In the first part of our Definitive Guide to KOL Marketing in China, we’ve gone over how you as a brand should think about who is the right KOL for your brand. The obvious next step is to figure out where you can find these KOLs that will resonate well with your brand and how to determine a fair compensation for their endorsement of your product or brand.
Where to Find KOLs in China
The KOL market in China is crazy. I know it may sound odd to consider KOLs in China as a market but it definitely is a market. In fact, because it is so lucrative to become a KOL in China there are literally thousands of people trying to become a KOL every single day.
This causes a major problem for a brand looking to work with KOLs in China. While, it is actually very easy to find KOLs to work with because there are so many of them, but at the same time the sheer number of KOLs makes it hard to find credible and quality KOL that will resonate with your brand, products, or services.
On top of that, there is no clear-cut way to find KOLs in China, the only ways we know of are as follow:
KOL Events
Since everyone in China wants to become a KOL there are very large annual events dedicated for KOLs to learn about KOL market trend and how to become a KOL in China. If you’re looking for bulk KOLs to work with, KOL event is a good place to start.
KOL Agencies
There are many agencies in China that work with KOLs exclusively. These are essentially model agencies but for KOLs. Chances are if you want to become a KOL in China you’ll likely join one of these agencies to learn about how to succeed as a KOL and get paid.
Monitor Social Media
Finally, you can always monitor the popular Social Media networks in China for KOLs that will be a good fit for your brand or products. The challenge, however, is this could be an extremely time-consuming process.
How to Determine a Fair Compensation for Your KOL
There are a lot of talks about being careful to financially compensate a KOL (influencer) in the west. The belief for many influencer marketers is that the KOL should endorse your product out of their love and passion for your product, and you should compensate them with a giveaway, a pad on the back but not money.
This is might work in the west, but in China, you can almost forget about it. Actually, even in the west most KOLs with large follower counts expect to be compensated financially if they’re going to actively endorse your product.
Some KOLs in the west may choose not to be paid to endorse any products because their primary niche is to review products on YouTube or on their own personal blog. Being compensated with money would be a conflict of interest between them and their viewers and would cause them to lose credibility, followers, and fans.
But for a most half decent KOLs, they will expect to be compensated even if they love your products. And remember the idea of influencer is nothing new, celebrities have been doing it since the beginning of the cinematic times. Do you think an A-list celebrity is going to endorse a product only because they love it and don’t expect to be compensated financially?
Of course not, in fact, many celebrities have an exclusive contract with brands and are not even allowed to endorse, mention or promote your product even if they love to. Besides, any experienced celebrities know that their influential power and their audience could be worth millions for brands looking to increase their brand awareness and it is highly unlikely they’re going to give away their time and audience for free.
Now, of course, some celebrities may endorse a product because it carries good cause that the celebrity believes in themselves, but even then, often the celebrity will except to be compensated for their time.
So, you absolutely need to compensate the KOLs, the real question is how much or with what. But, unfortunately, there is a simple straightforward answer to this question as influencer or KOLs will have different ways that they want to be compensated to endorse your products.
The only way for a brand figure what a fair compensation would be for a particular KOL is to measure a few KPI (key performance indicator). Here are the 4 KPI we look at when we want to determine what a fair compensation should be for any particular KOLs in China.
Followers or Subscriber
Follower counts are usually always the first KPI a brand should look at when it comes to measuring compensations to pay a KOL. Generally speaking, the more follower a KOL have the more the KOL will expect to be compensated to endorse or promote your product.
However, keep in mind that follower counts can be faked or purchased, so follower counts should not be the only determining factor for compensation.
Views Per Content
Views are another good KPI to look at for measuring KOL compensation. Views can be the number of views on a particular WeChat article, Weibo article, or Youku video. Like followers, the more views per content the more a KOL will except to be compensated.
Just remember with views you’re really looking for consistency of view counts. A KOL with 10,000 views on one content but only 400 views on all the rest of their content is only worth the 400 views, not the 10,000.
Like, Shares and Comments Per Content
Like, shares and comments are KPI that measure the engagement level of that KOL and in my opinion, the more engagement a KOL has with his/her content the more they should be compensated.
Unlike followers and views, likes, shares, and comments measure real user engagements with the KOL. It also indicates that the KOL’s follower like, trust, and find the KOL creditable which are very important KPI to consider when you’re trying to figure out how much to compensate your KOL.
带货效果
Daihuo(带货) Xiaogou(效果) is a term used in China to describe the KOLs ability to “sell products”. This is actually an extremely important KPI to look at when deciding what would be a fair compensation to pay your KOL.
Ideally, a KOL with 100 followers that will all buy your product is better than a KOL with 1,000 followers but only 1 of them will buy your product. Of course, ideally, you would want some kind of balance. Just do the math to see whether the KOL’s ability to Daihuo out weights his lack of follower counts, views, and engagement.
In someway working with KOLs in China is more of an art than exact science. Even with all 4 KPIs mentioned above, you’ll still have to carefully consider what your end objective is working with this particular KOL as a brand owner.
Are you looking to gain brand awareness or sell more products? Your ultimate end goal will affect how you measure what’s worth it for you to pay a KOL.
