How to Measure Influencer Marketing: Everything You Need to Know About Influencer Marketing Metrics

Influencer metrics don’t revolve around going viral once anymore.

In today’s world of sales & marketing, IGC (influencer-generated content) is one of the most useful tools in our arsenal. In fact, one survey found that 81% of US-based social marketers view influencer marketing as an essential part of their overall social media approach.

Marketers aren’t just gambling on accidental virality by hiring influencers – they see these partnerships as a strategic way to achieve real results.

But, what makes a successful IGC campaign successful? How can you track the results? What should be a priority in influencer measurement?

That’s what we’re here to find out!

Stick around, and we’ll tell you all about the 10 most important influencer metrics for tracking and how they can help you achieve all your goals!

How to Choose the Right Influencer Marketing Metrics

The foundation of any successful campaign is setting specific, measurable, and time-bound goals that align with your broader social media and marketing strategy. When your goals are clear, you can easily identify the metrics that matter most for tracking your progress.

For instance, are you looking to…

• Boost brand awareness? Then, you might track metrics like reach, impressions, and audience growth,

• Generate leads? In this case, you should focus on actions like website clicks, email sign-ups, or downloads,

• Drive sales? Then, you need to monitor conversion rates and revenue attributed to influencer-made content.

https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/ginger-woman-typing-laptop-while-sitting-desk-home_26725329.htm#fromView=search&page=1&position=12&uuid=c9009182-69fe-4822-b04b-6bd6d6264cb6&new_detail=true&query=woman+working+on+laptop

Once you sit down and put everything on paper, you’ll end up with a clear list of defined goals. Here are some examples of what those might look like:

• Increase positive brand mentions on Instagram by 20% within the next quarter through influencer collaborations,

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• Generate 500 new leads in the next month using targeted influencer campaigns,

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• Achieve a 15% increase in online sales attributed to influencer partnerships in the upcoming quarter.

Or any other variation that makes sense for you & your brand.

These goals are not only specific but also tied to broader business objectives, like raising brand visibility or increasing revenue.

Once you have your goals neatly laid out in front of you, you can create a roadmap that will make it easier to measure the impact of influencer marketing on your bottom line.

So, without much further ado, let’s get into what the top 10 most important metrics are…

10 Influencer Marketing Metrics to Measure Their Results

To measure the impact of your influencer campaigns, you need to focus on metrics that reflect your broader marketing goals.

Here are 10 essential metrics to track:

1. Reach and Impressions

One of the simplest ways to measure brand awareness is by tracking reach and impressions. In case you need a refresher, here’s what they are:

• Reach refers to the total number of unique individuals who see your content,
• Impressions count the total number of times it’s displayed, even if the same person sees it multiple times.

These are the metrics that help you understand the visibility of your campaign and how effectively it’s putting your brand in front of your target audience.

For example, if you collaborate with an influencer to launch a new product, reach and impressions can tell you how many people saw the product and how often.

Here’s what that looks like on everyone’s favorite social media management app, Hootsuite:

https://blog.hootsuite.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/reach-vs-impressions-6.png Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/reach-vs-impressions/

2. Audience Engagement

Engagement metrics, including likes, comments, shares, and saves, give you a look at how well your content resonates with an audience.

They go a little bit deeper than reach, showing not just who saw your content but how many people actively interacted with it.

Research found that most marketers prioritize engagement metrics to assess the effectiveness of their campaigns since it can tell you whether the people who ended up seeing your content actually thought it was interesting or valuable in some way.

For example, one campaign by Flannels worked with influencers to promote their festive partywear collection on TikTok. The campaign used the hashtag #PartyNeverStops and a specific audio clip, and it generated over $4.5M in sales & 91M video views!

https://www.tiktok.com/@avaa.blackk/video/7166697229955222789?q=%23partyneverstops%20flannels&t=1737403733738

To calculate an engagement rate, you would use the total likes, shares, and comments on a post, divide that number by the influencer’s follower count, and multiply by 100.

3. Audience Growth

Audience growth measures the increase in your brand’s followers as a result of influencer collaborations. This metric is crucial for understanding how collaborating with certain influencers impacts your reach and draws new people to your brand.

For example, Gymshark has built a massive social media following by working with fitness influencers who frequently talk about the brand’s products on their platforms. These partnerships have driven sales and positioned the brand as an industry leader.

https://www.tiktok.com/@brittanylupton/video/7337385013345897758?q=gymshark&t=1737404084763

4. Brand Mentions

Brand mentions show how often people are talking about your brand on social media, even when they don’t directly tag you.

An increase in mentions during or after an influencer campaign means your brand’s visibility is growing. This metric reflects engagement with your content and the growth of the community of people organically talking about you.

Essentially, it’s a kind of word-of-mouth marketing in the digital world.

To track mentions more accurately, you should also look out for untagged or even misspelled mentions of your brand – these still contribute to your overall reach.

Another approach is to watch for keywords or phrases related to your campaign.

5. Social Media Share of Voice

Share of voice (SOV) measures how much attention your brand is getting compared to your competitors. By tracking SOV during and after an influencer campaign, you can gauge whether your IGC efforts are helping your brand stand out in the industry.

To calculate share of voice, you divide your brand’s metrics (like mentions, reach, or engagement) by the total market metrics. The result will be a percentage that shows you how much of the conversation your brand owns compared to the overall discussion in your space.

Tracking share of voice isn’t just about numbers – it’s more about context. When you analyze the data, you can identify trends, understand what the audience is talking about, and even find gaps in the market.

Here’s what the results can look like:

https://blog.hootsuite.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/share-of-voice-2.png Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/share-of-voice/

6. Website Traffic from Social Media

Website traffic is one of the most tangible ways to measure the success of influencer campaigns – or any other campaigns. It’s so important because it ties directly into your business goals, showing whether your social media campaigns are driving potential customers to your site.

For example, Home Depot teamed up with a blogger – The Motherhic – who promoted their products. The campaign used trackable links, which made it easy to see exactly how much traffic her content brought to their website.

But tracking website traffic isn’t just about numbers; it’s also about understanding user behavior. You can see other valuable info, too, like what pages they’re visiting later, how much time they’re spending on your site, and whether they signed up for your newsletter or added something to their cart.

7. Conversions

Let’s be honest – conversions are the ultimate action you want your audience to take.

This could include different actions like the ones we mentioned just now – signing up for a newsletter, completing a purchase, using a promo code, or downloading a resource like an eBook or whitepaper.

An influencer can help you here by promoting a limited-time discount code for an online store. Every time that code is used at checkout, it directly ties the conversion to the influencer’s efforts.

Or, if you’ve got a digital product, lead generation forms can include a field asking users how they heard about you so that you know where these new leads came from.  

8. Revenue

If it’s not conversions, then it’s revenue we see as the most important metric here.

This shows how much income your campaigns are generating.

You can track revenue by using tools like promotional codes, custom links, or tracking direct sales on social media platforms.

This will then give you insight into whether your investment in the campaign is paying off. For example, if a campaign boosts sales, you know the investment in the influencer partnership worked!

https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/portrait-beautiful-young-woman-online-chatting-with-friend-laptop-connects-video_84710150.htm#fromView=search&page=1&position=2&uuid=ddbabf20-d4e9-4382-b037-97401d58fcee&new_detail=true&query=woman+happy+laptop

9. Search Interest

Search interest is a metric that shows how often people are searching for certain keywords. This can be about your brand, product, or some other campaign-related keyword.

A noticeable spike in search interest during an influencer campaign tells you that the campaign is generating curiosity or demand, both of which are indicators of the campaign going well.

So, for example, if an influencer promotes one of your new products and the search interest for that specific item suddenly rises, it’s a sign that it’s their content driving people to learn more.

To make tracking this metric a little bit easier, you can use SEO platforms to monitor search trends.

10. Earned Media and Press Mentions

Earned media refers to the organic publicity your brand receives, both through SM and press coverage. Naturally, the more famous your partner influencer, the more buzz it’ll generate in the press.

One example of this comes from Dove, who partnered with actress Gabrielle Union for their #DetoxYourFeed campaign. The collaboration got a lot of positive attention, all thanks to her name.

https://www.instagram.com/dove/reel/CdDE4BYIBrZ/

So, by using an influencer with a strong presence, Dove was able to amplify its message far beyond what traditional advertising usually allows.

Earned media value (EMV) quantifies this impact by estimating how much the same level of exposure would have cost through paid ads.

Key Takeaways: Measuring Influencer Marketing Metrics

To sum the story up, let’s go over the key metrics you need to track when working on an influencer campaign.

These include:

1. Reach and impressions, which measure brand visibility by tracking how many unique individuals see your content and the total number of times it is displayed,
   
   
2. Audience engagement, which tracks interactions like likes, comments, shares, and saves to see how well your content resonates with your target audience,
   
   
3. Audience growth, which monitors your follower count to show you whether influencer collaborations bring new people to your brand,
   
   
4. Brand mentions, which show how often your brand is mentioned on social media, even without direct tags, to assess organic visibility,
   
   
5. Social media share of voice (SOV), which analyzes how much attention your brand receives compared to competitors,
   
   
6. Website traffic, which lets you see how much traffic influencers drive,
   
   
7. Conversions, which track actions like sign-ups, purchases, or downloads to determine how influencers are directly contributing to your business goals,
   
   
8. Revenue, which is the income generated from campaigns,
   
   
9. Search interest, which tells you how many times the audience looked up your brand, and
   
   
10. Earned media and press mentions, which are all about the organic exposure from influencer partnerships and estimate its equivalent paid media value (EMV).

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