We hear the phrase influencer marketing thrown around a lot, but I’m sure many of you are uncertain what it is exactly, how to put it into practice and how it can benefit your company. If executed correctly, there are plenty of benefits influencer marketing has to offer. The rise of social media marketing has triggered a lot of changes in how marketers and brands advertise products and services online.

The consumer has more power and influence than ever before, and while this makes it a bit challenging for brands to advertise, it’s also a trend that presents many opportunities. Influencer marketing focuses on specific key individuals (or types of individuals) rather than a target market as a whole. The critical question remains though, how do you measure the ROI of a solid influencer marketing program?

Impressions & Engagements

Impressions measure the number of times an influencer’s post is viewed. This is data you should consistently be tracking and monitoring. The amount of impressions identifies the effectiveness of branding campaigns. This method is especially helpful when you’re talking about gathering data regarding the effectiveness of multiple influencers on a campaign. As it stands, impressions are the customary way of purchasing advertising inventory at scale.

The old way of gauging the success of a post or campaign solely based on likes is out and measuring the amount of engagement is in. Engagement means looking at the shares, comments, and likes as a whole. It provides deeper insights into how users interact and feel about a post. Shares extend your reach organically and bring your product in front of new audiences. This is huge!

Brand Mentions

It’s been said that organic word-of-mouth marketing is the most powerful form of marketing. Every social media manager out there hopes one of their posts will make it big and go viral. Why? Because the earned media reach, publicity, and brand mentions are significantly magnified.

One way to increase your chances of a post going viral is to put it in the hands of a social influencer. Their reach, influence, and recommendations to their influencer network is what will drive mentions and hopefully sales too. There are numerous third-party software applications out there for tracking this data to measure the success of a campaign.

Conversions

Savvy analytical marketers are quickly realizing the power of influencer marketing to drive sales, signups and app installs. They’re not just going on a hunch, there’s data to back up this potential power. In a recent study, McKinsey found that consumer-to-consumer word of mouth generates more than twice the sales of other forms of paid advertising.

Below are three ways Digital Tech Diary proclaims conversions can be tracked during an influencer marketing campaign.

1. Trackable links: NeoReach has its own conversion tracking technology that enables you to track how many online sales each influencer drove for you. However, trackable links can only be posted on platforms like Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Google Analytics is another option for creating trackable links that’ll show you conversions.
2. Promo codes: Not only do promo codes help you track the impact of your campaign, but they also build urgency and an extra incentive for viewers to buy your product.
3. Correlation: This entails correlating the time of posting with increases in sales or installs.

Content Quality

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) reiterates in their newsletters time and time again that the quality and uniqueness of a company’s content is critical to achieving success in a sea of information. Your goal when working with influencers, should be to collaborate and create world-class sponsored content that’s going to bring you tangible results. Also, consider how you might be able to stretch a piece of content across different platforms to get more use out of it.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is one strategy that not only magnifies a brand’s message, but it’s an approach that delivers ROI. This article outlines several different techniques for collecting influencer marketing campaign data and how to use it to drive more sales.

Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean you should shut down the idea. Give it a try, you may be pleasantly surprised at the benefits it brings to your company.