ChannelCore started as a marketing agency, built to help brands scale profitably. But after working closely with both content creators and brands, it became clear there was a bigger opportunity, to build the infrastructure the creator economy truly needs.

That’s why ChannelCore evolved to a tech platform designed to help content creators operate and scale their business while giving brands a new way to run influencer marketing like a true performance driven channel.

My journey to this point has been anything but traditional. I started as a music teacher and later became a touring musician, where I learned the power of creativity, discipline, and connection. Those experiences taught me how to perform under pressure, adapt quickly, and lead with purpose.

When I transitioned into marketing, I quickly made an impact leading teams, driving revenue growth, and building scalable systems. I rose through the ranks to become a 2x CMO, leading marketing strategies that scaled brands from $1.5M to $6M, $16M to $31M, $64M to $200M, and even $750M to $1.2B. In 2024, I was recognized as a CMO to Watch by the CMO Alliance, a testament to the results-driven approach and leadership style that define my career.

Over the last 17 years, I’ve led, built, and scaled marketing teams of 30+, managed $75M+ in ad spend, and owned full P&L responsibility all focused on profitable, sustainable growth.

My work spans global brands and fast-growing startups, with results like:

• Luxury Fashion Brand: Scaled to a successful exit

• DTC Apparel: 4.5X ROAS while reducing CAC by 38%

• CPG Brand: Tripled new customer revenue, boosted LTV by 60%

• Fintech Startup: Increased lead conversion by 240%, reduced CPA by 45%

• Financial Services Firm: Built a scalable customer acquisition strategy that doubled inbound leads

Now, with ChannelCore’s evolution, we’re building something bigger designed for the next generation of content creators and brands ready to scale.

Learn more at: https://channelcore.io

Jeremy Grinacoff, MBA

Our dev team is growing! 

We're looking for a few software engineer interns to join us at ChannelCore, Inc. 

You'll gain immediate, hands on experience building with the most modern tech stack known to man! 

Interested? Or Know anyone? 

Comment down below or send me a DM.

Creators. Brands. Performance. | Founder & CEO ChannelCore | CMO Alliance CMO to watch 2024 | Scaled brands north of $1.2 billion in revenue |

Built.

ChannelCore went from idea to prototype to in-market driving revenue in under 1 year.

The people made the difference.

We moved fast, paid attention, and focused on a real problem.

This one taught me to trust speed when it’s paired with the right people.

Phase 2 is about momentum.

Momentum comes from action, not intention.

No alternative text description for this image

It’s funny, I keep seeing posts about “we’re getting closer to better tracking and attribution in influencer marketing,” “the future is more authentic content, better data, and more performance-driven partnerships,” and "the creator economy isn't the wild west anymore..."

But NONE of that can exist without real infrastructure behind it.

Tracking isn’t some future breakthrough, optimization isn’t a trend anymore, and performance doesn’t show up just because we keep saying the word.

If you can’t pace spend, shift budgets mid-campaign, or clearly explain what’s working and why, then it’s not performance marketing. It’s just content.

The future of influencer marketing isn’t better creators or more buzzwords.

It’s systems that treat creator spend with the same rigor as paid media. 

Everything else is just noise.

Creators. Brands. Performance. | Founder & CEO ChannelCore |

Brands say they want influencer marketing to scale. This is where it usually breaks.

These are the conversations we’re having with brands right now.

Everyone agrees creators belong in the media mix.

The real tension is whether creator marketing is allowed to be a serious growth channel, or if it stays protected from accountability once scale enters the picture.

Most teams aren’t stuck on strategy. They’re stuck with tooling that was never built for conversion, learning, or iteration at volume.

That gap is exactly why ChannelCore for brands exists. If creator spend is real spend, it deserves real infrastructure.

So here’s the question: when influencer becomes a meaningful line item, should it still be treated differently than the rest of the media mix?

VP of Growth Marketing Manychat / Tech Startups Marketing Adviser

Your CMO asks: "Which influencer drove that conversion?"
Wrong question.

We kept creator budgets small for years because we couldn't prove direct attribution.
Then we stopped trying.
Instead, we treated creators exactly like demand creation ads that convert downstream, rather than relying on last-click magic.

What changed in Q4:
1. Moved budget from ads to creator partnerships
2. Went from 100 to 150 active creators
3. Launched in France, Germany, and Spain with native creators
5. 4x'd our impressions and saw an immediate lift in new markets

Three things that actually move the needle for you:
1. Stop calling it "influencer budget"
Call it what it is: media mix. Creators compete with ads for dollars, not with your swag budget.
2. Local creators beat translated content every time
We didn't localize our campaigns. We found French creators for France, German creators for Germany. The authenticity difference is massive.
3. Measure contribution, not conversion

Lately I’ve been realizing something about creator programs.

They feel creative at first because you’re still experimenting. 

That works… until it doesn’t.

Once real money is involved, you need clarity. And a lot of programs don’t actually have that.

Not because the content is bad.

Because there’s no real way to understand what’s actually working and what isn't.

Saw this stat this morning and it kind of stuck with me.

Global influencer marketing spend last year was around $37B. And about half of marketers say they can’t really prove ROI from influencer campaigns.

Being conservative, that’s $12–13 BILLION a year where brands admit they’re barely measuring outcomes. 

If you take the broader number, it’s closer to $18–19 BILLION that can’t be clearly tied back to performance.

That money isn’t necessarily wasted.
But it is mostly untracked.

And that’s why the expectations are changing. 

Marketers aren’t just looking for awareness anymore. They want to understand who’s actually responding, how it’s performing down funnel, and whether it lines up with the audience they’re trying to reach.

Once you see the numbers, it’s hard to unsee them. It definitely puts a lot of what’s happening in this space into perspective.

Been talking to a lot of brands lately about their influencer marketing programs, and one thing is really surprising me.

I thought they would be asking to work with MORE creators when in reality...

They just want confidence.

Confidence in knowing what the heck is working in their campaigns, what's not working, and if it can scale.

I've been in the room too many times when budgets are getting questioned and you have no idea how to answer.

And if I'm being honest... it sucks.

You lose confidence in yourself, and therefore, the campaign.

"Best practices" are usually just a distraction.

I keep reading that as a startup, we need to be doing high-volume cold email outreach. 

Everyone says it’s a numbers game...just send more emails, hit more inboxes, and the growth will follow.

But every time I look at our data, the "high-volume" approach is a total waste of time. 

And I know, A LOT of companies have grown from cold email.

At ChannelCore, we’ve tried it. We've tested thousands and thousands of subject lines, personalization tactics...all the things. 

What I’ve realized is that sending 10,000+ emails is useless compared to having one actual conversation with a brand who is tired of their influencer marketing being a "best guess."

Cold outreach feels like spam because most of the time, it is. 

And now battling with spam filters is a pain in the ass. 

It’s trying to sell a solution to people who haven't even admitted they have a problem yet.

We’re pivoting. Instead of chasing volume, we’re focusing on the few brands and creators who actually care about the math behind their influencer marketing and their creator businesses.

I’d rather have 5 conversations that lead to a better product than 10,000 emails that lead to nothing but a high bounce rate and money wasted.

If you’re a brand owner and you’re actually looking at your Shopify analytics and wondering why the numbers don't match your influencer reports, I don't want to send you a 12-step email sequence.

I just want to show you the logic we built and see if it solves your problem. 

Drop a comment or shoot me a DM if you're open to a 10-minute chat.

ChannelCore, Inc. is growing! 

We are looking for a rockstar social media intern to help with community engagement, creator acquisition, and a little bit of content creation. 

If you are passionate about the creator economy and tools to help them grow, you won't want to miss out on this opportunity!

Interested or know anyone? 

Comment down below or send me a DM!

It’s the same cycle every single time.

Creators get frustrated when brands ask for more data.

Brands get nervous when they can’t explain results.

Most of the tension in creator partnerships isn’t personal. 

It’s structural.

When there’s no shared view of performance, both sides end up guessing. 

And guessing doesn’t scale for anyone.

Small teams are the best. 

This week reminded me why working with a small team allows us to move faster at ChannelCore, Inc.  

Communication. 

We can go from having an idea to pushing something live sometimes in the same day. 

Without having clear communication this wouldn’t be possible. 

Everyone knows what they need to be working on and if there are bottlenecks, or if something breaks (which happens all the time), we talk through it. 

No one is blamed, no one is yelled at. 

We just figure it out and it gets done.

It’s funny, we always talk about influencer marketing like it’s purely creative.

But the second we actually press go on the budget, the energy in the room completely shifts.

Suddenly, nobody is asking about the aesthetic anymore. 

We just want to know:
1. Did it work?
2. Who clicked?
3. Do we do it again?

We go from "art mode" to "decision mode" really fast. 

And the tricky part is... usually, we’re trying to make those decisions without having the full picture.

And that’s the problem!

We treat influencer marketing like art right up until the moment money’s on the line.

Then we expect it to behave like a performance channel.

That only works if you can actually see what’s happening, change what’s not working, and defend the outcome.

ChannelCore makes untracked creator performance impossible, so when you switch into decision mode, you’re not guessing.

You’re deciding.

Copying your competitors is a trap.

At ChannelCore, we spent a lot of time looking at how everyone else handles influencer attribution. 

We studied the dashboards, the tracking links, the promo codes... the whole "industry standard."

But the more we looked at it, the more we realized the standard actually sucks.

Everyone is just polishing a broken model from ten years ago because "that's how it's done."

When we started building, we asked ourselves one question: "If we’re building this from scratch today, without all the legacy junk, how do we make it actually work for brands?"

We decided to ignore the "industry standard" entirely.

Instead of building another tool full of "best guess" data and messy workarounds, we focused on precision. 

We built something that looks nothing like the legacy tools because it’s designed to show you exactly where your money is going.

We aren't trying to be a 10% improvement on what’s already out there. 

We’re building the version that should have existed all along.

If you’re a brand owner tired of guessing which influencers are actually driving ROI, stop settling for "good enough" data.

I'm looking for 3 more brands to stress-test this new attribution model with us.

If you want to see the "non-standard" way we're doing things, drop a comment or shoot me a DM.

Real rant... 

If your creator “plan” doesn’t include budget pacing, success metrics, and what happens if things underperform, it’s not really a plan.

It’s literally just guessing.

Therefore, you can’t start with the creators.

You need to start with outcomes and what you're trying to achieve from the creators you work with. 

Is it awareness? 
Is it conversions? 

It's ok to have multiple.

Every creator has different abilities and you need to work with the ones that align with your goals. 

Because if you can’t explain how creator spend is supposed to perform before the campaign launches, measuring it after the fact, won't save you.

So here’s the thing…

These are the conversations we keep having with brands at ChannelCore, Inc. …

1) “I’m struggling to prove ROI”
2) “I can’t get more budget approved because of it”
3) “I’m still using spreadsheet to track campaign performance”
4) “I waste hours, if not days chasing creators for screenshots of post performance”

I totally get it! 

And I had the exact same issue as a 2x CMO spending millions upon millions of UNTRACKED dollars on influencer campaigns. 

So, I built ChannelCore, The modern infrastructure for the creator economy™️ 

Not only can brands run campaigns end to end in our platform but we turn influencer marketing into a TRUE performance channel.

Well, what the heck does that mean? 

It means that you can finally track, measure, optimize, and scale creator campaigns ..down to the creator level.. with the same rigor as other paid media channels. 

This allows you to double down on which creators are actually working (meaning you’re building more authenticity with your target audience) and cut the under performs. 

The “we still can’t prove ROI” conversation is over.

The influencer industry is now worth $200 billion, yet 73% of brands cannot prove ROI 💰

Impressions alone are useless when you need to prove the channel's value to your CFO. 

The Global Influencer Council came together to dissect the most common measurement challenges, sharing learnings from the perspective of brands that are driving ROI with Influencer Marketing. 

Brands should focus on metrics that show real commercial outcomes, like revenue impact and profitability. To do this, follow the 4 step process: 

1️⃣ Define your goal: Effective campaigns commit to a single, primary objective eg. Consideration (engagement, views), purchase (conversion, sales), or retention (traffic, repeat visits). 

2️⃣ Use performance metrics: Benchmark influencer campaigns against other channels (paid social, search) using financial metrics like Efficiency % of Ordered Sales, ROAS, CPA, and Conversion Rate.

3️⃣ Track robustly: Stop relying on discount codes for tracking. Implement UTM tags with a full cookie window and deep linking to accurately capture the creator's full-funnel value and attribution.

4️⃣ Optimize: Data will reveal where you need to work with the same creator again, whether your creative needs reviewing or if your customer journey is broken. 

We’ll be sharing more tips in our upcoming Forbes article – coming soon. 

In the meantime, catch up with our latest insights on the Global Influencer Marketing website: https://lnkd.in/eWMG3KC4

#influencermarketing #creatoreconomy #influencermeasurement #marketingmeasurement #ROI

Open article: News by globalinfluencercouncil.com

Guys, it’s 2026. Why are we still running multi-million dollar influencer campaigns out of spreadsheets?

I see it constantly. 

I’ll jump on a call with a brand or a creator team and they’re shuffling through five different browser tabs, screenshots, and manual Google Sheets just to show me their ROI.

Look, I’m not bashing spreadsheets here. 

I built the very first iteration of ChannelCore in a spreadsheet. It’s the easiest way to start when you're just trying to map out the logic.

But a spreadsheet isn't a system.

Eventually, things need to be automated, scaled, and organized in a way that doesn't rely on a founder or a manager manually updating cells at 11:00 PM on a Sunday. 

In my experience, there’s a hidden cost to these "temporary" workarounds that eventually catches up to the business:

Number one is wasted meeting time. If you spend half your meetings explaining why your manual sheet doesn't match your analytics, you aren't actually managing the campaign. You're just trying to figure out which number is right.

Second, you're missing the window to actually scale. If it takes three days to manually update a sheet just to see if an influencer hit their ROI, you’ve already lost three days where you could have been doubling down on a winner.

And third is human error. Manual entry is where mistakes happen. One wrong cell or a broken formula means your entire strategy for the next month is based on the wrong data.

At a certain scale, the goal shouldn't be to work harder on your tracking, it should be to have tracking that actually allows you to work.

The creator economy has outgrown the "duct-tape" phase. So, if you’re still in the weeds with manual sheets, it might be time to stop asking "how do we fix the spreadsheet?" and start asking "why are we still using one?"

Curious to hear from the builders and brand owners... at what point did your "temporary" spreadsheet start to feel like a liability for your business? 

Let me know what you think in the comments.

P.S. the screenshot attached is the OG version of ChannelCore 😂

I strategise and implement positioning, content and growth systems for businesses and their teams — shaping how brands show up in culture so channels and market expansion drive real demand and revenue.

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