1stCollab: Revolutionizing Influencer Marketing with Automation

Influencer marketing has taken the digital world by storm, but launching a successful influencer campaign is a time-consuming and tedious process. 1stCollab, a San Francisco-based start-up, has come up with an AI-powered influencer marketing platform that streamlines the entire process and helps brands achieve 10x better performance. Let's dive deeper into what 1stCollab is and how it works.

What is 1stCollab, and how does it work?

1stCollab is a platform that helps brands launch influencer marketing campaigns in under 30 minutes by automating the process. The platform leverages machine learning and prior campaign data to help brands find the right creators to work with, vet their audience, evaluate past partnerships, negotiate rates and contract terms, review creatives, report out campaign metrics, and finally submit payments. All a brand needs to do is identify a single relevant creator and use 1stCollab's influencer look-alike discovery tool to identify, vet, and save additional influencers they'd like to work with. The platform supports campaigns on all platforms and currently supports YouTube, with plans to launch for Instagram and TikTok soon.

Why is influencer marketing hard?

Influencer marketing is one of the most efficient ways to reach and acquire new customers, but it's also one of the most time-consuming and tedious processes. Launching an influencer campaign takes weeks, while launching Google ads takes just minutes. Finding the right creators to work with is the first step of every influencer campaign, and it often takes over 50 hours per campaign. Existing solutions cost tens of thousands of dollars and operate off inaccurate data. As a result, most influencer marketers spend hours manually searching on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. They then have to manually calculate stats, vet a creator's audience, evaluate past partnerships, negotiate rates and contract terms, review creatives, report out campaign metrics, and finally submit payments. This whole process often takes 2+ weeks for a single campaign.

How does 1stCollab solve these challenges?

1stCollab automates the entire influencer marketing process, allowing brands to launch a campaign in under 30 minutes. The platform uses machine learning to identify and vet relevant creators and evaluates past partnerships and audience data to ensure that the chosen creators are a good fit for the brand's goals. By automating this process, 1stCollab eliminates the need for brands to spend hours manually searching for creators and evaluating their audience data. The platform also handles all negotiations and contracts, ensuring that the brand gets the best rates and terms. Additionally, 1stCollab provides metrics and analytics on campaign performance, allowing brands to optimize their campaigns and get the best ROI.

Who are the founders of 1stCollab?

1stCollab was founded in 2022 by a team of five experienced professionals, each with a background in social media and influencer marketing. Varun Bansal, Carina Cater, Leon Lin, Andrew Liu, and one other team member have a combined experience of over 25 years in the industry. Varun Bansal worked at Pinterest, where he was a product manager for the homefeed recommendations team, the international growth team, and the creator engagement and community teams. Carina Cater worked at startups like Whatnot, Robinhood, & Curology, where she built & led influencer marketing programs. Leon Lin was previously at Pinterest for over nine years, where he was responsible for user engagement and was a tech lead on the Recommendations team. Andrew Liu was a Tech Lead on search and recommendations at Coupang and Pinterest.

What sets 1stCollab apart from other influencer marketing platforms?

1stCollab stands out from other influencer marketing platforms because it offers an all-in-one solution for finding, vetting, and managing micro-influencers at scale. Here are a few reasons why 1stCollab is different:

Automated Influencer Discovery and Outreach
1stCollab's AI-powered platform automates the process of finding and vetting influencers. Instead of spending hours manually searching for relevant influencers, you can use their influencer look-alike discovery tool to quickly identify and save influencers that fit your brand and target audience. Their algorithm takes into account various factors, such as engagement rates, follower demographics, and past performance to ensure that you're working with the best possible creators for your campaign. They also handle all outreach, negotiation, and contract management on your behalf, making it easy to launch and manage campaigns.

Micro-Influencer Focus
1stCollab focuses exclusively on micro-influencers, which are creators with a smaller following of 10k to 100k followers. While macro-influencers may have more reach, micro-influencers often have higher engagement rates, which can lead to better ROI for your influencer marketing campaigns. Working with micro-influencers also allows you to reach a more targeted audience and generate more authentic content. 1stCollab's platform makes it easy to work with multiple micro-influencers simultaneously, allowing you to scale your campaigns quickly and efficiently.

Cost-Effective Campaigns
Because 1stCollab specializes in working with micro-influencers, their campaigns are typically more cost-effective than campaigns run on other influencer marketing platforms. By automating the process of finding and vetting influencers, 1stCollab is able to offer competitive rates for their services. They also provide transparent pricing, so you know exactly how much you'll be paying for each influencer post.

Multi-Platform Support
1stCollab's platform supports campaigns on all major social media platforms, including YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Their self-serve discovery tool currently supports YouTube, and they're planning to launch for Instagram and TikTok soon. This makes it easy to run cross-platform campaigns and reach a wider audience with your influencer marketing efforts.

Quick Turnaround Time
1stCollab's platform allows you to launch a campaign in under 30 minutes, which is significantly faster than other influencer marketing platforms. By automating the process of finding and vetting influencers, they've streamlined the campaign launch process, making it easy to get campaigns up and running quickly.

Conclusion

In summary, 1stCollab is an innovative influencer marketing platform that offers an all-in-one solution for finding, vetting, and managing micro-influencers at scale. Their platform is designed to be cost-effective, efficient, and easy to use, making it a great option for brands looking to get started with influencer marketing. With their focus on micro-influencers, multi-platform support, and automated discovery and outreach, 1stCollab is poised to become a leader in the influencer marketing space. If you're looking to take your influencer marketing campaigns to the next level, 1stCollab is definitely worth checking out.