Best Gaming Influencer Marketing Platforms To Use in 2022

Like it or hate it, almost every industry has used influencer marketing in recent years, and the gaming industry is no different. As a result, influencer marketing platforms have become extremely important, especially in the last two years.

Let’s face it, social media has been one of the most impactful inventions in the last three decades. Almost 48% of the world’s population is active on at least one social media platform, be that Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Twitch, to name just a few.

But people don’t just follow and interact with their friends, they also use social media to find meaningful content: in fact, 54% of users also follow their favorite brands and celebrities they admire. Besides, in the first quarter of 2021, fans around the world watched around 8.8 billion hours of video game live streams — a nearly 180% increase over the same timeframe the previous year. So, it’s no wonder that influencer marketing is becoming one of the most effective ways to promote video games, while the gaming influencers are becoming a sort of kingmakers.

And regardless of you’re a gamer looking to break into influencer marketing, or a gaming brand looking for an influencer to work with, influencer marketing platforms are a great solution to reducing the time spent in connecting – time you can rather use to optimize your campaigns.

What is influencer marketing?

The influencer marketing definition states that this is a type of marketing that focuses on partnering with people who are active on social media and have a large and engaged number of followers. And this includes from bloggers to celebrities and anyone in between.

When speaking about influencers, we can identify four categories:

• Nano-influencers – influencers with less than 1,000 followers; typically, they have immense knowledge influence in an extremely specific niche;
• Micro-influencers – influencers with 1.001- 40.000 followers; generally speaking, they are ordinary everyday people who have become known for their knowledge about one or some specific niches;
• Macro-influencers – influencers with 40.001 – 1 million followers; this group tends to include two types of people: smaller celebrities and successful online experts;
• Mega-influencers influencers with over 1 million followers. These are often (but not limited to) celebrities who have gained their fame outside of social media

Quick overview of the influencer marketing landscape

• according to Influencer Marketing Hub, the influencer marketing estimated market size was $9.7 billion in 2020, and it was expected to reach $13.8 billion in 2021

• HypeAuditor stated that nano-influencers with less than 5,000 followers have the highest engagement rates (5%); this decreases as the number of followers grows, leading to an engagement rate of 1.6% (of celebrities);

• according to the same study, 47.3% of influencers are micro-influencers with 5,000 – 20,000 followers on their biggest social media platform. They are followed by mid-tier influencers (26.8%) and nano influencers (18.74%);
• as micro-influencers have higher engagement, it’s no wonder that marketers and brands are more interested in working with them than with traditional celebrities;
• Statista states that almost 84% of all social media influencers are women compared to just 16% of men
• 97% of marketers consider Instagram the most important influencer marketing channel, followed by Facebook (79%), YouTube (45%), and Twitter (35%)
• Twitter estimates that 49% of the users made a purchase based on an influencer recommendation

Influencer marketing benefits

Influencers are influencers for a reason, and they hold a lot of sway over their followers. Here are the top three benefits of working with gaming influencers:

Increase Reach and Traffic

Here’s the thing about video game influencers – they have the power for engaging audiences during video game streams. If they appear in your videos and/or create content about your game, you gain traction.

So, rely on the ability of the influencers to connect with the audience and you will see good results coming their way.

Capitalize on the “Influence”

Regardless of the industry, influencers are opinion leaders who exercise a sense of influence over their audience. Therefore, what they say about a brand or a game can have a huge impact and even change the way their audiences view or buy a product.

Working with gaming influencers will not just bring your brand in front of their audiences but could also help you to expand your fan base and turn them into customers.

Drive Audience Engagement through Multiple Touchpoints

Gaming influencers can be invaluable when you release a new video game or gaming-related products through downloads, purchases, and promotional marketing. By working with gaming influencers, you have a chance to reach your target audience through multiple touchpoints.

Now that you understand what means to work with a gaming influencer, let’s move on to the next step – how to find gaming influencers? Here are ten gaming influencer marketing platforms that will help you meet your goals.

Top 10 influencer marketing platforms

1. Upfluence

Upfluence is a self-service influencer marketing platform that targets companies looking to boost their content marketing strategies with the help of influential bloggers in their specific industry. It allows you not just to connect with owners of high-ranking blogs but also with writers that have long-standing relationships with online news outlets.

Channels: Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Twitch, and Tiktok.

Pricing: not public

Pros: Upfluence is an all-in-one tool/software that easily helps manage your influencer marketing campaign in terms of search, emailing, and monitoring. Its ease of use and accuracy are the most mentioned pros according to users.

Cons: As it is a pretty expensive influencer marketing tool, it’s not too affordable for small businesses. Another issue could be the database which, some customers say is not big enough, so it could happen not to always find the right influencer you are looking for.

2. Izea

Izea is one of the most popular influencer marketing platforms on the market. It has been around since 2006 and operates the leading influencer marketing exchange with 4M+ creators. So, if your company is looking for the best suite of services, this could be your choice. Another benefit is their pricing plan, which starts at a light option and allows you to upgrade for more features.

Channels: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, WordPress, and numerous other blogs.

Pricing: starting at §149/month

Pros: IZEA offers all the benefits of an established influencer marketplace, including all the premium features of a Campaign Management and Influencer Relationship Management tool, and great analytics.

Cons: You’ll need to invest the time into mastering the platform to take advantage of all it has to offer.

3. CreatorIQ

CreatorIQ is a gaming influencer marketing platform that seeks to make influencer marketing easier and reduce problems like inflated reach metrics, follower fraud, and inauthentic influencers. It has the most robust suite of APIs and integrations in the industry, including business intelligence, first-party data, productivity and project management, measurement, e-commerce, and CRM.

Channels: TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitch, Blogs

Pricing: not public

Pros: CreatorIQ includes many great features designed to ease your workflow. It has a huge database of creators and provides you with all the needed information about them and you can check their authenticity, automates everything you have to do manually, so it simplifies the workflow you need to get the maximum results you seek.

Cons: The platform may not be useful for smaller businesses, and also it doesn’t provide much information about the software if you are not a user. If you want to understand what the platform is about, you need to sign up and watch a short demo video.

4. Grin

Grin is one of the best gaming influencer marketing platforms because they understand the value that influencers bring to the table. This platform makes it easy to integrate all of your favorite marketing tools (from social platforms to eCommerce solutions to communication tools), manage your influencers, create tracking links for commissions, and more.

Channels: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube

Pricing: custom

Pros: Grin offers email marketing, SMS, and Slack, making it easier to reach Generation Z where they are. The platform also includes a lookalike tool so you can find new creators who are similar to your top-performing influencers. If you’re interested in getting the most out of your influencer content, you can automatically pull influencer content and user-generated content into a single location, making it easy to find, track, and repurpose your content as you see fit.

Cons: most of the users considered the lack of pricing transparency and the automated payment tools to be the most upsetting issues.

5. #paid

If you’re looking for something outside the traditional models of influencer marketing, #paid might be for you. This was the first platform to target influencer marketing campaigns to different segments of sales and marketing funnels. Like Grin, #paid understands that influencers grew and nurtured their audience by creating and sharing content that resonates with them and adding value. This gaming influencer marketing platform seeks to pair brands with influencers based on their goals and the scope of their project.

Channels: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok

Pricing: starting at $299/month

Pros: #paid allows you to use Whitelisted Ads, where specific creators and content for paid Facebook ads and Instagram ads are whitelisted. Then, brands can connect with Facebook Ads Manager to push those ads to their timelines and feeds using the creator’s name. This makes the content look more authentic because, while it will still be tagged as a sponsored post, the content doesn’t come from the brand’s own account.

Cons: There is an exclusivity clause that prohibits brands & influencers from taking their relationship off of the platform for 12 months since their last campaign agreement, or by paying an opt-out fee.

6. TalkWalker

Talkwalker is a social data analytics software company that includes an influencer marketing platform that can use to connect with gaming influencers who fit your needs. In addition, it provides you with the necessary tools needed to track the impact those influencers have on your marketing campaigns.

You can use Talkwalker to identify influencers and dig deeper into social data to find new ways to collaborate and connect. The platform uses high-quality data with more than 50 filters to make it fast and easy for brands to find the insights they need to drive marketing success.

Channels: Twitter, Blogs

Pricing: starting at $9,600/year

Pros: Talkwalker is incredibly customizable. Once you’ve had a proper demo/training on this tool, honestly the sky is the limit with what you can do.

Cons: The tool isn’t the most intuitive or user-friendly, but with proper training, you will quickly learn how to use it. In addition, it’s a bit pricy for small businesses.

7. Mavrck

Mavrck is one of the full-service influencer marketing platforms with more than 10 million micro-influencers and 102+ million social profiles. Compared to other influencer marketing platforms, Mavrck is playing by different—and innovative—rules. Instead of helping you to find influencers that fit your brand, it helps you to find actual customers and turned them into influencers. If you think a bit, this is a perfectly normal approach, because typically you would like to work with someone who has already demonstrated an affinity for your game and has a large following.

Channels: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, Blogs

Pricing: Custom

Pros: the platform includes 20 powerful search filters, all part of a thoroughly programmatic approach to all aspects of influencer marketing. You can manage influencers easily through automated workflows and have an easy incentive management tool.

Cons: Limited ways to filter and sort influencers.

8. Neoreach

 

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