Measuring The Impact Of Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has turned into one of the most effective internet marketing instruments. There are many people to reach and plenty of ways to reach them through influencers. There are also many key opinion leaders and influencers to work with, from established YouTube stars to newer Instagram celebrities and Twitter users. Similar to other internet marketing campaigns, influencer marketing’s main advantage is the fact that it is very measurable. You can accurately determine your return on investment and see just how effective the campaign really was.
Measuring Reach and Exposure
The two easiest metrics to measure are reach and exposure. Reach refers to the number of users you can reach through an influencer, or a group of influencers, involved in the same campaign. To know exactly the potential reach of your campaign, you simply need to measure the total number of followers the influencers have. On the other hand, we have exposure, a more detailed metric that accurately measures the impact of your campaign. Instead of taking the total number of followers into account, exposure measuring tools take the followers that actually see the tweet, Instagram post or YouTube video into consideration. The result is a more grounded number that allows you to see how many people have been exposed to the campaign.
Focusing on Engagement
While both reach and exposure are great metrics, the real value of influencer marketing is in engagement. You should never stop at aiming for a certain level of exposure. The main goal of your influencer marketing campaign is user engagement.
- How many users actually reacted to the YouTube video posted on the influencer’s channel?
- How many of them clicked on the link and visited your site?
- How many of those users actually took further actions (i.e. bought the product you’re advertising or signed up for your brand’s newsletter)?
These engagements are far more valuable than exposure. Certain tracking tools will even help you measure the value you get from each piece of engagement you receive. This is truly unprecedented; you can actually tell if the influencer marketing campaign has made you money, and how much.
Long-Term Benefits
Of course, just like SEO and content marketing, influencer marketing is not a one time practice. By building a strong relationship with influencers and their audiences, and understanding the true value of the influencer relationship, you can achieve so much more in the long run. Many brands are taking this route and enjoying a big boost. A famous case is the way Casey Neistat, Ben Brown, and other YouTube stars endorsed Boosted Board in their videos. This was more than just a one-off campaign. Boosted Board strives to build strong relationships with their influencers and has produced campaigns that a lot of other brands can only dream of.
There’s no doubt that influencer marketing is a powerful instrument to use. The fact that you can measure the impact of your influencer marketing campaign down to the very last detail simply makes it even more powerful.
