How NutriQ Turned Mom Influencers Into 15% of Sales

CHALLENGE

• Scaling a fast-growing influencer program across a two-person marketing team, with no single funnel to organise it.
• Keeping every sale tied to the right source and the right team member, since each manager earns commission on what they generate.
• Uncertainty over affiliate traffic quality, as some affiliates run branded Google Ads on NutriQ’s own keywords.

SOLUTION

• Structured multiple UpPromote programs by team member and by source to keep payouts and attribution clean.
• Built a two-tier commission model: 20% for Instagram-sourced brand ambassadors who also supply content, 10% for inbound affiliates.
• Seeded products to mom influencers, who promote the gummies alongside their own children.

RESULTS

• Affiliates now drive around 15% of NutriQ’s overall sales.
• 135 creators active in the brand-ambassador program.
• A repeatable program run entirely inside UpPromote, from commission tracking to two-tier payouts.

LESSONS

• Pay more for partners who deliver more than clicks: ambassadors earn double because they also create content for ads.
• Match the product to the channel, the way children’s gummies fit mom influencers naturally.
• Structure programs around your team, not just your affiliates, to keep commission tracking clean.
• Check where affiliate traffic really comes from before paying commission on demand you already own.

NUTRIQ is a German supplement brand built around a product with unusually wide appeal: children’s vitamin gummies. Made in Germany and modelled on the fast-growing US gummy category, the line is vegan, sugar-free, and aimed at parents looking for an easy way to supplement their kids’ diets.

The brand is VC-backed and sits inside a larger portfolio of supplement companies. But its growth engine isn’t only performance ads. It’s mothers.

NutriQ has leaned hard into the mom-influencer space, and runs the entire program through UpPromote. Here’s how founder and CEO Kevin Wawrzynek built it.

How do you run one program across many sources and a two-person team?

NutriQ’s affiliate setup isn’t a single funnel. The brand recruits creators directly on Instagram, accepts inbound affiliates who apply on their own, and manages all of it with a two-person influencer marketing team.

That created a tracking problem: keeping every sale tied to the right source, and to the right team member.

Separate programs match different partnership structures

NutriQ’s two influencer managers each run partnerships in their own way, so the brand set up separate programs to match those structures.

We have two people in our team managing the influencers, and with influencers, sometimes we have different structures, so that’s why we have so many programs.

The programs double as commission tracking

NutriQ also pays each manager a commission on the revenue they generate. Structuring programs by person lets Kevin calculate those payouts cleanly at month’s end.

The program list looks busy from the outside, but every one maps to a person or a source.

Why are children’s gummies a natural fit for mom influencers?

A mom can film herself giving the product to her own kids: no studio, no script, just a believable everyday moment.

So NutriQ sends product directly to mom influencers, who promote it alongside their children.

Our product is just a perfect fit for that because we can send our product to mom influencers and they just promote it together with their children.

That kind of authenticity is hard to manufacture. It’s why NutriQ treats influencers as a core channel rather than a bolt-on to paid ads.

How does NutriQ decide who earns 10% and who earns 20%?

NutriQ splits its partners into two groups with different commission rates, and the split is deliberate.

Inbound affiliates earn 10%

Inbound affiliates discover NutriQ and apply through UpPromote on their own. Kevin accepts most of these applications, and they earn 10% on the sales they generate.

Brand ambassadors earn 20%

The creators NutriQ sources itself on Instagram earn double, because they deliver more than sales.

These are creators that actually promote our brand through Instagram… we’re also able to get the content from them, which we can use for our videos and ads.

The higher rate buys content and a relationship, not just a click. These ambassadors work on a flat fee plus commission, and while NutriQ provides guidelines, most are free to post in their own voice. 135 creators now sit in that program.

It’s a distinction that often gets blurred. For NutriQ, an ambassador who also feeds the ad engine is worth more than an affiliate who only sends a click.

How closely should you scrutinise where affiliate traffic comes from?

Accepting affiliates freely has a downside Kevin is clear-eyed about: some run branded Google Ads on NutriQ’s own keywords, which risks paying commission on customers the brand would have won anyway.

I fear a bit that this is warm traffic that they’re just taking away from our own existing Google ads.

UpPromote’s Google Ads referral detection surfaces exactly these orders, flagging conversions that may trace back to branded search. Kevin is now weighing how to use it: keep flagging those orders for visibility, or stop paying commission on traffic the brand already owns.

Either way, the instinct is the real takeaway. Kevin wants to reward affiliates who bring new customers, not ones who intercept demand the brand would have won anyway.

What has the program delivered, and what comes next?

Today, affiliates drive a meaningful share of the business.

It’s about 15% of overall sales so far.

That’s on top of a program he built and structured himself, entirely inside UpPromote, from team-based commission tracking to the two-tier ambassador model.

Even so, growth has flattened over the past month, and Kevin is candid that he wants more. His target is concrete:

A good milestone, honestly, would be to make a hundred K per month just from UpPromote.

To get there, he’s watching for UpPromote’s upcoming influencer-discovery tool, a faster way to find creators already proven with other brands, which his two-person team currently sources by hand. For NutriQ, the mom-influencer bet is working. The next phase is simply finding more of the right ones.