Three Tips For YouTubers Selecting Talent Agents

Selecting Talent Agents

Over the years, InfluenceLogic has worked with hundreds of talent agents negotiating deals for our brand clients. We have worked with great agents and bad agents. Good agents help find mutually beneficial, long-lasting solutions. Bad agents end up losing their influencer clients’ money. Here are three tips for creators considering hiring a talent agent to help with influencer marketing sponsorship management. 

1. Start Searching When Deal Negotiations Begin to Inhibit Your Ability To Create

The first tip for creators: do not start searching too soon for a talent agent. Great talent agents want to work with creators with meaningful audience size and engagement metrics. If you start your search too soon in your career, you’ll find that only second-tier agents will take your call. So be careful not to jump the gun and enter into a contract with an unproven agent. While there isn’t a perfect view metric, I would suggest starting your search when you are exceeding at least 20,000 views a video. Moreover, don’t start your search until deal negotiations with brands are coming in so frequently that they begin to inhibit your ability to create new content. Your job is to create content. The talent agent’s job is to help you monetize that content with great partnership development. Before you give up managing your brand relationships, be sure adding a talent agent is critical to freeing up time to create content. 

2. Ask Creator Friends If Their Agents Get Them Single Deals or Multi-Video Deals

The best source of talent agent introductions will come from your friends in the industry. I would be highly skeptical of a random outbound email from a talent agency. Instead, ask your friends in the space who they know, like, and trust. From there, ask them this qualifying question: does your agent get you many single video deals with brands? Or do you find that your agent is helping you to get multi-video deals? As a media buyer, I find that 90% of talent agents will do a single video deal with me and then never ask me if I’d like to buy more videos with that same creator. That frustrates me because it indicates that the talent manager has no concept of building lasting relationships with brands. Before you go with your friends’ agents, make sure they are agents that think long-term. 

3. Ask Creator Friends If Agents Source New Deals Or Simply Manage Their Inbox

Along those same lines, I find that many talent agents just manage inbound requests from brands on creators’ behalves. I find that approach to be lazy, and I also find that the 10-15% cut the agent takes is too high for this type of agent. Instead, ask your friends if their talent agent is often searching out for new brand partnerships and reaching out on their behalf. In short, brands do not know ever creator out there. They will do their best to find aligned creators to do a deal, but it might take them years to find your channel. As a media buyer, I love when agents reach out to me and share thoughtful ideas about their talent that might work with the brands we represent. It shows they care, making me feel more confident about buying videos with them.

Share This Article:

Download Our Mobile App

Partner With Us:

Grow Your Revenue with Brand Partnerships

More Posts:

Transforming Digital Media: AI and Content Creation

AI is transforming the digital landscape.

This revolution is not just a passing trend but an evolution that’s here to stay.

By leveraging AI in content creation, businesses and professionals can now produce high-quality material quickly and efficiently. It’s like having your own personal writer who never gets tired or runs out of ideas!

Top 5 Things Influencers Should Know Before Working With Brands

As influencer marketing continues to soar in popularity, brands are increasingly turning to influencers to promote their products or services. This being said, there are several key considerations that influencers should be aware of to ensure a successful and mutually beneficial partnership. In this blog post, let’s explore five crucial things influencers should know before working with a brand.

Understanding the TikTok Algorithm

Understanding the TikTok algorithm can feel like trying to solve a complex puzzle. Some argue that understanding the TikTok algorithm is the key to making it big on TikTok. The difference between blowing up or fading away is grasping how the algorithm works. Let’s explore how you can use the algorithm to your advantage.

Instagram Threads: Twitter’s Rising Competitor

In the rapidly evolving world of social media, Instagram Threads has emerged as a direct competitor to Twitter, aiming to revolutionize how users interact and share content with their inner circles. This standalone app from Instagram presents an interesting challenge to Twitter’s longstanding dominance in the microblogging and real-time communication sphere.

Performance Partnerships
for Creators & Brands