The Influencer Marketing Playbook - with Lily Comba, Founder & CEO of Superbloom

This week, we’re joined by Lily Comba, Founder & CEO of Superbloom, who opens up about how she got her start in influencer marketing and why she approaches influencer through a performance lens. Lily shares her journey from building in-house programs to launching Superbloom, and what she learned scaling influencer across some of the most recognizable consumer brands. From there, we go deep on measurement, attribution, and negotiations. Lily breaks down how to think about ROAS, CPA, multipliers, and code leakage, along with how she models performance upfront to negotiate smarter creator deals and build paid usage rights and whitelisting into every partnership. We talk through practical frameworks for forecasting results, setting realistic KPIs, and holding influencer partnerships accountable without burning relationships. We also dive into YouTube and channel expansion, including why YouTube is one of the most underrated influencer channels, how to negotiate effective integrations, and what longer-form creator content unlocks for both performance and brand lift. We wrap with how influencer fits into the broader media mix, common mistakes brands make when launching programs, and what operators should be focused on if they want to scale influencer the right way. If you’re trying to make influencer more measurable, negotiate better deals, and turn creator content into high-performing paid media, you’re gonna love this one. If you have a question for the MOperators Hotline, click the link to be in with a chance of it being discussed on the show: https://forms.gle/1W7nKoNK5Zakm1Xv6 Chapters: 00:00:00 – Scaling Influencer Spend and Proving ROI 00:03:53 – Lily’s Background and Building Super Bloom 00:08:45 – From Seed Health to Launching an Agency 00:13:05 – Brands, Categories, and Who Influencer Marketing Works For 00:14:03 – Performance-First Influencer Programs and Service SKUs 00:19:31 – Organic Influencer KPIs vs Paid Performance Metrics 00:22:01 – Full-Funnel Impact, Halo Effects, and AOV Considerations 00:25:16 – Discount Code Leakage and Attribution Challenges 00:30:13 – Using Multipliers to Translate Influencer Performance 00:34:38 – Modeling ROAS, Click-Through Rates, and Incrementality 00:41:31 – Awareness vs Performance Across Different Brand Types 00:47:19 – Influencer Negotiation Frameworks and Deal Structuring 00:52:47 – High-AOV Products, Long Consideration Cycles, and Measurement Limits Powered by: Motion. ⁠⁠⁠https://motionapp.com/?utm_campaign=m... Rivo. https://www.rivo.io/operators Prescient AI.⁠⁠⁠ https://www.prescientai.com/operators Richpanel.⁠⁠⁠ https://www.richpanel.com/?utm_source... Aftersell. https://www.aftersell.com/operators Subscribe to the 9 Operators Podcast here:    / @operators9   Subscribe to the Finance Operators Podcast here:    / @financeoperatorsfops   Sign up to the 9 Operators newsletter here: https://9operators.com/