Measuring Success in Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has swiftly become a cornerstone of modern digital campaigns, allowing brands to connect with their audiences on a personal level. But like any marketing effort, the true value of influencer campaigns can only be realised through effective measurement. Understanding what to track and how to interpret the data is essential for gauging success, proving return on investment, and making informed decisions for future campaigns.

In 2024, the metrics we use to assess influencer performance have evolved, incorporating a broader range of indicators to reflect changing consumer behaviours. We must look beyond simple likes and follows to grasp a comprehensive picture of an influencer's impact. By doing so, brands can pinpoint what works, optimise their strategies, and continue to engage their target audience effectively.

Today, we'll delve into the key metrics that aid in evaluating influencer performance, explore methods for tracking campaign effectiveness, and discuss the best tools and platforms for garnering these insights. By the end, we'll know how to harness this information to continually improve and adapt our influencer marketing strategies to stay ahead in the competitive digital landscape.

Key Metrics to Understand Influencer Performance

Understanding key metrics is crucial when evaluating the performance of influencer marketing campaigns. These metrics offer insight into how well an influencer’s content resonates with their audience and the overall effectiveness of the marketing effort. Key metrics include reach, impressions, engagement rate, and audience growth.

Engagement Rate: This metric shows how actively an audience interacts with an influencer’s content. It includes likes, comments, shares, and saves. A high engagement rate indicates that the content resonates well with the audience, which can lead to better marketing outcomes.

Saves and Shares: Although often overlooked, they possess significantly greater impact compared to likes and comments, as they suggest that people wish to return to the content later. For instance, in the context of a restaurant review, saving the content implies that the individual intends to visit the establishment in the future.

Reach and Impressions: Reach is the number of unique users who see the content, while impressions measure how often the content is viewed. Both metrics together provide a sense of the content’s visibility and the size of the audience it can potentially influence.

Audience Growth: Tracking the growth of an influencer’s followers over time can indicate how their influence is evolving. Rapid audience growth often signifies that the influencer is gaining popularity and can potentially increase the effectiveness of our campaigns.

Tracking Campaign Effectiveness

To ensure the success of our influencer marketing campaigns, setting clear goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is essential. These can include metrics like engagement, reach, and conversions. Having specific, measurable objectives helps us track progress and evaluate success.

Pre- and Post-Campaign Metrics: Comparing metrics before and after a campaign can provide valuable insights. For example, if our goal is to increase brand awareness, we should measure reach and engagement both before and after the campaign. Identifying changes in these metrics lets us understand the campaign’s impact.

Analysing Content Performance: Each piece of content produced during a campaign should be analysed for performance. Look at how individual posts perform in terms of engagement, reach, and impressions. This helps identify what type of content resonates most with the audience.

Monitoring Social Media Mentions and Shares: Monitoring social media for mentions of our brand and shares of influencer content helps us understand the broader impact of the campaign. High levels of mentions and shares indicate that the content is generating conversation and spreading organically. This type of feedback is invaluable for assessing overall campaign effectiveness.

When measuring campaign success, we do not expect content to be good from the get go; it does take time to adjust, to know what works, and to know what audience wants to see. So, it is best for influencer marketing to do A/B Testing, to try what works and doesn’t work. It is also crucial to not just do this in an isolated manner, which is why you must observe content performances over time and track each influencer performance over time. 

Tools and Platforms for Measuring Success

In today's digital age, numerous tools and platforms can assist in measuring the success of influencer marketing campaigns. These tools provide valuable insights and analytics that help us understand which aspects of our campaign are working and which need improvement.

One helpful tool for tracking social media metrics is our in-house software here at SushiVid. When we started earlier in 2015, we also wanted to use existing software out there to help us be better, faster, and cheaper for our clients. But over time, we found that each software just lacked in one or two aspects. We ended up opening five different platforms at the same time to manage a campaign, and over time, decided to build our own because it was too cumbersome. 

Now, when clients do influencer marketing with SushiVid, we have our own proprietary data and software that we have built and accumulated based on our ongoing relationship with KOLs that we found to be useful when engaging influencers. Our software is used in-house as a form of USP for our clients and is currently not available in SaaS marketplaces. If you’re an agency and would like to use our software, feel free to reach out to us at wen(at)sushivid(dot)com. 

Optimising Future Campaigns Based on Metrics

Using the data collected from various metrics and tools, we can optimise and refine our influencer marketing campaigns. This process involves analysing the data to identify what worked well and where improvements are needed.

Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses from Data: By examining the collected data, we can pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of our campaign. For instance, if certain types of content or specific influencers performed exceptionally well, we can focus more on those areas in future campaigns.

Adjusting Strategies for Better Performance: Based on the identified strengths and weaknesses, we can adjust our strategies to enhance performance. This might involve changing the type of content, altering the posting schedule, or targeting a different audience segment.

Experimenting with Different Influencers and Content Types: Trying out new influencers and various content formats can help us discover what resonates best with our audience. Continually experimenting and measuring the results allows us to stay ahead of trends and maintain high engagement levels.

Continuous Improvement and Iteration: Optimising influencer marketing campaigns is an ongoing process. By regularly reviewing data, testing new approaches, and iterating based on findings, we can continually improve the effectiveness of our influencer marketing efforts.

Do check out some of our case studies to see how we’ve helped other clients in the past! Here are some case study highlights:

- JIF's 2022 Influencer Marketing Campaign: During the MCO period, many people took up new skills, including cooking. Leveraging this trend, JIF launched a month-long influencer marketing campaign to showcase creative ways to use its crunchy peanut butter in local recipes. The campaign featured nine Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) who shared their culinary creations through Instagram Reels and Carousel Photos. The campaign successfully reached over 157,985 people and achieved an average engagement rate of 2.65%. Additionally, it garnered 226 shares and 1,060 saves across all content, marking it as a successful initiative.

- Smucker's 2022 Influencer Marketing Campaign: The campaign posed a challenge as it aimed to demonstrate the versatility of fruit spreads beyond traditional bread while keeping recipes rooted in local cuisine. Overall, the campaign proved successful, involving eight KOLs who shared their unique recipes through Instagram Reels and Carousel Photos. The campaign achieved a reach of over 49,480 people and an average engagement rate of 1.34%. Additionally, it garnered 221 shares and 442 saves, with followers enthusiastically attempting to recreate the recipes by saving and sharing the content.

- YSL Beauty Raya TikTok Campaign 2022: In collaboration with YSL Malaysia, we launched a TikTok campaign to promote their Raya promotion, which included a complimentary mini lipstick with a special code. With a team of four working intensively over less than two weeks, we successfully engaged 50 TikTok influencers and supported them during on-ground shoots. The campaign was a phenomenal success, with the complimentary gifts being fully redeemed within just two days and achieving a reach of over 5.8 million. This successful campaign was also featured in a Marketing Interactive article.

Conclusion

In the dynamic landscape of 2024, understanding and measuring influencer marketing success is paramount. By focusing on key metrics such as engagement rate, reach, and audience growth, we can gauge the impact of our campaigns accurately. Setting clear goals and utilising a range of analytics tools help us track our progress and identify areas for improvement.

As we analyse data to refine our strategies, experimenting with different influencers and content types becomes crucial for sustained success. The key to an effective influencer marketing campaign lies in continuous optimisation and iteration, ensuring we remain relevant and engaging to our audience.

Also, influencer marketing moves at an extremely fast pace. If anyone tells you to do Instagram stories, that’s 2020’s strategy. This is why it’s important to always keep up to date, and you can do that by following us on LinkedIn as we post updated in depth analytics from time to time.

Ready to revolutionise your influencer marketing strategy with precise measurement and optimisation techniques? Partner with SushiVid, Southeast Asia's leading influencer management solution, and elevate your brand's presence like never before. Reach out to us today and start your journey towards impactful influencer marketing!