The global leader in social commerce for YouTube, Instagram and TikTok video influencers: MagicLinks

MagicLinks is an award-winning, values-driven social commerce platform that helps brands scale influencer marketing programs while also providing ROI for influencers and content creators. The platform drives social commerce on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram by connecting brands with creators and their consumer audiences who shop their content. Since its inception, MagicLinks has created more than $3B in product sales for the world’s leading brands. Prior to MagicLinks being the industry leader it is today, CEO and Co-founder Brian Nickerson had initially founded Chippmunk, a coupon savings search engine. After the RetailMeNot IPO in 2013 and seeing the current marketplace trends, Nickerson realized that in order to see long term growth, a pivot was necessary. This resulted in the birth of MagicLinks in 2015. The new business model was created to rectify the then-existing problem of the creator economy being overlooked, undervalued, and ignored. Nickerson listened to creators and learned about their passion for creating compelling content, and understood a market need for social commerce technology to help fund this passion. MagicLinks was quickly able to help creators gain control of their personal brands and earn income through a marketplace of social commerce relationships, creating product-market fit through what was then a radical idea of driving sales through the most social and video-focused influencer marketing platform in the industry.

Bridging the gap between content creators and brand partners

With a community of over 25k vetted content creators, MagicLinks helps brands scale influencer programs and invest in the creator economy. With their data-driven influencer marketing platform, MagicLinks matches brands with creators who are most likely to meet their strategic goals based on historical performance, audience demographics, channel metrics, and more. Their technology enables creators to earn a steady income by sharing the products they love with their fans, and brands get to scale their influencer marketing programs easily, with full-funnel data reporting and demonstrated campaign ROI.

In 2015, the company was an early leader in the creator economy, recognizing that video influencers’ authentic relationships with fans were the future of e-commerce. As a core distinction, MagicLinks measures product sales inspired by social video posts and provides data-driven insights and reporting to all parties. This helps influencers earn income from brands while learning their fans’ purchasing preferences and aids in shaping content decisions that align with their personal values and fan connections.

Their network of creators is incredibly diverse and reflective of their overall company values. They have a 30% minimum racial diversity requirement for talent cast in brand campaigns which encourages entry to valuable new markets while providing a more equitable playing field for creators. In regards to brand partners, MagicLinks is able to provide them with end-to-end solutions for influencer marketing success across all social video platforms, solving the core industry problem of understanding true sales ROI on social video investments. Brand partners choose the platform because of its unique data-driven approach to matching them with the right influencers for their programs. Match Intelligence™, MagicLinks’ proprietary data engine, transforms brand relationships with creators into scalable, long-term investments within digital communities.

Match Intelligence™ and its impact

Match Intelligence™ is MagicLinks’ secret sauce - a key differentiator that sets the company apart from competitors. The award-winning proprietary data engine plays an integral role in transforming brand relationships with influencers into scalable, sales-driving vehicles. Built on $3B GMV in transactions across 25K influencers with 2B+ fan reach and 370K videos with 30B+ views, Match Intelligence™ strategically connects global retail leaders with influencers that will drive positive ROI for brands, categories, and products, ultimately leading to long-term, exclusive partnership opportunities that are authentically aligned to target audiences. It aids in curating a specific cohort of sales-driving influencers at a per-retailer level. This ultra-targeted tool casts the proper types of influencers for sponsored video campaigns at a rapid speed versus relying on vanity metrics such as followers or views alone. Fortune 500 brands are choosing MagicLinks for multimillion-dollar campaigns to efficiently scale their in-house influencer teams. Match Intelligence™ also provides brands with a wide array of data metrics, such as sales tracking information and social analytics, that are broken down into several views, including an aggregate of organic + sponsored content, campaign-specific content, and, most importantly, influencer-specific analytics to quickly identify top-performers. Match Intelligence™, in tandem with white-glove campaign management services, helps MagicLinks deliver a seamless experience and positive ROI on influencer spending for the world’s leading brands.

Philanthropic initiatives and values-driven approach

MagicLinks is a values-driven organization that operates by a “good human” policy in their everyday work, which means they value people and the planet over profit. Their definition of global stewardship continually evolves as they explore the different avenues that can make a long-lasting impact within their organization and in their overall realm of influence. Their holistic “good human” policies encapsulate the most critical environmental, humanitarian, and social issues. This takes form in their commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Environmental Sustainability, and Philanthropy. It impacts all facets of the business - how they create technology, discern partnerships, nurture professional development, and unify their team from diverse backgrounds towards a common goal: leaving this planet better than how it was found.

In 2020 MagicLinks became the first social commerce company to become a Certified B Corporation^®, joining a forward-thinking community of 5,000 and counting certified B Corporations globally. B Corps are for-profit companies that voluntarily meet the highest standards for social, ethical, and environmental commitments. They go through a rigorous certification process, completing a comprehensive assessment of their company’s impacts on all stakeholders and having their assessment verified by B Lab, the nonprofit behind the B Corp certification. MagicLinks is engaged in intensive philanthropic work with charities, including 1% for the Planet and S.P.Y. (Safe Place for Youth), and has made charitable donations to the likes of Black Lives Matter and NAACP. This, combined with their B Corp certifications, showcases the company’s clear stance that they don’t focus every effort solely on revenue but also commitments to making a positive impact in the world while growing year over year.

Upcoming offerings and Future

MagicLinks is expanding its technology and capabilities to further support its brand partners’ investments in the creator economy. This includes the expansion of their Gifting Suite solutions, as well as optimizing their platform with more proprietary, first-party data to support faster time-to-value for creators and brands. The Gifting Suite expansion will allow creators to raise their hands for the seeded product, which allows brands to get their products directly into the hands of creators to drive ongoing brand ambassadorships. This is a great way for brands to invest in the creator economy, build awareness and discovery, amplify products and drive conversions through meaningful influencer relationships. In addition to Match Intelligence™, the company’s current product suite is always evolving. Recently, beta testing began on a new link in bio tool, In-Bio™, a free shoppable mini-site that gives MagicLinks creators exclusive access to curate and share monetizable links, products, and more in a completely customizable format that aligns to their own, personal brand. Their product suite will be further enhanced with capabilities like live shopping, network acceleration, and Creator NFTs to provide an end-to-end solution for brands to drive ecommerce ROI by tapping into the creator economy. This year they will also be launching new partnerships in CPG and alcohol categories, opening vast new verticals and opportunities.

“Our tools help creators share products they love and earn income as their fans shop.”