You may have heard how effective working with a social media influencer can be when it comes to refining your marketing strategy.
While that’s true, you need to know how to measure the ROI (return on investment) of influencer marketing accurately, so you know whether you’re getting the results the desired results.
Here’s some insight on how to measure the overall success of your influencer marketing campaign.
Have a Clear Goal in Mind
You’ll never know you’ve reached the finish line if you can’t see it. That’s why you need to have a specific goal in mind when creating the marketing budget for your influencer marketing program and determining how well the campaign is going.
Are you interested in managing your brand reputation, boosting your sales, promoting your brand, or reaching a new audience?
Whatever it is that you want, be sure you let your influencer know your goals so she or he can tweak the campaign.
As an added note, know that it’s okay for you to adjust your goals as the influencer campaign gets going.
You may stumble across a benefit you hadn’t anticipated that you’d like to maximize, or you may decide to focus more on one goal than another.
Make Use of Tracked Links
Something else to discuss regarding your influencer marketing program is the use of tracked links.
With tracked links, you’ll have an easier time measuring viewer engagement, traffic, and site conversions.
While working with influencers is a smart way to build brand awareness, be cautious of any influencers who are reluctant to use tracked links, as it could be an indication that they cannot offer you the return on investment you desire.
Set Metrics for Your Specific Goals
Touching back on the goals for using influencer marketing platforms, you’ve got to go one step further with your chosen goals.
For instance, if you want to reach a new audience, what does that audience look like? If you want to bump up your revenue, decide on a specific dollar amount or percentage.
Maybe there’s a specific timeline you have in mind for your goals.
Not sure of what metrics are best for you to use? It’s a good idea to look to other marketers to see what they use to see if they’d be of use to you for successful influencer marketing.
Create a Landing Page
You can make measuring influencer marketing efforts more manageable by creating a specific landing page to which you want the influencer to lead her or his audience.
In addition to keeping an eye on the activity on that page, you should also have a clear call-to-action that you want visitors to take once they’re on that page.
Is there a newsletter they may be interested in receiving? Maybe you have a free product or service sample you’d like to send their way.
Whatever it is, make it so that visitors don’t feel like they’re wasting their time clicking on the link the influencer provided.
Check Your Social Media Analytics
Besides your website analytics, you should also make good use of your social media profile analytics.
Check to see how many new followers you gain during the influencer marketing campaign. On the flipside, there’s also a chance you could lose followers during the campaign, which is another unique way to gauge marketing ROI.
With this tip, it’s best you focus on the social media analytics that line up with the timing of influencer posts.
For instance, you hope to see a spike in social media engagement rates in the hours following an influencer post. There could also be an increase in sales in the hours following an influencer post.
Ask the Influencer
Depending on how long an influencer has worked with companies on marketing their products or services, they could have their own way of helping you measure the ROI on your campaign goal.
Such information goes a long way in helping you decide whether the influencer can deliver the results you’re hoping for, saving you both time and money.
If the influencer can help provide you with such information, be sure you have a way to verify it. You don’t want to be taken advantage of or become a victim.
Hopefully, you now have a much better idea of how to determine how well your influencer is doing when it comes to raising brand awareness, boosting profits, or whatever goal you have in mind.
Be sure to keep these tips in mind to measure both long-term and short-term success in your campaign. Best of luck!
