There’s little point in working with influencers if you can’t measure the outcome. To help you answer this question, we’ll discuss:
(1) How to define influencer marketing goals
(2) How to choose relevant influencer marketing metrics
(3) How to choose the right influencer marketing tools
(4) How to compare and benchmark influencer collaborations
(5) How to learn from / improve upon influencer activations
Let’s get into it …
(1) How to define my influencer marketing goals
What business outcome do you want to see from working with influencers? This will impact everything, including social media platform, content creator type, content medium, collaboration type, etc.
As a digital marketer, I like to think about this from a marketing funnel perspective:
Upper funnel:
Drive brand awareness
Mid-funnel:
Drive traffic
Lower-funnel:
Drive conversions
Drive sign ups
Generally speaking, it is not the role of an influencer marketing manager to define the business goal. Business goals are set by senior management and/or leadership, and an influencer marketing manager will then translate that into a supporting goal (i.e. a metric), and the steps required to deliver on that outcome.
(2) How to choose relevant influencer marketing metrics
Once you know your goal you can begin to define a relevant metric related to that goal. For example:
Brand Awareness
Total reach or impressions
Cost per view (CPV) / cost per mili (CPM)
Traffic:
Total traffic
Cost per click (CPC)
Conversions:
Total conversions
Cost per conversions
ROI
Sign ups:
Total sign ups
Cost per sign up
If you’re trying to get something done on a minimal budget, or without any budget at all, “total” would be more relevant than a “cost per” perspective. However, if you’re dealing with a large budget, then it’s important to recognize:
how effectively you’re spending that budget;
which variables are creating the most cost effective outcome (e.g. x creator vs. y creator, x content medium vs. y content medium, etc.).
(3) How to choose the right influencer marketing tools
When it comes to tracking outcomes, I prefer to create a simple spreadsheet that defines:
Deliverable (e.g. dedicated video, integrated video, IG Story, etc.)
Objective
Metric(s)
Result
Content link
If everyone is trained on using this spreadsheet and understands the basics of pivot tables, then you’ll have an internal database for benchmarking that can go on for years. If everyone is using this tool, the learnings compound, and even somebody who’s been in the company for 5 minutes can understand what a “good result” and “bad result” looks like in the context of your industry.
I personally like to track various metrics even if they’re not strictly related to my original goal. I’m yet to find a third party platform that can do this in the detail I need across different platforms.
(4) How to compare and benchmark influencer collaborations
One of the biggest mistakes I see in influencer marketing is benchmarking. If you’re not benchmarking then it’s difficult to know what a “good result” and “bad result” looks like. And it’s difficult to know what’s a “good price” and “bad price” for an influencer collab, because there’s no reference data.
Here are the reasons I see companies struggling with benchmarking:
No dedicated influencer marketing team: the company structure has lumped “social media marketing” in with “influencer marketing” impeding the value drawn / learnings gained from having a singular focus.
Team-owned database: influencer marketers are maintaining their own, individual spreadsheet of results, so learnings can’t be shared because there is no single source of truth.
Turnover: company culture is bad and people aren’t staying long enough to pass on learnings/systems to new employees.
(5) How to learn from / improve upon influencer activations
Simply put, getting better at influencer marketing comes down to two things: learning and unlearning.
Learning:
Be data driven in your approach.
Record results and outcomes in a team-shared database, so that learnings compound with time.
Review the key reasons as to why results were good or bad and make this knowledge public.
Unlearning:
Don’t be afraid to eat humble pie regularly. What worked yesterday probably won’t work tomorrow.
Data provides confidence, but rinse and repeat won’t always work, especially if you’re working with the same creator in quick succession.
Set budget aside to test new platforms and creators and understand where social media attention / your target audience is now vs. where they’re moving to.
Want help with your influencer marketing?
Get in touch with us.
Written by Lawrence Smyth, CEO and Founder of TopTechTubers
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