Real and creative examples of influencer marketing campaigns

6 steps to success: How do you run an influencer campaign?

Implementing a well-thought-out strategy will streamline your efforts. Below are the six steps to follow for the best results, whether you're running Instagram influencer marketing or connecting through TikTok.

1. Define objectives to run a top campaign

The first step is to pinpoint your goals. What do you want to achieve?

• Increase brand visibility
• Generate sales
• Boost website traffic
• Reach new generations
• Strengthen loyalty

Examine your expectations to make objectives as specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound as possible (SMART).

For example, legacy companies may want to increase awareness in the Gen Z market by 20% in the next six months, which it will measure using reach, impressions, and benchmarking.

On the other hand, a company may want to boost sales in their target audience by 10% in the next three months. While future campaigns may focus on awareness, their current strategy will track conversions, CTRs, and ROI.

2. Analyse your target audience

Firstly, you need the basics: age, gender, and location. Also, give weight to in-depth research into their needs, preferences, and behaviours.

This data should underpin your campaign, directing you toward the most relevant social media influencers, marketing channels, and content types.

3. Select the right social media influencers

Once you understand your audience, you can find the best influencers for the campaign. Choosing influencers may seem as easy as scrolling through niche-relevant profiles, but in reality, there are many factors to consider.

Ideally, you should connect with various influencers who have the following qualities:

• share brand values
• create content that complements brand image
• engaged and authentic audience
• audience matches your ICP on all the important details: age, location, and gender
• previous collaborations don't undermine your planned content

Plus, if you can find them, true fans are a secret weapon. These creators will share personal stories about your brand and products, creating authentic recommendations.

Remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all here. You can work with different types of creators, from nano-influencers posting YouTube videos to mega-influencers on TikTok, for different elements of the campaign. The key detail is that you have enough data to make good decisions.

Need more data to find the right influencers? An influencer marketing platform like Kolsquare provides the data you need for smart influencer selection. Download the free Chrome extension today for insights (engagement rates, audience credibility, and demographics) into social media accounts while browsing.

Influencer selection case study: How does Gymshark use influencer marketing?

One example of influencer marketing using various influencers is Gymshark, which built long-term partnerships with a range of influencers, referred to as "Gymshark athletes." They regularly promote the brand across various social media platforms, often using affiliate marketing. This approach enabled the sportswear brand to maintain a consistent brand presence and build a community among fitness enthusiasts.

When Gymshark first started influencer marketing, it sent products to influencers, asking for their honest thoughts. This tactic, known as product seeding, formed relationships, which resulted in the company naturally finding the right influencers to collaborate with.

Now, the brand has a large profile, and influencers must apply to join its affiliate program.

Above, micro-influencer @_fitnesswithkals showcases her gains in an Instagram Reel, tagging #gymsharkwomen. In her Instagram bio, she shares a 10% discount code for the brand.

Gymshark also gained success through its #gymshark66 campaign, encouraging social media users to transform their lives for 66 days. The hashtag continues to inspire UGC and is tagged in over 800,000 Instagram posts.

4. Develop a unique value proposition

Your influencer content should highlight what makes your product or service unique. This will differentiate you from the competition and show your value to your target audience.

For example, meal-prep delivery brand HelloFresh uses Instagram influencer marketing to highlight its quick, easy, and delicious meals. Below, micro-influencer The Flackies shares an Instagram Reel showcasing the unique benefits of HelloFresh, clearly centring the product and recipes.

5. Create relevant and engaging content for your influencer strategy

Even with influencers who tick all the boxes, you still need to reach out to the influencer and give input to develop effective content.

Wherever you post, content must be valuable, informative, entertaining, and aligned with your audience’s interests and needs.

Remember to give influencers the freedom to be creative because they know their audiences best. By trusting them to craft content in their unique style, you boost authenticity and connection, making the campaign more impactful.

Pro tip: Plan content that you can repurpose on blog posts, email marketing, infographics, guides, or tutorials to strengthen your overall marketing campaign.

6. Measure and analyse results: Influencer campaign management

Use analytic tools to measure the results of your marketing campaign and check that you're on the right track. Highlight key takeaways that match your initial goals. This will make it easier to communicate campaign benefits to stakeholders.

What are the 6 essential KPIs for your influencer marketing campaign?

Here are six essential KPIs for influencer marketing:

• Reach: How many people saw the content? This shows your potential exposure.
• Engagement rate: Likes, comments, shares—how well did the content connect with the audience?
• Impressions: Total number of times the content was displayed (not just unique viewers).
• Click-through rate (CTR): How many people clicked through to your landing page, site, or product?
• Conversions: Did the campaign drive purchases, sign-ups, or other goal completions?
• ROI: How much return did you get for your spend? Track sales, traffic, or leads against investment.

Choose the metrics most relevant to your goals. For example, if you wanted to increase sales, focus on ROI and conversions.

Getting the data: How to measure influencer marketing campaigns?

Tracking performance is non-negotiable. Using a platform like Kolsquare gives you the data you need to measure every stage of your influencer marketing campaign, from reach and engagement to CTRs. You can also analyse audience demographics, past collaborations, and influencer credibility to make smarter choices before you spend.

What elements are common in the best influencer campaigns?

Below is a checklist of essentials for influencer marketing campaigns:

• Clear and measurable objectives: Always start with clear and specific goals—do you want to increase brand visibility, generate sales, improve product recognition, or promote a new product launch?
• Authentic Collaborations: Create content that feels genuine rather than overly promotional or flashy. For example, a clothing company with values of inclusivity should focus on influencer activations with inclusive lifestyle bloggers from diverse backgrounds.
• Prioritise long-term relationships: Short-term campaigns can be effective and are a great starting point. However, marketers who establish long-term relationships with high-performing influencers can generate greater impact and build stronger relationships with audiences over time. Long-term collaborations also feel more authentic and trustworthy to audiences.
• Include calls to action: Feature a clear call to action so followers know how to interact with your brand (for example, buy, subscribe, or visit your website).
• Contracts and law: To protect both you and the influencer, ensure you use contracts and abide by local laws. In the UK, promotional content must be clearly labelled, so ensure the influencer marks promotional content with a hashtag like #ad.

Influencer marketing ideas from four successful campaigns

Examples are the best ways to learn. Below are four standout examples of influencer marketing campaigns with excellent results.

CeraVe conquering TikTok and Instagram

CeraVe, part of the L’Oréal group, is a leading skincare brand that has used Instagram and TikTok to promote various products. Its marketing strategy is varied, working with macro, mega, and micro-influencers to show the benefits of its skincare products.

Much of the campaign's success lies in excellent influencer selection. CeraVe opted for professional influencers with proven authority in the niche. One example is Dr Aamna Adel, a consultant dermatologist who debunks myths about skincare and with whom the brand has carried out several campaigns to promote products from different lines.

Adel has more than 1.6 million followers on her TikTok profile and 650,000 followers on Instagram. Her audience credibility score is rated at 75, and her average engagement on Instagram is 1.13%. In the post below, Adel wears her doctor's uniform while explaining how to layer Vitamin C like a dermatologist, featuring CeraVe.

Kolsquare estimates that her Instagram post above achieved €12,000 in earned media value (EMV). Even more impressive, over the past six months, she generated €626,650 in EMV for the skincare brand.

In addition to these individual campaigns, in 2024, CeraVe launched a creative, hilarious, and intelligent campaign featuring TikTok influencers Hayley Kalil, Caleb Simpson, and Bobbi Althoff to hype its Superbowl featuring Micheal Cera. The campaign played on the actor's surname, suggesting he was the company's CEO and that "CeraVe" was named after him. This campaign won the Grand Prix for Social & Influencer award in Cannes.

These inspired campaigns have also led to extensive UGC. On platforms such as TikTok, the Hashtag #cerave is featured on more than 7.8bn videos, followed by other hashtags of its most recognised products that have been widely publicised on the social network: #ceravaskincare (725.8m), #ceravemoisturizer (30.0m), and #ceravemoisturizer (30.3m). The brand also has over 1m followers on its own account.

Learn more about how to turn influencers into your brand ambassadors.

Mindful Chef's expert approach

Mindful Chef, a UK-based healthy recipe box delivery service, has effectively used influencer marketing to strengthen its brand and connect with health-conscious consumers.

According to co-founder Giles Humphries, the company has grown remarkably in recent years. The company’s turnover grew from £16m in 2019 to a peak of £67m in 2021 before settling at around £60m. Despite this adjustment, Humphries notes that the business now operates with its “healthiest” profit margins to date, reflecting a strong foundation for sustainable growth.

Part of Mindful Chef's success is rooted in large-scale influencer campaigns. By partnering with influencers who share its focus on wellness, Mindful Chef has showcased the benefits of its meal kits to a wide audience, leveraging authentic testimonials to build trust and engagement.

Influencers play a key role in demonstrating how easy and enjoyable it is to prepare nutritious meals using Mindful Chef's recipes. Campaigns like their collaboration with Nature’s Bounty, which included distributing 9,000 health supplement samples to meal kit subscribers, further highlight the brand’s commitment to promoting a holistic approach to health and wellness.

Influencers are provided with affiliate codes offering discounts to incentivise shoppers to start a subscription, combining authentic promotion with measurable results.

For example, Happy Skin Food, with 413,000 followers on Instagram, achieved 318,000 plays on a single video, generating an estimated EMV of €1,800.

Similarly, Bettina’s Kitchen, a chef influencer, contributed significantly to the campaign’s success. She generated €17,140 in EMV for the brand in the past six months. These figures highlight the effectiveness of using influencers to drive engagement and conversions through relatable, high-impact content.

Bloo's Creative Award-Winning Influencer Campaign

Cleaning company Bloo launched "The Great Loo Review," an innovative campaign to promote toilet rim hangers. They partnered with TikTok content creators Cal and Therese Ryan, challenging them to travel the UK to review the best and worst public toilets. The genius idea? The pair then spruces up the loos with Bloo.

Therese Ryan, known on TikTok as @thereseryan12, has over 830,000 followers and 30 million likes. Her engagement rate is 0.96%, and 72% of her audience are women. Callum Ryan (@thatonecal) has 1.1 million TikTok followers and 48 million likes. His engagement rate is 0.31%, and 75% of his audience is UK-based.

This engaging approach generated high-performing content across TikTok and Instagram. The campaign's success was further amplified by a news segment featuring the influencers' content and the inclusion of statistics exploring British attitudes toward public toilets.

The collaboration was so effective that it was recognised with the "Best Use of an Influencer(s)" award at the PRWeek UK Awards 2024.

You might be interested in: Engagement rate on Instagram: definition, calculation, and tips to improve it.

"Carbon Footprint" BBVA Spain

According to the World Bank, a person emits half a ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere every month in Spain. In response, BBVA Bank launched an initiative to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the environment. The company uses data analytics to calculate its customers' carbon footprints, a feature that its users can access from its App.

To publicize this tool, the agencies PS21, Mindshare, 2btube, and BBVA Creative for BBVA created a campaign in which they distributed giant, 28-meter-long footprints between the province of Lugo (in Palas de Rey), Barcelona (Barceloneta neighbourhood), and Madrid (next to the Las Ventas bullring).

In addition to these actions, they decided to carry out an influencer marketing strategy to publicize their action and expand the reach of the novel idea. For the first part, they used as a channel the Ac2ality account, the largest Spanish media outlet on TikTok whose audience is mainly made up of Generation Z. Ac2ality has more than 229K followers on Instagram and more than 4.4 million on TikTok and an average engagement of 1.25%. The credibility of their audience is 87 points, and the average engagement of their posts on Instagram is 3.5%, and on their Reels, it is 5.2%.

This media outlet alerted its followers about the appearance of giant footprints in Spain. Several influencers, including La Pelo, Percebes y Grelos, and Spursito, echoed the news, prompting their followers to speculate who could be behind the event.

In the second part of the campaign, the same influencers received a mysterious letter inviting them to a secret event, which they shared with their followers on social networks. The marketing strategy ended with the event, during which it was revealed that BBVA was behind the giant footprints.

The central purpose of the influencer marketing campaign, which was developed on different Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook accounts, was to generate conversation about the impact of consumption on the environment and how BBVA’s carbon calculator could help reduce emissions.

After three weeks of campaigns, they reached more than 2.9 million unique users, generated more than 3.5 million impressions, and engaged more than 125,000 users with the published content. Most importantly, the BBVA app received more than 310,000 visits.

In fact, Publifestival recognised this influencer marketing campaign in the XVI Edition of the Social Company Awards in the categories ‘Best execution of a campaign in social networks’ and ‘Best effectiveness in a social project or action‘.

How does Coca-Cola use influencer marketing?

Coca-Cola uses influencer marketing to stay relevant with younger audiences while strengthening its global reach. Their approach goes beyond product placement, focusing on authentic partnerships with micro-influencers and inspiring UGC. These creators offer strong engagement and brand alignment over big follower counts.

Here are a few of their notable campaigns:

• #ShareACoke: This campaign drove over 105M impressions and 2.1% sales lift through a mix of micro and macro influencers.
• #ShareTheMagic (TikTok): The drinks brand collaborated with Khalid and Jalaiah Harmon; generated 11.9bn views and grew Coca-Cola’s TikTok following by 71%.
• "This One’s For": A year-long Gen Z-focused campaign highlighting micro-achievements, featuring celebrity influencers like Raye and Lucy Campbell.

How much does an influencer campaign cost in the UK?

As the examples show, campaigns vary significantly. And so do costs.

For collaborations with sponsored posts, prices tend to average at these levels:

• Nano-influencer (0–5K followers): £10 – £100 per post
• Micro-influencer (5K-100K followers): £100 – £500 per post
• Macro-influencer (100K–1M followers): £500 - £5,000 per post
• Mega-influencer (1M+ followers): £500 - £5,000 per post

Working with social media influencers with smaller followings is generally cheaper and usually offers higher engagement rates. However, these are rough guidelines. Influencers who offer something different or create complex content (think creating an art piece or similar) will charge more.

Brands like watch seller Daniel Wellington built their following by sending free products to smaller influencers for review. This strategy brought a large ROI due to the minimal risk and low-cost scaling. Daniel Wellington now has over 4.5 million followers on Instagram.

Conversely, collaborations with mega-influencers are similar to celebrity endorsements and can be costly yet provide prestige.

Campaign types also impact price. The key takeaway is that, depending on your budget, there are many ways to work with creators, from influencer gifting to partnerships.

However, brands should support influencers who contribute to their brand with their creative works. These creators often earn a living through their content and may collaborate with a competitor if they are poorly reimbursed.

What are the benefits of working with an agency vs a platform?

Without tools, your influencer marketing efforts will be time-consuming. Influencer marketing agencies offer brands personalised services, including influencer identification, campaign management, and content creation. These agencies often have established relationships with influencers and extensive experience. However, this tailored approach can be costly, and brands may have limited control over influencer selection.

Alternatively, using influencer marketing platforms like Kolsquare gives you direct access to a vast database of influencers, enabling in-house campaign management. These platforms offer data-driven insights, such as engagement metrics and audience demographics, facilitating informed decision-making. This approach is generally more cost-effective and offers greater control, but you need to understand how to run campaigns.

Which of the following is an example of influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing takes many forms, from collaborations with micro-influencers to partnerships with global celebrities. A well-known example is Fenty Beauty’s launch campaign, where PR packages were sent to influencers of all skin tones, encouraging them to share honest reviews. This strategy highlighted the brand’s inclusivity, driving sales and solidifying its reputation as a leader in diversity within the beauty industry.

While influencer campaigns and celebrity endorsements may seem similar, they are distinct in approach and impact. Influencer campaigns focus on relatability and authenticity, leveraging creators’ connections with their specific audiences.

An example of influencer marketing is Gymshark’s 66-day challenge, which used fitness influencers to promote its activewear and inspire followers to adopt healthier habits.

In contrast, celebrity endorsements rely on aspirational appeal. George Clooney’s partnership with Nespresso, for instance, aligns the brand with luxury and sophistication, while Beyoncé’s collaboration with Adidas for Ivy Park combines her star power with the brand’s sportswear ethos to create campaigns that elevate brand prestige. However, as Gen Z celebrities grow their profiles online, the lines are blurring.

Paid social media campaigns are yet another distinct approach. These involve brands promoting their products directly through targeted ads on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, often using influencer-created content as part of the ads.

For example, a beauty brand might sponsor posts featuring influencers demonstrating their products, ensuring the content reaches a broader audience beyond the influencers’ followers. Unlike organic influencer marketing, paid campaigns provide brands with more control over who sees their content, thanks to precise targeting options offered by social media platforms. This method complements influencer collaborations, maximising reach and impact.