In today's post, we are sharing a case study from Dennis White, an eCommerce brand owner who was able to generate over $1 500 000 in sales from his eCommerce brand in 2020 using influencer marketing.
In this case study, we are going in-depth on how he was able to scale the brand. We are covering every step, from how he was able to book the influencers for the first promotion, to how he was able to scale with multiple influencers.
The case study is mainly going to help out if:
- you're currently looking for influencers to book;
- you're reaching out to influencers;
- your Facebook ad account's disabled, and you are looking for an alternative channel which obviously for a lot of marketers are going through right now;
- you're looking for another way for being able to drive profitable traffic;
- you're already scaling with influencers and already doing well you'll be able to get some good tips for being able to scale.
Brief Details
With this $1 500 000 scale, Dennis used two stores for the same product, here is the breakdown.
- He worked on one store which generated a revenue of $1 040 853 from 15th March to 31st December 2020.
- He outsourced the second store to a YouTube marketing agency that brought in $467 000 in sales by the end of December 2020.
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Let's dive into this article...
Choosing the Product
For this brand, Dennis chose a product that was proven to work. His friend had done $48 000 in sales with it and shared it with him. He then went on to create his own brand with the same product and created the online store.
Finding and Contacting YouTubers
To find the YouTube influencers to work with, Dennis simply went on YouTube and searched, basically by looking up certain keywords for the niche of the product. Then, he selected and created a spreadsheet of the big influencers who could drive the most traffic and make the most money.
Testing the Strategy
Dennis found one small YouTube influencer in the same niche, who he used as a testing ground to prove the concept. This was done before scaling into higher budgets with the big guys.
The influencer had about 10 000 subscribers, and Dennis paid $1 000 for a promotional video. It was then created and uploaded.
Once the first video started bringing in sales, Dennis decided to go ahead and book a bigger influencer.
Working with the Big YouTube Influencers
Dennis reached out to one of the big influencers who he had listed before in a spreadsheet and negotiated for a promotional video.
They settled for the fee of $4 000 after negotiations. The $4 000 was for the integration of both a YouTube video and an Instagram story.
The video of the big influencer went up and in about 1 month and a half, it made $22 000 in sales.
"That's really the way that YouTube works. First, prove the concept with a smaller influencer, then go to a bigger influencer,” Dennis explains.
Another Video
The video did $22 000 in sales, but Dennis needed another one to get more sales. He then paid for another video from the same influencer, and within 3 and a half weeks it was up.
The second video from the big influencer made about $60 000, which made the revenue turn out to over $80 000 after the two videos. With only an $8 000 ad spend, he got a ROAS of 10x, which was crazy.
Scaling Further with More Big Influencers
Working with the first big influencer was profitable enough to prove that his concept works, and it was time to scale fast. Dennis went ahead to book other big influencers and negotiated "exclusivity" terms. This was to keep away other people trying to compete with the brand that he was scaling.
"Exclusivity pretty much means, they sign a contract saying that you're the exclusive brand that they'll promote for this specific thing. That protects you from people trying to copycat. That is what I did to secure the influencers. Because when you're scaling, you're getting millions of views per video. You have to protect yourself in that way."
That's what he did for the first store that did a little over $1 000 000 by the end of 2020. By March 2021, the store was at almost $1 200 000 in sales.
The Second Store
The second store did $467 000 in sales, but it was produced by a marketing agency. The agency was owned by a Youtuber, who was doing the videos and managing all the marketing work by doing the videos. So, it's still influencer marketing. The $467 000 came within the same window of time. From the beginning of April to the end of December 2020.
It was more of a partnership, therefore he wasn't paying the Youtuber directly, but they worked together on the second store since they were good friends. They were able to maximize out the YouTuber's audience well.
Key Points
- When it comes to launching a product with influencers, it's very easy to see who's actually going to make you the money.
- You do not want to get trapped in trying to find influencers all day. Depending on the product, it's simple to find who's going to make you the most money. It's typically the people who most of the YouTube algorithm. Same thing with Instagram.
- You need to spot influencers who have built a strong community in the niche of your product. This way, you're able to tap into that community.
- Aim for YouTubers who look like they have already made money from their audience. Pay them their fee, and they'll be able to generate sales for your brand.
The whole point is to tap in with someone who already has a good audience. Pay them to maximize their traffic and then scale in with multiple influencers doing the same thing.
For example, here is another big influencer who Dennis worked with and made over $120 000 in sales. He promoted a discount offer which resulted in $97 000 in net sales after the discounts.
This influencer got paid $4 000 per video and one of the videos he created went so viral.
It got over 4 500 000 views at the time and made over $54 000 in sales from a $4 000 ad spend. That growth in views and sales took about six months. Therefore, earning more than 13x of his expenditure on the single video promotion.
He then went further to make multiple 6 figures, other big influencers in the same way.
Tips on working with YouTube Influencers from Dennis
- Always start with a small influencer on YouTube, the ones with 10 000 to 100 000 views. Once you prove that your product works in that niche, look ahead for the big influencers that get views of over 100 000 to millions and negotiate a deal.
- Another thing to note is that you don't have to saturate the influencer too fast. The idea is to saturate the influencer's capacity, but you have to be a bit safe with how many times you run the promotions. If you run too many times in a month, it could actually ruin the profit.
- Also, do not overspend on the influencers because the results are always random. You won't predict the exact number of views and ROAS easily, especially if you have never made a promotion with that influencer.
Conclusion
The advantage of running promotions with YouTube influencers is that the videos are up forever. This means that one YouTube video can always get you sales for many, and months after the video is uploaded
Whenever you run a promotion with a YouTuber, sometimes you might not be profitable immediately in the first 2-3 weeks, which is usually against everyone's expectations. But once the video starts getting traction, you will see the big ROAS after 1-2 months.
This reason makes YouTube influencer promotions much better than the popular Instagram influencer stories model. Instagram stories are up for only 24 hours, and you will earn within that specific time while YouTube videos will make you money for a very long time.
