Introduction
YouTube influencer marketing is a great way for brands to reach their target audience. Brands collaborate with influencers that have many loyal followers on their channels. These influencers upload videos that their followers skip ads to watch. The problem with this process is that it takes time and effort: from finding who to collaborate with, negotiating, briefing, creating the video, approving and publishing it. At the end of the process, there is no guarantee of success for both influencers and brands. That's where Creator Ads comes in.
My role: UX, UI, research. | Tools used: Sketch, Illustrator, Photoshop. | This project was done as part of my freelance work for Creator Ads.
My role: UX, UI, research. | Tools used: Sketch, Illustrator, Photoshop. | This project was done as part of my freelance work for Creator Ads.
The challenge
- Matching the brands to the right influencers (and as a result to the right target audience).
- Making the process as efficient, fast and easy as possible for both sides.
- Allowing the brands to advertise their product without turning the influencers into sales agents and losing their credibility with their followers.
User research
Both brands and influencers want to reach their target audience and promote their product or channel. By collaborating they can help each other achieve this goal. However, they both have concerns: Creating a new video is time consuming and at the end of the process there is no guarantee of success for both brands and influencers.
The Brands want to:
The Influencers want to:
The Brands want to:
- Reach their target audience.
- Promote their product.
- Find a smart way to advertise, so the target audience won't skip the ad.
The Influencers want to:
- Grow their channel.
- Add more value to their followers.
- Earn money for what they already do.
Most people automatically ignore ads. It's difficult to promote our product when the ads are always being skipped. |
Creating a new video is time consuming. I can't take the chance that after all my work the brand will decide not to pay. |
Pain points
Brands:
Influencers:
- The process takes a lot of time and effort.
- No way of knowing in advance if the video will be successful.
- Promoting a product is challenging when the target audience blocks or skips anything that resembles an ad.
Influencers:
- The process takes a lot of time and effort.
- In order to get paid, they need to create new customised videos for the brands.
- If the brands don't like the video, they can decide not to pay.
- If they aggressively promote the brands, they risk losing their credibility with their followers.
Gain points
Brands:
Influencers:
- Can choose to work with videos that are already popular and get a lot of traffic on a daily basis.
- Accurately reaching their target audience and promoting their product.
- Reaching lots of relevant influencers to collaborate with.
Influencers:
- Get paid for videos they have already uploaded.
- Stay loyal to their channel and followers.
- Reaching lots of brands to collaborate with.
- By collaborating with relevant brands, they add value to their followers.
User flow
Brand:
1. Create a new campaign or view existing campaigns
1. Create a new campaign or view existing campaigns
2. Approve or reject influencer's video for campaign
Influencer:
Apply to brand's campaigns you want to collaborate with
Apply to brand's campaigns you want to collaborate with
Personas
There are three different personas:
- Brands
- Advertising agencies
- YouTube Influencers
Wireframes
Brand:
1. Creating a new campaign
1. Creating a new campaign
2. Viewing the campaign's details
3. Viewing Influencers’ videos to collaborate with for this campaign
Influencer:
1. View brand’s campaigns to collaborate with
1. View brand’s campaigns to collaborate with
2. Allow or deny collaboration with this video
Improvements
Before starting the UI design, I made a couple of UX changes to allow better user experience.
1. Create New Campaign button
The button was competing with the campaign cards and I wanted the focus to be on the campaign cards themselves. I made the button smaller and moved it to the top of the screen. |
2. Campaign cards
I shortened and simplified the cards by removing the 'View' button and icon's text. The 'View' button becomes visible when hovering on the cards. This resulted in more cards to be visible on the screen before scrolling. |
Design
Scenario 1 (Brand)
Amanda from the advertising agency wants to launch a new campaign for Adidas and find influencers to collaborate with.
My Campaigns
Amanda enters the ‘Creator Ads’ platform and clicks on the ‘Create new campaign’ button.
Amanda enters the ‘Creator Ads’ platform and clicks on the ‘Create new campaign’ button.
Create a new campaign
She fills out all of the relevant details for this campaign.
She fills out all of the relevant details for this campaign.
Campaign details
Amanda clicks on a campaign to view it's details. She can edit the campaign from this screen.
Amanda clicks on a campaign to view it's details. She can edit the campaign from this screen.
Change image
She can change the campaign’s image or brand’s logo from this screen. She will change the brand’s logo according to the campaign.
She can change the campaign’s image or brand’s logo from this screen. She will change the brand’s logo according to the campaign.
Add funds
Amanda can add funds to the campaign at any time.
Amanda can add funds to the campaign at any time.
Collaboration time
Amanda goes to the ‘Collaboration’ tab and views influencer’s videos that are available for collaboration. When she finds a video that is relevant for the campaign, she will click the ‘Approve’ button. At this moment, a collaboration request is sent to the influencer.
Amanda goes to the ‘Collaboration’ tab and views influencer’s videos that are available for collaboration. When she finds a video that is relevant for the campaign, she will click the ‘Approve’ button. At this moment, a collaboration request is sent to the influencer.
Approve or reject videos
Amanda can approve or reject the influencer’s videos. She can also choose the ‘Undecided’ button, and decide later if this video is right for the campaign. Once both Amanda and the influencer select the ‘Approve’ button, the campaign goes live.
Amanda can approve or reject the influencer’s videos. She can also choose the ‘Undecided’ button, and decide later if this video is right for the campaign. Once both Amanda and the influencer select the ‘Approve’ button, the campaign goes live.
Scenario 2 (Influencer)
Kyle wants to find brands to collaborate with. This will allow him to add value to his followers and earn money.
Opportunities
Kyle enters the ‘Creator Ads’ platform. Under the ‘Opportunities’ tab, he finds campaigns to collaborate with. He clicks on a campaign to view its details. If he wants to collaborate with this campaign he will click the ‘Apply’ button. If he doesn’t want to collaborate, he will click the ‘Reject’ button.
Kyle enters the ‘Creator Ads’ platform. Under the ‘Opportunities’ tab, he finds campaigns to collaborate with. He clicks on a campaign to view its details. If he wants to collaborate with this campaign he will click the ‘Apply’ button. If he doesn’t want to collaborate, he will click the ‘Reject’ button.
New Campaign
When a new campaign appears in the dashboard, Kyle can either ‘Apply’ or ‘Reject’ the collaboration. If the brand has chosen a flexible text type for this campaign, Kyle can edit or change the text.
When a new campaign appears in the dashboard, Kyle can either ‘Apply’ or ‘Reject’ the collaboration. If the brand has chosen a flexible text type for this campaign, Kyle can edit or change the text.
Applied
Kyle has applied for this campaign. If he changes his mind, he can change his response to ‘Reject’.
Kyle has applied for this campaign. If he changes his mind, he can change his response to ‘Reject’.
Rejected
Kyle has rejected this campaign. If he changes his mind, he can change his response to ‘Apply’.
Kyle has rejected this campaign. If he changes his mind, he can change his response to ‘Apply’.
Accepted
Kyle has applied for this campaign and the brand has approved his application. If he changes his mind, he can change his response to ‘Reject’.
Kyle has applied for this campaign and the brand has approved his application. If he changes his mind, he can change his response to ‘Reject’.
View my videos
Kyle can view all of his YouTube videos by clicking the ‘My Videos’ tab.
Kyle can view all of his YouTube videos by clicking the ‘My Videos’ tab.
Allow or deny collaboration
Kyle can allow or deny collaboration with his videos. By hovering over the video he can change his response.
Kyle can allow or deny collaboration with his videos. By hovering over the video he can change his response.
Final thoughts
This was an interesting and challenging project because there were two main personas with two different dashboards. The data on one dashboard affects the data on the other dashboard and vice versa. As a result, it was important to take in consideration both sides while planning and creating them:
- What data is shown on each dashboard?
- What fields can each persona change?
- How will the changes affect the data that is shown on the other persona’s dashboard?