How to measure influence? Is it reach, views, engagement or is there something more, a hard-to-define and longer lasting impact?
Sharyn Smith, the director of The Influence Group and the chair of industry body AIMCO, says campaigns are all about influencing a community of people who are following a creator, driving awareness of brand concepts.
"First you need to define what success looks like and the objectives of the campaign (like all campaigns) and then we need to really understand the metrics that matter to measure for those specific KPIs," said Smith.
"We define the campaigns based on awareness-driving metrics through to actual impact on behaviour. We often develop campaigns that have multiple objectives by activating different tiers - for example, macro influencers doing more awareness driving and micro doing more behaviour change."
Smith says the key things to consider when measuring influencer marketing campaigns is to make sure brands are looking at it from the perspective of who they are trying to influence and if it is reaching and impacting that community.
"We need to understand our measurement at a community level and at a total campaign level. Analysing individual creator performance is key to optimising campaigns and making sure we have ongoing performance from creator partnerships."
Caitlin Hislop, head of strategy at We Are Social, says the quickest way to get influencer measurement wrong is to solely focus on the engagement created by influencers.
"Conversely, an obsession with outcomes will help you pick the most suitable influencers, ensure the creative is the right fit for both their audience and your brand, and help sharpen the focus on the type of engagement you need,” says Forlani.
"At We Are Social, we use scorecards, post-campaign analysis and holistic social activity reporting.
"We focus on the metrics that matter, not just those we can easily measure, and use methodologies such as brand lift tests to measure brand as well as performance outcomes.
"Like any marketing initiative, influencer marketing campaigns needs to be accountable and its ROI should be compared with other channels."
The key questions to consider when measuring an influencer campaign, according to the head of strategy, are:
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What was the cost per person lifted?
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What is the incrementality of influencer activity versus other media?
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What is the bottom line impact, in terms of Influencer fees, execution costs and profit capitalised from the influencer revenue.
According to Hislop and Smith, when measuring an influencer marketing campaign it's important to focus on the metrics that matter to drive engagement, social awareness and brand connectivity to influencer platforms and their following.
Smith focuses on five key metrics when looking to leverage success via an influencer marketing campaign, explaining them as follows:
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Awareness: "Topline figures such as impressions (how many people say the content/post) or views (how many say the video/story) give an idea of how far it has been distributed (awareness driving)."
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Engagement: "Engagement rates (comments and likes) to understand if the content is resonating (shifting opinions/attitudes). We might also look at saves and shares here as more active engagement."
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Sentiment: "AI-powered sentiment and content analysis (analysis of the comments to understand the reactions to the content and if it is influencing people)."
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Actions: "We measure actions through analysing what people have done with the content – did they click on a link, visit a page or buy a product? These can be measured through affiliate codes and unique links."
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Share of Voice Benchmarking: "Another key measure we look at is what share of voice is the campaign driving on the select social platforms relative to competitors. This allows us to understand if the campaign is delivering a competitive advantage compared to non campaign time periods."
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