Measuring the Success of Your Influencer Marketing Campaign on Instagram

3 ways to measure influencer marketing ROI

As brands invest more time and money into influencer marketing, marketers are increasingly pressured to accurately measure the effectiveness and success of their influencer marketing campaigns. However, measuring the success of influencer campaigns can often be tricky. The method you use to measure the success of your influencer campaign will vary depending on your campaign goals. As a marketer, your goal may be to boost brand awareness, grow your number of Instagram followers, or make sales, and depending on which goals you choose to focus on, approaches to ROI can vary. Here are 3 goal-oriented ways to measure the success of your influencer marketing campaign on Instagram.

Goal: Awareness

Measuring Engagement Rates If your brand's goal is spread Brand Awareness, the main focus of your influencer campaign is to educate strangers about your brand and to begin establishing a trustworthy relationship with prospective customers. When collaborating with influencers, you may request that the influencers post sponsored content with the purpose of educating their followers about your brand. The sponsored content shouldn't give specific details about your brand's products and services; rather, it should focus on showing the influencers' followers the value of your brand. The success of your campaign may be reliant on the way in which the influencers' followers interact and engage with your sponsored content, by way of commenting, sharing, or liking it. This will help gauge their interest in your brand and its products and services. It will also indicate whether the influencers' sponsored content resonates with their audience. To measure the engagement levels your sponsored post generates, use the following formula:

To use this formula, add the total number of likes and comments the influencer's sponsored post generates. Divide it by the number of followers the influencer has. Multiply the number by 100, and this will give you the engagement rate. For example, let's consider this Instagram post: The influencer has 224 likes and 1 comment on her post. She has 10.6k followers on her Instagram.

(224 likes + 1 comment) / (10.6k followers) = .0212 .0212 x 100 = 2.12% Engagement Rate

Goal: Consideration

Measuring Follower Growth If your brand's goal is Consideration, the main focus of your influencer campaign is to develop a deeper relationship with a person who is already aware of your brand. This is the stage where the influencers' followers may be willing to consider your brand's products and services. When collaborating with influencers, you may request that the influencers post more targeted sponsored content that addresses their followers' specific interests. It should also encourage their followers to follow your brand's Instagram. In this stage, the sponsored content should provide specific details about your brand's products and services. The success of your campaign may be reliant on whether there is follower growth on your brand's Instagram. Following your brand's Instagram likely means that the influencers' followers are interested in learning more about your brand, and it indicates whether your brand's products and services is something they would consider buying or subscribing to. To calculate your follower growth rate, use the following formula:

To use this formula, take your total number of Instagram followers for the month and subtract your total number of followers from the previous month. This will give you the number of new followers you've gained in the last month. Divide the number of new followers you've gained with your total number of followers from the previous month. Multiply the total by 100, and this will give you the follower growth rate. Consider this example: In June, you had 2,450 followers on your brand's Instagram account. In July, you had 2,780 followers.

2,780 followers - 2,450 followers = 330 New Followers Gained (330 new followers) / (2,450 followers) = .1347 .1347 x 100 = 13.47% Follower Growth Rate

Goal: Conversion

Measuring Sales and Revenue If your brand's goal is Conversion, the main focus of your campaign is to make sales. In this stage, the influencers' followers are already aware of your brand and the value of your brand's products and services, and now you want to convince them to make a purchase or subscription. When collaborating with influencers, you may request that the influencers post sponsored content that informs their audience about the benefits of your brand's products and services. Along with the sponsored content, you should provide the influencers with a unique promo code to incentivize their followers to purchase or subscribe to your brand's products or services. Consumers love a good bargain, and a promo code creates a sense of urgency that compels the influencers' followers to make purchases and subscriptions. The success of your campaign may be reliant on the number of sales, orders, or subscriptions the influencers' unique promo code generates. A high conversion/sale KPI metric means that the influencers' sponsored content and promo code was successful in inspiring purchasing decisions. Creating a custom promo code for an influencer is also a simple way to track the number of sales that are made through the collaboration.

Set the Bar: Baseline Measurements

How do you know if your influencer campaign was a success or failure? Use Baseline Measurements to gauge its effectiveness Your brand may already have an influencer marketing strategy in place. What kind of sales/traffic/engagement or other KPI metrics does your current marketing strategy typically garner? Establish this as your baseline to assess the effectiveness of an influencer marketing campaign. You'll want a baseline measurement to track whether your sales/traffic/engagement growth can be attributed to normal trends or to your influencer campaign. You can set a baseline by selecting a specific time frame -- let's say, 3 months prior to the launch of your influencer campaign -- and calculating your sales/traffic/engagement metrics for that time period. Make sure to choose a time frame long enough to establish the 'seasonality' of your data. Seasonality is the factors that affect your normal trends (it also explains anomalies in your data), such as the time of the year (ie: Christmas) or the tone of a social media post. Once you've determined the metrics and trends you're currently getting, set an influencer marketing campaign goal (awareness, consideration, or conversion) and launch your influencer campaign.

For an accurate baseline, do not change any factors in your current marketing strategy after launching an influencer campaign. You should try to keep the factors in your influencer campaign as similar as you can to your normal marketing strategy. For example, the time frame you choose for your influencer campaign should be similar to the time frame you selected for your baseline measurement. It may be the case that the time frame you chose to calculate your baseline measurement in occurred during Christmas and the tone of your social media posts was festive. These factors likely influenced the result of your baseline, as people tend to spend more during Christmas, leading to a spike in your sales, so your influencer campaign should also be launched with similar factors (ie: during Christmas) to accurately determine whether your sales/traffic/engagement growth is a result of an influencer campaign, rather than other factors. After a set period of time, measure the results of the influencer campaign using a goal-oriented method outlined above. Compare the results of your influencer campaign to your beginning baseline to measure the effectiveness of your influencer campaign. If the factors in your influencer campaign were consistent with your normal marketing strategy, and there was growth in sales/traffic/engagement or other KPI metrics, the result can be directly tied to your collaboration with influencers. As influencer marketing continues to grow, the ability to measure the impact of your influencer campaign is vital. By setting a clear influencer campaign goal, you can identify the right campaign metrics to measure, and you can use the results to assess the effectiveness of your campaign and ultimately determine its ROI.

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