Measuring influencer marketing is not easy, nor does it have one clear definition. What people typically refer to as ‘influencer marketing’ is actually just referred to as sponsored content or paid social media engagement. There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of this type of advertising, though.

The most common way measures success via impressions and clicks. By watching videos or reading articles, you can determine how much influence the advertiser had on drawing attention to their product/service.

You may also be able to find out what percentage of followers/fans received something free in return for an endorsement or testimonial – this is known as brand value. This can help tell us whether or not the influencers we're looking into position themselves as brands or individuals that share your products and services.

Influence metrics such as follower count, engagement rate (likes, comments), and reach all play a role in telling us how successful influencers are. Some people mix these numbers with direct sales conversions to calculate effective influencer marketing, but this isn't always possible - if there aren't any then you can’t really quantify the impact.

Influencer marketing vs. other marketing methods

There are two main types of influencers that market brands- lifestyle influencers and media influencers. A lot of times, people mix up these two categories when defining what influence is, but they are very different!

Influencers with large social followings are referred to as media influencers. They normally have their own channel on YouTube, Facebook, or another site where they upload content consistently.

Media influencers are not necessarily paid members of an agency or company’s staff, but it is important to know the difference between them and regular employees. For example, Taylor Lautner (aka Jacob Black from The Twilight Saga) never gets paid to promote a product; he does it because he loves the brand and wants to represent it.

However, while he is compensated for being in the advertisement, he would probably reject the offer to work with companies that don’t deserve his attention. This is why having authentic influencers is so important in affiliate marketing. You wouldn’t want someone promoting something fake or poorly made products, would you?

Lifestyle influencers are individuals who enjoy interacting with the public on various sites and forums about things they love. These could be foodies, fashionistas, gamers, etc. They may even receive compensation for sharing products they believe in, but only if they are convinced by the product first.

Tips for measuring influencer marketing

Now that you’ve done some social media listening, paid to advertise, and content creation, it is time to measure your efforts. You will want to make sure that you are tracking accurate data so that you can evaluate how successful your campaigns were.

There are several ways to track your influence marketing strategies. The best way depends on what types of results you are looking to achieve. For example, if your goal is to generate new leads, then creating a lead-generation page or app is an appropriate metric. If your goal is to gain exposure, then metrics like follower count and engagement level are important.

Metrics such as these help determine whether or not your influencers have value to contribute to your business.

Tracking website traffic

To make sure that you’re investing your time in the right channels, you have to track how well each one is working. There are several ways to do this.

First, you can use tools that measure conversions. These track whether or not a given channel led to a conversion (like buying an item).

You could also survey your followers to see what channel they used to find out about you and which worked best for them.

Tracking visits to your site is another way to determine which strategies work. By adding some GA code to your site, you can get more detailed information such as:

How many people visited from a particular source

Which pages they viewed while there

What browser and device they were using

This all adds up so you get a very complete picture of your audience’s behavior. You may want to look at both short-term and long-term trends when doing this research!

Note: Make sure to only include codes that require authentication with Google or other tracking services. Non-authenticated tracks won’t be completely accurate.

Off-site marketing

One of the most important ways to measure influencer marketing success is by looking at the off-sites, or external channels they use to promote your product or brand.

Influencers can create videos or talk about products through blogs, social media sites, and even some way less known ones like Q&A sites and forums.

By adding these links to your website or promoting them via social media, you are helping to spread the influence that person has already built up. In turn, those websites and networks will send traffic your way to boost engagement and interest in the content they provide.

This off-site exposure can help push more people toward the influencer’s content, which may lead to direct conversions. Or it could be indirect, leading to additional purchases or interactions with other brands or vendors.

Either way, such influencers have proven themselves to be influential, so investing in theirs as well can yield great rewards.

On-site marketing

In addition to creating content targeted at influencers, another way to measure influence is by looking at how many sites and people refer to your business or product through their online activity.

Influencer websites typically use logos and/or banners that they include on other sites to create backlinks for those sites. If you can identify these links and source documents, it’s easy to track them using tools like Google Analytics.

You also have some very popular social media platforms where users are constantly talking about products and businesses. By scanning these conversations, you can get an idea of what types of products and services resonate with your audience.

And while direct referrals aren’t necessarily paid advertisements, they do provide valuable insight into how well your advertising strategies are working.

Buyer personas

Creating buyer personas is one of the most important ways to measure influencer marketing. This is when you identify who your audience is and what they want, as well as how much value you can provide them.

Influencers already know their audiences very well – they’ve built relationships with them over time. Use that knowledge to determine if an influencer’s content or style is more targeted for your target market.

By adding “buyer personas” into the mix, you can also look at how different lifestyle choices influence your target markets’ buying decisions. For example, research shows that people with higher income levels are motivated by status, while those with lower incomes are focused on cost-effective solutions.

You could create separate personas for each stage of this process, depending on which features of influencer marketing matter the most to your business.

Demographic information

The next important piece of data that you will want to use to determine if an influencer is worth investing in or not is their demographic details. This includes things such as their age, gender, location, income level, and whether they have children.

Influencers with younger demographics are typically sponsored by brands that want to reach young people. On the other hand, people over 30 are more likely already maintain routines that help them stay within budget, so companies choose to target those instead.

You should also consider how much content the influencer produces – the more they publish, the higher quality content they provide, which makes them seem more professional.

Reputation of influencer

There is no standard way to measure influence. What people refer to as an “influence” or “brand ambassador” position doesn’t really have any hard metrics for success.

The average person may associate prestige with having lots of followers, but that isn’t necessarily defining quality when it comes to social media marketing.

Influencers who advertise products or services by talking about them are incentivized to talk about brands they're sponsored by, so their follower count includes advertisers and not individuals.

Likewise, people who purchase advertised goods can be influenced to do business with those brands, creating an inflated impression of popularity.