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How to Measure the ROI of Influencer Marketing

How to Measure the ROI of Influencer Marketing

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Influencer marketing has been growing in popularity not only because it works, but also because the ROI of a successful influencer marketing campaign can be huge. 89% of marketers say influencer marketing is equal to or better than other marketing channels, but if you feel stuck when it comes to measuring the ROI, you’re not alone.  84% of marketers said proving the ROI of influencer marketing is a challenge. 

An effective influencer campaign is flexible and should be optimized across multiple channels: website traffic, content giveaways, landing pages, and social media platforms. Determining the success of your influencer marketing program comes down to setting the right goals and knowing which metrics and KPIs to use to measure them

Set Your Goals

Figuring out how to measure the impact of influencer marketing campaigns starts with determining the goals for the program or campaign. If you want to drive sales, your KPIs and metrics will be different than the ones you’d use to measure brand awareness.

Influencer marketing can be used in so many different ways (sales, lead generation, brand amplification, content creation, and more), which makes it impossible to just pick one measurement as the indication of success. Figure out the value of what you’re trying to obtain (cost per lead, cost per engagement, cost per follower, etc.) and use that to set benchmarks.

Sales: Measuring the conversion rate is often the most direct goal to connect with the overall ROI. Common ways to track this are promo codes and affiliate links, but they only capture a percent of the overall sales since followers might purchase later or purchase directly from the website versus through a campaign link.

Brand awareness: If the goal is to increase brand awareness, your metrics can include clicks, impressions, follower growth, increase in brand engagement and brand mentions, etc. 

Content generation: User-generated content outperforms branded content and is a key benefit of working with influencers. Click-through-rates and testing can help you determine which content is performing the best. 

Whatever your goals are, make sure they are clear and specific and set a timeline for the campaign so you can measure the impact of your influencer marketing campaigns. 

Mesuring ROI for Brand Awareness

If you’re using influencer marketing to increase your brand awareness, it’s important to look at the campaign reach. Several different factors can be key to understanding growth in brand awareness, including follower count, impressions, and traffic. 

It’s great to see your followers grow, but since you can’t always tie this directly to one particular source, it’s important to pair it with other KPIs to gauge campaign performance more accurately. 

Impressions are a great way to see how a sponsored post or influencer post is performing and how many people are viewing your posts. Interactions are also helpful to watch to see if more people are finding and engaging with your social accounts. 

If you give your influencers dedicated, unique links, you can see how they’re driving traffic to your website, product page, or e-commerce store. 

Measuring ROI for Direct Sales

74% of consumers rely on social media to help inform purchasing decisions. Word-of-mouth advertising is hugely popular and generates 2x the sales of paid advertising. Influencers are so effective because they provide the social proof and recommendations that consumers are looking for online.  

When your goal is to drive sales with an influencer marketing campaign, there are a few ways you can make tracking easier. Affiliate links and promo codes are two of the most popular ways to track sales from individual influencers and campaigns. 

With affiliate links, the influencer gets a commission on the sales and you can track the number of clicks and conversions to see how the influencer or campaign is performing. 

Promo codes can also be unique to each influencer and can be adapted for different campaigns. By tracking the number of sales made with the promo code, you can identify the best performing content, campaigns, and most effective influencers. 

Boosting sales is a common goal for influencer marketing campaigns, but it can be tricky to track since followers may be influenced by a campaign but might not make a purchase through the special link or might make a purchase later.

Measuring ROI For Content Creation

User-generated content is taking advertising by storm and it outperforms branded content most of the time. Working with influencers is a great way to create and curate a library of user-generated content that you can share and repurpose across multiple channels and platforms. 

To make the most of the content created by influencers, you can set up A/B testing for images, videos, and/or copy and use click-through-rates, video views, add-to-cart rates, and purchases to learn what performs the best. Once you identify what content is performing the best, invest in that content and stop sharing the lower-performing content to optimize your campaigns. 

Compare brand-generated content to influencer content to see what performs best based on your metrics or whether you see brand lift. For e-commerce brands, it’s easy to measure based on add-to-cart rates or click-throughs to product pages. 

No matter what your goals are for an influencer marketing campaign, you want to measure the success of your campaigns and be sure you’re getting the highest return on your investment. 

Manage and Measure Influencer Campaign Success All in One Place

With Octoly, you can see what the impact your influencer campaigns are having with live analytics and a real-time overview in a tailored dashboard. 

Optimize campaigns and strategy by seeing all your KPIs and reviews in one place. Identify which influencers and platforms are yielding the best results so you can target your campaigns to the right audiences. 

See which brands have influencer marketing down to an art in our monthly report of the top 25 best-performing brands on Instagram and YouTube.

Want to learn more about how Octoly can help you measure the success of your influencer marketing campaigns? Sign up for a free, personalized demo today!

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