Influencer marketing can be incredibly effective when it’s done right. But when it’s done wrong? That’s a whole different story.
If you’ve been here before, you know we spend a lot of time talking about what brands should do when working with influencers. But what about the things brands still get painfully wrong?
To find out, I asked some of my favorite B2B influencers to spill the tea on their most frustrating experiences working with brands. Real stories. Real people.
But to keep things spicy (and to protect the innocent), we’re sharing them anonymously as part of what we’re calling the Influencer Protection Program.
The goal isn’t to call anyone out — it’s to pull back the curtain and help brands do better.
Here’s what they had to say — and what your brand can do to avoid ending up on the wrong side of a story like this.
Confession #1: Not Talking to the Decision Makers
“It’s painful working with teams that don’t have decision-making power. The minute someone senior says they don’t like something—usually because it’s not all about their product—things fall apart, and the teams don’t know how to handle it.”
Lesson for Brands:
If the people running your influencer program don’t have the authority to make decisions, it’s a problem. Influencers need to feel like the brand team they’re working with can protect the creative integrity of the partnership, not just push paperwork around.When internal teams scramble because an executive suddenly doesn’t like the content (usually because it’s not product-centric enough), it damages trust. Decision-makers need to be aligned up front and brought into the process at the right moments. Otherwise, the whole partnership feels shaky.
Confession #2: Killing the Influencer’s Voice
“The main frustration that I have is micromanagement of “my voice” — clients claim that they want me to present their messages and content in my style and “my voice”, but then they edit and re-edit my proposed messaging so that it ends up being entirely their voice.”
Lesson for Brands:
Influencers are successful because they’ve built trust with their audiences in their own voice. If you try to over-engineer the message or water it down with endless rounds of approvals, the magic is gone.
You can’t buy authenticity and then strip it away. Brands need to provide clear guardrails, but then let influencers do what they do best: tell stories in a way that resonates.
Confession #3: More Work, Less Budget? Not Happening.
“Budgets are getting tighter, and the amount of effort brands are asking of me is increasing. I have decided to significantly increase my fees, which does help weed out the problem cases and keeps my workload more manageable. I am much happier this way, even though my gross income is down.”
Lesson for Brands:
This isn’t a volume game. When you ask for more deliverables, more platforms, and more customization, it has to come with more budget. Period.
The influencers who are the best fit for your brand are probably managing multiple partnerships, and the fastest way to get pushed to the bottom of the priority list is to undervalue their time and expertise.
Confession #4: I’m Not Your Employee
“A couple of brands wanted me to go through all the training, onboarding, background checks, and financial information requests,that they would require for a new employee in their company. That’s ridiculous. I am not an employee of their company. And I told them so. I won’t do any work with them. Period!!! And if anyone asks, I must say that I turned down an extremely lucrative offer from one of these crazy companies. Their expectations are 100% unacceptable.”
Lesson for Brands:
Influencers are external partners, not employees. Expecting them to complete multi-week onboarding, HR documentation, or internal security trainings is not only excessive — it shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what an influencer partnership is.
Influencers aren’t signing up to live in your systems — they’re here to help you connect with people in a real, human way. Don’t make them jump through hoops they don’t belong in.
Confession #5: Respect the Relationship
“My biggest turn off is when I don’t feel respected. A brand wants access to my large audience – yet they somehow see me not as a partner, but an *impediment* to reaching that audience & speaking to them the way they want to. It’s a very bizarre way of leveraging influencer marketing… but you see it show up in so many ways — for example, requirements to mention the brand in the first 3 seconds of a video.”
Lesson for Brands:
If you approach influencer partnerships with a “just get us in front of your audience” mentality, you’re missing the point. Influencers aren’t simply a channel — they’re a community builder.
When brands try to overly control how and when they’re mentioned, it erodes the creator’s credibility. And trust me — if the influencer’s audience tunes out because the content feels forced, you lose, too.
Confession #6: Trust the Experts
“It’s disappointing when a brand doesn’t trust you to find a way to get the message out to the audience in a way that will resonate best. They don’t trust that you might just know how to communicate.”
Lesson for Brands:
If you don’t trust an influencer to communicate effectively with their own audience, you’ve partnered with the wrong person.
Influencers know what works, what formats perform, and how their communities engage. If you want the relationship to work, you have to trust their instincts. Otherwise, you’re just paying to rent an audience you don’t know how to talk to.
Confession #7: Exposure ≠ Payment
“Brands often overestimate the value of exposure and their own brand importance, leading to unrealistic expectations in influencer partnerships. Many influencers default to monetary compensation because exposure alone rarely holds measurable value, and contracts often prevent leveraging brand logos. Additionally, brands frequently lack clear objectives and measurement strategies, failing to define whether they seek awareness, engagement, or conversion—each requiring different approaches and costs. The closer an influencer’s role is to direct sales impact, the higher the cost, as success depends on external factors like the brand’s sales team and product fit.”
Lesson for Brands:
Exposure is not compensation. Period.
Influencers (especially in B2B) know exactly what their time, audience, and expertise are worth. Exposure might have a place in some agreements, but it can’t be the foundation of your offer — especially if you’re also coming to the table without clear objectives or a measurement plan.
When brands lack clarity on whether they want awareness, engagement, or conversions, the influencer is stuck guessing — and the partnership falls flat.
Where Brands Go From Here
The stories you just read? They’re real. And while we’ve kept things anonymous (because we’re not here to put brands on blast), the lessons are loud and clear. The best influencer partnerships aren’t transactional — they’re built on trust, respect, and a little creative freedom.
If your brand is ready to lean into that, great things can happen. If not? Well… you might find yourself in the next round of the Influencer Protection Program.
Hungry for more? Download our new guide: 5 Costly Influencer Marketing Mistakes and How to Fix Them.