KPIs for Influencer Marketing – A Complete Guide

Every marketer is tasked with measuring the impact of their campaigns and calculating the overall ROI. You should therefore choose KPIs for influencer marketing campaigns that align with your goals. This is how you evaluate if your influencer marketing campaign has done what you set out to achieve. To fully understand the performance of your campaign, you should look beyond vanity metrics and analyze conversions and sales. 

What are the KPIs for influencer marketing? 

KPIs help you to measure the reach, engagement, and conversions generated for each of your influencer marketing campaigns. Here’s an overview of KPIs used in influencer marketing:

• Content reach
• Content views/impressions
• Content likes, comments and shares
• Click-through-rate
• Number of sales

KPIs should be part of your influencer marketing strategy from the start. With key campaign performance insights, you’ll have the knowledge needed to continue investing in high-performing influencer partnerships and make adjustments to improve future campaigns.  When you’re ready to see how your KPIs shape your overall strategy, check out the strategy guide below: 

Which KPIs to measure brand awareness?

Looking at campaign reach, i.e how many people have seen campaign content is a useful way to gauge its effect on brand awareness. If the aim of the campaign was to boost your brand’s visibility and online presence, looking at overall reach will help you see if you’ve met your goals. There are several ways to analyze reach, including looking at your influencers’ audience size, any growth in the brand’s social media followers, and the tally of content views and impressions. With this in mind, here are the best KPIs for measuring brand awareness: 

• Number of influencers’ followers – the total number of your influencers’ audience size indicates the potential reach. 
• Number of the brand’s social media followers – has your brand’s audience grown during the campaign suggesting increased brand awareness?
• Number of impressions – aka the number of times the content was displayed. 
• Number of video views
• Total Reach – aka the total number of people to have seen campaign content. 
• Web traffic – is there an increased number of unique visitors? 
• Google Search volume – Are more people searching for your brand name?

Which KPIs to measure engagement?

Looking at the amount of positive social engagement with campaign content is a good indication of the success of your influencer campaign. A large number of engagements such as likes, shares, and comments shows that influencers have been successful in generating positive brand sentiment and creating meaningful interactions with their audience. Reach tells us how many people saw your brand content, whereas engagement shows us how many of those people are actually interested in connecting with your brand. Measuring social engagement shows you the number of new potential customers, showing how successful campaigns will result in increased lead generation. Comparing the engagement generated by different influencers also reveals how well suited your brand is to their audience and helps you identify your best influencers for long-term partnerships. Here are the best ways to measure campaign engagement:

• Likes
• Comments
• Shares
• Brand mentions
• Use of campaign hashtags

Which KPIs to measure conversions?

Depending on your campaign goals, the conversions you’re measuring will be different. Conversions can refer to sales, subscriptions, downloads, or newsletter sign-ups for example. When measuring conversions it’s important to analyze which influencer, platform, or content piece is generating the most conversions. This can help you to invest in the right channels to improve conversion rates in the future. 

Measuring conversions is one of the most important KPIs to look at when judging your campaign’s success. 42.3% of people report using conversions and sales to measure the success of a campaign. Conversions are tangible actions and often directly generate revenue. Influencer marketing often plays a key role in driving conversions, proving itself to be an efficient and smart investment of marketing resources. 

KPIs to measure conversion include:

• Number of sales, subscriptions or downloads
• Average order value
• Click-through-rate

When working with influencers on a sales-focused campaign, there are some handy techniques you can use to track and attribute conversions such as:

• Promo codes – each influencer should use a unique code to help with tracking.  
• Affiliate links – use to track sales generated by each influencer.
• UTM links – use to create unique, trackable URLs. 

Measuring influencer campaign ROI

As with all marketing endeavors, you need to be sure you’re investing your budget in channels that have a high return on investment. To know if influencer marketing is generating a positive ROI – you first need to be clear on your goals and then select the relevant KPIs to get insights into your campaign performance. 

If your campaign objectives were to generate sales, using influencer marketing KPIs related to conversions as mentioned above will help you to calculate the exact amount of revenue generated as a result of the campaign. If this is higher than the amount invested in the influencer campaign at the start – congratulations you have a positive ROI! 

Earned Media Value (EMV)

Another way to calculate ROI is by looking at earned media value (EMV). This is essentially calculating the value of the interactions generated through the campaign, including the reach and engagement. This is known as ‘earned’ media value as these brand engagements occur on channels not owned by the brand, i.e the influencer’s channels, blogs, press, etc. 

EMV is an important KPI to look at alongside sales as it indicates brand popularity and the overall interest in purchasing your products. Influencer marketing that generates high EMV is helping to build a new community of individuals at the beginning of the customer journey. Sharing engaging content that builds brand awareness and consideration among new audiences will have a positive effect on sales generation further down the line. Upfluence software has built-in tools to support brands in calculating ROI using EMV, promo codes, or affiliate links. 

Next steps

• Learn more about how to calculate the ROI of your influencer marketing campaigns in this dedicated article.
• Download Chapter 6 of the Ultimate Influencer Marketing Guide to get an in-depth look and more practical tips for measuring the success of your campaigns.
• Make sure you choose the best KPIs for your next influencer marketing campaign with this Influencer Marketing Strategy Guide.