Playbook: How Market Leaders Measure Influencer Marketing

Your Guide to Influencer Marketing Measurement

It’s never been more important to be able to measure the effectiveness of influencer marketing. The good news is, with the rise of influencer marketing technology, there are now more ways to measure influencer marketing than ever before.

With all these metrics at your fingertips, it can quickly become confusing to determine which metrics to use. Faced with this dilemma, many marketers have sought after the mythical “single metric” that paints the complete picture of influencer marketing success.

The hard truth, however, is this “single metric” doesn’t exist. Instead, marketers need to embrace the fact that influencer marketing requires many vantage points to gain a complete understanding of its effectiveness.

We, at Traackr, have the fortunate position of being able to partner with individuals leading the most advanced and largest scale influencer programs in the world. In collaboration with these change agents, we’re building the future for how best-in-class influencer marketing programs will be managed and measured–and we’re excited to share our learnings with you.

In this playbook, we share a framework for measuring influencer marketing that is emerging out of market leading organizations.

This framework is different from the thousands published before it because it extends beyond the tactical viewpoint of measuring individual influencer marketing campaigns. It also extends beyond “measuring for measurement’s sake” to measuring as a means of driving continuous improvement.

This framework reflects the greater ambitions these innovators have for the practice of influencer marketing and its role within their organizations–one that consists of not just having a seat at the table, but a seat at the head of the table.

If you have similar ambitions, read on.

The 3 Categories of Influencer Marketing Metrics

With all the data points now at our disposal, we’re seeing market leaders begin to organize their influencer marketing measurement into 3 categories, each with their own specific use case and purpose:

• ‍PERFORMANCE METRICS
  Measure the impact of influencer marketing‍
• SPEND EFFICIENCY METRICS
  Measure the efficiency of influencer marketing investments‍
• COST EQUIVALENCY METRICS
  ‍Measure the efficacy of influencer marketing investments as compared to other marketing disciplines

Here are examples of the most commonly used metrics in each category:

Let’s dive deeper into each category and discuss how market leaders are leveraging them to measure and improve their influencer marketing strategies.

Influencer Marketing Performance Metrics

The main purpose of Performance Metrics is to measure the impact of influencer marketing.

As there are many metrics that comprise Performance Metrics, it’s important to define your objectives in terms of which stages of the customer journey you’re seeking to impact. This will help you determine which Performance Metrics to prioritize.

In addition to measuring impact against specific objectives, unified Performance Metrics can be very useful in evaluating the impact of influencer marketing in a more holistic way. Last year, Traackr introduced our Brand Vitality Score (VIT) which incorporates Visibility, Impact, and Trust to provide a comprehensive view of influencer marketing performance across the customer journey.

Generally, Performance Metrics are most commonly used to measure the impact of individual influencer marketing campaigns. That said, what sets market leaders apart is how they’re measuring and analyzing Performance Metrics at the program level (analyzing performance over time and comparing performance across campaigns, brands, and geographies) and market level (benchmarking performance against the competition) to uncover best practices and improve the performance of their overall influencer marketing programs.

"By benchmarking our Performance Metrics in Traackr against our competitors and across our categories, we uncover what’s driving impact in our market, which help inform our decisions towards our influencer marketing strategy."
‍
Ruthie Arce, Influencer Marketing Manager, Charlotte Tilbury

Spend Efficiency Metrics

As important as it is to measure performance, it’s equally important to measure the efficiency of your influencer marketing investments–especially when it comes to scaling your influencer marketing program.

This is the purpose of Spend Efficiency Metrics. These metrics enable you to understand which influencers and strategies are delivering the most bang for your buck and, in turn, can act as levers for improving your return-on-investment (ROI) going forward.

Just as with Performance Metrics, Spend Efficiency Metrics are most commonly used to identify efficiencies within individual influencer marketing campaigns (ex. Which influencers in a campaign delivered the greatest impact relative to their cost).

That said, what sets market leaders apart is how they’re leveraging these metrics to identify efficiencies across campaigns, brands, and geographies to optimize the ROI of their overall influencer marketing program.

"Comparing and analyzing the efficiency of our influencer spend has helped us make better investment decisions and improve the ROI of our influencer marketing program."
‍
Lauren Thermos, Director, Global Integrated Media & Marketing Strategy, Revlon

Cost Equivalency Metrics

Earned Media Value (EMV) is a notorious metric in the world of influencer marketing, for several reasons. Chief among them, it has been misused as a Performance Metric.

In reality, EMV is a Cost Equivalency Metric for measuring the efficacy of influencer marketing investments as compared to other marketing disciplines, such as digital advertising.

Today’s CMOs are challenged with constantly weighing the contributions of their owned, earned, and paid media to determine where to invest their next marketing dollar. In order to do this, they need a consistent way of comparing their investments across various marketing disciplines.

Many market leaders have moved away from using EMV as a primary metric for measuring influencer marketing as, beyond its misuse as a Performance Metric, there has been a lack of consistency and transparency in how it’s calculated.

As with the prior 2 categories of metrics, they’re using EMV at the individual campaign level but, most importantly, at the program level (analyzing EMV over time and comparing EMV across campaigns, brands, and geographies) and market level (benchmarking EMV against the competition), enabling them to make a clear case for shifting budgets to influencer marketing.

"By implementing, measuring, and demonstrating the value of an effective 360 influencer marketing strategy in the hospitality industry, we’ve been able to make a case for greater investment in the practice at a time when broader marketing budgets are being slashed."
‍
Santiago Garcia Solimei, Global Director of Social Media, Meliá Hotels International

Using the 3 Categories of Influencer Marketing Metrics Together

The most advanced teams leverage the 3 categories of metrics together to drive a continuous cycle of improvement.

Market leaders are using Performance Metrics to measure, analyze, and optimize the impact of influencer marketing. This, in turn, drives improvements in Spend Efficiency.

They use Spend Efficiency Metrics to measure, analyze, and optimize investments in influencer marketing. This, in turn, drives improvements in Cost Equivalency.

Finally, they use Cost Equivalency Metrics to make a clear case for shifting more budget to influencer marketing, thus feeding the continuous cycle of improvement.

Learn more about influencer marketing measurement here.

‍Ready to take your influencer marketing measurement to the next level? Traackr is the only solution to cover all 3 categories of metrics across all levels of influencer marketing–content, influencer, campaign, program, and market level. Reach out to learn more.