Iconically Says Open Creator Rates Will Unlock Ad-Style Budgets

Iconically, a creator marketplace founded in 2022, says 98% of creators who bid in its auctions accept their own rate with no negotiation — and 92% of those campaigns complete on time. Co-founder and CEO Donald Doane argues that open pricing plus conversion data will make a creator program as easy and profitable to run as a paid ad on Meta or Google.

The platform works as an auction. Brands post a brief, creators bid, and both sides see what rates were requested and paid before, along with data on which creators actually sell. Doane and co-founder Grant Warner previously built ConnectYard, an education-sector social platform and one of the first companies to use student influencers. They hit the rate problem while running Iconically as an agency. "Whenever you have an asset, especially a unique work product, the best way to value it is to let the market price it," Doane says.

The company serves e-commerce brands — mostly Amazon sellers in fashion, beauty and home, the categories where Doane says it has found the strongest conversions. B2B brands don't fit the model, because the platform is built to drive sales. To reach more sellers, Iconically partnered with PartnerBoost, which works with thousands of brands in those categories.

How does open pricing change the deal?

Creators bidding on a brief can see what other creators asked and what the brand paid before; brands can see what other brands paid each creator. Grant Warner frames the logic plainly: "Where there's clarity, there's confidence, and that applies to both sides."

The history works as a benchmark. If 20 similar brands paid an influencer roughly the same amount, a brand knows what to pay — instead of asking, "Is this a fair price, or am I overpaying?" Creators use the same data to price seasonally. "Your static rate card might have been great for June, but in November, you should probably be charging more," Doane says, pointing at Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

What picks the auction winner?

Not the lowest bid, per Warner. "When you hear auction, people think race to the bottom in some way. From our standpoint, what we're talking about is how do you optimize value," he says. Iconically scores each bidder on conversion in the brand's product category and at its price point. "One influencer might be great for the $20 product, but may not be a great fit for the $75 product," Doane notes.

The data cuts against follower count. "We have data on influencers where there are some nano and micro influencers that make as many conversions as a macro influencer," Doane says, adding that some macro creators post "not great" content yet convert because "they've curated the right audience." Creators see projected sales before picking a product, then click and sales goals they use to rework calls to action.

Why do campaigns underperform?

Mostly because brands ignore the recommendations, Doane says. "There are times when the brand will totally ignore the data," picking a creator because they like how a reel looks. The second failure is the wrong ask: on Instagram, "stories by far convert a lot better," since viewers tap straight into shopping instead of hunting through a link in bio. Reels also cost creators more time — "creators are trading their time for money," Doane says. His rule for boosting: post organically first, put paid spend behind what performs.

How should Amazon sellers pay?

Flat fee plus commission, Doane recommends. Top Amazon creators can generate over $1 million in monthly GMV and "can promote anything they like," so commission alone won't secure consistent posting — or timely posting. "If it's only commission, maybe they post two weeks after Black Friday [and] Cyber Monday," he says. Off-site traffic from Facebook or Instagram can also lift a listing's organic Amazon ranking, with effects potentially outlasting a 30-day campaign. "Amazon loves this," he says.

Will creator rates go public industry-wide?

Doane expects so. "I think they have to," he says, with brand payouts open as well as creator asking prices. Agencies resist hardest, in his view: "I think it's in the best interest of agencies not to disclose pricing information, particularly to their brand clients." He sees AI and zero-click search draining publisher budgets while consumers shift time to TikTok and Instagram. "Once creator becomes reliable and scalable, it's going to take over those budgets," he says.