A Work in Progress That Lacks the Basics
What do you like best?
The IZEA team are kind and helpful and truly there to aid in your success. I have nothing but good things to say about our account manager. They are very receptive to feedback, it can just take a long time to see it implemented.
What do you dislike?
IZEA lacks basic features that are essential to running campaigns. Their open bidding feature is very rough and, in my opinion, should not have been rolled out yet as it's near impossible to efficiently sort through bids and take action from those bids. And, the influencers that do bid are extremely lacking in quality across the board compared to other platforms I've used.
They have complicated an already complicated process of running influencer campaigns. It is IZEA's job to help solve problems, but it's honestly just complicated the whole process for us.
Using their platform always results in frustrations and I have run campaigns off of the platform instead of through it because of these frustrations. The platform was originally built for in-house campaign management, and it does not seem SaaS ready to me.
We signed a year-long contract with them since they set the expectations that feature rollouts would be happening and things would improve. And, feature rollouts are happening, but in my opinion, they need to focus on the very basics like open bidding, being able to export lists everywhere, and simplifying the campaign process. It wasn't until just recently that they rolled out the "invite to bid" feature and post-offer flexibility which are very basic offerings. So many of the basics that I ask for are "on the roadmap," but I see other features being rolled out that aren't as essential in my opinion. Having something on "the roadmap" is great, but it doesn't help me right now. Because of these missed expectations and frustrations with the platform, I have asked to break the contract but they have been extremely resistant to that, even if it means burning a bridge with my company. Be sure to do your research and make sure this platform has the tools you need (it doesn't for me) because they are not receptive to amicably parting ways even if the platform does not deliver for your business.
Recommendations to others considering the product:
Be sure to do your research and make sure this platform has the tools you need (it doesn't for me) because they are not receptive to amicably parting ways even if the platform does not deliver for your business.
What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
We were previously Tapinfluence customers (IZEA acquired Tapinfluence) and I loved that platform. Tapinfluence helped us stay organized while running large-scale campaigns. Unfortunately, they decided to focus on IZEA rather than Tapinfluence and that platform will be discontinued soon.
