Likes, views and comments are still the numbers that get screenshotted into a report and shown off in a meeting and it鈥檚 pretty obvious why: they鈥檙e immediate, they鈥檙e visible and they make a campaign look like it鈥檚 working.
The trouble is that a bunch of likes doesn鈥檛 tell a brand what happened next 鈥� did someone click through, browse the website or just enjoyed the video before carrying on scrolling? Brands now have access to a lot more advanced tools for following that journey past the post itself; which can give them a better idea of what an influencer campaign actually achieved.
Measuring Who鈥檚 Paying Attention
Engagement data is still where most measurement starts; views, likes, comments, shares, saves and watch time all show how people responded to a piece of content rather than just showing how many people were exposed to it.
According to Sprout Social, 68% of marketers rely on engagement metrics to judge influencer campaign performance. Engagement rate, measured against reach rather than raw follower count, can also give brands a more useful picture of audience interest. A creator with a smaller but highly engaged audience can generate stronger interaction than someone with millions of passive followers.
Audience data can also show brands who’s actually engaging with a creator’s content; including their demographics and location. This can help them see if the campaign is actually reaching the audience they wanted to target in the first place.
Tracking What Happens After The Post
Likes and comments tell a brand that someone paid attention to a post, but they don鈥檛 show what happened once that person kept scrolling. Tools like UTM codes and trackable links allows brands to follow the traffic coming from an influencer鈥檚 post and see what those visitors do once they reach the website.
They might browse a product page, sign up for something or leave after a few seconds. Discount codes and affiliate links can make purchases easier to connect to a specific creator too; if a customer uses an influencer鈥檚 unique code at checkout, the brand will be able to see where that sale came from rather than relying on the engagement figures from the original post. Sprout Social also reports that 50% of marketers track link traffic from posts, while 45% track website traffic during a campaign.
Turning Data Into Real Results
Once brands can see where people came from and what they did on the website, they can start measuring whether those actions led to an actual result. Depending on the campaign, that could mean buying a product, signing up for a service, downloading an app or submitting their details as a lead.
The result a brand cares about will only really depend on what the campaign was designed to achieve. A product launch may be closely tied to sales, while a campaign aimed at building awareness could have more value on the traffic, new visitors or sign-ups.
ROI then brings the results back to the money that has been spent. Influencer Marketing Hub estimates that businesses earn an average of $5.78 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, although individual campaigns can produce very different results depending on the creator, audience and objective.
How Tech Helps Judge A Campaign
Influencer marketing used to be a lot easier to judge from the outside 鈥� a creator posted something, people reacted to it and the numbers were there for everyone to see. Now, brands can measure way more of what happened across a campaign, including website traffic, conversions and sales linked to specific creators.
There are still things that a dashboard can’t properly capture, especially when someone sees a creator鈥檚 recommendation and acts on it much later or through another channel. Technology can show brands a lot of the results, but it can’t always connect every outcome back to the original post.
