A common challenge associated with measuring ROI on influencer marketing is that there are a huge number of KPIs to look at. The risk here is that you choose a number of metrics and then stare at them blankly, instead of looking at the bigger picture of your investment. Also, the total effect is not always visible immediately, and you may need to connect several different pieces of the puzzle from different channels to get a more complete answer. Also, you need to work with some KPIs over a longer period of time in order to see results.

In this article, we’ll go through some of the most common KPIs for measuring ROI on influencer marketing and what they mean on an overall level.

Reach

The reach shows how many people have been exposed to your message, or in this case, to an influencer’s post. Here it’s important to distinguish between potential reach and actual reach. Potential reach is the total number of followers that a certain influencer has – that is, as many people as you have the opportunity to reach, in theory. Actual reach is as many people as you reach in practice – that is, the percentage of the influencer’s followers who actually see the post. For various reasons, such as how the algorithms of the various platforms work, we don’t always see every post even if we follow a certain person. In general, it can be said that influencers with smaller numbers of followers, such as micro- and midsize followers, have a higher actual reach compared to larger influencers with more followers.

Quality of the content

The quality of the content, i.e. the content that influencers create linked to your brand, is a softer KPI to keep track of. It’s especially important if one of the goals of your influencer marketing investment is to generate content, for example, for your own organic channels or for you to use as part of your paid social strategy. To be able to evaluate the quality, it’s important that you know from the beginning what type of content you want and what you’re going to use it for. For example, is it important that the content matches the brand’s own brand identity, and is there any particular feeling you want it to convey?

This type of information is important to include from the beginning of the briefing stage. Preferably with the help of a mood board that shows example images and clearly explains what you, together with the influencers, want to achieve. However, it’s important not to be too controlling, but rather to let the influencers be the creators and do what they’re best at – creating relevant content that engages and appeals to their followers.

Engagement

This KPI measures the level of engagement between an influencer and his/her followers. It can give you a good idea of how people view your brand and the collaboration.

Some common examples of engagement, or interactions, are:

  • Likes
  • Shares
  • Comments
  • Brand mentions
  • Reactions
  • Clicks

You can calculate the engagement level of a post by dividing the number of interactions on the post by the number of followers and then multiplying by 100. As with actual reach, the level of engagement is generally higher for smaller influencers, as they often have a closer bond with their followers, which in turn creates a higher level of interaction. When measuring engagement, it’s also important to keep a check on your cost per engagement (CPE).