Influencer Marketing Metrics

This is the difference between micro-influencers and well-known influencers with millions of followers. We helped a company beauty company with influencer marketing. They wanted to work with prominent influencers and not micro-influencers. We wanted to work with micro-influencers, so we settled on working with both and then comparing the data. Here are the results from working with big influencers (the post only stayed up for a day): Total followers: 119 million Total cost: $11,500 Number of influencers: 32 Impressions: 10.8 million Total likes: 114k Total comments: 1252 comments Total bio link clicks: 906 clicks Total trackable conversions: 21 The campaign wasn't profitable from a direct conversion standpoint, but we noticed conversions increase during those 24 hours when all the influencers posted during the same day. Even if you attribute double, triple, or even quadruple the amount of conversions, it still wasn't profitable. But there were branding benefits, and the CPM wasn't too bad... $1.06 Now, let's look at the micro-influencer data. Before I break down the micro-influencer stats, remember they are more flexible. We were able to get the majority of them to keep up the post. All of them were required to keep the post up for at least 2 days and keep the link up in their bio for 48 hours. It was substantially cheaper, but it involved way more work on our end, as we had to manage 137 influencers instead of 32. When you look at a CPA, micro-influencers cost $130.55 versus $547.62 From a direct ROI perspective, both created a loss, but micro-influencers lost us less money per sale. Large influencers are used to getting paid lots of money, and many of them are lazier than micro-influencers. Moral of the story, micro-influencers typically provide a better CPA, but it requires more work to manage them as you need a lot of them to move the needle.

CMO: evaluating the success of our influencer program solely by short-term revenue driven will lead to the same diminishing returns we're seeing with our performance marketing CFO: wtf do you mean?! CMO: why do we do influencer in the first place? CFO: it's another ROI channel, especially since our performance marketing returns have dropped. CMO: maybe. the whole point of influencer is to provide social proof; we benefit from their audience's trust. CFO: that's the theory; i gave the practical answer. CMO: but here's the problem: when we require that their posts drive revenue, we'll get a short term pop, but it'll get less and less effective over time. By limiting ourselves to evaluate the success of influencer marketing by how it drives short term revenue, we're joining the same race to the bottom we're seeing with our performance marketing CFO: i see your point, but we need measurable ROI. we can track revenue from codes or links, but long-term ROI is hard to measure. short-term attribution isn't perfect, but it's our best option CMO: what about common sense? that seems like a pretty good option CFO: i'm picking up your sarcasm CMO: well i should hope so, because i'm laying it on pretty thick. CFO: oh here we go CMO: when we started, what helped us stand out in a crowded market? CFO: great product and marketing. CMO: and what made the marketing great? CFO: before I joined, my favorite comedian made a funny video about you, which piqued my interest. i visited your IG profile, checked some posts, clicked the link to our site to check it out, and that was it CMO: fascinating. Did those videos prompt you to buy or offer discounts? CFO: (nonplussed) i see where you're going, and I'm not thrilled. No, the videos didn't do that. CMO: so what happened next?? CFO: i didn't need it then, but weeks later, i searched our brand and made a purchase. truth be told, those funny videos made me want to work here in the first place. i hate to admit it, but i didn't like how salesy other similar brands were with their content. it turned me off, and I couldn't tell them apart or remember any of their brand names because all their posts looked the same CMO: and do you think that maybe, just maybe, that could have happened because all those competitors were requiring that their influencer and organic posts were all being measured by how they drove short term revenue? CFO: fine. yes CMO: i rest my case. not saying i have all the answers, but i think we can agree that focusing solely on short-term revenue isn't ideal for evaluating influencer success CFO: i'm coming around to that realization, yes CMO: next time we meet, let's come up with some common sense ways to evaluate the success that take things like your specific experience into account. we did good work here today. CFO: yup. now let's figure out wtf we're doing for BFCM CMO: classic us 

Plot twist: Your influencer campaigns could be performing 10x better than you think 📊 Most brands are massively underestimating their influencer ROI because they're only looking at discount codes. Real example from our agency:  → Client thought cost per customer: $1,000 (based on discount codes) → Actual cost per customer: $82 (based on pixel data) → That's 92% of customers going untracked! 🤯 The attribution reality: Even our most sophisticated clients with seamless tracking see a minimum 40% "halo effect" of unattributed sales. For luxury/considered purchases? We're talking 100%+ unattributed impact. Why this happens: → People screenshot products and buy later → They share with friends who purchase → They search your brand name directly → They purchase but don't use the code. What to track instead:  ✅ Pixel data and site behavior analysis ✅ Brand lift surveys ✅ Search traffic spikes ✅ Overall sales velocity during campaign periods ✅ Customer journey mapping The takeaway: If you're only measuring discount code redemptions, you're probably missing the majority of your influencer marketing impact. Time to dig deeper into your data. Your CFO will thank you. How are you measuring the true impact of your influencer campaigns? #InfluencerMarketing #MarketingAnalytics #Attribution #ROI #Data #performancemarketing

A few months ago I was on call with the CMO of a $25M+ brand. They had just wrapped up a 100 person influencer campaign. Guess how many were ROI positive? Seven. Just seven. This wasn't a failure of the other 93 creators. This was a clear indication something was fundamentally broken in how they did influencer marketing. We went through a simple 5-step checklist to that could be applied immediately. If you're a brand in a similar situation, here's how to go from "influencer marketing doesn't work" to "we need more creators!" 1. Introduce New Data Most brands model off of CPMs, never looking at actual performance. Use social commerce platforms to include actual conversion performance. Display it all against rates to sort by projections we actually care about: CPA, CPC, etc... 2. Measure Alignment Use this data to now measure actual alignment with your brand. Things like AOV, content relevance, messaging... The surface level connection is not enough. 3. Focus on Audience A creator's demographic matters less than their audience demographics. Look at the age, gender, geography of their audience. Plenty of creators that fit your demographic but have an entirely different audience demographic and vice versa. 4. Generate Creative Outlines from Creators Bring creators into the planning stages, letting them shape your creative outline. The right messaging and style is more likely to come from them than you. Then turn this into a content brief that provides direction but is not a script. Let creators do what they do best. 5. Treat Content as the Asset The reach you get from a creator is valuable, but the content they've created is far more valuable when used correctly. Setup whitelisting, repurposing to your own socials - get the most utilization out of every single video. -- Creator marketing works. But it's not 2017 anymore - sending product and seeing what happens is not a strategy. Dig in. Build the right strategy. Find the right creators. Let them do their thing. Maximize their content.

This one metric is one of the most important indicators of effective sponsored creator content. It's called "Content-to-Feed" match, and represents how well a creators sponsored post fits into their typical content style. Why is it so important? Because way too often a brand partners with the perfect creator, but the sponsored content underperforms. And it's because the content doesn’t blend into the creator's feed. Linqia recently evaluated dozens of posts across both Instagram and TikTok and found that 100% of the posts that exceeded average platform engagement rates exhibited high content-to-feed match. And 50% of those sponsored posts even exceeded the creator’s historical average. It sounds so simple, but if you audit all of your creator content I'm betting you wouldn't score all of it very high on content-to-feed match. So how to you achieve a high match? Here are a few best practices… 1️⃣ Personalize your outreach: When sourcing creators, speak to them about the posts that resonated with you and why they’ve been selected. Stress the style elements that you want to make sure don't get lost in their sponsored content. 2️⃣ Implement creator concepts: After sending creators your brief, ask for concepts that they feel embody your goals and objectives, while still being consistent with the style and format of their content. 3️⃣ Match check before approving: Once the creator submits their content, take the time to compare it against their average post. If it’s not consistent, don’t be afraid to ask for changes. It’s better to get it right before going live. Again it sounds so simple, but so many are missing the mark on this one key metric. Be the green in the chart, not the red :-). #creatoreconomy #influencermarketing #socialmedia

Likes and comments on LinkedIn matter—but they don’t tell the whole story. Here are the “less obvious” success metrics you should be tracking too: 🔹 1. Profile Views Per Post → A spike in profile views = people checking out who you are. → Are they in your target audience? If they're from random industries, your content might be too broad or irrelevant to your niche. 🔹 2. DMs & Connection Requests → Are people reaching out after your posts? That’s a sign your content is working. → But again, are they potential clients, partners, or industry peers? If most inbound messages are unrelated to your goals, you may need to refine your positioning. 🔹 3. Outbound Connection Acceptance Rate → If less than 40% of your connection requests are accepted (granted you're reaching out to your ICP), your profile might need work. → A high acceptance rate means your profile and content are aligned with your ideal audience. 🔹 4. Website Clicks & Email Sign-Ups → Are your posts leading people to your site or newsletter? → If not, you may need to rethink your content strategy. Some content grabs attention, some builds trust, and some drives action. If you're only creating engagement-focused posts, you're staying visible, but not turning that visibility into results. 🔹 5. Post Longevity → How long is your post staying in people’s feeds? → Posts that get engagement 48+ hours later signal strong content resonance. Pay attention and dissect what made them successful. 📌 Takeaway: Engagement matters, but it’s not just about likes and comments. The best posts spark interest, profile visits, DMs, and conversions. Are you tracking any of these?

B2B marketers, it's time we had an honest conversation about influencer marketing. While we've watched B2C brands leverage UGC and creator partnerships for years, most of us in B2B are still stuck in the "let's partner with the same 3-5 industry thought leaders everyone else is chasing" cycle. IYKYK. The data is clear: Macro-influencers typically see engagement rates around 5%, micro-influencers (those with smaller, more dedicated audiences) average double that - often reaching 7-20%. (Source: Trend) Micro-influencers represent the perfect mix of influencer and long lost friend–there's no better way to put it. Even more compelling for ROI-focused teams: micro-influencer content converts at rates 7% higher than the industry average for macro-influencers. I could go on and on... Want to build a strategic B2B influencer program for your org? Start like this: 1. Look beyond LinkedIn. Yes, even in B2B, your ICP is consuming content on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, too. The best B2B influencer partners may not even identify as "influencers" - they're often practitioners with passionate niche audiences. 2. Start small and focus on authenticity. Research shows 82% of consumers are more likely to follow recommendations from micro-influencers than from celebrities or macro-influencers. 3. Think ecosystem, not individuals. Map out the entire conversation space in your industry - who's talking to whom, who's respected by practitioners vs. executives. 4. Measure beyond impressions. Track qualified leads, pipeline influence, and content reuse/repurposing value. All these stats, and the fact that most marketing team's are spending a fifth of their marketing budget on influencers, is why Clay's new integrations with Upfluence and Modash are changing the game for demand gen teams. You can now: – Start with your "seed list" of known industry voices – Discover hundreds of similar but less obvious creator partners – Filter by engagement metrics that actually matter to you + your org – Source across platforms where your buyers actually spend time, instantly I've been testing this for clients, and the quality of creators discovered has been incredible - especially for more technical audiences where traditional outreach falls flat. I wouldn't sleep on this as 'just another marketing trend' - it's becoming table stakes for connecting with your audience authentically. #claypartner

"We tried influencer marketing and it didn't work." I hear this from brands almost daily (here's what most don't realize): Creator partnerships aren't failing. Your attribution models are. Most brands track creator success through: • Individual post engagement • Direct link clicks • Immediate sales But our marketplace data shows the real impact happens elsewhere: When customers discover products through creators, they: • Screenshot for later • Search the brand directly • Visit the website multiple times • Make purchase decisions days later • Share with friends through private messages Traditional attribution misses all of this. The result? Brands kill creator partnerships that are actually driving significant revenue—they just can't see it. Smart brands are shifting to: • 30-day attribution windows • Multi-touch conversion tracking • Brand search volume monitoring • Social listening metrics • Customer journey analysis Stop measuring creator partnerships like direct response ads. Start measuring them like the complex customer journey touchpoints they really are. The performance is there. You just need the right lens to see it. — Leo Limin

Influencer marketing is the backbone of growth for many brands, but effectively measuring it is the number 1 blocker for scale. A 2024 eMarketer study asked CMOs and marketing executives "What's preventing you from spending on influencer marketing?" The number 1 answer? Measurement (32% of all responses). That's a massive plurality, and one that I've seen personally dozens of times for our clients at fusepoint and Power Digital. Why is measurement so tough for influencers? • "Influencer" is kind of a catch-all, more on that in a sec • Attribution and trackability is a major hurdle • Affiliate / coupon codes can leak • Tough to split test/control • Brand maturity First let's talk about why Influencer is too big of a term. "Influencer" generally means some kind of advertising where an incentivized spokesperson -- presumably with some kind of organic audience -- discusses or recommends a product. In practice there are all kinds of influencer programs though: • Affiliates • Larger partnerships • Influencer handles paid by brand ads • Influencer content run as creative by the brand • Faux-influencers with no audience (UGC-style ads) • "Closed loop" influencer/affiliate programs (like TikTok Shops) And the reality is that most of these sub-tactics have nuances in terms of their execution, benefits, and measurement. Try explaining all of that to a CFO and why measuring the ROI isn't so easy. Traditional measurement is also tough: • Click-based attribution is just inherently flawed across ANY channel • Using coupon codes is most common, but, it's "leaky" • Influencers often sit higher in the funnel than "ads" • Data required for MMM is hard to get at (more below) • Influencers are very hard to geo target (outside of some ads) This causes influencer to kind of be treated as an "other" thing, often similar to PR where it's reported on separately and has its own expectations. Closed loop systems like TTS make it arguably "easier" since they have all the data, but, most influencer programs aren't focused on social commerce. So how do we actually recommend you measure it? • Pre/post pulse experiments • Incrementality geo tests (through ads) • Marketing mix models (if you can get the data) • Customer surveys and self reported attribution If you're running "organic" influencer content or affiliate style influencer, it's incredibly difficult to lock that down at a geo level. However, you can take that same content and run a holdout/plus up geo test to measure incrementality. You can also push intense flights and track the overall lift in brand awareness, share of search, or blended metrics like MER/CAC. That variability is also helpful for more sophisticated MMMs, but you need a high degree of data of when influencers posted content, what amount of impressions/spend you used, etc. So the "easiest" is just straight up: ask your customers. But, you need a combination of all to be effective. #incrementality #attribution #influencers