Turning Influence into Sales: How Kess Berlin Leverages The Power of Influencer Marketing

Kess Berlin makes vegan and cruelty-free makeup for everyday use, selling across Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Austria. Their lineup includes blush and highlighter sticks, mascaras, eyeliners, lip glosses, and eyeshadow palettes.

The brand leans on quality and sustainability, using dermatologically tested ingredients and eco-friendly packaging.

At the heart of their growth is community. Kess Berlin uses influencer marketing to connect with beauty enthusiasts who show their products off in real life.

Why did Kess Berlin turn to UpPromote to run their influencer program?

Influencers are central to Kess Berlin’s growth. They show the brand’s makeup in real-life scenarios, building trust and engagement within the beauty community and bringing the products closer to customers.

But as the program grew, coordinating so many influencers got harder to keep on top of.

To keep up, Kess Berlin adopted UpPromote to track affiliate sales, monitor overall performance, and manage their growing roster of partners.

How does Kess Berlin choose their influencers?

Kess Berlin recruits selectively rather than accepting every applicant. To the brand, influencers are ambassadors of their values: effortless beauty, empowerment, and authenticity.

So it screens for creators with strong follower connections and engaging content, which raises the odds they’ll actually drive sales.

We do a lot of quality screening beforehand. We make sure they’re a good fit, that they have strong engagement, and that they match our brand’s target group. In the end, that also leads to better performance.

Pauline Stark, Influencer Marketing Team Lead at Kess Berlin

That upfront filtering is what makes the rest of the program work so efficiently.

How does Kess Berlin reward their influencers?

Kess Berlin builds their partnerships on transparency and fairness, with a package that pays influencers two ways.

Influencers earn a 10% commission on every sale through their affiliate links. On top of that, they receive a flat rate of up to €500 for a post or Instagram story featuring the brand.

The hybrid deal works in two steps: posting qualifies an influencer for the agreed flat rate, while every sale through their links adds the 10% commission. It rewards both creative work and real sales.

Moreover, UpPromote lets merchants customize commissions by product, whether a percentage of sales, a flat rate per item, or a flat rate per order, so brands can tailor rewards to different affiliate groups.

How does Kess Berlin equip their influencers to promote?

Because influencers are the brand’s face on social media, Kess Berlin gives them everything they need to promote, from the products themselves to fresh monthly content.

Send samples and track every sale

Kess Berlin sends sample products directly to influencers, who try them out and create posts and stories with their affiliate links.

For example, @paulaasworld (117K followers) featured Kess Berlin’s blush sticks in a summer makeup look. UpPromote tracks every sale from those links, and influencers can check their clicks, referrals, and commissions in a real-time dashboard.

That visibility keeps influencers informed while sparing the brand manual tracking.

Refresh content with monthly campaigns

Kess Berlin also runs monthly campaigns to give influencers fresh content to share. Each comes with a detailed brief, updated discount codes, and extra creative assets.

Every month, we have a different campaign focus. So we also sent the affiliates a new briefing, along with a new discount code from our side. Sometimes it’s 20%, sometimes 25%, or even more during sales

Pauline Stark, Influencer Marketing Team Lead at Kess Berlin

Rotating campaigns give influencers a reason to keep posting and their audiences a reason to keep buying.

What results has Kess Berlin achieved?

Kess Berlin’s selective, well-supported approach has produced standout efficiency.

With UpPromote, the brand has tracked over 44,000 referrals, generated by just 44 active influencers.

Looking ahead, Kess Berlin plans to explore more of UpPromote’s features to refine their program, optimize management, and support their influencers further.