For a long time, measuring success using likes and shares was acceptable because it was all we really had. There was no good way to calculate if a follower had seen a post beyond reach and impression metrics. There was no way to analyze the quality of the traffic an influencer was driving to your site beyond clicks. These data points were easily accessible and easy to understand, and that was good enough.
1. Calculate Cost Per Acquisition, Not Cost Per Click
The simplest way to get at true influencer ROI is also the simplest way to measure any performance marketing campaign: Divide your total campaign spend, including the influencer fee, product cost, and any management costs, by the number of customers you acquired. That’s your influencer CPA. Now compare it to what you’re paying for a customer through paid search or display.
Most marketing teams are shocked to discover that even mid-tier influencer campaigns outperform PPC on a cost-per-customer basis, particularly in high-consideration categories where trust is important. Overall, the Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2023 Benchmark Report shows businesses are making an average of $5.28 in earned media value for every dollar spent on influencer marketing. But the campaigns that are doing that kind of lifting are the ones tracking actual conversions, not impressions.
2. Fix Your Dark Social Problem
A considerable amount of sales generated by influencers are untraceable in your statistics. For instance, a person sees a post, takes a screenshot, shares it with a friend, who then makes a purchase using a direct URL link three days later. This conversion will show up as direct traffic in your data.
The best solution to this is using unique discount codes. You can give each influencer their own code and track each redemption regardless of how the customer made it to checkout. A London based influencer marketing agency will often set this up alongside post-purchase surveys where you ask “how did you hear about us?” to track conversions that may be overlooked by the UTM parameters. If you are solely counting clicked links, you are missing out on some of the influencer conversions.
3. Count the Content as an Asset, Not Just an Ad
If a reliable piece of influencer content does well, don’t use it once and forget about it. The best creators produce content that’s evergreen or at least relevant for several months. Marketers can capitalize on this lifespan by getting as much value as possible out of high-performing content.
1. Share it on all your social channels. Treat the post just as you would a regram or retweet from a fan. (But make sure your deal terms allow for this type of usage.)
2. Pull into an email campaign. Maybe the post was successful because the influencer talked up your event. You can use that same photo and quote in an email promoting the event to your community.
3. License the images for whitelisting. There’s a limited opportunity to get a specific post in front of Instagram users in organic search, as soon as it is published, but an unlimited opportunity to use any content on the platform as a sponsored post. Whitelisting is flipping the switch from organic to promotional, so you can use a very effective piece of content.
4. Quarterly pitches. Push new content front-and-center in your regular pitches to media or other influencers. A polished influencer post is a strong proof source of quality, the same as sending over old clippings.
4. Audit the Audience You’re Actually Gaining
The number of new organic followers you picked up from the campaign is only one metric. Long term brand affinity is more valuable than a short-term bump in likes and comments, and micro-influencers tend to drive the lion’s share of those organic followers. It is challenging for mega-influencer audiences to translate to valued new organic followers because those influencers are not niche, whereas a micro-influencer is typically followed because they make, do, or are something very specific.
5. Measure Your Share of Voice in the Niche
Apart from direct sales, share of voice and influencer partnerships determine how much your brand dominates the competition in a product category. Share of voice measures what percent of relevant social mentions or hashtag usage your brand occupies compared to your competitors. It’s a significant way to gauge the overall health of your business.
When excitement about or around your brand rises, you attract more competitors. Evaluate these metrics before a campaign hits the market, and then compare them during the month the campaign runs and the three weeks after it’s ended. An effective share of voice campaign helps your hashtags trend more, creates more user-generated content and conversation about your brand in other posts, and generally pushes out more competitors. Over time, you’ll convert those benefits into new customers, but none of that shows up on a single quarterly report.
This is essential feedback for your marketing and sales people to hear, as their job is to generate long-term brand equity. Board members must be assured that every campaign drives word-of-mouth and share of voice.
Bringing the Numbers Together
Return on investment in influencer marketing isn’t a single number. Instead, it’s a cluster of metrics including direct acquisition costs, savings on content production, quality of audience, and cost to reach your category. If you can measure all of those, even in approximate terms, it’s tough to write influencer marketing off. The companies that view it as a performance marketing channel, not a roll of the dice on brand awareness, are those that are best positioned to continue scaling their investments.
