Online streamers could be a great fit for your brand’s next campaign. In fact, this lets you reach a live audience who trust your influencer’s opinion. This is especially useful if your product has a link to gaming or tech. In this post, we’ll show you how to use Twitch influencer marketing to sell your next product.
What Exactly Is Twitch Influencer Marketing?
As the name suggests, this is simply using Twitch streamers to promote your products. This lets you reach thousands of live viewers. They won’t be able to skip through any ad-reads or use an ad blocker to get around them. The ads will also come from someone they trust.
According to TwitchTracker, the site has around two million concurrent viewers at any time. This is a lot of potential customers. However, these viewers spread across thousands of streamers. If you want to reach the right ones, you need to choose the right influencer.
Popular Twitch channels boast thriving communities. Regular viewers will even make the stream a part of their weekly routine. Their favorite creator might be playing League of Legends or just talking to their fans. Regardless, Twitch influencers have a full audience that you can connect with.
Why Choose Twitch for Your Influencer Marketing?
Twitch isn’t always a company’s first choice for finding influencers. But there are a lot of reasons to add this site to your marketing strategy. Here’s why you should consider recruiting streamers and specifically Twitch influencers as your next brand ambassadors:
- Find your audience: According to Twitch, over 70% of viewers are 18-34. Most of these are also male. This could be just the target audience your brand’s looking for.
- Sell gaming products: Similarly, if you sell gaming-related products, Twitch is an obvious fit. You’ll find plenty of people who play (or at least have an interest in) video games.
- Access live viewers: Unlike most YouTube videos, Twitch streams are usually live. The people watching won’t be able to fast-forward or get rid of the sponsor message.
- Reach engaged audience: Twitch streamers work hard to build up a rapport with their viewers. This means you’ll be able to reach people through their favorite streamers.
- Use products live: It’s even possible for your partner to use your product live. If you’re selling energy drinks, for example, they can drink it during their live stream.
- Give a unique appeal to your product: Twitch is more dialed into internet culture than a lot of other platforms. If your influencer marketing campaign involves memes, Twitch can definitely help.
- Shape trends: Streamers are on the frontier of content creation. Since their audience skews younger, they tend to be on the cutting edge of trends. If you want your brand or product to be front page news, align with Twitch trends and a top creator.
Who Can You Reach on Twitch?
Twitch rarely publishes its demographic details. However, their public Audience page shows that most viewers are 18-34. They also have popular streamers in “over 35 languages.” This means you can reach viewers on a global scale. You don’t have to stick to purely US streamers.
Gaming is still mostly male-dominated. This has been shifting in recent years. However, it might still be a while until there’s an equal gender balance. Currently, there are only four female streamers in the platform’s top fifty channels (in terms of followers).
This suggests that most of the people you can reach via Twitch influencers are young men. They’ll naturally have an interest in gaming. However, Twitch’s non-gaming sides are getting more popular. Kai Cenat and iShowSpeed’s event-filled celebrity or IRL streams are some of the most biggest on the platform.
It’s common to advertise software, tech products, mobile games, food, and drinks on Twitch. A streamer can easily show these off on cue. In fact, the tech they’re using might be allowing their stream to run in the first place.
Building Your Twitch Influencer Campaign
Setting up and executing your first Twitch campaign can be daunting. Luckily, it’s quite similar to deals on other social media platforms. Here are the five steps for reaching Twitch users with an influencer’s help.
1. Figure Out Your Goals
Is Twitch the right fit for your campaign? If it is, the next step is figuring out your strategy. Do you want to boost awareness or drive sales? This helps you define the campaign’s key performance indicators.
2. Find an Influencer
Look for Twitch influencers who suit your target audience and your product. For an energy drink, you could pick somebody who regularly streams intense, fast-paced games. A smaller streamer might have better audience engagement, which drives more conversions.
3. Negotiate a Deal
Reach out to the influencer. This is where you’ll discuss compensation. It could be a flat fee, an affiliate arrangement, or a mix of the two. For example, if they drive sign-ups or sales, they’ll get a bonus.
4. Work Out the Details
Figure out exactly how you want them to show off your offering. Can they tie it into their gaming content? Would the deal work as a product giveaway? You should also nail down the right dates for your campaign.
5. Monitor Your Performance
Once the campaign’s live, track your stats and the Twitch influencer’s. How many views do they get on the stream? And what was the mood in the stream’s chat? See how the sponsorship is affecting your sales and any other KPIs.
Tools for Influencer Marketing on Twitch
There are a number of online tools and services that can help your brand. For example, you can use sentiment analysis to see how viewers responded to your ad. There are also websites that’ll help you find the right streamers. Here are a few resources worth checking out:
- TwitchTracker: Shows detailed stats on which streamers are most popular and when.
- TwitchMetrics: Similar to the above, it also has engagement metrics on the fastest-growing channels.
- SullyGnome: Shows individual stream performance across each video game they play.
- StreamElements: Helps brands and streamers easily set up sponsorship campaigns.
- Upfluence: An all-in-one influencer marketing platform with full Twitch stream support.
- Canva: Any graphic design tool helps you make custom Twitch overlays for your brand.
- Tiltify: If your brand is running a donation campaign, Tiltify can add this to the stream.
- Restream: This lets streamers go live on Twitch and other platforms at the same time.
The tools you use will depend on what form your campaign takes. By integrating them into your strategy, you’ll also make things easier for your streamer.
Pricing Your Twitch Campaigns
Every campaign has big ideas, and you need to scale them to your budget. You may not be able to afford the site’s biggest names. However, this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. You can instead aim for nano influencers. These are less expensive but offer higher Twitch engagement rates.
Stream-related campaigns usually follow a Cost Per Viewer Hour model. This pays the streamer for the viewer hours they generate. Viewer hours is the total time an audience spends watching a stream. One thousand people watching a 30-minute stream is 500 viewer hours, for example.
You can negotiate a rate for each viewer hour. In this case, if it’s $1 per viewer hour, they’ll earn $500. This model lets you pay your streamer specifically for the value they create. If they have a low-viewer stream, you won’t be wasting money.
A flat fee may be the simpler route, but every stream is different. Even with the best tools at your disposal, you don’t know if it’ll be a success. However, flat fees can help you secure even bigger Twitch influencers.
The Biggest Twitch Influencers
Few brands have the budget for Twitch’s biggest names. You may still be able to afford a one-off campaign, however. GFuel, HyperX, and other gamer-related brands spend many thousands on deals like these. Here are the site’s ten most popular Twitch influencers by number of followers:
- Ninja (19.1 million)
- Ibai (17.1 million)
- Auronplay (16.7 million)
- KaiCenat (16.1 million)
- Rubius (15.5 million)
- TheGrefg (12.1 million)
- xQc (12.0 million)
- Juansguarnizo (11.4 million)
- Shroud (11.0 million)
- ElMariana (10.2 million)
However, the site’s raw follower numbers aren’t everything. In fact, the most popular streams on any given day could include none of these names. Many of the above have a lot of inactive fans. Newer streamers can offer more Twitch engagement (and are much more affordable).
You also need to keep an eye out for growing channels. These already boast a strong presence but could get even more regular viewers in the coming months. Building relationships with them now is sure to pay off long-term.
The video game industry as a whole can affect which channels are worth your time. If a new title quickly gets popular, for example, the game’s biggest streamers will be worth contacting. On top of this, niche titles and streamers can again offer higher engagement.
Case Study: HelloFresh on Twitch
HelloFresh is one of the biggest meal-kit providers worldwide. This lets them hand out plenty of sponsorships, even for small streamers. In fact, their partnership with StreamElements targeted them specifically alongside mid-sized Twitch channels.
This collaboration included branded overlays, exclusive discounts, and more. They mainly used affiliate links. This means they would pay streamers for every sign-up they generated. The brand only spent money when it made money. By the end of 2022, they arranged 10,000 deals.
In June of that year, HelloFresh set up its own Twitch original live cooking show. At the end of each episode, chatters were able to help decide who won. Viewers also got a discount code for free shipping on their HelloFresh orders.
Ultimately, their campaign was strong enough to earn a “Streamy” award for Brand Engagement in 2022.
Build Your Brand’s Name Online
Does your own brand’s social channels need a little boost? Try Goread’s services to watch your engagement numbers skyrocket. Whether you need more Instagram followers, TikTok views, YouTube subscribers, or even Twitch streams, we’ve got you.
Our team can make sure you get the engagement that spreads your brand name far and wide. Try Goread today, and you might be able to set up even better sponsorships.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Twitch influencer marketing?
This is simply using influencers to boost your brand on Twitch. If you want to start your product’s influencer marketing, Twitch has a lot to offer. Even mid-sized streamers could easily give strong returns.
Are smaller streamers better for brands?
Yes, small or mid-sized streamers often have more engaged viewers. Their rates are also likely to be much smaller. You’ll be able to cater to more specific communities and online niches this way. If you want better engagement with your product, aim for these smaller channels.
How much does Twitch influencer marketing cost?
This always depends on the streamer’s size and your pricing model. With a “cost per view hour” model, you’ll pay more per active user. For big streamers, flat fees run in the thousands.
Do big streamers have a lot of bot followers?
Some big streamers actually have a high number of bot fans. However, this doesn’t mean they paid for them. Years of popularity on Twitch will simply make them easy targets.