Josh Butowsky, a 10-year influencer marketing veteran who helped build Thrive Market's influencer department and later founded and sold his own direct-response influencer agency, argues that relationship depth beats rate negotiation almost every time. His core claim: brands and agencies rarely hold a meaningful price advantage over each other, so the real edge comes from what you give influencers that nobody else does.
Butowsky says sharing campaign results openly is the single most underused tactic in the industry, and he calls withholding that data a rookie move. When you teach a creator what worked and what did not, like whether the call to action landed or conversions fell short, you earn more talk time, better rates, make-goods, and first-call status when new opportunities open. He also coaches his team to keep literal notes when an influencer does them a favor, so they can reciprocate deliberately.
If you want to know how to negotiate salaries and rates with creators at a level most agencies never reach, this four-minute breakdown shows exactly how.
