Well, let’s think about it for a second. 

More often than not you will seek out the opinion of your friends and family before you purchase something. 

Why is that so?

Easy: Because you trust them. 

You probably pay more attention to a brand whenever you see a rave review from someone you know and admire – even if you’ve never met them in real life. 

So, it’s no wonder influencer marketing has been one of the biggest buzzwords in digital marketing for the past few years. Hiring influencers become one of the most effective ways for brands to promote their products on Instagram. 

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing strategy that sees brands collaborate with influencers.

We can define influencers as trusted content creators with the power to affect how their audience makes purchasing decisions. They also have a significant well-engaged following in their niche.

Influencers can leverage Instagram automation to efficiently endorse or make product mentions, share their opinions with their audience, and effectively partner with brands.

To show you influencer marketing in real action, today we take a look at the five most successful Instagram influencer marketing campaigns.

Each approach sheds light on proven techniques that you too can use and capitalize on the value of Instagram influencers. All these brands incorporated unique Instagram influencer campaigns in its social media strategy and it paid off. 

But first, let’s discuss why you should implement Instagram influencer marketing.

Why Instagram influencer marketing campaigns?

Instagram influencer marketing campaigns are exploding by the day and for a good reason. 

Influencer marketing ROI is stronger than ever. So it comes as no surprise that marketers believe that this industry is bound to double its worth to $24.1 billion by 2025. 

Already, this marketing tactic is yielding a $6.50 return on investment for every dollar spent.

According to social media influencer statistics, only 1% of millennials trust advertisements. But, 33% of them trust blog reviews when it comes to making purchases.

When purchasing products online around 40% of people will buy a product after seeing it used by an influencer on Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

And what do influencers think about their impact?

71% of influencers believe that what keeps their audience engaged is an honest and authentic voice. All these stats are a clear indication of why influencer marketing is red-hot right now. 

Now that you know the whats and whys of Instagram influencer marketing, let’s see them in action.

How to launch influencer marketing campaigns?

There are 10 steps to build a great influencer marketing campaign:

1. Set your goals by visualizing what success would look like to determine your key metrics.
2. Identify the target audience you want to reach through your influencer.
3. Determine your budget to identify how many and what tier of influencers you can afford.
4. Choose your channel(s).
5. Choose an Influencer Tracking & Managing tool.
6. Identify & choose your ideal influencers.
7. Reach out to your influencers to reach an agreement.
8. Track and evaluate the campaign and optimize when needed.
9. Compensate your influencers fairly.
10. Measure and evaluate the success of your campaign.

If you want a more detailed guide of what each of these steps look like, visit our influencer marketing guide.

Now, we understand that this seems like a lot! However, using a tool like Keyhole can take care of finding the perfect influencer, optimizing your influencers’ campaigns, tracking all your influencers’ performance in a single dashboard in real-time, and measuring the impact of your campaign.

5 Most successful Instagram influencer marketing campaign examples

1. Uber Eats X Chipotle X Hinge X Rebel Wilson

What do Uber Eats, Chipotle, and Hinge have in common? 

Perhaps a desire to be loved by a certain demographic who is also looking for love – at least for cuffing season.

The three brands found the best way to reach young adults who use dating apps and food delivery services through a celebrity Instagram influencer campaign.. 

Using the “Chipotle Cuffing Season Menu” the brands ran a collective campaign that gave their customers a chance to win dating advice from the hilarious celebrity and “How to Be Single” star Rebel Wilson. 

The limited-time Chipotle Cuffing Season menu was available exclusively on Uber Eats and featured meals inspired by Hinge dating habits and Chipotle’s most popular dishes. 

To take advantage of their influencer relationship, the brands offered 10 lucky people who ordered from the exclusive menu a chance to win dating advice from Wilson.

In addition, Hinge added a new profile prompt in the app for daters to be able to connect over their specific Chipotle orders. Users also got $20 off their next 3 orders of Chipotle delivered using Uber Eats!

The campaign gave the brands’ target audience the incentive to order from the limited-time menu, increase Uber Eats orders, and at the same time, it raised awareness for Hinge’s brand.

Why it works?

Rebel Wilson is the ideal celebrity influencer to reach a young adult audience because she is authentic, and she is relatable. While we expect Internet influencers boast unattainable flawlessness, Wilson can point out her flaws with humour and celebrate them. 

In a similar way, the irony of having the “How to Be Single” actress give dating advice, allowed the brands to advertise Cuff Day in a fun, unexpected way. 

Each of the two ads on Wilson’s Instagram account was viewed over a million times. Much more than the average engagement that all these companies get on the platform.  

2. McDonald’s X Travis Scott (#cactusjack)

Popular fast-food brand, McDonald’s teamed up with Astroworld star Travis Scott to promote Scott’s favorite McDonald’s meal for a limited time.

The month-long deal featured a quarter-pounder with cheese, bacon, and lettuce. It also came with a medium order of fries and BBQ sauce dip.

As part of the campaign, Scott ran a new line of merchandise under his label, Cactus Jack, a line was inspired by McDonald’s. The merchandise included unique company swag products: denim shorts, t-shirts, a nugget body pillow, hoodies, a burger tie, Egg McMuffin-branded boxers, and a Cactus Jack basketball jersey.

The two brands also supported charitable organizations throughout the partnership. 

Why it works?

With a following of over 73 million on Instagram, Scott’s posts had the potential to receive an average of 10 million views amplifying McDonald’s brand significantly. 

Not to mention, the amount of hype it would generate in social media. In the second half of September, the term Cactus Jack acquired 124.4K posts and over 426 million impressions.

3. HelloFresh X Micro-influencers and Mindy Kaling (#hellofreshpartner)

HelloFresh has a very photogenic product. The bright-green box, delightful pre-packaged ingredients, and tasty finished meals are a great fit for Instagram influencer marketing.  

Also, HelloFresh has fully embraced the value of influencer marketing and has mastered the art of finding micro-influencers on Instagram spanning across different fields.

The brand partners with thousands of such micro-influencers to promote its products within their target audience. So you are likely to see the #hellofreshpartner hashtag as you scroll your Instagram timeline. 

Occasionally, HelloFresh uses celebrity influencers. Recently, the brand partnered with actress and writer Mindy Kaling. The busy celebrity mom of two will share cooking tips and how to have fun while at it. 

For the partnership, Mindy will star in a four-episode video series titled “Meals with Mindy.” The series will begin airing across social media and digital ads in January 2021.

Each webisode will feature Mindy teaching viewers, in her humor-filled fashion, about the art of cooking. For the purpose of illustrating how HelloFresh helps her create easy, but delicious meals.

 Why it works?

The brand works with a variety of lifestyle, motherhood, and cooking influencers to share their experiences with HelloFresh on Instagram. All of which fall within their target market.

The influencers also ask their followers to sign up for the service using a unique promo code that offers them a discount on their first month. 

This kind of influencer marketing tactic drives sign-ups and makes it very easy for HelloFresh to track each influencer’s ROI.

HelloFresh, using a host of  social media analytics tools, can see which influencers generated the most sign-ups and can then use them for future campaigns.

4. Biossance X Jonathan Van Ness

The sustainable skincare brand Biossance has a secret weapon. And it is none other than Queer Eye and Gay of Thrones grooming guru Jonathan Van Ness.

The brand chose to work with the popular TV personality to promote the brand in an authentic way. JVN’s personable nature, approachable style to beauty expertise make him an ideal influencer.

He also shares a passion for sustainable beauty and is a champion for inclusivity. These happen to be the same values that the brand stands for. 

The Fab 5 member is no stranger to brand partnerships. Of course, every brand would like to be promoted in a way that is authentic, fun, fabulous and unique – and JVN succeeds in doing all these and more.

It also helps that JVN has over 5.3m followers, an engagement rate of 373%, and an average of 200.7K engagements per post. In other words, he is a unicorn among influencers.

Why it works?

While JVN is the influencer version of a dream boat, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he could work with any brand. One of the reasons why he is so influential is because of his fierce commitment to his personal brand.

For Biossance, it is a match made in heaven. As we mentioned, the brand’s values align perfectly with JVN’s values.

JVN is also an expert authority on beauty products. He can give you compelling reasons to buy Biossance products in his own words and based on his own expertise. 

This is the ideal in Instagram influencer marketing: to find an influencer that is knowledgeable and passionate about your brand and can express so in their own words.

You don’t need an influencer matchmaker to find the right influencer for your brand, especially if you use a social listening tool like Keyhole. Keyhole will surface the most influential voices that mention your brand or the conversations you are tracking, and let you take a peek at their followers, engagement, and sentiment.

5. ASOS X Micro-influencers (#asseenonme)

ASOS typically attracts all shoppers of all ages, sizes, and backgrounds thanks to its approach to inclusivity. 

The brand’s Instagram influencer marketing campaign strategy is to collaborate with a wide audience through its Insider influencer program. In this program, ASOS partners with 29 influencers who have distinctive looks and communities.

Each of these influencers has ASOS-branded Instagram and Pinterest accounts. ASOS also has a dedicated landing page that features its style guides. In doing so, ASOS makes its brand welcoming to all shoppers. 

The influencers offer so many different styles to choose from. Which in turn, makes it easy for every ASOS shopper to find their perfect look. 

Why it works?

This tactic is effective because shoppers trust the content. That is because it comes from real, stylish people – and not directly from the brand.

Having such a diverse audience is any brand’s dream. However, it can be difficult for brands to maintain a strong identity, while representing a wide range of individuals.

ASOS uses its Instagram influencer marketing to do this flawlessly. First, it identified the essence of the brand that appeals to its wide audience: fashion and style. Then, it found key influencers that can inspire this love for fashion and style in their own communities.

“With Keyhole at your disposal, if someone has a large following and they’re mentioning your keyword, you’ll be the first one to know about this person and the first one to reach out.” – Neil Patel,

Finding the right influencers for your Instagram influencer marketing campaign

You don’t want to work with just any influencer, you want to work with the one that will bring you the highest ROI. 

Also, there’s more to an influencer’s success than their follower count.

To find the right one, these are qualities (and the metrics) you need to focus on when finding the right influencer for your brand.

1. Brand fit

Before you pick an influencer ask yourself this question: What type of influencer is best for my campaign? Who is the JVN to your Biossance?

The answer that you come up with will help you pick the influencer that is a brand fit. 

When deciding your brand fit, you want to focus on influencers who have a genuine interest in your niche and line of products. This way, your influencer partnership will be more authentic and genuine from a consumer’s perspective.

Basically, the better the fit, the more likely your influencer is to inspire trust. In return, you will have more ROI potential from your campaign.

With a social listening tool, you can surface the most influential accounts for your followers, as well as organic brand advocates, which are the most likely to be a good fit for your brand.

Try Keyhole social listening today and find the best influencers for your brand.

2. Engagement rate

As we mentioned before, influence is more than just the follower count. A high number of followers does not necessarily result in high ROI. You want an influencer with highly engaged followers. 

The more engaged an audience is the more likely they are to be influenced. Take advantage of a profile analytics tool and pay close attention to engagement rates, reach, and engagement per post. Plus, you can use its Publishing feature to schedule unlimited posts and find your best time to post, most engaging post types, optional post length, etc.

3. Clear communication

Once you start pitching a potential influencer, take into account how they handle communication. Do they take eons to respond to you? Do they give you the information you ask for? Are they prioritizing your brand? 

Clear communication is vital to success in Instagram influencer marketing campaigns. Especially, when it comes to your goal expectations and results. Using an influencer tracking and analytics tool will track goal-based metrics and will give you transparency into your influencer’s performance metrics and will let you.

4. Genuine love for your brand

At the end of the day, you want to work with an individual who authentically loves your brand. See if the influencer has been promoting your brand or products like yours without a sponsorship. 

You want to partner with someone who will genuinely promote your product and not just see your campaign as another form of income. Pay attention to the influencer’s messaging and see if it could match your own.

Amplify your reach with Instagram influencer marketing campaigns

Influencer marketing is not a new concept and it isn’t going away anytime soon. 

As you can see from these campaigns when done correctly, the potential of this digital marketing tactic is huge. 

People are continuously paying attention to influencers who are just like them and not just celebrities, family, or friends. 

By finding the right influencer for your brand, you get the power to bring your brand to new heights. Now you have the tools and examples of how to do this the right way.

So go on and run your own Instagram influencer marketing campaign. We can’t wait to feature your brand as one of our success stories!

Keyhole is a Social Media Listening & Brand Monitoring Solution that helps marketers unlock data-driven business insights. Its visual dashboard is simple and shareable with your clients.

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The post 5 Successful Influencer Marketing Campaign Examples To Get Inspired appeared first on Keyhole.

You have a thrilling product, a rabid fanbase, and a growing arsenal of social media platforms to connect the two.

Sure, you can post content all day long, but how do you evaluate the success of one sports media campaign versus another?

How do you prove your sports marketing agency is better-equipped to land that contract? How do you justify your marketing strategy to your superiors? And how do you prove that what you’re doing aligns with your business goals?

In other words, how do you measure the ROI and success of your sports marketing campaigns?

In this post, we’ll explain why you should be measuring the ROI on your sports marketing campaigns, what metrics to track, and case studies on metric tracking in sports media.

• Why you should be measuring the ROI of your sports marketing campaigns
• The most important metrics to track
• Example use cases of these key metrics
• Case studies of effective metric tracking in sports media
• Tools to help you track these metrics

Let’s go!

Why should you measure the ROI of your sports marketing campaigns?

Even if you have a product that sells itself—like a successful sports team—blindly posting content for the sake of posting content is only going to get you so far.

By setting specific, measurable goals before embarking on any sports media campaign, you’ll be able to identify what went well, what went wrong, and what you can improve for next time.

Start with the question:

“What am I trying to accomplish?”

Is it growing your team’s social following? Is it attracting new sponsors or investors? Making existing sponsors satisfied with their investment? Creating new partnerships? Recruiting or tracking influencers? Raising awareness for a cause?

By identifying your goals in advance, you’ll know what data is needed to prove your campaign’s value to any relevant stakeholders, whether that’s your boss, a sponsor, or your own sense of accomplishment. Moreover, if you’re also using SMS marketing campaigns, email newsletters, and banner ads, this step will help determine how effective your social strategy was among others.

Once you’ve picked a goal, decide what metrics you’ll use to measure success and pick specific targets.

For example, if your goal is increasing followers, by what percentage, and over what time period? If your goal is impressing a sponsor, you may want to set targets for total reach and fan sentiment.

Not sure which metrics you should be tracking? Don’t worry, because we’re covering that next.

Which sports marketing metrics should you track?

Let’s jump into which social media metrics you should be tracking to understand your ROI, whether you’re measuring posts, particular accounts, hashtags, or your audience.

1. Visibility metrics

No matter what your goals are, it’s likely you’ll be invested in the overall visibility of your campaign.

• Reach

Reach is the number of unique users that have seen a particular post, keyword, or hashtag.

For example, if one account with 10,000 followers posts your hashtag, that hashtag has a potential reach of up to 10,000 unique users. The same account posting again on that hashtag would not increase the potential reach.

If your content has broad reach, that means it’s making its way to a large volume of users. It’s a sign that your content is being broadly shared by influential accounts.

• Impressions

Impressions is the total number of times the piece of content has been viewed (similar to page views on your website).

In contrast to reach, the same user seeing the same piece of content twice would count as two impressions.

High impressions are either a result of high reach or high repeat engagement from a core follower base.

• Follower Count

Of course, you’ll also be invested in the number of followers to your sports social media accounts, whether it’s on a single platform or across platforms.

By growing your own follower base, you can directly impact the potential reach of your own posts, relying less on influencers and shares to have your message heard.

You may also need to track the follower counts of your sponsors or your team’s athletes.

You can also track your follower growth rate, calculated as follows:

Example use case: Sponsored hashtag monitoring

Measuring hashtag analytics will be extremely important to you if your goal is to track the success of a sponsored hashtag.

Take #SuitingUpTogether for example: a Toyota-sponsored hashtag used by the LA Lakers on Twitter, Instagram, and various other platforms.

To prove the success of the sponsorship to Toyota, the Lakers could share metrics like reach, impressions, and increases in @ToyotaSoCal’s follower count over time. 

2. Engagement metrics

Beyond pure visibility, you should also track how engaged your audience is with your posts.

• Average engagement

Average engagement measures the average number of likes, comments, and shares each of your posts gets. 

Average Engagement Calculation: (likes + comments + shares) / (# posts)

This is an indicator of the volume of interactions your posts get.

• Average engagement rate

Average engagement rate is your average engagement per follower.

Average Engagement Rate Calculation: (average likes per post + average comments per post + average shares by post) / (# followers)

This ratio is more telling of the quality of your content and/or how active your followers are. If you have a lot of followers, but low engagement, you may need to step up your content game!

• Optimal post time & post length

Once you have visibility and engagement metrics, social media monitoring tools can start to give you feedback on what type of posts are providing the most value.

A tool like Keyhole can give you data like the optimal time of day to post, what type of content formats are performing best, and the length of text that gets the most engagement. 

Example use case: Game hashtags

Game hashtags are known to have tons of engagement from fans.

Whether it’s a hashtag you created for a team, or you’re joining in on a grassroots hashtag created by fans, there are sure to be hundreds, thousands, or even millions of posts on that game’s hashtag.

But how do you post on that hashtag to gain the most engagement?

Here’s an example of a hashtag, #nbafinals2019, with a game specific clip.

By analyzing the average engagement rate of posts at different times, you can identify the perfect time to post during games. Is it at tip off? Half time? During the intermission? 20 minutes before the game? As the clock winds down?

Only by measuring these metrics will you know for sure.

3. Sentiment analysis

Quantity doesn’t always mean quality. Posts, teams, or athletes can go viral for the wrong reasons—so you have to look beyond reach and engagement.

Sentiment analysis allows you to track the number of positive vs. negative posts for a given hashtag or keyword.

By tracking sentiment analysis, you’ll be able to prevent and manage PR crises, better understand your audience, and keep a finger on the pulse of your audience’s mood.

Example use case: Player sentiment

Let’s say you have a video campaign planned where you’re featuring an athlete in your organization in each video.

If bad news breaks that day about that player, you don’t want to add fuel to the fire by sharing a mistimed feel-good post about that player—especially if that post is tied to one of your sponsors.

By using social listening and sentiment analysis tools, you can make sure you’re avoiding any intended consequences.

Here’s a hilarious piece of player-driven content from Liverpool FC. But they wouldn’t want to post it soon after one of the players in the video made a costly mistake for their team.

On the flip side, if a player is trending for positive reasons, it may be the perfect time to pull an older piece of content on that player out of the archives.

4. Audience analytics

Your sports social media campaigns will only be made stronger the more you learn about your audience.

By using the native analytics tools in the social media platforms you’re using for your campaign, you can track audience metrics like:

• Countries
• Language
• Gender
• Keywords
• Devices

Example use case: Multi-lingual campaigns

By using audience analytics, you may learn you have a growing demographic that you should tailor more of your content to.

Because they’re located in a southern US state with many Spanish speakers, the Arizona Coyotes launched Spanish versions of all of their social media accounts in 2019.

They would have been able to justify that decision in advance by using audience analytics on their English-only accounts.

5. Influencer analytics

Engaging with your team’s top fans is an amazing way to make fans for life.

By inviting influencers into your sports marketing strategy, you’ll give them a platform to share their authentic passion that’s sure to resonate with your wider audience.

Example use case: Targeting new demographics

By using Keyhole’s influencer tracking tools, you’ll be able to identify, compare, and measure potential and existing influencers with all the metrics we’ve already mentioned above.

For example, if you’re looking to reach a demographic that your audience analytics say you’re not currently reaching, you can seek out influencers whose content clearly resonates with that exact demographic.

Other business metrics

1. Actual ROI

Of course, the truest and simplest way to track your ROI is to track the financial cost of your strategy compared to the overall gain of your strategy.

But tracking your financial gains isn’t always easy.

If you know the financial value of a single follower, you could estimate revenue gained from gained followers.

Or if you can link landing or renewing a particular sponsorship to your marketing campaign, you can consider that your financial win.

2. Website analytics

You can also turn to your website analytics to prove the effectiveness of your campaign. Did your website traffic go up after your campaign started? Did it go down once it stopped? 

Linking your marketing campaigns to other metrics outside of social media shouldn’t be ignored!

Sports marketing ROI case studies

1. The Special Olympics

The Special Olympics are a huge sports endeavor—with nearly 5 million athletes with intellectual disabilities participating worldwide.

At that scale, tracking the ROI of their social media campaigns is a tall order.

Ryan Eades, Director of Digital and Social Engagement at the Special Olympics turned to Keyhole to track the ROI of their social media efforts.

They sorted their audience by follower count and engagement to identify their most influential ambassadors.

Once they linked up with model and actress Brooklyn Decker, they used Keyhole to track engagements and conversions linked directly to her posts.

2. SportQuake, the data-driven sports marketing agency

Sports marketing agencies have the most to gain from tracking ROI.

As they’re not in-house employees, they have to prove the potential and actual benefits of every campaign they run for any organization.

They need as much data as they can get.

SportQuake is one of those agencies. They are often in a position where they’re trying to recruit influencers to aid in marketing campaigns.

But they look beyond follower counts. They want to make sure the influencers they work with are actually likable.

That’s why SportQuake uses Keyhole’s sentiment analysis metrics to monitor the audience sentiment towards a particular influencer—allowing them to have a data-driven approach to choosing the right fit for their campaigns.

3. MELT Atlanta’s cool approach to analytics

MELT Atlanta is a sports marketing agency that connects major brands with top athletes and athletic events.

For example, their most recent project is a marketing campaign connecting Coca Cola with athletes in the 2020 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

To MELT, tracking the success of their campaigns is crucial to proving ROI for their clients.

“Having a reliable number of impressions and reach for the hashtag that we are able to get within seconds of logging in has definitely solved our biggest pain point,” said Jenna Cook, their Digital & Social Media Manager.

With Keyhole, they track brand accounts, athlete accounts, hashtags, their most engaging posts, best posting times, follower insights, and more.

By having an easily accessible dashboard with their most crucial metrics, they can easily answer whether or not their clients are seeing ROI on their campaigns within seconds.

How to use Keyhole to track your sports marketing ROI

No matter what your goals are for your marketing campaign, you’re going to need to prove your campaign’s effectiveness with hard data.

By using Keyhole’s advanced social listening tools like hashtag analytics, influencer monitoring, keyword tracking, sentiment analysis, and more, you’ll have a wide range of metrics to prove the success of your marketing campaigns.

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The post Sports Marketing: Tracking Social Media ROI, Influencers, And Engagement appeared first on Keyhole.

With fake followers costing brands an estimated 1 billion dollars, gone are the days of blindly paying influencers money for the sake of vanity metrics.

This means that it is more important than ever to set goal-oriented influencer KPIs. Even before you decide on an influencer, ensure that you have the right tools to track them.

KPIs can be based on industry benchmarks or results from past campaigns. Like any other marketing campaign, measuring your return on investment (ROI) will determine success.

Why do you need influencer KPIs?

Here are some top influencer marketing KPIs to analyze to help you quantify your campaign’s ROI so that you can expand your budget as your efforts succeed.

1. Influencer analysis

If we compare influencer marketing to paid social advertising, each influencer is similar to an ad unit. Influencers should not be considered programmable ad units by any means. But the most important KPI to measure just might be those of the influencers you wish to engage with. These will be critical for strategic influencer identification.

Thus, deciding on an influencer isn’t just about follower count. There are several factors to consider including follower demographics, average engagement rate (comments, likes, follows), frequency of posts, and frequency of publishing content that’s relevant to your brand.

Professional influencers usually have these numbers ready upon request. Make sure to gather as much data from all your top influencers of choice. From there, you can determine who can deliver the best results.

Of course, you want to partner with someone who is a thought leader in your industry. Because no matter how good the numbers seem, if your audiences don’t match, then you won’t see a return on investment.

Cookware brand, Great Jones, found a perfect partner in Claire Saffitz, a professional pastry chef and Youtube personality. Aside from posting images of Claire using Great Jones products, the campaign included a virtual baking class and a feature on their website.

This is an example of a spot-on audience match. Great Jones targets millennials who might find brands like All-Clad and Le Creuset out of reach — the same millennials who are likely to be familiar with Claire thanks to her (now defunct) YouTube show, Gourmet Makes.

2. Brand awareness 

One of the top reasons brands partner with influencers is for brand awareness. Before expecting customers and sales, the first thing you want to do is get your name out there, and one of the best ways to accomplish that is through an influencer marketing program. If the primary objective of your influencer marketing strategy is geared toward brand awareness, these are the KPIs to keep track of:

Audience Growth – Audience growth or follower count is a strong indication of brand awareness. You can choose from a number of third-party apps to measure your follower growth during your campaign period. After the campaign ends, you can also check your mutual followers by visiting your influencer’s profile, tapping on “Followers” then on “Mutual”. This is more or less the number of followers you gained from the partnership. For a more accurate number, don’t forget to view your mutual followers before the campaign begins.

Impressions & Reach – One of the advantages of partnering with influencers is their large audience base. This is your opportunity to reach an audience you otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Instagram defines “impressions” as the number of times a single user has seen your post, while “reach” is the total number of unique users who have seen a particular post. All these data can be accessed through Instagram Insights, which is available to all Instagram Business accounts.

Brand name & Hashtag Mentions – How many times was your brand name or campaign hashtag mentioned during the campaign period? Mentions are a strong indication that your campaign is working. For real-time tracking of hashtags and mentions, you can use Keyhole.

3. Social engagement

Engagement is one of the most important KPIs to track in order to determine the performance of your influencer marketing campaign. On Instagram, engagement is measured by the number of likes and comments on your campaign post or story/video views.

While likes are easily countable and a sign of approval, comments are a clearer indication of active engagement. Comments show that your content left an impact, whether good or bad, this is a great starting point for community building.

You may see that your follower count has increased after running a campaign but engagement remained low. This may be a sign of a mismatch between your audience and the content you’re producing.

Keyhole has a great resource on how to calculate engagement rates. The most basic and manual formula would be to divide your total number of engagements (likes + comments) by your follower count, then multiply that number by 100.

4. Click-through-rate

Click-Through-Rate or CTR measures the number of times a potential customer clicks on a particular link. If you’re running an influencer marketing campaign, you can assign custom links with tools like Google Campaign Manager. So, use custom links assigned to each of your influencers to help you track their individual performances. You can also create custom links for Instagram Stories, ads, and bios to find out which works best.

Tracking your CTRs is extremely important. A low CTR shows that users aren’t landing on your website, which could mean a weak call-to-action or wrong targeting. A high CTR means you have more eyeballs on your website, bringing your audience lower into the sales funnel.

If CTR rate is low, one reason could be the result of bad design. If you’re running a campaign on Instagram or in any social media platform, great visuals go a long way. To help you create eye-catching campaign creatives, use apps.

Choose from a selection of fonts and filters to make your calls-to-action pop or play with vintage film overlays to add flair.

5. Referral traffic

Referral traffic is the number of people who land on your page from a specific link. CTR and Referral traffic are the same in a sense that you can track them through customized links or UTM parameters.

Referral marketing campaigns using influencers are usually run by e-commerce brands to encourage followers to shop with a special discount code or landing page. In this case, referral traffic can be measured by the number of times an item was purchased using the special code or page.

Content creator, Camie Juan (@camiejuan) invites her followers to click on the link on her YouTube to enjoy a special discount on Glossier products.

The link leads to a customized Glossier landing page called a “Glossier Rep Page”. The skincare brand partners with multiple influencers who usually advertise their Rep Pages on their personal profiles. Influencers themselves can track the performance of their pages as they receive a commission per sale made.

6. Sales

Naturally, any brand’s ultimate goal is to make a sale. You want to find the conversion rates when your influencer program is geared towards sales. How much of your website traffic converted into paying customers? I

Also, when the goal is customer acquisition measure in downloads, subscriptions, or sign-ups. From there you can calculate your cost per acquisition.

Influencer KPIs per influencer

At the end of your campaign, it is critical to assess how each of your chosen influencers contributed to your campaign KPIs. In essence, everything in marketing is about A/B testing, including those influencers who you work with, so that you can ascertain your high-performing influencers and know who to engage with for your future campaigns.

That is, metrics such as unique links , engagements, and number of referrals can show performance per influencer. Hiring an influencer is not a sure-fire way to hit targets, like any other marketing effort, it may take some trial and error to attain success.

So, don’t be afraid to try it out with different influencers and see who works best with your brand.

Is your influencer marketing program a success? 

Once all is done, look back at your objectives for collaborating with influencers. Were you able to reach your target KPIs?

It is crucial to go back to your original goals to help you zoom in on the relevant metrics. Don’t make the mistake of having too many target KPIs to begin with. A program should be focused in order to get the best results.

Look at how much you spent versus how much you gained. Compare the results to other marketing campaigns on different channels. This will give you an idea whether your campaign was a success or not.

Don’t forget: You can continue assessing the success of your influencer engagement by repurposing content as an organic post on your socials or website. Aside from testing organic response, it is also a great way to maximize your partnership and get your ROI.

Author Details

Neal Schaffer is an authority on helping innovative businesses digitally transform their sales and marketing. Founder of the digital marketing consultancy PDCA Social, Neal also teaches digital marketing at Rutgers Business School and the Irish Management Institute. He is also the author of four sales and marketing books, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley) and the recently published The Age of Influence (HarperCollins Leadership), a ground-breaking book redefining digital influence.

About Keyhole

Keyhole helps marketers make data-driven decisions while streamlining their social media management efforts. On top of campaign tracking, influencer marketing, and social listening, you can also schedule and publish your social media posts, all in one platform.

Our customers report that Keyhole saves them 5 hours a week on gathering and reporting data, which translates into over $7,000 saved every year.

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The post 6 Influencer KPIs to Track for Every Campaign appeared first on Keyhole.

With all this considered, it’s no surprise that you want to join the ranks of famous Instagram influencers and start making money as a creator.

Before you dive in, however, keep in mind that becoming a social media influencer isn’t as easy as it looks from a distance. It involves months of hard work and consistency, so you have to be willing to commit.

This post gives you a detailed guide on how to become an influencer and monetize your influence on Instagram.

To simplify the process for you, we’ve divided the guide into three sections – prepping your account, growing your influence, and working with brands. Although the steps focus on Instagram, note that many of them can apply to other social platforms as well.

With that, let’s find out how you can start your journey to becoming Instagram famous.

Prepping your account

1. Choose a niche that’s right for you

Becoming an Instagram influencer, or any social media influencer for the matter, requires finding a niche to focus on. To maintain authenticity, make sure you choose a niche that aligns with your interests and expertise.

In other words, it has to be something that you know a lot about and can discuss for hours without getting bored.

This is crucial if you want to eventually become an authority figure on a certain topic. The more passionate and knowledgeable you are on the topic, the more people will see you as a trustworthy source of information on said topic.

Plus, brands narrow down on ideal influencers based on relevance so choosing a niche can connect you with the right brand partners.

For example, Izzy (@infusedwithtea) is extremely passionate about baking and plant-based tea. So she regularly posts plant-based recipes along with eye-catching photos of her finished creations.

2. Decide on your ideal audience

After deciding on your niche, think about the kind of people who would be interested in it. This makes it easier to understand your audience and find effective ways to connect with them. So you can decide on a content strategy and a personal brand voice that resonates best with them.

For example, Signe Hansen (@useless_dk) is a stylist and jewelry designer who promotes sustainable living and minimalism. She mainly targets women who love to look good but want to maintain a sustainable lifestyle. So her posts mainly consist of tips to style certain pieces of clothing in several different ways.

3. Have a creator or business profile

If you’re going to get serious about becoming a social media influencer, you have to get serious about your analytics too. To better learn how to grow your influence, you need to keep track of your audience demographic and how people are interacting with your content.

Keeping track of your audience demographic will help you stay on top of the latest influencer marketing trends and give you insights into the type of content your audience likes to see. So it’s crucial that you switch from a personal Instagram profile to a Creator or Business Account.

Instagram previously had only Business Accounts for influencers who wanted to analyze their performance on the platform. This allows you to:

• Access Instagram Analytics to get data about your posts and followers
  
• Add links to your Stories
  
• Promote your posts as ads

However, it doesn’t let you go private on Instagram. Plus, since it isn’t specifically for content creators, it lacks a few features that would be of use to Instagram influencers.

It then introduced Creator Accounts that would allow Instagram influencers to access several exclusive features for content creation. With an Instagram Creator Account, you can:

• Access the Instagram Creator Studio through desktop
  
• Get creator-specific analytics insights such as engagement stats and follow/unfollow rates
  
• Tag products featured in your Feed post
  
• Filter your inbox to prioritize important messages
  
  

Keep in mind that you won’t have the option to connect your Instagram Creator Account with third-party tools. So this might not be a good choice if you plan on using analytics and scheduling tools from a third party. Otherwise, you can test it out and see if it meets your needs.

Check out our previous post to learn all about setting up an Instagram Creator Account.

4. Write a compelling bio

What’s the first thing you look at when you need to know what a particular Instagram account is about? Chances are, even before you scroll through the posts in their Feed, you’ll probably look at their bio.

Your bio gives people a summary of what your content is about and whether or not it’s relevant to their interests. So it’s the first thing that prospective followers (and prospective brand partners too) will look at to see what you typically post about.

That’s why it’s crucial to write a compelling bio if you want to become an Instagram influencer. Make sure it accurately describes what your account is all about.

Use keywords and phrases relevant to your niche for this, but don’t clutter the space too much as it can get difficult to read. Keep the information easy to scan and understand with a list format and/or non-text elements separating different sections.

For Instagram influencers, it also helps to include your contact info where businesses can reach out to your for enquiries. If you run a blog or have a project that you want others to see, don’t forget to include the link for that.

For instance, if you’re a student making money from your blog and Instagram, interlinking the two channels allows you to engage your audience on different platforms. In addition, make sure you use a voice that reflects your identity.

Check out the following bio from Jessica Clifton (@impactforgood), for example. She structures the information in a list format and uses emojis here and there. She’s also added her contact info and relevant links for potential brand partners.

5. Have a profile picture that represents you

Your profile picture is the first thing that can give people a glimpse of your account and content even before they visit your profile page. In fact, it could be the very thing that compels them to click on your username and check out your Feed. So it should be able to instantly captivate people and draw them in while also telling them a bit about you.

For example, a travel influencer could have a profile picture of them in a picturesque location, a food influencer could have a picture of them cooking or eating, and so on.

Meg (@meg.ikarp), an influential artist uses a self-portrait in her personal art style as her profile picture. This accurately represents what she does and what her personality is like.

6. Decide on a feed aesthetic and stick to it

How your feed looks as a whole leaves a lasting impression on your audience. An impressive-looking feed that feels cohesive will instantly draw in people. It’ll also show them that you’re serious about producing high-quality content so you’re worth following.

So one of the first things you have to do as a social media influencer is to decide on an aesthetic for your feed and consistently maintain it. Choose an aesthetic that fits your personality and reflects the mood you want to portray through your content.

For example, someone who wants to promote sustainable living and minimalist lifestyle will probably want a feed that looks clean, simple, and refreshing.

To maintain a consistent aesthetic in your feed, plan each photo ahead of time with your Feed in mind. In addition, try taking photos in similar lighting and use the same filters and presets when editing them.

For example, check out how Sam Ushiro (@aww.sam) consistently posts photos with bright and popping colors to give her Feed a sunny and playful aesthetic.

Growing your influence

7. Keep your feed fresh

One of the best ways to grow your influence is by posting consistently and providing your followers with fresh content to engage with. Although there’s plenty of debate about the ideal posting frequency, try to post an image or an engaging reel at least once a day. Even if that’s not viable for you, at least aim to provide your followers with a certain number of posts every week.

According to a study published on Social Media Today, posting more often on Instagram can decrease your engagement per post.

However, it increases your overall engagement, which can be crucial for gaining more visibility and attracting new followers. The study found that doubling your post rate per day gives you 1.6X more engagement.

8. Prioritize quality

Although posting frequency is important, don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of posting more often. Quality should still come first because that’s the exact reason why people are following you instead of other Instagram influencers in your niche.

When we talk about quality, however, keep in mind that it isn’t just about posting high-resolution photographs (although that’s still essential). Rather, it’s more about publishing content that would be of value to your followers and your target audience.

Does it serve any purpose? Does it teach them something or entertain them? In other words, does your audience gain anything from your content?

For example, fashion influencers like Autum Rainn (@autumrainn) create content to provide their audience with style inspiration and fashion tips.

9. Make the most of hashtags

When it comes to Instagram, nothing drives content discovery better than hashtags do. If someone clicks on or searches for a certain hashtag, they’ll discover posts that use the hashtag in the caption or comments. This helps people find the content they’re interested in and connect them with relevant content creators.

In fact, John Koch of Tomoson conducted an experiment with hashtags on Instagram and found that they increased content visibility by 4,473%.

So if you want to grow your Instagram following, make sure you use highly relevant and popular hashtags to boost content visibility and eventually attract potential followers.

Instagram provides you with hashtag suggestions when you type in a related hashtag in the search bar. In addition to this, you can also use tools to discover highly popular and trending hashtags related to your niche.

For example, see how health food influencer, Carissa Stanton (@broccyourbody) uses several relevant hashtags in her post. The post provides a recipe for a poke bowl and includes hashtags like #pokebowls, #diypokebowl, and #healthyrecipes. It received almost 10,000 likes.

10. Focus on meaningful engagement

While there are shortcuts to growing your following and increasing your engagement, those options are often unsustainable. They bring you followers and drive engagement, but only for a limited period of time. So it’s not a viable option when you want to build sustainable influence and become a successful Instagram influencer.

That’s why it’s crucial that you focus on attracting meaningful engagement right from the start. Avoid buying likes and followers, for a start, and don’t depend too much on contests.

Although running a contest can help you gain new followers, you don’t want people following you just because they want to win free stuff. So save this option only to occasionally reward your loyal followers or even to give your brand partnerships some traction.

Instead, focus on providing high-quality content consistently. Even if you don’t add to your Feed on a regular basis, interact with your followers through Stories. Use Instagram Stories to ask them questions or answer theirs, conduct polls, give them a glimpse of what your daily life looks like, and more.

You can even use the Keyhole Social Media Account Analytics to monitor your post performance and follower engagement. This will provide you with valuable insights and recommendations on how to drive better engagement with your posts. This tool analyzes your post data and suggests the best time to post, optimal post length, and more.

In addition, create more opportunities for engagement. Write captions that make people want to engage with your posts and comment on them. Share personal stories they can relate with and ask questions that they’d want to answer.

More importantly, don’t forget to return the favour and actively engage with people who engage with you. That means answering their questions or at the least, liking their comments. See how Joey (@shethespy) interacts with her followers and answers their questions.

Working with brands

11. Decide on your rates

One of the trickiest parts about becoming a social media influencer is the part where you decide on how much to charge. It’s crucial that you have a clear idea of what a reasonable rate looks like considering factors like your follower count, engagement rate, niche, and content quality.

You can’t just expect brands to pay you $250 per Instagram post if you only have a few thousand followers who hardly engage with your posts. At the same time, you might want to reassess your value if you’re only charging $50 per post while having 500,000 followers who actively engage with your content.

Deciding on a reasonable rate helps you set a baseline for your worth as a content creator. Plus, it also helps you connect with brands that are the right fit for you because influencer pricing is often an essential criterion in their search.

If you’re not too sure how much is a reasonable rate, consider using the Instagram Money Calculator from Influencer Marketing Hub. This takes into account factors like followers, engagement rate, and average likes per post to give you an estimate of how much you should earn per post.

12. Negotiate terms

Negotiating terms and agreements is a crucial part of being an Instagram influencer. It’s where you talk about what you’ll do for a brand and what they’ll do for you. It’s like making a deal. You talk about things like how many posts you’ll make, what kind of content you’ll create, and how much money you’ll get paid.

One important aspect to iron out is invoicing terms. These are basically when and how you’ll get paid for your work. You want to make sure these terms are crystal clear so there’s no confusion later on. For more professionalism, you can consider using a blank invoice template instead of writing out your invoice by hand. You can just fill in the blanks on the template, saving you time and making you look more organized.

13. Have a media kit ready

If you’re serious about becoming a social media influencer, you also need to prepare a media kit that will help prospective clients learn more about you. In simpler terms, this digital portfolio serves as one of the best portfolio websites where you can exhibit your personal brand, work, and accomplishments. Essentially, it acts as the ultimate presentation that persuades potential clients to collaborate with you.

Instead of creating different media kits for different social networks, you just need to create one that contains info about your stats across all platforms. It should include the following key details:

• A bio that highlights your name, location, personality, interests, and other pursuits
  
• A high-quality photo of yourself
  
• Your contact info
  
• Detailed follower and engagement stats across various social networks
  
• A breakdown of your audience demographics
  
• Previous campaigns you’ve worked on as well as testimonials from past clients

Try compiling all this info into an attractive visual presentation so that you stand out from the rest. Don’t forget to use color palettes, fonts, and images that fit your personal brand identity.

14. Find brands to work with

Next comes the part where you find brands to partner with. You can either reach out to brands directly or even join influencer marketing networks that can connect you with the right campaigns. These however, cannot guarantee that you’ll be connecting with the brands you are passionate about.

Make sure you’re picky about your partnerships no matter how desperate you might be to find work. Ideally, you should only work with brands whose values align with yours so that you can keep maintaining authenticity and credibility with your audience.

A pro tip to get discovered by brands organically is to join and/or start conversation around your ideal brand-partner’s reach. Chances are that these brands are socially listening, and will see your mentions, – and if you have the following to back you up – they’ll probably reach out to you.

For instance, borrow a page from the world of make-up influencers. Influencers like Victor Ramos make sure to tag the brands that they want to promote, and in a way give them a quick nudge that there you are an amazing source of influential content. If your content is a good fit, chances are that the brands will reach out to you or at least repost.

Maintaining your influence

As difficult as it is to build and grow your influence on Instagram, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get to keep it forever. So you need to consistently work towards maintaining the influence that you’ve built over the months and years.

For this, you should continuously measure your performance to see what works and what doesn’t. This will allow you to keep growing and adapting your content strategy based on what people want to see at that particular time. In addition, it makes it easier to provide your brand partners with visible results from the campaign so they can measure their influencer marketing ROI accurately.

Don’t forget to keep up with the trends and join in on trending and important conversations within your niche. Most importantly, keep interacting with your followers to engage them and build a loyal community.

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The post How To Become An Instagram Influencer: 14 Tips For Beginners appeared first on Keyhole.

In order to boost your following, you need to get found on the platform. This is the trickiest part because Instagram SEO is a bit different from the regular Google SEO you’re used to, so it takes a little getting used to.

This guide shows you some of the best ways to optimize for Instagram search and why you should care about Instagram optimization in the first place. But first, let’s jump right into what exactly Instagram SEO is.

What is Instagram SEO?

Instagram SEO is a process of optimizing your Instagram profile & posts’ content so that it ranks higher in the Instagram search results & suggested content feeds. Doing this effectively will result in more visibility, more followers & more engagement.

Like Google Search Engines, your followers can also find your brand on Instagram. And that foolproof technique of optimizing your profile and content for the Instagram search engine is called Instagram SEO. You can ensure your profile/content ranks to appear in searches by using targeted keywords and adding relevant hashtags to your profile and posts.

That’s why multiple social media marketers optimize their branded Instagram account so that it pops up each time their target audience feeds in a word that’s crucial for their business. But is it worth it?

Why Optimize for Instagram?

But why do you need Instagram optimization in the first place? Why is Instagram so important that you should dedicate your time to getting found on the platform? Here are some stats to answer your questions:

• Instagram has more than 2.4 billion active users – 1.48 billion users you could potentially reach with the right Instagram SEO tactics.

• Two-thirds of the total Instagram user base are 34 years or younger. This is crucial with the increasing buying power of this age group. A YPulse analysis even found that the buying power of millennials and Gen-Z combined was close to the $3 trillion mark.

• People spend approximately 53 minutes per day on Instagram. This accounts for a significant portion of their day, which increases your chances of engaging prospects on the platform.

• 83% of people are using Instagram to discover new products or services. This means your brand content on Instagram could effectively help you attract prospective customers.

• According to Facebook IQ, after seeing a product or service on Instagram, 79% of people searched for more information while 65% visited the brand’s website or app. 46% even made a purchase (either online or offline) and 31% followed the brand’s account.

What Makes Instagram SEO Different?

The above data shows you just how important it is to get found on Instagram as it could be the very thing that feeds your customer acquisition.

However, one thing to note is that getting found on Instagram doesn’t work like on popular search engines such as Google. For one, hashtags make more of a difference than keywords do, although keywords still play a small role. To boost your Instagram SEO strategy, leverage white label SEO services to optimize your profile, content, ultimately increasing visibility and attracting more engagement.

At the same time, adding relevant hashtags to your bio won’t help your account show up in searches for said hashtags. Also, incorporating keywords into your profile name and Instagram handle improves your discoverability more than adding them to your content.

Given how SEO can be complex, with various factors influencing visibility, it’s helpful to keep an eye on comprehensive SEO stats to stay informed. So, all of this can get a little confusing if you’re new to SEO for Instagram.

That’s exactly why we created this post – to help you figure out the best Instagram optimization tactics so you can get found on the platform.

7 Tips for Instagram Optimization

Here are some of the best ideas on SEO for Instagram to improve your discoverability and reach on the platform:

1. Optimize Your Instagram Profile for Search

The Instagram search function works a bit like Google in that it delivers the most relevant profiles based on your search term. According to Instagram, the search results depend on several factors including the accounts you follow and are connected to.

Also, the posts you like on Instagram have a major influence on determining relevance. In addition to this, keywords also play a critical role.

So it helps if you can optimize your Instagram profile with keywords to show up in relevant searches. Here’s how to optimize your Instagram account:

• Name and Username: Incorporating a primary keyword in your name and username is a good way to improve your chances of showing in relevant searches. For instance, see in the image below how a search for the keyword “interiors” brings up profiles that have the keyword in their name, username, or both.

For usernames, this may not always be possible as you typically have to stick with your official brand name. But you might be able to find a way to play around with the profile name in your bio as is the case with @luxemagazine and @oka above.

• Bio: Your bio is also a great place to add keywords that you want to rank for. You can use this space to describe your business with relevant secondary keywords. For example, let’s say you want to target the keyword “salon,” then you could also include secondary keywords like “styling,” “makeup,” or “makeovers” in your bio.

2. Write Keyword-Optimized Captions

On the Instagram Explore page, you can only search for content using hashtags and location tags. Besides this, Instagram also provides content recommendations personalized for each user based on their interests and interactions.

For instance, if you regularly “like” food-related posts, your Explore page will likely display content that aligns with the type of content you’ve shown interest in. That’s where your post captions come in.

Let’s say, you try to promote your online clothing business that sells high-ticket fashion items. Including keywords related to the products you sell, such as ‘luxury clothing’, ‘designer clothing’,  or ‘branded clothing’ is a bulletproof strategy to help you land some leads.

The Instagram Explore page algorithm uses an account embedding framework that helps to identify accounts that are topically similar to each other. This framework learns what a word represents based on the context. Also, it identifies how certain accounts are relevant to one another based on the keywords used in bios, names, and usernames as well as captions.

That’s exactly why writing descriptive Instagram captions with relevant keywords will improve your chances of showing up on the Explore page of relevant users. Instagram will use the keywords in your post captions to determine which topics of interest align with your account.

See the descriptive caption in the following post related to nature and wildlife photography, for example.

3. Consider Hashtags as Keywords

On Instagram, hashtags function like keywords do in regular search engines – they help users discover relevant content. When you search for a certain hashtag, it’ll show you all the posts tagged with said hashtag. Similarly, tagging your post with a certain hashtag means that the post will show up when someone searches for that particular hashtag.

So, it’s crucial to add trendy Instagram hashtags relevant to the content so that you can attract the right audience. But try not to overload the caption space with hashtags as it can be an eyesore. Although you have the freedom to use up to 30 hashtags, make sure you find the right hashtag density for your posts. You can run tests to find the perfect number for you.

For instance, the following post has about 20 hashtags relevant to the image.

But keep in mind that Instagram will take other factors like engagement and account relevance into consideration when ranking your post in hashtag search results. So, the more engagement you get, the more likely your post is to show up in relevant hashtag searches.

Therefore, it is essential to consider post timing, image quality, etc., to better engage your audience and improve content visibility. Of course, you should always publish only the most high-quality content if you want to catch your audience’s eye. You can also find out the best time to post on Instagram for your brand and try to schedule your Instagram posts, reels, or stories for the time of day when your followers are most likely to be active and engaged.

4. Make the Most Out of Alt Text

Instagram has a feature that allows you to write alternative text to describe your photo in detail. The app then reads out the image description using a screen reader that lets you hear what the photo contains. This alt-text feature was originally intended to help users with visual impairments to understand Instagram’s visual content.

In addition to enhancing the Instagram experience for visually impaired users, you can also use this feature for Instagram SEO. The idea is to use keywords in your alt text to help the Instagram algorithm better understand what the image contains and how it can be relevant for certain users.

Although Instagram automatically generates alt text for your images, make sure you edit this section to make it more descriptive as the auto-generated list may not be detailed enough. To write your own alt text, select “Advanced settings” before you finish sharing an image.

Under the Advanced settings, tap on the “Write alt text” option.

Then write your alt text to accurately describe the image while also implementing a few relevant keywords. Tap on “Save” and then share the post.

5. Encourage Tagging

Another way to boost discoverability on Instagram is by getting tagged. When people tag your account in their posts or Instagram Stories, others will be able to click through to your profile. So, there’s a good chance you can attract an even bigger audience the more you get tagged.

For example, you could encourage people to tag you in their photos of your products for a chance to be featured in your posts. You could then repost some of their photos to show how much you appreciate them. Even if you want to maintain a consistent feed aesthetic, you could still share their posts to your IG stories.

Alternatively, you could also run promotions and giveaways that involve tagging your account. This is a great way to boost the number of tags because people are more likely to participate when there’s a chance to win something.

Check out how Benefit Cosmetics runs a giveaway, encouraging people to share the post to their Stories and tag the brand for extra entries.

6. Steer Clear of Black Hat SEO

When you’ve been struggling to gain visibility for a while, it may be easy to get tempted by quick fixes in the form of black-hat SEO tactics for Instagram. But remember that these quick fixes are only temporary. They don’t offer authentic visibility on the platform, which may hurt your performance in the long run.

On top of this, Instagram continues to crack down on accounts that repeatedly employ suspicious tactics to gain visibility on the platform. This includes using bots to generate fake likes and fake following. Thus, it’s best to build genuine visibility even if it takes a bit of time and effort.

7. Track and Optimize

Just like how you analyze the impact of your regular SEO efforts, it’s also crucial that you measure how your Instagram optimization efforts are paying off. To stay on top of your game, conduct an audit of your Instagram account on a regular basis. Make sure you’re asking the right questions:

Were the changes worth it? Did they have any impact on visibility at all? What could you possibly do to make an even bigger impact? You can get the answer to all of these questions once you start tracking your Instagram performance.

If you have a business account or a creator profile on Instagram, you’ll get a comprehensive analytics tool to measure your account performance.

This built-in analytics is great for understanding individual post insights. Also, it gives you a detailed breakdown of reach and impressions as well as how you managed to attract each viewer – whether it’s from home, hashtags, profile, and so on.

Don’t forget to get a better idea of the differences between reach and impressions so that you can understand how these two metrics play a role in your overall performance.

In addition to the built-in Instagram analytics, make sure you invest in an even more comprehensive analytics tool. 

This social media account analytics tool, for instance, provides you with competitive analytics and follower insights in addition to measuring performance. More importantly, it provides you with recommendations to grow your engagement – from the best time to post to the optimal post length.

Take Over The Gram with Instagram SEO

Now that you know how to optimize Instagram profiles, it’s time to implement it. Your Instagram account could make all the difference between being a winning brand and being just another business. So, drive up visibility on the platform with effective Instagram SEO and boost your brand awareness among a relevant audience. Make the most of the Instagram optimization tips given above to get found on the platform.

On the other hand, you can also have a look at Keyhole. It helps marketers make data-driven decisions while streamlining their social media management efforts. On top of campaign tracking, influencer marketing, and social listening, now you can also use Keyhole’s social publishing and scheduling, all in one platform.

Our customers report that Keyhole saves them 5 hours a week on gathering and reporting data, which translates into over $7,000 saved every year.

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The post 2024 Instagram SEO: 7 Quick Fixes To Boost Your Visibility appeared first on Keyhole.

On Twitter, there are over 500 million tweets and interactions that take place on the site every day. And, three new members join LinkedIn every second. It’s crucial for businesses to adequately, monitor, manage, and curate their social media feeds and profiles. 

With the sheer volume of social interactions taking place each day, how can someone even begin to analyze the relevant data? Fortunately, there’s an entire profession dedicated to curating and leveraging the power of social media for brands and businesses. 

Below are 15 traits every successful social media manager should have.

What does a social media manager do?

A social media manager monitors, strategizes, and curates content for a brand’s social media profiles. 

Consumers expect a brand to have a social media presence. Without one, it’s hard to gain a customer’s trust and loyalty. A social media manager’s job encompasses the following tasks:

• Optimize the brand’s profile for each platform
• Field comments and queries
• Engage with viewers
• Curate and post content
• Monitor reactions 
• Monitor the overall health of the brand’s social media presence
• Strategize brand content
• Curate the appropriate tone for the brand’s personality and customer’s expectations

It’s all too easy for the average business owner to get lost in all of the ‘noise’ of social media. It’s almost impossible for the untrained eye to cut through the commotion and figure out what customers want to see from the brands they like. 

A social media manager’s job is to monitor and field comments and queries that come through via social media. But monitoring a company’s profiles isn’t enough. It’s critical that the social media manager understands how to curate appropriate content for viewers which is engaging and relevant. Thus, there are two, essential sides to the social media manager’s coin:

• Monitoring
• Listening

The CEO of Networked Insights, Dan Neely said, “Monitoring sees trees; listening sees the forest.”

Monitoring entails specific, time-sensitive tasks on social media. Listening takes insights from social media monitoring and leverages them into an overall strategy and vision that moves the needle forward for the brand. 

For example, monitoring would look something like this:

A locally-owned, family card game company releases a new game on a Monday. For the entire week, the social media manager fields comments on the business’s Facebook page. Every so often, the manager gets a question or complaint centering around the card game’s scoring system. At each instance, the manager can successfully explain how the scoring system works. 

The above scenario is an example of monitoring. As you can see, it’s detail-oriented and happens at a specific time. On their own, each instance may not be anything of concern. But when looked at in the aggregate, a successful social media manager can see that there is a theme here, and a common problem that needs addressing.

Now, social media listening would be if the manager noticed the overall trend with current customer complaints and questions. In the particular example from above, with social media listening, the manager could deduce that there was something wrong with the instruction manual that came with the new card game. They would immediately notify the company owners who could promptly fix the issues with the manual. 

With social media monitoring, the manager is compelled to take immediate action. Listening requires the social media manager to sit back and look at the entire picture, not the little details. While both activities are essential for a business to be successful, monitoring and listening are different in kind, not degree. 

When looking to hire a social media manager, not only do you want someone with experience across a broad swath of different channels and platforms, you want your new hire to have certain intrinsic traits. A successful social media manager must demonstrate the following skills, which encompass both significant actions – monitoring and listening.

1. Good listener

Does your social media manager take a step back and let you do the talking, or do they talk over you? Do they actively listen to you, and make an effort to understand your concerns and goals for your business? If there’s any doubt about their abilities here, you may want to ‘next’ them.

2. Observant

A social media manager must be observant. To notice trends via social listening, a manager needs to always be on the lookout for what viewers are saying and how they are interacting with the brand. They also need to look at overall social trends and have a culturally sensitive nature.

3. Insightful

Monitoring and listening help the social media manager to plan and strategize for your business. Planning and strategy require insight.

4. Strategic

One of the most important tasks your manager will perform for you will be brand strategy. By listening and observing, your manager should take their insights and begin to incorporate them into an overall content strategy for your future social media posts.

5. Analytical

For a successful strategy to work, managers need to be analytical. They will need to curate posts that take into consideration your target audience’s tastes, expectations, and the kind of tone they want to see from your brand.

6. Ability to leverage

A social media manager should take their insights into your customer base, and leverage it to serve your future business goals. Successful social media managers know how to streamline and integrate a brand strategy with your company’s voice and personal story.

7. Customer-centric

Successful social media managers aren’t just in the business of making their client’s happy; they are also required to develop customer trust and loyalty. More than half of consumers expect customer service and support via social media. A social media manager will need to understand how things look from the customer’s point of view. Is the brand customer-friendly? Does it align with company values? How is the user experience? Successful social media managers will ask and answer these questions.

8. A healer

Social media managers are responsible for monitoring a brand’s health on social media. If your brand’s reputation has taken a hit or is showing signs of wear, a social media manager will be able to use their insight and superior listening skills to bring a healing touch to your profiles and accounts. With monitoring, they’ll be able to smooth over any customer complaints. By listening, they’ll be able to help pivot the marketing strategy to improve your brand’s reputation and to improve customer trust.

9. Cool-headed

It’s critical that your social media manager has a cool head. After all, they’re the one responsible for starting and fielding conversations on social media. You want a manager who will act responsibly in your stead and won’t inflame conversations or throw out incendiary, offensive remarks if a troll tries to get under their skin.

10. Patient

The most successful social media managers are patient when dealing with both customers and clients. A lack of patience can cause a manager to become short or rude if something doesn’t go as planned. Impatience can also cause them to give up too quickly on a goal or strategy that may otherwise be working, just taking longer than they’d hoped.

11. Reflective

The ability to reflect enables social media managers to see what is and isn’t working with the brand’s strategy. Instead of getting caught up in their ego, reflective managers can correct course decisively.

12. Empathic

You want a manager who is empathetic to your needs, as well as your customers’. They will be dealing with hundreds of different people every day. A social media manager needs to have the ability to connect with and relate to others. An empathic manager will intrinsically know how to engage with people via social media.

13. Conversationalist

Conversation is an art form, and your social media manager needs to be an artist. They need to know what topics are going to inform and delight a brand’s customer base on social media. In turn, they also need to know how to keep conversations focused and engaging.

14. Focused

It’s crucial that your social media manager has the ability to focus. Social media is noisy and hectic. Your manager should have a good grasp on how to use monitoring and social media listening tools to help them stay focused and keep the brand’s strategy on track. Getting easily sidelined can damage a brand’s reputation otherwise.

15. Idea machine

A successful social media manager should also be an idea machine. By leveraging the power of social media monitoring and listening tools, your manager will be able to generate innovative ideas for your brand’s online strategy consistently.

Successfully managing a brand’s social media accounts and their overall strategy is incredibly important in the digital age. Social media managers who know how to connect and engage with people, leverage monitoring, and listening tools, and align their insights with a brand’s goals will be the most successful.

It’s not enough to look at social media engagement through the lens of monitoring. Managers must also actively listen to customer expectations in aggregate. 

Wrapping up

To wrap it up, a career in social media requires a special blend of traits that can help navigate the fast-paced digital realm. From being a stellar communicator and having a knack for creativity, to being adaptable and equipped with analytical skills, these 15 qualities are the secret sauce to triumph in the role.

By continuously honing and developing these traits, social media managers can harness the true power of social platforms, driving engagement, boosting brand awareness, and achieving remarkable results.

So, stay ahead of the game and nurture these traits to truly excel in the realm of management.

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The post 15 Traits Every Successful Social Media Manager Should Have appeared first on Keyhole.

As a result, the influencer marketing metrics you track will play a crucial role in your business success. But with so many metrics available, knowing which ones matter most can be challenging.

This blog post is your guide to the key influencer marketing KPIs you need to track in 2024. Understanding and analyzing these metrics can optimize your campaign performance and maximize your ROI.

Let’s get started!

Top 8 influencer marketing metrics to measure in 2024

Once you’ve set your business goals for 2024, your influencer marketing metrics should also focus on achieving those goals. 

To track your progress effectively, here are eight essential influencer marketing metrics you should track:

1. Brand awareness

While sales remain important, building a loyal community will take ‌center stage in influencer marketing in 2024. Cultivating lasting relationships with your audience, not just fleeting conversions, is the path to long-term success.

Influencers offer a powerful channel to achieve this. They cultivate trust and credibility, reaching new audiences and amplifying your brand message to resonate with the right people.

Social listening and hashtags tracking tools can help you monitor these metrics effectively. Understanding how your influencer campaign shapes brand awareness allows you to refine your approach, choose the right partners, and craft content that fosters lasting connections with your audience.

2. Engagement rate

Engagement will become the pivotal metric for measuring influencer marketing success in 2024. While likes and followers still hold value, meaningful connections will take center stage. 

This shift underlines the importance of commitment: whether an influencer’s audience actively interacts, asks questions, and shares their content, demonstrating true engagement with the message.

To measure this, divide the total number of post interactions (likes, comments, shares) by the follower count and multiply by 100.

Aim for above the industry average (typically 5–10%). Remember, high engagement translates to greater brand influence and a higher chance of conversions.

But it’s not just about numbers — it’s about fostering real connections. Prioritize influencers with engaged communities over those with inflated follower counts. Track replies, mentions, and questions to understand authentic audience participation.

3. Conversions

In 2024, conversions (purchases, signups, etc.) will be the key influencer marketing metrics you can’t afford to overlook. 

While likes are a positive indicator, conversions provide tangible evidence that your campaign generates actual business results. They’ll reveal which influencers successfully convert their viewers into paying customers, empowering you to allocate your budget strategically.

Here are some effective measurement methods:

Unique trackable links: Provide each influencer with a personalized link to your website. This lets you track clicks and purchases through their links, accurately attributing conversions.

Promotional codes: Issue unique codes tailored to each influencer. Customers will enter these codes at checkout, revealing which influencers directly influence sales.

Coupon codes: Similar to promotional codes, coupon codes are designed for offline purchases. When a customer mentions the code in-store, the sale can be connected to the corresponding influencer.

This data will enable you to optimize your marketing budget and invest in partnerships with a strong return on investment.

4. Audience growth rate

Audience growth rate (AGR) is a crucial metric for influencer marketing success in 2024 for two key reasons:

Quantifies campaign impact

AGR goes beyond superficial metrics like likes and comments. It reveals the campaign’s true reach by measuring the actual number of new followers gained by the influencer. This provides a more accurate picture of audience expansion and potential impact on brand awareness.

Identifies long-term potential

AGR serves as an indicator of audience resonation with your brand. A consistent increase in followers suggests that your brand message aligns with the influencer’s audience’s interests, leading to sustained engagement and potentially fruitful future collaborations. 

Here’s how to track and calculate your campaign’s AGR:

• Pre-Campaign: Record the follower count before the campaign launches.
• Post-Campaign: Watch the follower count for a defined period after the campaign (e.g., one month).

Calculate growth rate: Subtract the pre-campaign follower count from the post-campaign count and divide it by the pre-campaign count. Multiply the result by 100% to express the follower growth rate as a percentage.

5. Click-through rate

Click-through rate (CTR) is a valuable influencer marketing metric because it measures the audience’s interest in your brand or product. CTR shows how many people‌ clicked on the links or calls to action shared by the influencer, indicating the potential for engagement. 

To calculate CTR, divide the total number of clicks on all links or calls to action by the total number of impressions. Multiplying by 100 gives you a percentage. 

A high CTR suggests a successful influencer partnership and engaging content, while a lower CTR can be used to identify areas for campaign optimization.

6. Cost per post

Cost per post (CPP) will remain a key influencer marketing metric in 2024. Why? It effectively demonstrates the efficiency of your influencer investment. 

A lower CPP means your investment reaches a wider audience for every dollar spent, maximizing your ROI. 

Measuring CPP is simple: divide the total campaign cost (including fees and production) by the number of posts published. This reveals the average cost per influencer post. 

Comparing cost per post across campaigns and influencers helps you identify the most cost-effective partnerships and optimize future strategies for maximum impact.

7. Return on investment

The most significant and crucial metric for your influencer marketing campaign is Return on Investment (ROI). Why? Because it ultimately reveals whether your influencer partnership is bringing you profits. 

In simpler terms, ROI tells you if your campaign is paying off. The higher the ROI, the more successful your collaboration.

To achieve a positive ROI, your revenue from the campaign must be greater than your total expenses, which include advertising spend, production costs, and influencer compensation.

Ready to track your ROI? Use the formula: ROI = Sales / Total Expenses x 100.

Important note: ROI doesn’t always have to be a monetary value. For campaigns focusing on top-of-funnel (TOFU) awareness, you can measure your success with Earned Media Value (EMV), representing the total value of all campaign interactions.

8. Brand sentiment

Brand sentiment in influencer marketing will be another key influencer marketing metric in 2024, driven by two key factors:

• Beyond vanity metrics: Likes and shares tell only part of the story. Brand sentiment analysis delves deeper, uncovering the emotional tone of audience interactions and revealing whether influencers are building positive brand perceptions. This is crucial for engendering long-term brand loyalty and support.

• Authenticity matters: Consumers crave genuine connections with brands. Brand sentiment helps you identify influencers who genuinely resonate with your audience, increasing trust and fostering positive associations with your brand.

Measuring brand sentiment

• Social listening tools: Track mentions of your brand alongside sentiment analysis to gauge your audience’s overall sentiment and identify key themes in their conversations.
• Engagement analytics: Analyze comments, replies, and shares to understand the emotional context behind interactions. This can reveal deeper insights beyond simple sentiment polarity.
• Surveys and polls: Directly ask your target audience about their perceptions of the influencer’s brand message by conducting surveys. This can provide valuable quantitative data to complement your qualitative analysis.

What are the best tools to measure influencer marketing metrics? 

Navigating the influencer marketing landscape can be challenging, particularly when finding effective tools to measure performance and improve results. While Tableau is a popular choice for data visualization, several alternatives to Tableau, offering comparable or even superior features.

Google Data Studio and Zoho Analytics are particularly noteworthy options, each with unique strengths. By comparing these options, you can pinpoint the tool that best fits your needs and budget. These tools will ultimately refine and maximize your influencer marketing strategies in 2024.

But if you want to stick to your social media tools and wish not to use one more tool to track influencer marketing efforts, Keyhole is the tool you need. You can track any influencer, track profiles that are already engaging with your brands. Most importantly, tracking your influencer campaigns with multiple influencer’s ROI contribution is an absolute steal deal.

Conclusion

Harnessing the power of influencers for brand growth is exciting, but navigating the metrics can be daunting. Don’t fret! 

Keyhole’s intuitive dashboard lets you track key KPIs like engagement, reach, and conversions, giving you a crystal-clear picture of your campaign’s success.

Keyhole simplifies influencer discovery with laser-focused filters, ensuring you find the perfect brand ambassador to mirror your audience and values. 

Plus, our advanced analytics tools meticulously measure every click, share, and purchase, helping you unlock the true magic of your partnerships. 

Ready to unleash the magic of influencer marketing?

Author Bio

Vergine Melkonyan is a content writer and SEO specialist at Renderforest, experienced in writing SaaS and marketing content, helping customers to easily perform web scrapings, automate time-consuming tasks, and be informed about the latest tech trends with step-by-step tutorials and insider articles.

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The post 8 Influencer Marketing Metrics To Pay Attention To In 2024 appeared first on Keyhole.

And the numbers speak for themselves: the influencer marketing industry was slated to grow to $21.1 billion in 2023.

Although this industry is full of promises, much depends on a marketer’s ability to create a successful influencer relationship management (IRM) strategy. 

Let’s see what it takes to build and manage a high-performing IRM strategy.

What is influencer relationship management?  

Influencer relationship management also called an IRM strategy is about treating influencers as your brand’s strategic partners. An influencer management program allows you to store the name and style of each of your influencers. Going a step ahead, successful influencer relationship management tracks influencer analytics.  

By utilizing a strong IRM strategy, you can leverage their partnerships to increase brand awareness, customer trust, and ultimately the ROI.  

What do influencer managers do?  

An influencer management strategy has lots of moving parts and the IRM strategy requires an experienced manager. In the US alone, there are more than 6,000 open positions for influencer marketing jobs.  

A marketing manager who manages influencers in the social media sphere is called an influencer manager. This specialist controls the execution of influencer marketing projects and contributes to their success.  

Be it working in an agency role or as a brand’s employee, the influencer manager is responsible for overseeing influencer recruitment, influencer relationship, and reporting.

Why is influencer relationship management important?  

By definition, influencers influencer the decisions of their followers. By partnering with influencers who are popular with your brand’s target audience, you hope they will speak positively about your products or services to your potential customers. 

In absence of a positive relationship with these influencers, they are unlikely to recommend your products, which means a missed opportunity to sway their follower’s decisions.  

Influencer relationship management is similar to customer relationship management (CRM), except that the focus here is influencers.  

Influencer relationship management allows you and your brand to cultivate good relationships with influencers who would be instrumental in your influencer programs. After all, long-term influencer relationships are more productive as the influencer gets to know your brand and the messaging gets better over time. 

How to manage influencers effectively?  

Although it goes without saying that influencers prefer to be compensated, cultivating relationships go beyond simply compensating them. Here are some ways to manage influencer relationships without drowning in a sea of critical IRM tasks.  

1. Identify the right influencers

Even before approaching an influencer for potential collaborations, ensure that their audience is the right match for your buyer persona. You will learn to identify high-performing influencers as you continue your recruitment efforts.  

Also, with experience, you’ll begin to expand your influencer searches into new engagement styles and social media channels. From the onset, track progress and calculate engagement rates, either manually on a spreadsheet or using an influencer relationship management tool.  

2. Get the right engagement metrics

Talking about engagement metrics, social media networks like Instagram are helping marketers separate engagement and vanity metrics. This helps stay away from fake influencers.  

Follower counts and page/post likes can be treated as vanity metrics. These metrics can also be manufactured via deceptive means.  

By calculating the engagement metrics of the influencer, you can know the ones most likely to help your brand meet its marketing objectives.

The formula to manually calculate an influencer’s engagement rate is:  Number of comments and post shares/Number of followers  

Now, this might seem tedious. However, remember that identifying an influencer’s engagement rate is crucial as it leads to recruiting the right influencers for your brand. You can also use recruiting software for easy hiring process, streamlining recruitment efforts and saving valuable time and resources for businesses. 

3. Building a growing team of influencers

Once you start the influencer marketing campaign, the next step is to monitor their content across channels and ongoing user-generated content.  

With this approach, you can see how each influencer is contributing to your brand’s success. Additionally, you will understand how your influencers relate to their audiences.  

With time, you might find some influencers who would do a better job of increasing your brand’s awareness while others contribute to boosting your sales directly.  

Successful influencer programs have a combination of influencers in both these categories.  

• Communication

One of the biggest pet peeves of influencers is when a client doesn’t communicate clearly and then complains when the expectations aren’t met. The easiest way to avoid this is by communicating with paid content creators before, during and after the campaign. Give your influencers the creating freedom to design the campaign while ensuring that your brand is properly represented. Adequate communication ensures that everyone wins, especially when you intend to work with them again.  

• Attribute results to the right influencers

When you’ve picked the right influencers, you’ll see your sales and web traffic go up. Google Analytics can identify the path a prospect took from the influencer’s post to a sale. That said, this is GA’s limitation. Proper result monitoring involves knowing where your new customers came from utilizing dedicated client portals software for tracking.

In an ideal scenario, you would want to know how a new prospect or customer first came across your brand. You would want to know which influencers are responsible for the increased traffic.  

Brands can manually create specific links for each influencer campaign. Then, marketers can organize these links by influencers and the respective social media channels.  

4. Finding the right way to manage all this

When brands see great results with influencer marketing, they’d want to scale it. However, after a point, the details become too overwhelming for traditional spreadsheets.  

The right influencer relationship management software helps in tracking social media influencers, the engagement their posts receive, campaign metrics, and results.

Why do you need an influencer management agency?

Fast-growing startups to established brands are realizing that well-performing influencer marketing campaigns have dozens of steps and variables that are challenging to manage, especially without experience. They include creating, coordinating to executing a campaign, along with campaign structure to optimization, campaign briefs, contracts, and content review being vital functions. 

Although some brands have an in-house team using various tools and platforms, marketing agencies equipped with rich knowledge and experience of influencers and campaigns can be critical in ensuring the success of your influencer marketing efforts. 

Mostly, the agency would have expertise in FTC regulations and brand reputation. This is one of the best ways to safeguard your brand against any campaign activities that could risk damage to your brand.

Some reasons to hire an influencer marketing agency are: 

• Saves you time 
• You can leverage their relationships and expertise 
• They help find the right platforms 
• Access to the right metrics 
• Amplify the right content 
• Flexibility, scalability and support

Tips to build your influencer relationships management strategy

Like every marketing strategy, an influencer campaign requires deliberate targeting and planning. You won’t find strategic success by giving out free stuff to everyone who asks for it. These tips will help you build your IRM strategy. 

#1. How to find the right influencers? 

Research is the first step. Choose one platform you’d want to focus on. Later, you can expand to other platforms, but while starting out stick to one. 

If you are unsure where to begin, use an influencer relationships management tool or social listening to identify the platforms where people are talking about your industry and brand. With this step, you can identify influential voices on each platform. 

For example, beauty and fashion brands shine on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok while the video game industry dominates on Twitch. 

Also, your budget will be determined by the type of influencers you are interested in. They could range from influencers with a massive follower growth, or micro-influencers with less than 2,000 followers, or macro-influencers in the range of 5-10,000 followers. 

#2. Set a management strategy 

Now that you have an idea of how to find influencers, the next step is setting a budget. Factor what you need to pay influencers as well as the time for planning, executing, and reviewing your influencer campaign. 

Unlike an automated ad strategy, running an influencer marketing campaign is not a set-it-and-go kind of strategy. Influencers and content creators are humans and frequently work on multiple partnerships, so some may fall behind in their commitments to post on time or make errors in your requested hashtags or CTAs. You will need time to be more hands-on with cultivating relationships and refine the approach based on experience on what works and what doesn’t in your niche. 

For brands who are tapping into a wider pool of influencers, having an influencer marketing agency do the research and coordination on your behalf is a good idea.

#3. Decide the goals and messaging 

Brand awareness and increase in sales are the two common reasons why brands utilize influencer marketing. That said, what’s more effective is to kick off your strategy by focussing on what your brand’s needs are. It could be wanting to build a customer base in a younger demographics. Or expanding into a new geography with a new product. In both cases, you may want to get influencers to talk about your brand values. 

Since influencers have the ability to reach specific audiences, an influencer program ensures that your potential customers read and engage with your brand’s offerings. 

Remember that your message is as important as the goals. While you don’t want to limit an influencer’s creativity, you also don’t want them to post something unrelated to your campaign. Determine the message you’d want to give with your influencer marketing strategy and communicate it in the workflow. 

#4. Sourcing reliable metrics 

Don’t fall into the trap of following the wrong metrics rather than focussing on more important ones such as engagement. 

IRM tools provide detailed analytics that allows you to find crucial data to compare influencers. Firstly, note each influencer’s engagement rate and compare them on the same social network. Engagement can vastly differ between different social platforms. Additionally, on the whole, larger influencers will have lower engagement as compared to smaller influencers on the same platform. 

#5. Establish the results of each influencer 

Once you have recruited a team of influencers, you need to monitor their content across channels. This will show you how each influencer contributes to your brand’s promotion. You would want to know the influencers contributing to creating brand awareness vs those driving sales.  

Influencer relationship management comes into the picture as influencers are real people acting as advocates for your brand. This is why influencer marketing demands a higher level of attention and personalization than traditional digital advertising.

Best influencer relationship management  (IRM) tools 

Finding the right technology is the key to scaling your influencer marketing programs. Thankfully, IRM tools streamline all influencer relationship management tasks in one place, from influencer discovery to influencer analytics so that you don’t drown in a sea of spreadsheets.

The right influencer relationship management platform automatically tracks influencer analytics such as engagement rates, user-generated content, and sales attribution and ensures that no influencer management task goes off the radar. 

Some of the best influencer relationship management software worth trying are: 

• Keyhole 
• Grin 
• CreatorIQ
• Upfluence 
• Aspire 
• Traackr 
• IZEA 

Putting it together 

While the ROI of an influencer campaign is straightforward ($1 becomes $6.5 when invested in influencer marketing), the trick is managing influencer relationships as your program scales. An IRM software helps you keep a track of influencers, their engagement, content, metrics, and results. 

With the right influencer marketing relationship software, the sky is the limit in scaling your brand.

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The marketing strategy involves tapping into the influence of others to help build trust in your brand within their communities. 

The difference between hiring a typical celebrity is that influencers are often looked at as regular consumers who are considered experts in their specific niches. That is, influencers accessible, relatable, and their followers trust their opinions — it’s the modern word-of-mouth. 

Coupled with its relative affordability and high returns of investment, it’s no wonder that companies are looking to increase their influencer marketing budget.

Why do you need influencer KPIs?

While it’s clear that influencer marketing is on the rise, before launching your own influencer program or community, it’s essential to lay out a detailed measurement strategy. With fake followers costing brands an estimated 1 billion dollars, gone are the days of blindly paying influencers money for the sake of vanity metrics.

This means that it is more important than ever to set goal-oriented KPIs. Even before you decide on an influencer, ensure that you have the right tools to track them.

KPIs can be based on industry benchmarks or results from past campaigns. Like any other marketing campaign, measuring your return on investment (ROI) will determine success. 

Here are some top influencer marketing KPIs to analyze to help you quantify your campaign’s ROI so that you can expand your budget as your efforts succeed. 

1. Influencer Analysis – The #1 Influencer KPI

If we compare influencer marketing to paid social advertising, each influencer is similar to an ad unit. Influencers should not be considered programmable ad units by any means. But the most important KPI to measure just might be those of the influencers you wish to engage with. These will be critical for strategic influencer identification.

Thus, deciding on an influencer isn’t just about follower count. There are several factors to consider including follower demographics, average engagement rate (comments, likes, follows), frequency of posts, and frequency of publishing content that’s relevant to your brand.

Professional influencers usually have these numbers ready upon request. Make sure to gather as much data from all your top influencers of choice. From there, you can determine who can deliver the best results. 

Of course, you want to partner with someone who is a thought leader in your industry. Because no matter how good the numbers seem, if your audiences don’t match, then you won’t see a return on investment. 

Cookware brand, Great Jones, found a perfect partner in Claire Saffitz, a professional pastry chef and Youtube personality. Aside from posting images of Claire using Great Jones products, the campaign included a virtual baking class and a feature on their website. 

This is an example of a spot-on audience match. Great Jones targets millennials who might find brands like All-Clad and Le Creuset out of reach — the same millennials who are likely to be familiar with Claire thanks to her (now defunct) YouTube show, Gourmet Makes. 

2. Brand awareness 

One of the top reasons brands partner with influencers is for brand awareness. Before expecting customers and sales, the first thing you want to do is get your name out there, and one of the best ways to accomplish that is through an influencer marketing program. If the primary objective of your influencer marketing strategy is geared toward brand awareness, these are the KPIs to keep track of: 

• Audience Growth – Audience growth or follower count is a strong indication of brand awareness. You can choose from a number of third-party apps to measure your follower growth during your campaign period. After the campaign ends, you can also check your mutual followers by visiting your influencer’s profile, tapping on “Followers” then on “Mutual”. This is more or less the number of followers you gained from the partnership. For a more accurate number, don’t forget to view your mutual followers before the campaign begins. 
• Impressions & Reach – One of the advantages of partnering with influencers is their large audience base. This is your opportunity to reach an audience you otherwise wouldn’t have access to. Instagram defines “impressions” as the number of times a single user has seen your post, while “reach” is the total number of unique users who have seen a particular post. All these data can be accessed through Instagram Insights, which is available to all Instagram Business accounts. 
• Brand name & Hashtag Mentions – How many times was your brand name or campaign hashtag mentioned during the campaign period? Mentions are a strong indication that your campaign is working. For real-time tracking of hashtags and mentions, you can use Keyhole. 

3. Social engagement 

Engagement is one of the most important KPIs to track in order to determine the performance of your influencer marketing campaign. On Instagram, engagement is measured by the number of likes and comments on your campaign post or story/video views. 

While likes are easily countable and a sign of approval, comments are a clearer indication of active engagement. Comments show that your content left an impact, whether good or bad, this is a great starting point for community building.

You may see that your follower count has increased after running a campaign but engagement remained low. This may be a sign of a mismatch between your audience and the content you’re producing. 

Keyhole has a great resource on how to calculate engagement rates. The most basic and manual formula would be to divide your total number of engagements (likes + comments) by your follower count, then multiply that number by 100. Generally, the standard engagement rate across all industries is 1.60%. But it is better to calculate a benchmark engagement rate for your niche.

4. Click-through-rate

Click-Through-Rate or CTR measures the number of times a potential customer clicks on a particular link. If you’re running an influencer marketing campaign, you can assign custom links with tools like Google Campaign Manager. So, use custom links assigned to each of your influencers to help you track their individual performances. You can also create custom links for Instagram Stories, ads, and bios to find out which works best. 

Tracking your CTRs is extremely important. A low CTR shows that users aren’t landing on your website, which could mean a weak call-to-action or wrong targeting. A high CTR means you have more eyeballs on your website, bringing your audience lower into the sales funnel.

If CTR rate is low, one reason could be the result of bad design. If you’re running a campaign on Instagram or in any social media platform, great visuals go a long way. To help you create eye-catching campaign creatives, use apps.

Choose from a selection of fonts and filters to make your calls-to-action pop or play with vintage film overlays to add flair.  

5. Referral traffic

Referral traffic is the number of people who land on your page from a specific link. CTR and Referral traffic are the same in a sense that you can track them through customized links or UTM parameters.

Referral marketing campaigns using influencers are usually run by e-commerce brands to encourage followers to shop with a special discount code or landing page. In this case, referral traffic can be measured by the number of times an item was purchased using the special code or page. 

Content creator, Camie Juan (@camiejuan) invites her followers to click on the link on her YouTube to enjoy a special discount on Glossier products. 

The link leads to a customized Glossier landing page called a “Glossier Rep Page”. The skincare brand partners with multiple influencers who usually advertise their Rep Pages on their personal profiles. Influencers themselves can track the performance of their pages as they receive a commission per sale made. 

6. Sales

Naturally, any brand’s ultimate goal is to make a sale. You want to find the conversion rates when your influencer program is geared towards sales. How much of your website traffic converted into paying customers?

Also, when goal is customer acquisition measure in downloads, subscriptions, or sign-ups. From there you can calculate for your cost per acquisition. 

Influencer KPIs per influencer 

At the end of your campaign, it is critical to assess how each of your chosen influencers contributed to your campaign KPIs. In essence, everything in marketing is about A/B testing, including those influencers who you work with, so that you can ascertain your high-performing influencers and know who to engage with for your future campaigns. 

That is, metrics such as unique links , engagements, and number of referrals can show performance per influencer. Hiring an influencer is not a sure-fire way to hit targets, like any other marketing effort, it may take some trial and error to attain success.

So, don’t be afraid to try it out with different influencers and see who works best with your brand. 

Is your influencer marketing program a success? 

Once all is done, look back at your objectives for collaborating with influencers. Were you able to reach your target KPIs?

It is crucial to go back to your original goals to help you zoom in on the relevant metrics. Don’t make the mistake of having too many target KPIs to begin with. A program should be focused in order to get the best results.

Look at how much you spent versus how much you gained. Compare the results to other marketing campaigns on different channels. This will give you an idea whether your campaign was a success or not. 

Don’t forget: You can continue assessing the success of your influencer engagement by repurposing content as an organic post on your socials or website. Aside from testing organic response, it is also a great way to maximize your partnership and get your ROI. 

Author

Neal Schaffer is an authority on helping innovative businesses digitally transform their sales and marketing. Founder of the digital marketing consultancy PDCA Social, Neal also teaches executives digital marketing at Rutgers Business School and the Irish Management Institute. He is also the author of four sales and marketing books, including Maximize Your Social (Wiley) and the recently published The Age of Influence (HarperCollins Leadership), a ground-breaking book redefining digital influence. 

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