Last Updated: September 3rd, 2024
What Is ACTIVATE?
The Activate influencer marketing tool has a long history, dating back to 2009 when the company was known as ‘BLOG LOVIN’. Back then, the concept of influencers was not widely recognized, and the platform was initially created as a community for creators, tastemakers, and their most dedicated fans. In 2014, Blog Lovin underwent a rebranding and became Activate. Then, in August 2020, Activate was acquired by Impact.
David A. Yovanno is currently the CEO of Activate who has a degree in marketing from The George Washington University. The company’s main focus is to connect Instagram influencers with brands for partnerships. The company has over 1,000 employees in 21 global offices in the U.S., UK, Australia, China, Italy, etc.
While this company claims to be the leading company in influencer marketing, it’s essential to check Activate reviews, features, and cost before using it. That’s what we are going to do in this blog!
ACTIVATE Review: Pricing & Features + Best Alternative
In this ACTIVATE review, we’re going to shed light on every detail you need to know about this tool to make an informed decision. As a bonus, we’ll also introduce you to the best alternative. So, let’s start!
ACTIVATE Features
In order to better understand whether ACTIVATE is the right choice for your business, you need to have a clear understanding of its features and services. This tool offers a set of features for brands and agencies to create and manage their marketing campaigns.
1. Influencer Discovery
ACTIVATE allows brands to search through a database of over 75,000 social media influencers and find the ones that align with their goals. You can filter these creators based on hashtags, keywords, location, and mentions to find the most related ones to your business. You can invite as many influencers to your campaign as you want and manage them in a single dashboard.
You can also create a campaign and wait for influencers to send you requests to join your campaign.
2. Campaign Management
ACTIVATE offers versatile usage rights, payment choices, and content review features to simplify content partnership management. Users can customize usage rights, select payment options, and maintain quality control for their content partnerships.
3. Reporting
The reporting feature is designed to provide an analysis of individual content pieces and the overall performance of your campaign. It allows brands to examine audience sentiment, sales conversions, click-through rates, impressions, and other metrics.
ACTIVATE Pricing
Unfortunately, ACTIVATE doesn’t provide any details about its pricing structure on its official website. Its failure to provide any pricing details on its website is a significant drawback for potential users.
This lack of transparency not only frustrates and inconveniences visitors but also wastes their time as they must reach out to obtain basic pricing information.
One thing is certain though; there are no free plans available, and even though users can request a demo, it’s not free of cost.
If you are looking for a free alternative that helps you run influencer-based campaigns across Instagram and TikTok, Ainfluencer is what you are looking for. On Ainfluencer, you can access over 2M active influencers across different niches and industries to work with.
Activate Review: What Do Customers Say?
Even though ACTIVATE was launched in 2014 and is considered an established platform, it surprisingly lacks reviews on reputable websites such as G2. This absence creates a significant drawback as it leaves potential users without the valuable insights they need to form a clear understanding of the platform’s performance and user experience.
Reviews are essential for making informed decisions, and ACTIVATE’s absence of them may hinder its potential growth and credibility.
However, we can check the reviews of the parent company, Impact, which also provides an influencer marketplace to determine how this company is performing.
- On TrustPilot, there are 80 Activate reviews with a 1.3 rating score which is really low.
- Almost all the reviews warn visitors about scams. There are lots of influencers who joined partnerships but didn’t get their money.
- According to reviews, customer support is not helpful at all, and you can’t contact them.
- Another drawback of this platform is the high pricing plans for brands. They make you sign an annual contract, yet in return, you are unable to access any of the features, so basically, your money is gone!
No matter how much we scroll through Impact and Activate reviews, we can’t see any positive reviews. All the reviews are from unhappy brands and agencies who wasted their money on this platform.
ACTIVATE Pros and Cons
Pros
- User-friendly interfaces
- Two different sides for brands and influencers
- Free influencer signups
Cons
- Transparent pricing
- High cost of service
- Unavailable support team
- Limited database of influencers
- Limited search filters
- Too many negative reviews
The Best Activate Alternative: Ainfluencer
As we saw in the previous parts, even though Activate claims to be a top influencer marketing platform, it has many downsides. The most concerning are the negative reviews of its parent company, Impact. How can we trust a subsidiary company when its parent has such poor reviews? But don’t worry; There is a better alternative for you to try.
Ainfluencer is a free and end-to-end influencer marketing platform with a database of over 2M active creators across Instagram and TikTok. With the help of an AI-powered search tool and more than 20 advanced filters (such as budget, engagement metrics, keywords, niche, location, etc) you can find your collaboration match in a few minutes.
After discovering influencers, you can view their profile on Ainfluencer to access their latest insights, past collaborations, collaboration costs, and engagement metrics. As a brand, you don’t need to pay any additional fee to the platform and can use all the features for free. To ensure your collaboration is safe, Ainfluencer will keep your money in its trusted escrow system before delivering it to influencers.
Once you monitor your campaign results, influencers can receive their money. So if you are looking for Activate alternatives to run safe and effective Instagram and TikTok campaigns, Ainfluencer can help you.
| Features | ACTIVATE | Ainfluencer |
|---|---|---|
| Database of Influencers | 75K | +2M |
| Filtering | Keyword filtering | AI-powered search engine/
More than 20 filters |
| Pricing Options | On Request | Free |
| Influencer Search | ✅ | ✅ |
| Platforms | Instagram & TikTok | |
| Number of Invitations | N/A | Unlimited |
| Number of Campaigns | N/A | Unlimited |
| Campaign Management | ✅ | ✅ |
| Detailed Insights | ✅ | ✅ |
Other Activate Alternatives
There are other Activate alternatives that are safe for creating your social media campaigns. Here are some of them.
1. Grin
Are you looking for Activate alternatives that allow you to run campaigns across different social media platforms? Grin, with a database of over 38M influencers across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (X), Pinterest, and YouTube, is one of the options to try. However, Grin doesn’t provide visible pricing, and you need to request a demo through their website.
Read Grin Reviews.
2. Modash
If you want to access a massive database of influencers, Modash is one of the Activate alternatives to try. On Modash, you can search 250M Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube creators to find collaboration matches. Their packages can cost from $99 to $800 based on your needs.
Read Modash Reviews.
3. Inbeat
If you like to find the contact information of influencers and reach out to them manually, Inbeat can help you. Inbeat mainly focuses on connecting brands with micro Instagram and TikTok influencers across different industries. Their packages cost from $200 to $1,000 per month.
Read Inbeat Reviews.
Conclusion
Activate claims to be a safe tool that allows brands to discover over 75,000 Instagram influencers and manage campaigns. However, its lack of pricing transparency and the absence of user reviews on reputable platforms may deter potential users from exploring its offerings.
In contrast, Ainfluencer emerges as a compelling alternative, offering a comprehensive, AI-driven marketplace connecting brands with over 500,000 influencers on TikTok and Instagram, all completely free of cost.
FAQs
No, ACTIVATE is not a free influencer marketing platform. There is a demo, but brands need to reach out and get more information about their pricing structure and subscribe in order to be able to use ACTIVATE’s features.
Yes, ACTIVATE is a legitimate influencer marketing platform that allows brands and influencers to connect and collaborate. However, there aren’t many reviews from real users available to better understand its function, and there are better alternatives to this tool with more advanced features and lower costs.
In addition to that, businesses might find ACTIVATE’s database to be limited and not as extensive as similar platforms.
If you are looking for a free tool that allows you to discover Instagram and TikTok creators and run successful campaigns, Influencer is what you need. This Activate alternative is completely safe and helps you discover influencers, create campaigns, make payments, and track the results in a single dashboard.
