Influencer marketing involves influencers and brands or individuals collaborating to market products, services, or social media profiles. 

Influencer marketing can have different goals. It can bring awareness, recognition, sales, downloads, traffic to the website, or other profiles. The main difference between other marketing channels is that Influencer marketing is dynamic and genuinely influential. These online collaborations have to influence the target audience with whom a brand wishes to establish a touchpoint.

There is this common myth that influencer marketing is less effective than traditional marketing channels. 

However, research shows that 89% of marketers say influencer marketing is as effective (if not more) than other marketing channels. Also, it is noticed that the quality of customers that come from influencer marketing is higher than those who join through other channels, as influencers already onboard new customers and better explain product features of service benefits. 

It is probably the most common question asked by brands that did and haven’t yet done influencer marketing. All businesses are looking for the best solution to spend less and earn more, so how to measure a successful campaign? 

The most common methods to measure campaign success is setting the right goals: 

1. Visibility or brand awareness. (When launching a new product or service);
2. Engagement. (How customers feel about your product);
3. ROI (Sales, Sales, Sales).

Once you selected the right goal for your campaign, it is time to calculate success: 

1. New leads. They can be tracked by the increase in the brand’s social following, newsletter signups, wishlists, etc. 
2. Website traffic / CPE (cost per engagement). Check your site traffic before and after the campaign, see how many new users came across your website, calculate CPE measured in terms of dollar spend on likes, comments, saves, views. 
3. Sales/ Number of Customers. It can be measured by the affiliate link, tracking link, or coupon code, by setting Google Analytics. Calculating precisely how many sales each influencer brought.

Influencer marketing is a fast growing industry predicted to be worth $15 billion by 2022, more than twice the level of 2019 which at the time was $8 billion.

The return differs across markets, however the average ROI businesses end up making is $18 for every $1 spent. Influencer marketing is the best way to elevate your brand to new levels in the shortest period of time.

Were you considering influencers as a new marketing channel for your brand but don’t know where to start? No worries, we got your back! 

1. Identify your campaign goal. (Is it a new brand, and you need people to get to know you? Do you need more sales? New potential customers? App downloads?)
2. Define your target audience. 
3. Write down your campaign idea and the main message that influencers should pass to the target audience.
4. Define a suitable Influencer Category that your target audience follows.
5. Select the social media platform that might be most appropriate for your campaign goals.
6. Define your influencer reward system (affiliate, flat fee, product giveaway).
7. Discover potential influencers.
8. Outreach and negotiate
9. Measure results