Performance Indicators Of Influencer Marketing Campaign
There are several key metrics a brand can track to measure the performance of an influence marketing campaign. That’s why this is a fairly long post and why we made it scannable.
Why is it vital to track these KPIs?
Because they help you understand how effective an influencer collaboration was and what you should do for the next campaign.
Now jumping right onto the metrics.
- Engagement Rate
This is the quintessential KPI for an influencer campaign. It is an accurate mirror of the content’s quality. The more authentic and engaging it is, the higher the engagement rate.
There are several ways to calculate engagement rate. The most common is:
total number of likes and comments/ total follower count X 100
Brand tip:
For video content, engagement rates are misleading. People rarely like a video. They engage just by watching it. For video campaigns, stick to comments and reach as a reliable metric.
- Likes/Reactions
This is a soft metric of how the audience received the content. Given that Instagram may do away with Likes, it is not a great KPI for an influencer campaign.
In case the campaign was run on Facebook or LinkedIn, then the equivalent metric is Reactions.
Brand tip:
In the battle of good and bad metrics, Likes firmly fall on the bad side. You’re better off tracking comments and shares. The only reason you should keep an eye on Likes is to calculate the ER.
The same rule doesn’t apply to Reactions. Keeping an eye on LinkedIn Reactions can give you deeper insight into how a content affected the target audience
- Total comments
This is one of the most valuable KPI for any influencer marketing campaign. It shows you how much the audience engaged with a post.
Brand tip:
Comments are an indication that the content was compelling enough that it pushed followers into taking an action harder than just tapping.
- Reach
This is the number of unique accounts who see a post. A campaign’s reach is affected by:
- The follower-count of the creator.
- The topic of the content topic.
- How interested is the audience of the creator?
The metric is available on Post Insights on Instagram.
Brand tip:
When your objective is to generate brand awareness by reaching as many people as possible, track this benchmark.
- Impressions
This is the number of times a post is viewed. It’s different from Reach. Impressions include both unique and multiple views, i.e., even when the same user views the post 3 times.
Brand tip:
Since reach only reflects unique views, for a brand, it is a more reliable method of tracking how effective a post, Story, Reel or video was. If the campaign has multiple posts, always track the Impressions of each post.
- Growth Rate
It is the increase in the number of followers of the influencer you collaborate with. With Instagram showing “followed” and “unfollowed” metrics, this KPI has become easy to track.
A somewhat steady growth shows that the creator attracts new followers regularly and their content is good.
Brand tip:
This is a metric brands should never get too attached to. Followers fluctuate all the time. More than that, it is better to have a smaller but engaged community rather than a massive and passive audience. Also, beware of a sudden and steep spike in growth rate. It can be a sign of bots or paid followers.
- Shares
Unlike Likes, which is a vanity metric, Shares give you an authentic picture. A viewer shares a piece of content only when it adds value, which is rare.
Brand tip:
Shares are the new word-of-mouth. There is no better way for a brand to reach an online audience for a brand. If a campaign has a higher number of shares, consider making the influencer collaboration long term.
- Saves
Another extremely useful metric, Saves are the number of times users have bookmarked a post. For social media algorithms, it is an indication of strong interest. Any post that gets more saves, the platform will show it to more people.
Brand tip:
Saves can inform your future strategy. By studying which posts get more saves, you can dig into the ‘why.’ When you know what prompted people to save a content, you can replicate it.
Stories Views
Each Instagram Story has its own metrics. You need to trace them if the marketing campaign leveraged Stories. KPIs for Stories include view count, replies, tap backs and tap forwards.
Brand tip:
Considering what made users tap back or skip forwards is a fantastic method to learn what holds the attention of users. Calculate the watch through rate — it is the percentage of users who saw every single slide of your Stories.
Final story number of views / First story number of views x 100 = Watch Through
Just as important is the drop off rate that shows how many users skipped the Stories after the first slide.
First story number of views / Final story number of views x 100 = Drop Off
Objective KPIs for Influencer marketing campaigns.
All of the above metrics are valuable. But if you’re looking for buying signals from users indicating high desirability, you need to track more objective KPIs.
- Conversions
Not a pretty label to hold, but it is an indispensable measure of a campaign’s success. Anything that leads a social media user to take action is considered a conversion. Examples are:
- Sign-ups
- Visit to website
- Actual sales
They confirm a commercial interest in your brand. The best way to track conversions is to include a call-to-action in the campaign.
- Traffic
This is the number of people who visited a site or landing page after running an influencer marketing campaign. It is a critical KPI and can be leveraged by inserting a link either in the bio or the influencer’s content.
For instance, you can keep tabs on how many people Swiped Up in a Story or clicked the link on the Instagram bio. Each of these generates traffic for you.
- Sales
There is no simpler way to track the success of an influencer marketing campaign. Trackable codes allow you to keep an eye on referrals. With UTM parameters, it is possible to trace actual sales.
UTM is a tool that allows a brand to add campaign parameters to a URL. Then using Custom campaigns in Google Analytics, you can track the effectiveness of online campaigns such as:
- How much revenue did it generate?
- What content converted into actual sales?
The gist on influencer marketing campaign metrics
Influencer marketing campaigns are effective. There are no two ways about it. Today’s consumer wants to hear about brands from real people and not ads.
That said, any initiative will fall flat if you don’t know how well it performed and why. Tracking KPIs of a campaign gives you facts and figures, which help evaluate it and use the learning for further campaigns.
While jumping into analytics can seem overwhelming, you can manage it. Focus on the metrics we spoke about, and you’ll gain a better perception of what motivates users, how to reach new viewers and how to tailor future influencer marketing campaigns.
