience isn’t aligned, you may not earn any affiliate commissions or very little.

On the other end of that, if you do have a strong offer that fits your audience, it could turn into a major payday.

One company I affiliate with told me that one of their creators had a viral Instagram post that earned the affiliate $30K in a weekend!

Can you imagine?

What’s better, brand deals or affiliate marketing?

It’s a tie.

Seriously.

I like brand deals because they are generally pretty easy for me to do. I get paid around $1,000 minimum for under an hour of work.

Easy money.

But, they are generally one and done. Sometimes recurring deals can happen but, not back-to-back usually (though I have had back-to-back campaigns before, even over the long-term).

Affiliate marketing is gold for passive income.

Create an Instagram reel today and earn affiliate commissions today, next week, and 3+ months from now.

It’s just really interesting to see where the creator market is going.

UGC has blown up too and brands are more willing to pay a creator $200 for a video that they keep rather than $1,000 to a creator who will own that content and have to lease it back to the brand for usage.

What do you think?

Have you noticed this shift too?

Big creators are safe.

Also, if you become inventive, you can totally adapt.

For example, social creators can turn to blogging.

Mediavine just opened up their ad network to publishers who have 10K views per month, a big change from their 50K minimum that has been in place for years.

Also, LinkedIn blogging is a smart way to pivot. I just secured a $250 brand deal there with around 200 followers!

LinkedIn remains to be one of the highest-paying platforms for creators.

So, no need to panic.

There are plenty of options available including adopting affiliate marketing, which has proven to be pretty lucrative for me.

Do you do brand deals?

What do you think about this?

Want to read more stories like this? Check out my Substack where I talk about side hustles, social media, content creation and business.