Apogee Sponsored Campaigns

Over the past three years, Apogee Agency has evolved from a traditional affiliate marketing agency to a digital marketing agency offering affiliates sponsored campaigns, product reviews, and even long-term ambassadorships. Even with these new offerings, we are still, first and foremost, an affiliate management agency, and we run all campaign opportunities in tandem with the brand’s affiliate program. This means we have different standards and expectations than a typical PR agency, as each campaign’s ultimate goal is sales more than anything else.

Recently there have been a lot of questions about our campaigns since they ARE quite different than PR campaigns that content creators may be used to with other agencies. We designed this page to explain in-depth how we run our campaigns and why they differ from traditional sponsored campaigns.

Compensation

Compensation for our campaigns is not negotiable. Ever. Each month our clients give us a fixed budget along with a set number of creators (i.e., $2,000 for 10 creators = a $200 firm budget, $2,000 for 5 creators = a $400 firm budget). HOWEVER, since all of our campaigns do have the affiliate component, you can make up the difference in what you would usually charge for the deliverables by creating content that converts. 

Many of our affiliates continue to make money from sponsored campaigns they ran with us more than a year ago, and that income has far surpassed their usual sponsored post fee. 

We know not every content creator “does affiliate marketing.” But please understand that Apogee is an affiliate management agency, and our clients expect sales from the campaign. We know not every piece of content will convert, but it is important to understand that conversions are the ultimate goal with Apogee-run campaigns. We hope that the creators we work with SHARE that goal.

Campaign Terms

You must read the ENTIRE campaign offer before applying, as it gives all necessary information—none of which is negotiable. Everything you need to know is in that campaign brief, from deliverables to due dates to campaign themes, requirements, hashtags, tagging instructions, and more. Applying to a campaign means that you AGREE to the terms of the campaign outlined in the brief, including compensation for the set deliverables. 

Unfortunately, we have had several creators apply to a campaign, be accepted, and then try to negotiate the compensation or deliverables. We simply cannot do that. Again, your goal should be to make up any deficit from your usual sponsored rate with sales conversions.As creators ourselves, we want to honor the time it takes you to create the content by giving some compensation upfront, but the ultimate goal is sales. This is the biggest difference between a straight PR campaign and a hybrid affiliate/PR campaign.

Application Process

Every paid campaign has a maximum of 10 spots, and we usually receive well over 100 applications. Apogee does the first pass on applications and then sends the list to the brand for the ultimate decision on participants. We cannot control who the brand chooses, but we do make suggestions based on campaign history and affiliate performance. Completing all your campaigns with us on time and ensuring that content is SEEN and ENGAGED WITH (i.e., CLICKS on your affiliate link!) by your audience goes a long way in being chosen for future campaigns.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, the three main components of being chosen for campaigns are:

• Relevancy of Content: You must have content related to the product or service the campaign highlights. For instance, if it is a campaign for a pet product, your pet must ALREADY have a presence on your social media channels. If it is a migraine product, you need to have ALREADY posted about suffering from migraines. This makes the campaign content look more natural and organic for your audience. And honestly, this is as helpful to YOU as it is to the brand—your audience should know what to expect from you, and a weird one-off sponsored post about a product or service you’ve never talked about before can quickly turn off your audience.
• Engagement Rate: This is huge. Vanity metrics DO NOT MATTER when it comes to being chosen for a campaign. Today’s world is all about engagement. If you have 100,000 followers but only a .01% engagement, you will not be chosen over someone with 10,000 followers and a 2% engagement. That is because the “micro” influencer’s content will be seen by more of their audience. Also, having your engagement “hidden” (even on just ONE post!) tells the brand you have none. If you’re having trouble getting accepted to campaigns, that could be why.
• Frequency of Posting: Social media thrives on content and engagement, so posting content regularly is critical. If you apply for a campaign with an Instagram component in May and your last Instagram post was of your jack-o-lantern, we won’t choose you. Brands are looking for at least 2 feed posts per week, along with active Stories.

Related Article: How To Be Chosen For Sponsored Campaigns

Campaign Timelines

Our campaigns have a VERY tight timeline and run 30-35 days, max. That is why it is important to make sure you are checking your email a minimum of once per day, Monday through Friday. (Also important to note is that the Apogee team only works/answers emails Monday through Friday as well.) Our typical timeline looks something like this:

• Day 1: The campaign launches, is announced in Apogee Insiders and the affiliate program newsletter, and we send invitations out to creators in MAVRCK.
• Day 3: We send the applicant list to the brand for selection.
• Day 5: We send acceptance letters, which give a 24-hour window to confirm & join the affiliate program. Failure to do so means removal from the campaign.
• Day 7: We send all confirmed participants to the brand for product shipment.
• Day 8: Products ship priority with 2- or 3-day shipping.
• Days 10-12: Participants receive products.
• Day 25: Drafts are due; they will be sent to the brand by the end of the day.
• Day 27: Content is returned with edits.
• Day 29: Revised content is due.
• Day 30: Payment request is submitted to the affiliate account, and the campaign is set to close within 5 days.

We submit the applications for selection to the brand about 72 hours after the campaign’s launch, so if you are applying after those 72 hours, no matter how perfect you would be for the campaign, if we have already filled the spots, we cannot choose you. (We have already requested MAVRCK allow us to close the applications. The rule of thumb is that if you see the link more than 3 days after it went live, you are probably too late.)

The Affiliate Program

You MUST join the affiliate program to participate in the campaign. You must join the affiliate program within 24 hours of confirming your participation for the campaign product to be shipped. Failure to do so forces us to drop you from the campaign, as we must submit the products for review in one batch. We cannot hold up the entire campaign for one person.

Please let us know if you have trouble getting approved by ShareASale. We can help get you approved onto the network, but we need to know that is what the holdup is. Communication is key.

Campaign Drafts

When required, drafts are sent to the brand for edits in a single batch the day after they are due. If you do not submit your draft on time, your content is not sent to the brand with the batch who did turn their content in on time. Again, we cannot hold up the campaign for one submission. We have to submit it separately, which may slow down getting the content approved and affect the compensation timeline. We know life happens, but please make sure you turn in content on time.

We can submit for payment once drafts are approved, and ALL the required content is posted. We cannot submit your payment if you are missing any content—even a single social share. Please double-check that your campaign deliverables are all showing in MAVRCK when you post them. If they are not – please send them to your campaign manager immediately. We can add them to the campaign before it closes – but not after!

Campaign Closing and Deliverables

Campaigns close 3-5 days from the final posting date. Any content posted later cannot be compensated. The ship has sailed.

We cannot choose you for another campaign if you have outstanding deliverables in any campaign. This includes product reviews.

Payments

Payments are sent to your affiliate account within 15 days of the campaign’s close and will be paid according to your settings on that platform. For more information on how ShareASale payments are sent, please see this article. 

Want to make more money? Continue creating and sharing content beyond the campaign using your affiliate link. YOU control how much you make from every campaign by presenting the offer to your audience and then continuing to share your link. The average consumer needs to see something more than 10 times before they decide to buy. You can grow your affiliate income and make money over and over again every single month with a little extra effort:

• Continue to share yourself using & loving the product on your social media.
• Write content geared towards search intent for the problem the product solves.
• Create additional content to interlink and support the sponsored post to help with search rankings
• Create Reels, TikToks, YouTube Shorts, Pinterest Pins, etc promoting the brand or your content

I hope this helps and explains more about how and why we do things the way we do here. We are very excited to continue to offer more and more of these hybrid campaigns to all of you and look forward to working together in 2024and beyond!