Measuring performance with influencer marketing: the importance of real-time ROI

Influencer marketing initiatives and campaigns are becoming a larger part of marketing strategies. In this article, you’ll understand what makes influencer marketing essential for companies looking to promote their services or products to new, engaged audiences interested in a specific niche that they can’t necessarily reach through traditional media campaigns. We'll also shed some light on why influencer marketing is strategically important and highlight the key tools and partnerships needed for success.

Why leverage influencer marketing?

Don’t believe the hype? Here are a few stats that might sway you:

• 61% of consumers trust influencer product recommendations.

• 66% of consumers say their purchasing decisions are driven by influencers.

• 49% of consumers rely on influencers for product recommendations.

How to win with influencer marketing

Influencers can be categorized in the following four ways:

• Celebrities/Mega influencers (500K+ followers)

• Macro influencers (between 100K and 500K followers)

• Micro influencers (between 10K and 100K followers)

• Nano influencers (fewer than 10K followers)

If the goal of an influencer marketing campaign is top-of-funnel, such as driving awareness, then we normally recommend working with mega/macro influencers. However, we prefer to partner with micro or nano influencers when it comes to bottom-of-funnel objectives.

Every campaign has unique objectives. As such, we tailor our influencer recommendations based on predefined marketing tactics. This approach ensures the influencer marketing campaign aligns with the overall marketing strategy in place. It also allows us to propose the ideal mix of male and female influencers for a specific campaign or always-on initiative. Combining micro/nano and mega/macro influencers could be a beneficial strategy for a client looking to leverage the strengths of both types of influencers while guaranteeing the campaign performs in terms of impressions and engagement.

However, an influencer’s follower count doesn’t automatically determine their category. To better understand what category the influencer falls into, you’ll need to monitor their post reach and average engagement rate. For example, with Reels, influencers can reach an even wider audience of non-followers. That’s why categorizing an influencer is usually determined on a case-by-case basis. They might be classified higher in the pyramid than what their follower count would suggest.

2. Understanding the types of influencers

Depending on your campaign objectives, you also need to consider which type of influencer you want to work with. All influencers have advantages and drawbacks. But, with a clear understanding of your needs, you can find the right fit who can help you achieve your campaign goals.

3. The steps to launching an influencer marketing campaign

If you’re looking to launch an influencer campaign and want it to be successful, you need to follow a few necessary steps. First and foremost, you need to define your campaign objectives. Then, you can get started.

1. Steps for an influencer campaign: Preparation

   • Strategy and concept: Develop a comprehensive campaign strategy and conceptualize creative ideas;

   • Vetting: Search for and identify profiles that align with overall campaign objectives and strategy;

   • Brief creation: Draft a clear, detailed brief for influencers to maintain content quality while respecting the influencer’s unique voice and identity;

   • Contract negotiations: Negotiate terms and establish a deal with all influencers;

   • Concept submission and approval: Collect and review final concepts from influencers to ensure key messages are well-integrated and aligned with the brand.
     
     

2. The steps of an influencer campaign: Execution

   • Content creation: Gather content created by the participating influencers

   • Content approval: Review and approve content with all relevant stakeholders;

   • Posting the content: Have influencers publish the content online;

   • Tracking and monitoring: Monitor the content’s performance in real-time.

3. The steps of an influencer campaign: Post-campaign

   • Evaluate campaign performance: Created a detailed campaign report that includes an analysis of statistics, ROI, and how well initial campaign objectives were met. Provide recommendations for the next campaign.

   • Do it all over again!

4. Consider the promotional impact

Because people are increasingly exposed to influencers, they have higher expectations regarding influencer marketing campaign authenticity. Thanks to the emergence of apps like TikTok, authentic, genuine, and original content is more prevalent than ever. This is why we’re seeing an increasing number of brands leverage user-generated content (UGC).

In our era of unpolished content, we need to pay more attention to promotional elements in influencer content now more than ever. For example, we recently analyzed the statistics of two pieces of content from the same influencer on their platforms: one heavily branded and the other free of promotional elements. The difference in performance between these two nearly identical videos was striking, to say the least.

Because brands' main goal in using influencer marketing is to showcase their products and services, integrating these elements and key messaging into the content is essential. However, finding a balance between promotional aspects and authenticity is crucial. Brands need to be aware of how their presence might impact a content’s performance.

To optimize content performance, you need to consider how messages are communicated and thoroughly vet and select the right influencer profiles for your campaign. Choosing influencers based on the type of content they normally share on social media is a good way to ensure that the product or service they’re promoting aligns with their genuine interests. This avoids there being a disconnect from their usual content.

In conclusion, influencer marketing offers brands enormous potential for reaching target audiences effectively and authentically. By understanding the intricacies of this marketing strategy, carefully selecting influencers to partner with, and staying true to your brand’s core values, businesses can harness the power of influencers to increase visibility, engagement, and overall market performance.

Les programmes et les campagnes de marketing d'influence prennent de plus en plus de place dans les stratégies marketing des marques. À travers cet article, vous comprendrez davantage pourquoi le marketing d’influence est essentiel pour les entreprises qui veulent promouvoir des services ou des produits auprès de nouveaux publics engagés et intéressés par un créneau précis auxquels elle n’a pas accès via ses campagnes médias. Nous allons éclaircir l’importance stratégique du marketing d’influence et comprendre l’essentiel des outils et des partenariats cruciaux.