Influencer Analytics: Essential KPIs to Track

Tracking influencer marketing campaigns is essential to success. Creating an effective process to gather, organize, and report numbers may be cumbersome, but it’s an important aspect of running successful influencer marketing campaigns.

One of the challenges of influencer analytics is tracking a fluid environment. Brands need to have clear goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) ahead of the campaign to ensure that they’re getting the results they want. 

Creating a Successful Influencer Marketing Program

Every brand’s marketing team is accountable for results with influencer marketing by increasing leads and revenue and reducing customer acquisition costs. 

Some of the most impactful influencer campaigns are more subtle, however. Influencer campaigns may not cause skyrocketing sales, but they can lead to increased follower counts or website traffic. These small milestones have a direct and indirect impact on the bottom line.

It all begins with SMART goals, which are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

For example, the goal to increase follower count is vague. The goal should be to increase the follower count to X within three months. This is a specific and measurable number that’s relevant to influencer campaigns and within a set time period. 

It’s important that the goal is attainable, however, and neither too easy nor too hard. A goal that’s too easy won’t push the limits enough, while a goal that’s too hard will only be discouraging. 

Defining Objectives, KPIs, and Metrics

The terms objective, KPIs, and metrics are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings. 

An objective is a marketing goal that may or may not be defined, such as increasing brand awareness. 

KPIs are what define those objectives and determine if the goals have been met, such as the number of followers or web traffic. KPIs are trackable. 

Metrics are numbers that are included within a campaign KPI. Metrics and KPIs are virtually useless on their own. 

The campaign objectives determine what the KPIs should be, which also determines the important influencer metrics. For instance, if the objective is brand awareness, which is a top-of-the-marketing funnel activity, then the KPIs may be the number of engagements, followers, or impressions. 

It’s crucial to understand where the target audience is within the marketing funnel. Ideally, marketing campaigns will only focus on one stage as opposed to all three. Some influencers are ideal for top or middle-of-the-funnel campaigns while others are well versed at bottom-of-the-funnel activities – conversions.

What Makes a Strong Influencer Marketing KPI?

Like goals, strong KPIs should be attainable but challenging. If the KPI isn’t difficult enough, then the campaign won’t see strong improvements. Similarly, if the KPIs are too difficult, the influencer and the brand may lose motivation.

The KPIs should be measurable. KPIs almost always include numbers, such as link clicks or follower counts, that can be measured easily. This establishes clear expectations, since a word like “better” is subjective. 

A good KPI should have a deadline as well. These milestones keep the influencer and team focused on the goal and the timeframe during which it should be achieved. This also offers insights to track performance throughout the campaign and see if it’s on track to reach that goal.

There can be different KPI tiers, however. A KPI may have smaller KPIs that support the overall goals, which can offer insights into how different metrics influence the overall performance. 

Important KPIs to Track

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is designed to put a brand in front of the target audience. This is determined by tracking post reach and impressions. 

• Reach is the number of people who view a post.
• Impressions is the number of times a post was shown to an audience.

Differentiating these two types of metrics can be challenging, but they offer insights into brand awareness when combined. 

As a goal, this may look something like, “Improve brand awareness to X of the target audience with a reach of X by [deadline].

Conversions 

Tracking influencer conversions, which may be subscribers, sales, or other types of conversions, may require attribution tools like coupon codes or UTMs. This is typically the KPI that gets the most exposure. 

As a goal, this may look like, “Increase influencer conversions to X with a revenue goal of X by [deadline].

Content Quality

One of the benefits of influencer marketing is that it produces branded content and helps with aspects of social media strategy. Influencer posts can then be repurposed for future social media posts, email newsletters, website content, or ad content. Each of these new types of content can have their own KPIs. 

As a goal, this may look like, “Get X social posts and repurpose X influencer posts for [channel] by [deadline].

Website Traffic

There are numerous ways that influencers can drive traffic to a website. Once they reach the site, there should be conversion tools ready to inspire them to create an account, exchange a discount code for joining an SMS list, or complete a purchase to get a free gift. 

As a goal, this may look like, “Increase website traffic from influencer posts to X by [deadline].

Follower Count

Increasing follower count with influencer campaigns is a typical goal for influencer marketing. Many consumers end up becoming a brand fan after promotion from the right influencer.

As a goal, this may look like, “Increase followers for [channel] brand page by [deadline].

Organic Reach

A combination of brand and influencer posts can make a huge difference in how many users find content online. The better the reach, the more likely a brand is to get impressions and engagement without paid advertising.

As a goal, this may look like, “Increase organic post reach to X users by [deadline].

Conversion Opportunities

Influencers can be used to entice purchases, but that shouldn’t be the only conversion option. It may take time after an influencer recommends products for followers to make a purchase, so conversion opportunities help to nurture these prospects toward future sales. 

Conversion opportunities may include:

• Email subscriptions
• SMS subscriptions
• eGuide download
• Event signups
• Contest signups

As a goal, this may look like, “Add X conversion opportunities by [deadline].

Sales Opportunities

Analytics can show how many people are visiting a product description page and adding products to a cart, but this could be simple window shopping or creating a wishlist. If shoppers aren’t converting or tend to abandon their carts, influencers can encourage a purchase by incentivizing a completed purchase. 

For example, many brands use influencer-specific coupon codes or free gifts for first-time buyers. This also helps to establish which influencer encouraged the sale. 

Here’s an example from Winter Strom for an art class:

Source: YouTube

Active Influencers

Scaling an influencer program with the right influencers can make a huge difference in brand awareness. With every new influencer, a brand’s name spreads naturally. 

Quality is more important than quantity, however. Influencer success relies on how well influencers are vetted. If the quality goes down, it’s essential for the brand to adjust its influencer program to create a stable of high-quality influencers. 

As a goal, this may look like, “Increase the number of active influencers to X by [deadline]. 

Influencer Campaigns

With influencer relations management, there are opportunities to increase the number of campaigns each influencer has. Adding more campaigns to address each stage of the marketing funnel allows a steady stream of social growth. 

As a goal, this may look like, “Manage X influencer campaigns per [month, quarter, year] by [deadline].

Influencer Post Volume

Measuring and improving influencer post frequency offers more opportunities to track program performance. More influencer posts mean more opportunities to repurpose quality content.

As a goal, this may look like, “Complete X influencer-generated content pieces by [deadline].

Influencer Engagements by Channel

Influencer campaigns don’t need to be on every social media channel. It’s best to focus campaigns on a target audience on two or three platforms to improve engagement, which will grow online presence faster.

Each channel offers its own set of engagements. Brands and influencers must understand the social media features on their favorite platforms to achieve more engagement. 

As a goal, this may look like, “Increase engagement by [percentage] on [social channel] by [deadline].

User-Generated Content (UGC)

UGC includes influencer posts and the audience’s responses to influencer posts. Tracking UGC offers opportunities for a brand to capitalize on popular content for future campaigns and spread awareness.

For example, Blackmilk Clothing tracks UGC to see how campaigns and products are performing:

Source: Instagram

As a goal, this may look like, “Increase user-generated content by [percentage] by [deadline]. 

Conversions by Type

Similar to itemizing KPIs by social channel and post type, brands can distinguish between conversion opportunities to determine how likely the audience is to take further steps toward a desired conversion.

As a goal, this may look like, “Increase [conversion type] by [percentage] by [deadline]. 

Qualified Leads

If leads are nurtured for a long period before a purchase is completed, such as with B2B sales, tracking qualified lead volume is an important KPI. This is also important for brands trying to increase sales through SMS or email lists.

As a goal, this may look like, “Get X qualified leads by [deadline].

Influencer Analytics for Successful Campaigns

The goal of influencer analytics and KPIs is to determine growth and success with influencer campaigns. Establishing goals and KPIs in advance helps brands evaluate influencer campaigns and overall marketing ROI for current and future campaigns.