What YouTube’s Famebit Failure Can Teach Us About Influencer Marketing
Why YouTube shuttered its self-service influencer marketing platform.
4 min read
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It would be great if working with influencers was like hiring someone on Fiverr. Give them the money, they do their magic, and voila — campaign success!
But, as Warren Buffett said, “You can’t produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant.”
It’s a hard lesson to learn. One that YouTube has learned for themselves. Three years after acquiring Famebit, the self-service influencer marketing platform, they’re shutting it down. That platform allowed brands to submit campaign opportunities for as little as $100. Influencers would opt into campaigns, and brands would select the ones they liked
The dream was automation of the influencer marketing process.
Why did that dream die?
YouTube alludes to the answer in their closure announcement. They’ve “learned a lot about