💼 Inside the LinkedIn Brand Partnership Game: Your Questions Answered

In partnership with

I don’t always have time to have 1×1s or to respond to every message / comment I get about brand deals (I wish I did!), so I turned a long Uber ride into a Q&A for my LinkedIn followers to hit me with their burning questions about LinkedIn brand deals while I was on the move. The questions were great!

I thought you might enjoy seeing what creators are asking about right now and the real, unfiltered advice I shared.

So… if LinkedIn brand deals have you like 👇️👇️👇️…. read on!

Q: What's the smallest email list size you've seen a brand partner with a creator for? When brands partner with creators or companies for event collaborations, what do they typically look for beyond just audience size? (Raygan Bell)

A: At Creator Match we occasionally do a LinkedIn + Newsletter deal. For newsletters, we typically look for 50k+ subscribers with a 40%+ open rate, but we've done deals with lists as small as 1K when the audience was exactly right! For events, I'm more interested in who attended and whether people post recaps (bonus points if you collect attendee data through surveys).

Q: Is it better to work with brands on one-off posts or offer packages of posts, for example over a 3-month period? (Madison Schott)

A: Always send a multi-post option as well - even if they just ask for a rate for one post.

They might only want to start with one, but whoever is sourcing / managing the campaign wants to save time and the best way to do that is often to work with fewer creators for more posts

Q: What are the best intangible "brand safe" signals creators can send to agencies and brands that they're good partners? Besides reach and engagement, what are potential partners looking for from creators? (Colin Rocker)

A: The biggest indicator to me is when a creator can share one of two things (on top of the data - we still care most about the data lol)
1) Similar content that did well (preferably sponsored)
2) Proof you use / love the product (or if you want to try it, give a compelling reason why)

If you can customize your pitch to them, it shows you’re going to put the work in for the content too

Pitching Nike? You better be including photos of you in your favorite Nike kicks!

Q: What are the rates one should charge based on impressions / followers? (Aimen Moten)

A: This one I unfortunately can’t cleanly answer because it really depends on the niche and campaign objectives, but what I can share is most brands are hoping for a $40 CPM on LinkedI,n so if you calculate your average impressions per post, it’s a good starting point

Brands with broad reach will want a lower CPM (~$25) - brands with a super narrow niche (~$100+)

What I do recommend is to ask them what their goals are, and it will help you decide what to offer and what rate to charge

Q: How do I get brands to notice me? Do I reach out or wait for them? (Aseeyah Shahid)

A: If you don't have inbound interest yet, definitely reach out! Brands can't find you if they don't know you exist. Build relationships by shouting out their products, connecting with their team, and commenting on their content. Show them you're a good partner BEFORE asking for payment!

Q: What are the ideal numbers for Engagement Rate & Followers when using the Creator match tool? (Dellyn Lee)

A: It highly depends on the niche but for engagement rate I like to see anyone below 100k followers with 1% ER or above

Once you clear 100k the ER tends to drop so we look for above 0.5%

For deals, followers typically need to be above 5-10K but sometimes we’ll go down to 2.5k for the right niche

Q: Why do brands say no to LinkedIn creators? (Paige Goldstein)

A: The biggest reason we end up passing on a deal is because creators have larger audiences elsewhere, so the opportunity cost doesn’t align for them at a price that makes sense for both the brand and the creator

For example, if a creator has 1M TikTok followers but only 30k on LinkedIn and doing 100k impressions a month we can’t pay a premium for their LinkedIn content - we have to hit target metrics based on the platform they’re posting on — sometimes it just doesn’t make sense for the creator to do

The 2nd reason is we have to go off the last 28 days of data because LinkedIn changes fast. So if a creator was doing 30 million impressions 3 months ago but only 100k this month we can’t price based on the past performance

Not every deal is right for both the brand and creator, and we want it to be a win win :)

Q: What follower goals should new creators aim for to attract brands? Is there a benefit to having an IRL audience? (Michael Carter Dmin)

A: 2.5k followers can start opening doors, but 5k is the first real target I recommend you strive for, with 10k opening significantly more opportunities. Pro tip for those starting out: If you’re IRL with a strong audience a lot, offer to create content at events on behalf of the brand and share the content on LinkedIn so they can run thought leader ads behind the post - they'll often pay more for this type of package than your follower count might indicate because there’s value in IRL connections and getting ad content.

Want more creator business tips? Hit reply with your questions!

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