What a link
in bio is worth.
We showed 100 marketing and brand professionals the same creator. Half saw a Linktree. Half saw a media kit page. Then we asked what a sponsored post was worth.
The answers differed by 2.1x.
5127 · July 2026 · n = 100 · Fielded via Pollfish
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The complete study as a designed PDF, including every response table.
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The page didn't make the creator look more professional. It made them look more expensive.
We showed 100 marketing and brand professionals the same Instagram creator. Half were shown a Linktree as the creator's external link. Half were shown a 5127 media kit page. Nothing else differed: same creator, same profile, same follower count, same content.
| Measure | Linktree | 5127 page |
|---|---|---|
| Estimated fair rate per sponsored post | $1,260 | $2,645 |
| Valued the post under $500 | 42% | 20% |
| Valued the post at $1,000 or more | 24% | 50% |
| Rated partnership interest 10 out of 10 | 14% | 28% |
| Rated professionalism 10 out of 10 | 24% | 34% |
| Average professionalism score | 7.64 | 7.82 |
The estimated rate roughly doubled. So did the share of respondents who said they were extremely likely to reach out about a paid partnership.
Why we ran it
Nearly every creator sends brands to the same place: a list of links. It is the default, it is free, and it is what the tooling in this space has optimised for since 2016.
The assumption underneath that default is that the destination does not matter much. A brand evaluating a creator is really evaluating the creator: their audience, their content, their fit. The link is just plumbing.
We wanted to know whether that assumption holds, and specifically whether it holds at the point where money is discussed. Not whether people prefer one page, which is easy to answer and not very interesting, but whether the page changes the number they write down.
Method
Design
Between-subjects, two cells, 50 respondents each. Cell A saw an Instagram profile whose external link was a Linktree. Cell B saw the same profile with a 5127 media kit page. Respondents saw one version only and were not told a comparison was taking place.
Fielded
Pollfish, July 2026. Respondents were screened toward marketing, brand, and creator-adjacent roles.
Questions asked
- How professional does this creator appear to potential brand partners? (1 to 10)
- How likely would you be to reach out for a paid brand partnership? (1 to 10)
- What is a fair rate for a single sponsored post? (five brackets)
- Which best describes your primary role?
Dollar figures
Bracket midpoints: $250, $750, $3,000, $7,500. The open top bracket was valued at its floor, $10,000. That is deliberately conservative. Valuing it at $15,000 produces 2.34x rather than 2.10x.
Estimated fair rate per sponsored post
Two things stand out beyond the average. The bottom bracket halved: 42% of the Linktree group thought the creator was worth under $500 a post, against 20% of the 5127 group. And the ceiling moved. Not one respondent in the Linktree group valued a post above $10,000. Six percent of the 5127 group did.
Partnership intent
The average difference is modest. The top of the scale is where the movement is: the share of respondents who said they were extremely likely to reach out doubled.
That pattern matters more than the mean. Brand partnerships are not decided by the median evaluator feeling slightly warmer. They are decided by someone deciding to make contact.
Professionalism
The averages are effectively tied. The 5127 page produced more perfect scores and also, slightly, more very low ones. It polarised where the Linktree did not.
We report this because it is the result that complicates the story. Professionalism stayed flat while the estimated rate doubled.
Who answered
| Primary role | Linktree cell | 5127 cell |
|---|---|---|
| Brand or marketing manager | 20% | 24% |
| Brand partnerships or sponsorships | 12% | 24% |
| Social media or influencer marketing | 42% | 20% |
| Creative or advertising agency | 12% | 12% |
| Other | 14% | 20% |
What this study does not show.
We would rather state the limits ourselves than have them found.
The cells were not role-matched. The 5127 group contained twice the share of respondents whose primary role is brand partnerships and sponsorships, and half the share working in social or influencer marketing. Those two groups may value creators differently. This is the most serious limitation in the study and it is not possible to rule out as a partial explanation of the difference.
Not every respondent was a buyer. Free-text answers in the “Other” category included Daycare, Nurse, Cashier, Writer, and Professional Athlete. Panel screening was imperfect in both cells. Roughly one respondent in five in the 5127 cell selected “Other,” and at least half of those are not people who commission sponsored posts.
The sample is small. Fifty per cell. That is enough to detect a difference of this size in the rate question and not enough to say anything confident about the professionalism question, where the gap is small.
One creator, one category. We tested a single creator profile. Nothing here establishes that the effect holds across follower counts, niches, or platforms.
Rates were bracketed. Respondents chose a range, not a number. Every dollar figure on this page is derived from those ranges and inherits their coarseness.
We built one of the two things being compared. This study was designed, commissioned, and paid for by 5127. Read it accordingly. The full response tables are published below so the analysis can be checked rather than trusted.
What we would do differently
A stronger version of this study would be within-subjects: show each respondent both versions in randomised order and measure the change per person rather than between groups. That removes the role-matching problem entirely and needs a smaller sample to reach the same confidence.
It would also screen harder for people who have actually commissioned a sponsored post in the last twelve months, ask for a rate as a number rather than a bracket, and test three or four creators across different follower tiers.
We plan to run it. If you would find the results useful, or you want the raw response file from this one, get in touch.
Get the full report
The complete study as a designed PDF, including every response table.
We will email you the report. Nothing else unless you ask.
Full response tablesShow
Q1. Professionalism, 1 to 10
| Score | Linktree | 5127 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0% | 2% |
| 2 | 0% | 2% |
| 3 | 4% | 2% |
| 4 | 0% | 0% |
| 5 | 10% | 6% |
| 6 | 10% | 16% |
| 7 | 22% | 12% |
| 8 | 22% | 14% |
| 9 | 8% | 12% |
| 10 | 24% | 34% |
Q2. Likelihood to reach out for a paid partnership, 1 to 10
| Score | Linktree | 5127 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0% | 4% |
| 2 | 2% | 0% |
| 3 | 8% | 4% |
| 4 | 2% | 4% |
| 5 | 18% | 12% |
| 6 | 16% | 14% |
| 7 | 20% | 14% |
| 8 | 8% | 8% |
| 9 | 12% | 12% |
| 10 | 14% | 28% |
Q3. Estimated fair rate for one sponsored post
| Bracket | Linktree | 5127 |
|---|---|---|
| Under $500 | 42% | 20% |
| $500 to $1,000 | 34% | 30% |
| $1,000 to $5,000 | 20% | 34% |
| $5,000 to $10,000 | 4% | 10% |
| Over $10,000 | 0% | 6% |
| Weighted average | $1,260 | $2,645 |
Q4. Primary role
| Role | Linktree | 5127 |
|---|---|---|
| Brand or marketing manager | 20% | 24% |
| Brand partnerships or sponsorships | 12% | 24% |
| Social media or influencer marketing | 42% | 20% |
| Creative or advertising agency | 12% | 12% |
| Other | 14% | 20% |
Base: 50 completes per cell, 100 total. Fielded via Pollfish, July 2026. Percentages are unweighted and may not sum to 100 due to rounding.
To cite this study, reference “5127, What a Link in Bio Is Worth, July 2026.” The raw response file is available on request.