Brands are projected to spend $47.8B on influencer marketing advertising by 2027.
And with so much money being invested, what goals should you set for your influencer marketing campaigns?
What metrics should you focus on? How can you measure your success?
The answer: It’s all in the numbers.
We’re covering the top eight influencer marketing KPIs you need to track in 2024 — so you can optimize your performance and get the most out of your campaigns.
Table of Contents
What Is an Influencer Marketing KPI?
An influencer marketing KPI (key performance indicator) is a specific and measurable metric that indicates how well an influencer marketing campaign performs.
Whether you’re looking to boost brand awareness or drive sales, tracking (and analyzing) KPIs lets you understand what works and what doesn’t — so you can make informed decisions, optimize your efforts, and ensure a strong ROI.
The key? Choosing the right KPIs.
ICYMI: Mavrck is trusted by brands to discover creators, manage campaigns, and collect powerful insights. Learn more.
8 Influencer Marketing KPIs You Need to Know
Great campaigns don’t just happen overnight. It takes a strong partnership, a thoughtful strategy, and a creative approach to get it right.
To dictate which KPIs are most important to you, Later’s Influencer Marketing Manager Kurtis Smeaton says you’ll first need to set your campaign goal.
Why?
“It lets you establish whether your campaign will be a TOFU, MOFU, or BOFU play. TOFU makes the most sense for Later because our product is long lead. However, a fashion brand might want to build BOFU campaigns to drive conversions,” Kurtis says.
What's TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU?
TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU are acronyms commonly used amongst marketers when describing the sales funnel.
Think of it as an upside down pyramid with TOFU at the top:
TOFU (top of funnel) = Awareness, engagements, clicks
MOFU (middle of funnel) = Report downloads, newsletter subscriptions, webinar sign ups
BOFU (bottom of funnel) = Sales, demos, trials
Depending on your goal, here are the top eight influencer KPIs to track:
#1: Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is one of the top reasons brands invest in influencer marketing — making it a top-notch KPI.
Think: Reach, impressions, video views — all the top-of-funnel traffic that indicates your audience size and visibility.
Aka, the first step to getting on your target audience’s radar.
Learn more about how to run a successful influencer marketing campaign in our free course — Influencer Marketing 101: How to Elevate Your Influencer Marketing Strategy.
#2: Engagement
What’s better than eyeballs? Likes, comments, shares, saves, brand mentions — the social currency of a successful partnership.
Engagement measures how well your campaign (and content) is resonating with your audience.
Garner enough, and you’re on the right track to spreading the word about your brand.
PRO TIP: Calculate your cost per engagement using this handy formula: CPE = # of interactions / total spend.
#3: Conversions
If your campaign's goal is to drive sales, measuring conversions is an essential KPI to track.
However, it can be a tough metric to measure without the right tools in place.
Our advice? Share unique promo codes, affiliate links, and UTM links with your influencer partners before the campaign begins.
This way, you can track clicks (and conversions) rolling in from specific influencers once it kicks off.
FYI: You can track, measure, and analyze your influencer marketing KPIs within the Mavrck platform. Book a free demo to boost your ROI, today.
#4: Audience Growth
While similar to reach, audience growth as a KPI helps give a full picture of your success and brand awareness.
“Value-added content like thought leadership is the strategy here,” Kurtis says.
“If someone doesn’t convert but goes on to follow your account or sign up for your email list, it’s still a win — you have a new lead who can be converted into a customer down the road.”
For example, following a campaign with marketing expert Lucas O’Keefe, Later's Instagram following also saw a boost of roughly 250 followers.
In other words, we hit this particular KPI out of the park.
TIP: Authentic engagement is key for audience growth. Download our free Instagram Fake Followers Checklist to weed out ineffective (and potentially harmful) collaborations.
#5: Click-through Rate (CTR)
A click-through rate (CTR) measures the number of clicks received on a particular link.
It’s a worthwhile KPI as it demonstrates how effective your campaign drove traffic to your website and moved potential customers into the consideration stage.
The secret formula? A strong call to action (CTA).
In a recent campaign with Brooki of @brookibakehouse, she included a CTA to check out her favorite scheduling tool — driving 15K clicks to Later's sign up page.
15K clicks from one sponsored post? Unprecedented.
And while her CTR was lower than the social ads average of 1.36%, it's important not to get too wrapped up in the numbers.
Why?
There are several factors that constitute a "successful" CTR — including your industry, the type of ad (e.g. a brand's paid ad differs from an influencer sponsored post), and the size of your audience.
Instead, use 1.36% as a baseline and hone in on the big picture.
TIP: Bookmark this formula to calculate your click-through rate: CTR = clicks / # of impressions x 100.
#6: Traffic
Another influencer marketing KPI worth tracking is traffic.
Why? New eyes on your site = more opportunities for conversion.
Plus, if you’re noticing an increase in traffic but not conversions, it’s a clear-cut sign to optimize your website with tactics like customized landing pages and better incentives.
#7: Return on Investment (ROI)
The KPI of all KPIs? Return on investment (ROI).
Simply put, your ROI determines whether your campaign is profitable or not — the higher profitability, the more successful the campaign.
For a positive ROI, your revenue should exceed total spend (including ad spend, production costs, and influencer compensation).
How can you track it? Bookmark this formula — ROI = revenue / total spend x 100.
NOTE: ROI isn’t always a monetary value. For TOFU campaigns, earned media value (EMV) — the combined value of all the interactions that occurred over the course of the campaign — can take its place.
TIP: Automatically track your campaign spending and boost your ROI with Later’s free budget template.
#8: Brand Sentiment
How does your target audience feel about your brand based on comments and reactions to your influencer marketing campaign?
That’s brand sentiment — and while tough to measure, grasping this KPI can help uncover what you’re doing right and how to improve future campaigns.
barbie marketing department is smiling so big... twitter is just the barbie and ken posters it's genius pic.twitter.com/12UI7tfvbW
— elle (@myspideyswift) April 5, 2023
Our advice? Take advantage of influencer marketing platforms like Mavrck that help you keep an in-depth eye on your campaigns from start to finish (more on that, below).
How to Track Influencer Marketing KPIs in 2024
Ready to start measuring your progress? There are a few ways to track KPIs, depending on which metrics you choose:
#1: Sales or Affiliate Tracking Software
If your campaign goal is sales, tracking software is your best friend.
And while e-commerce platforms often have built-in analytics to track revenue generated from specific referral sources — a platform that houses all your KPIs is your best bet (keep reading).
#2: Manually Via Custom Document
While not ideal, manually inputting and tracking KPIs in a massive spreadsheet of custom URLs and campaign results like engagements, impressions, and reach is an option.
However, when you’re leading a big campaign, time is of the essence.
This leads us to the best method…
#3: Mavrck
With an influencer marketing platform like Mavrck, you’ll gain access to real-time performance metrics to track influencer KPIs.
This means you have the ability to measure the full lifecycle of influencer activation — from impressions and engagements to clicks and conversions.
The best part? Mavrck handles your campaigns from start to finish, giving you time back to dig into your results and optimize your strategy. Win-win.
And that’s that!
Now that you’re well-versed in the top influencer marketing KPIs (and how to use them), you’re all set to create effective campaigns, again and again.
Book a demo with Mavrck to optimize your influencer marketing strategy today.
