We’ve been flooded with questions about influencer marketing, so we’re kicking off a blog series to answer your top FAQs. We’ll dive into how we measure success, create budgets, and pick the perfect influencer for maximum ROI.
Why Influencer Marketing Is Key In Your Marketing Stack and How to Measure Success
First up: Why is influencer marketing a must-have in your marketing mix? And how do you measure the success of an influencer campaign?
Think of influencers as another strategic marketing channel, working alongside your other efforts to build your brand. Success hinges on your brand’s goals and having the right KPIs to determine whether a campaign hits the mark.
Influencers excel at:
- Enhancing Brand Awareness through Emotional Connections: Influencers act as ambassadors, making your brand feel authentic and credible. Key KPIs include impressions, post engagement (likes, swipe-ups, shares), and conversions (trackable via UTMs or coupon codes).
- Creating User-Generated Content (UGC): Measure this by earnings through content production and the boosted returns from using this content in paid media campaigns. At Go Global Agency, we’ve seen ROAS double just by adding genuine influencer content to existing strategies. For instance, if your monthly ad spend is $10k with a 3X ROAS (total revenue $30k), influencer UGC can push the ROAS to 6X, bringing in an additional $30k in revenue.
Affiliate Marketing: Ideal for brands with high-ticket or subscription models, influencers can directly drive additional revenue. Measure this with UTMs or coupon codes. Check out the real example below for how this works in action.
Measuring Success: Earned Media Value (EMV)
Earned Media Value is the gold standard for assessing influencer marketing. EMV compares the actual results of an influencer campaign (mainly brand awareness) to a paid campaign achieving similar results. For example, if an influencer campaign generates 1 million impressions, EMV calculates what it would cost to get those impressions through paid ads. This helps attribute a monetary value to your influencer efforts based on the cost to reach the same outcomes through other strategies.
Need a tailored consultation? We’re here to help. Reach out and let’s chat about your brand and goals.
Success Story: The Power of a Effective Influencer Marketing Campaign
One of our client’s brands teamed up with 88 creators over 12 months, generating 124 pieces of valuable content and 9.8 million impressions. To put this in perspective, achieving these results via paid media would have cost $419,000. However, by leveraging influencer partnerships, the brand accomplished this for just a quarter of that amount.
The UGC created strong connections with the audience and was repurposed for paid ad campaigns, cutting cost-per-click (CPC) by 50% in many cases. This lower CPC drove more traffic to eCommerce, resulting in six-figure revenue without any extra budget for paid media.
Additionally, influencers drove sales through affiliate marketing, generating 273 orders worth $12,000 directly attributable to them.
This example shows how a well-executed influencer marketing campaign can deliver ROI from various angles: Earned Media Value, optimized paid campaigns via UGC, and additional sales through affiliate marketing.
Take a peek at the metrics below:
