What does ROI look like in the world of influencer marketing?
With influencer budgets set to increase considerably throughout 2018, it’s worrying that so many marketers are willing to pay the big bucks before they are even able to determine how they’re going to measure their success. Not only are they unsure of how to measure their campaigns, but a high percentage are also unsure of how much they should even be paying for influencers.
So, here are our top tips for measuring the success of your influencer marketing campaigns.
1. Set your budgets
Setting your budget is the very first thing you do when you’re planning your influencer campaigns. How much do you have available to spend on influencer fees and how will you be compensating for content created?
Once you’ve determined your budget, you will have a much clearer idea of the type of influencers you can aim to work with; micro-influencers, macro-influencers, celebrities, or a mixture of these. All influencers will have different fees and you must take into account their audience size, engagement rates, and other partnerships. It’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all system.
If you’re really unsure of how much you should be looking at for certain influencers, try out this handy calculator tool providing estimates based on Instagram accounts.
2. Consider why you are investing in influencers
Determining the success of any digital marketing campaign begins with setting objectives and influencer marketing shouldn’t be any different. Identifying your brand’s objectives will not only help you to create a more coherent approach but will also help you to measure the outcome.
Having a clear objective is essential for your brand, and just as essential for an influencer. Knowing what your objectives are will enable them to create the best content to achieve these goals.
3. Brand first, sales second
Marketers can be quick to jump straight to sales when considering the success of any influencer campaign, overlooking the importance of brand awareness. Whereas, placing focus on brand advocacy, awareness, and acquisition are all just as important.
After all, influencer partnerships should be about much more than immediate sales, but instead reaching new audiences who are likely to purchase further down the line.
Engagement is another vital metric that you should be measuring. How many likes, comments and shares have been achieved? How much traffic has been driven to the website? If the content has been engaged with then the user is more likely to remember your brand in the future, and the partnership may be an effective one to continue.
4. Here comes the ‘s’ word
Sales are clearly a huge part of why influencer marketing has become so popular and it is an important metric for marketers, proving the value of the activity in a monetary way.
However, can we directly attribute sales to influencer activity? Being reliant on word-of-mouth, it can be incredibly difficult (or perhaps impossible) to ever see the true value that influencer marketing provides.
Here are a couple of ways you can track sales made directly through your influencer activity:
- Discount/promo codes – there are a lot of brands who have dished out exclusive discount codes to their influencers for them to share with their audience. This is a great way of tracking usage back to a specific influencer campaign.
- Affiliate links – if a customer clicks through an affiliate link and purchases a product, you will be able to track this. Generating affiliate links will also benefit both parties, as the influencers can earn commissions on the sales made.
Influencer marketing is still being explored by brands and marketers as a cost-effective, brand-building tactic. It involves new risks and challenges that we haven’t faced before and it takes time for people to build confidence in influencers as a strategy and a relationship.
At least with our tips above you’ll be able to measure your successes when you decide to take the plunge into influencer marketing. Don’t want to dive in alone? Give us a call.