GRIN is a creator management software platform that offers a creator search of over 38 million influencers that is not an opt-in influencer network. GRIN states they believe that the connection between brand and creator should not have a middle-man, and therefore we take no commission. GRIN creator management platform helps brands to connect directly with creator prospects and manage creator relationships to scale. The eCommerce integration aims to make product seeding, discount codes &…
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Impact
Score 6.2 out of 10
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Impact Radius is a partner management platform from the company of the same name in Santa Barbara, California. The platform touts tag management without technical assistance for marketers, tracking of all media channels for multi-channel and mobile marketing, call tracking for inbound calls, and affiliate / partner program management capabilities. Central to the platform is the Partner Manager, with its pay-for-performance affiliate management capabilities.
The Impact didn't have a custom application form/fields which was a big deal for us. Refersion is great for a smaller affiliate program, but not for the growth that we needed
GRIN is well suited for companies that are seeking an all-in-one solution for influencer program management and place a high value in repurposing UGC for marketing purposes. I would also say that GRIN makes sense for those who are aggressively scaling their influencer program and are planning on having at least 100-150 creators in the program. GRIN would be less appropriate for companies who may not have a large influencer program and are merely seeking to track affiliate link/coupon code performance.
Any publisher looking to monetize their blogs would be a great fit. The size of the publisher probably doesn't matter. They have a wide selection of advertisers and publishers can sign up for free. Advertisers that are looking for great partners for their affiliate programs would be good fits. One of the benefits is that Impact really focuses on recruiting high-quality publishers.
streamlines resources (creator search, emails, Shopify orders, payments, etc) all on one platform
The amount of customization and overall tools - sometimes this feels overwhelming but I'm grateful they are there to build on as I grow my experience with the platform
Creator search tool - doesn't bring up viable creator options, which means we do primarily off-platform seeding.
The landing page is clunky and not functional for reviewing creators - it adds a lot of time to my team's day looking through the creators with the way it's set up.
Email templates have funny formatting, and the typeface always seems to get messed up.
I wouldn't be able to run as high of a profitable or functioning influencer program without it. GRIN seriously is the organizational tool that propels us towards success, it is not in any way going to do the work for you, but it does make the work more efficient, easier, and WAY more organized
The user interface of the platform is very well designed and extremely intuitive. You almost don't need an onboarding process because the workflow is so straightforward. The only item I would mention as a downside is the reporting. In order to get comprehensive reports, you need to go into each individual campaign. There is no aggregated report with all conversions.
Impact has had a major impact on our business. It is pretty easy to use if you don't have multiple accounts with them, so be sure you keep things streamlined. Otherwise, it can be confusing if you have to bounce between different accounts you've applied to. While they are managed under a single login, they can be difficult to distinguish between when trying to see how successful your campaigns are.
We have our own support rep who helped get us set up, and as odd one off questions have come up has continued to support us. The rep is super knowledgeably and has also helped with some creative ways to get what we need. They are also always super fast to help when anything comes up
We've been reaching out requesting support for two months and no one has responded. They completely ghosted us. We've emailed the original sales rep, our account manager, our sales rep and account manager's bosses, and others. Still no response, though I can see the emails have been opened multiple times. I've never experienced worse support.
I don't have any key insights here. If you have someone organized and aware of how the influencer workflow operates then it will be a very easy implementation process for you. I would just ensure you have all of your products setup in Shopify before starting the implementation with Grin.
I was looking around at Dovetale, which connected with Shopify, and although it may be an easy connection because it's within the Shopify website, it isn't as user-friendly. It also doesn't offer the same hands-on experience from the GRIN team, 24/7 customer support, or bi-weekly calls with your direct contact. It just doesn't feel like it's worth it to me for the "convenience."
First promoter has been a phenomenal affiliate platform to use. It has everything I need from a reporting perspective. It has everything I need from a payout perspective. It has all the links, tips, and tools I need for promoting products. Overall it is a far better tool to use
