Brands are moving towards influencer marketing and away from traditional marketing. It’s one of the most popular and effective forms of marketing. It helps brands to generate maximum revenue, boost sales, increase brand awareness, and generate leads.

According to Linqia, 92% of marketers found influencer marketing to be very effective. Also, 66% of marketers report that they ran three or more influencer marketing campaigns in 2018. On average, the budgets of influencer marketing campaigns are on the rise. 39% of marketers are ready to increase their allocated budgets for their influencer marketing campaigns.

This underlines the effectiveness and power of influencer marketing. However, in 2019, 52% of marketers report that it’s challenging to measure the ROI of influencer marketing.Image Source – Linqia

There is a lot of information on how to start an influencer marketing campaign and discover suitable influencers. However, when it comes to tracking and measuring the success of influencer marketing campaigns, there’s not much information.

So, even before you start your influencer marketing campaign, you need to figure out ways to track and measure it. The following four are vital influencer marketing metrics, which can help you track and monitor your influencer marketing campaign.

Let’s dive in!

3 Key Influencer Marketing Metrics You Need to Start Tracking Today

1. Measure the Engagement Rate

Engagement rates are often considered to be one of the most effective and critical metrics to measure the impact of an influencer marketing campaign. A Linqia 2019 study reported that 89% of marketers believe engagement is an effective parameter to measure the success of their campaigns.Image Source – Linqia

Are you wondering why your engagement rate is such a critical metric?

Because the engagement rate is directly correlated with customer trust and brand loyalty. However, to generate a high engagement rate, your potential influencer needs to create authentic and engaging content.

There are various engagement parameters which can help you understand the extent your target audience interacts with your brand.

The following engagement parameters will help you measure the engagement rate of your campaign:

• Comments– The number of comments you receive on your influencer-generated content will decode whether your audience likes the content or not.
• Reactions– Other than the “like” response on Facebook, the audience can now react with “sad,” “love,” or “angry” to the content. These audience sentiments will help you understand the impact of your content.
• Shares– High-quality content will help you generate more shares. So, a high number of shares on your content indicates that it’s reaching a relevant audience, that the quality is high, and that people are recommending your brand to others.
• Clicks– If your content drives a high number of clicks, it means your audience is interested in your brand. So, measure the clicks to analyze the interest level of your target audience.
• Likes– When your content generates a high number of likes, it means the content is popular with the audience. The higher the popularity, the better the ranking. So, measure the number of clicks to understand the popularity and reputation of your brand.

In addition to these parameters, you can also calculate cost per engagement (CPE). CPE will help you understand how your target audience is responding to your brand.

2. Measure the Campaign Reach

The reach of your campaign is a critical indicator of the success of your influencer marketing strategies. One of the vital factors which determine the reach of your campaign is the reach of the influencer you partner with.

When your influencer has a higher reach, then it increases the visibility of your content. You need to measure your campaign reach and assess how many people your marketing content influences.

There are two important performance indicators to measure and track your campaign reach. The first is the growth in your follower count, and the second is the increase in organic website traffic.

Growth in Your Follower Count

The reach of your marketing campaign is directly proportional to the number of followers on your influencer’s account(s). The higher the number of followers, the wider the reach.

You need to share influencer-generated content on your social media profiles as well to get the attention of your target audience. According to a Linqia 2019 report, 75% of marketers share influencer-generated content on other marketing channels.

The content created by influencers is compelling and engaging. According to the previously cited study, 57% of marketers reported that influencer content outperforms brand-created content. So, this may encourage your target audience to follow your brand on social media as well.

Hence, it’s vital that you track and measure the number of your social media followers. This can help you measure and track the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.

However, 67.6% of marketers report that it’s challenging to find relevant influencers for their influencer marketing campaign. You need to ensure that you connect with a relevant influencer from the same niche.

There are platforms like influence.co which help can help you to connect with relevant influencers. It’s a community where influencers and brands can show off their amazing work and connect for the next opportunity.

Increase in Organic Website Traffic

Influencer marketing campaigns help brands generate organic and high-quality traffic to their product or service pages and websites. Thus the generation of website traffic is a crucial metric to measure the effectiveness of your influencer marketing campaigns.

Your potential influencers share the link of your product or service landing page or your website on social platforms. This helps you to drive organic and high-quality traffic to your website and increase awareness of your brand.

So, it’s important to measure the traffic generation to your website to track the performance of influencer marketing campaign.

You need to measure the generation of traffic from three sources:

• Referral Visitors– People who are referred from some other source and visit your website.
• Search– People who use Google search to find you and then visit your website.
• Direct– People who use your website’s URL to visit your site.

You can use tools such as Google Analytics to track the traffic generated from these sources to your website. This tool will help you measure the amount of traffic generated by your influencers and track the effectiveness of your marketing campaign.

One of the best examples of using influencer marketing to increase website traffic is from Kelly Sanders. Kelly is a nutritionist, trained chef, personal trainer, and the CEO and Founder of her company, Klean Plate. This two-year-old company was able to increase website traffic by 204%.

Klean Plate collaborated with fitness influencers and nutrition coaches to promote their brand. As you can see the above image, one of the influencers talked about Klean Plate and Kelly in an Instagram post.

3. Measure the Conversions and Leads

Influencer marketing helps increase the visibility and awareness of your brand. However, the primary goal of an influencer marketing campaign is often to generate high-quality leads and boost sales. Hence, it’s an important metric to measure the performance of your influencer marketing campaign.

Conversions include not only sales but also responses to calls-to-actions (CTA). This includes things like clicking on a link, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading an ebook. Basically, it’s anything you want your prospects to do.

So, calculating conversions will help you measure the ROI of your campaign. Make sure that the conversion is related to the campaign goals of your brand. To calculate the conversion rate, you can use the Google Analytics tool.

With the help of the tool, you can generate reports such as customer acquisition and campaign performance. This will help you understand the impact and effectiveness of your campaign.

Final Thoughts

When compared to traditional marketing, influencer marketing substantial ROI. It helps brands establish connections with their target audiences, increase awareness, and boost sales.

Having said that, you need to track and monitor your campaign in order to understand if it’s working or not. The metrics mentioned above can help you track your influencer marketing campaign effectively.

You can also avail services of an influencer marketing agency to help you find the right influencers and content for your brand/ business. They also help you keep track of all the metrics, saving you a ton of time.

Do you know any other crucial metrics to measure the performance of influencer campaigns? If so, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

About the author:

Shane Barker is a digital marketing consultant for 15 years with an emphasis on Influencer Marketing in the last 5 years. He is specialized in sales funnels, targeted traffic and website conversions. He has consulted with Fortune 500 companies, Influencers with digital products, and a number of A-List celebrities.