So you're running an influencer campaign. But which metrics should you track? How do you know whether you've reached your goals?
Reporting is one of the most important parts of a campaign. It tells you what's going well, allowing you to improve your strategies and get better results. However, tracking influencer marketing isn't easy, thanks to the many vague and complex metrics available.
Let's dive into how to measure influencer campaigns for high-performance campaigns.
Influencer marketing campaigns are near-essential for brands in 2025. A significant 63% of consumers report that influencers shape their purchasing decisions. And people of all demographics are spending hours scrolling social media.
However, while the channel is powerful, it's easy to make mistakes or struggle to understand its impact.
Kolsquare's State of Influencer Marketing Report found that accurately measuring campaign ROI/ROAS is a pain point for 51% of UK brands.
Here are a few reasons why marketers struggle to keep up with social media metrics:
To unlock the full potential of social media campaigns, marketers must pay close attention to the data. You need to understand influencers and the broad conversation for an effective campaign.
It's best to start with the basic four metrics: reach, impressions, engagement, and click-through rate. This data gives you insight into how many people saw your content, how they interacted with it, and the actions they took as a result.
Let's dig into what these important metrics mean for your social media performance:
Impressions are the number of times your content was displayed. Here's the key thing to remember: it includes multiple views by the same user. So, if 100 people saw your video and half saw it twice, you would end up with 150 impressions. This doesn't mean the user watched or interacted with the content. It was just shown on their feed.
Put simply, impressions are the total number of content or video views. Impressions are one of the key metrics for influencer marketing and give a broader sense of exposure. In 2023, 62% of strategists, managers, and directors planned to increase their tracking of reach and impressions. This data is readily available from the social media platform or an influencer marketing platform.
However, impressions can't tell you anything about how your video was perceived.
Reach is the total number of unique users who had an impression of your content. For example, if 100 people saw your video and 50 of them saw it twice, your reach would only be 100. Think of this metric as the number of people your content reached. Reach is who sees a post, while impressions are how many times it's seen.
Reach helps gauge how widely your content was distributed but doesn’t reveal how viewers felt about it or who they are.
Kolsquare's Report found that 54% of brands running influencer campaigns think reach is important.
Engagement rates measure how your audience interacts with your content. It’s calculated by dividing the total number of engagements—likes, comments, shares, pins, and so on—by the number of impressions or reach, then multiplying it by 100.
This social media metric is highly valuable because it tells you how many people you inspired to take action. This is a good indicator of how it resonated. It’s no wonder that 79% of marketers track these insightful metrics. When analyzing social posts or influencer captions, marketers may also benefit from using a word counter to evaluate content length and structure—helping to ensure messages are concise, engaging, and optimized for the platform's audience.
The click-through rate is the percentage of viewers who click tracked links in your posts. Calculate the CTR of a post by dividing the total number of clicks by the number of impressions. Then multiply the result by 100.
It’s essential to assess how effective your content is at driving web traffic. Once users are on your site, you can further track metrics like new visitors or time spent browsing.
Reach and impressions are helpful metrics. But they don’t tell the whole story.
These basic metrics are often called "vanity metrics" because they are easy to obtain and readily available with free tools like Meta Business Suite.
Other social media metrics like follower growth are also often put in the box of vanity metrics. Yes, it's beneficial that more people engage with your social media channel, but it may not help you achieve your actual goals. For example, if you want to increase conversions, 5,000 new followers may not be relevant.
Similarly, likes may seem encouraging, but they don’t mean much alone. After all, people spend an average of 143 minutes per day on social media — one like is only a single click and might be a fleeting reaction.
The metrics you track should directly connect to your goals. You should understand why you're collecting different types of data and what they mean. For example, if you want to increase sales, measure success through conversion metrics.
On the other hand, if you want to improve brand sentiment, engagement metrics — which include likes, comments, and shares on a social media post — would be helpful. You would also need to use social listening tools to assess the intent and meaning of comments.
Obtaining these deeper KPIs is the best way to evaluate campaigns, improve strategies, and drive long-term business outcomes. This results in more effective campaigns that you can better explain to stakeholders.
For many stakeholders, the most important metric for social media efforts is how much revenue is gained.
It's difficult to connect the cause and effect when running influencer campaigns, and often, you'll need effective tracking software like Google Analytics or an influencer marketing platform such as Kolsquare.
The following social media metrics help you grasp the number of sales gained from an influencer or social media strategy.
The conversion rate tracks the percentage of viewers who complete your desired action after engaging with social media content. It usually invites people to the next stage of the marketing funnel, which could be making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading content. You can track conversions using UTM parameters and promo codes, which directly show how much revenue a creator generated.
Cost per action (CPA) tells you exactly how much you're spending for each desired action a user takes. This social media metric helps you to figure out if you're making good use of your budget.
Other similar metrics to track include cost per click (CPC), which tells you the amount you spend to gain a click. Cost per mile (CPM) refers to the cost spent for 1,000 impressions. Cost per engagement (CPE) tells you how much you spend for every engagement. With all these metrics, lower numbers are better.
Earned media value estimates how much the exposure generated by influencers or user-generated content would have cost through traditional marketing tactics.
It helps quantify the impact of unpaid mentions, shares, and tags that amplify your brand.
ROI tells you whether your efforts are truly paying off. It’s a comparison of all profits against all costs. Some would argue that this is the true indicator of social media performance. It’s no surprise that 70% of brands measure the ROI of campaigns.
Long-term, sustainable growth brings the best overall returns. To keep building your brand through influencer marketing, you need to connect with the right people, strengthen your place in the conversation, and build your reputation.
ROAS is similar to ROI, but it only focuses on the ad spend (not the additional costs.) It measures the revenue generated for every pound spent on social media advertising. This metric helps you understand the direct financial return of your ad campaigns.
For instance, a ROAS of 5:1 means you earned £5 for every £1 spent. To calculate ROAS, divide the total revenue from your campaign by the total ad spend for the social media post. A high ROAS indicates efficient ad performance, while a low ROAS suggests the need to optimise targeting, creative, or budget allocation.
Are the customers gained from social media campaigns loyal? Do they build strong connections with your brand?
CLV measures the total revenue a customer provides over the entirety of their relationship with your brand. It helps determine the long-term value of customers brought in through social media channels, particularly those from influencer collaborations. If customers are likely to stick around as loyal customers for years, your overall ROI may be higher.
Quantitative data is useful for any social media strategy. It provides clear data such as the number of engagements, conversions, and impressions. However, understanding how people view your brand requires qualitative data.
Let's explore the different ways of analysing brand perception.
Brand sentiment tells you how people feel about your brand. This key metric helps you understand whether your audience views your brand positively, negatively, or neutrally. Positive sentiment often leads to long-term gains and is, therefore, highly advantageous.
To measure brand sentiment, you'll need to collect and analyse all conversations around your brand across various platforms.
Here is a step-by-step guide for measuring brand sentiment effectively:
Overall, sentiment analysis goes deeper than likes and video views. It tells you how people are talking about your brand and their relationship with it. Sentiment analysis is a vital indicator of loyalty and reputation.
Brand awareness is one of the most popular goals when running influencer campaigns. It reflects the number of social media users who notice and reference your brand. High awareness means your brand is more memorable.
Good indicators of brand awareness include the number of mentions, shares, and impressions across social media channels. This tells you how well your messaging sticks in consumers' minds, which is crucial for keeping top-of-mind with your target audience.
Encouraging user-generated content can also enhance awareness, organically sparking additional social media activity by your followers. A strong brand awareness means customers are more likely to think of your brand when they are ready to make a purchase.
Influencer alignment is crucial for ensuring a brand's message is delivered authentically and resonates with the right audience. Marketing teams need to check that an influencer's content leaves a good impression.
As social marketing guru Neal Schaffer puts it, “Perhaps the biggest advantage of using influencers is that you have the opportunity to choose people who are part of your target market, or who appeal to your target market.”
So, checking whether your influencer campaigns resonated with your audience guides you on how to move forward.
User-generated content is posts that social media users share either organically or are paid to create. Here, it's useful to report on organic content. This tells you how customers are building communities and gives you content to repurpose.
Track the number of posts, mentions, or shares generated by your audience as part of a campaign. UGC metrics provide insight into how effectively your campaign inspires organic participation.
Virality rate measures how often your content is shared relative to its impressions. This metric indicates the content’s potential to spread organically and reach new audiences.
To calculate virality rate, divide the number of shares by the number of impressions, then multiply by 100 to get a percentage. This metric is particularly valuable today where "going viral" can exponentially increase a brand’s reach. Social media has the potential to change your story overnight and make you the brand every is talking about.
The best influencer campaigns allow you to dominate conversations. These impactful influencers will put your brand at the forefront of your industry.
Share of voice tracks the number of times social media users mention your brand versus competing brands. It goes beyond just brand awareness. Share of voice also assesses customer engagements, assessing how frequently your brand name is seen and how customers interact with your content.
This datapoint is also crucial for comparing your brand visibility with competitors. It also tells you how the influencers you collaborate with are impacting the conversation.
Conversion metrics like the CTR are essential. But not all conversions are created equal.
Conversion quality goes beyond the quantity of conversions to assess the real value of the leads. This ensures that your campaigns are driving the right actions from the right audience.
Conversion quality is typically assessed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics that assess the depth and long-term value of each conversion:
CLV tracks the total revenue a customer is expected to generate over their relationship with your brand. High-quality conversions often come from customers with high CLV.
Calculate the average revenue generated per customer and compare it across segments acquired through different campaigns. If you find your influencer campaign is only bringing in short-term custom, you may need to tweak your approach.
This tactic scores leads based on factors such as demographic alignment, behaviours (time spent on the site), and intent (signing up for a demo, purchasing). Higher scores indicate better-quality conversions.
The best way to evaluate the potential of leads is to use a CRM or marketing automation tools,
This is the number of times a converted user makes repeat purchases. High-quality conversions often come from customers who engage with the brand repeatedly. It's similar to lifetime value.
Measure it by analysing repeat transactions in your CRM or e-commerce platform to identify trends by source.
High-quality conversions often result in high order values. Tracking AOV from social media conversions helps gauge the financial impact of your campaigns.
The best way to calculate AOV is to divide total revenue by the number of purchases within a specific campaign or platform.
High-quality conversions are often followed by active engagement with your brand, such as email opens, social media interactions, or loyalty program sign-ups.
You can use analytics tools to track post-conversion behaviours and segment audiences based on engagement levels.
Churn refers to shoppers who don't return to your brand. High churn rates often indicate lower-quality conversions. This means that your brand didn't fully align with the customer or build a relationship.
Measure it by analysing the retention rate of customers acquired through specific campaigns or platforms.
Not all conversions are equally valuable, depending on your objectives. For instance, a B2B brand might prioritise high-quality leads over product sales, while a retail brand might focus on direct purchases.
Discern the level of alignment by defining conversion goals and assessing how closely acquired conversions match these objectives.
Ensuring high conversion quality is essential for maximising the effectiveness of your campaigns. While quantity is important, focusing on the relevance and long-term value of your conversions can lead to better business outcomes.
Here are some key strategies to improve the quality of your conversions:
One of the most effective ways to attract high-quality conversions is through precise targeting. Use audience segmentation tools to break down your audience into specific groups based on demographics, interests, or behaviours. Additionally, leverage lookalike audiences to find new users who share similar traits with your existing high-value customers. This approach helps ensure your ads reach people who are more likely to take meaningful actions.
The messaging and visuals in your campaigns play a critical role in attracting the right audience. Ensure your content speaks directly to high-intent users by addressing their specific needs, challenges, or aspirations. Focus on creating clear and compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) that guide users toward your desired outcomes. Regularly, A/B tests different formats, content styles, and designs to identify what resonates most with your target audience.
Understanding the user journey is key to improving conversion quality. Monitor each stage of your sales or marketing funnel to identify where users drop off. Use tools such as heatmaps, analytics, and session recordings to pinpoint potential barriers, such as unclear CTAs, slow-loading pages, or complicated checkout processes. Addressing these issues can help retain high-quality leads and improve the overall user experience.
It’s important to ensure their audience aligns closely with your target demographic and purchasing behaviours. This ensures the conversions they generate are both relevant and valuable for your brand.
Social listening tells you how people are talking about your brand and industry online.
It provides valuable insights into audience sentiment, brand perception, and emerging trends through the analysis of real-time conversations on social platforms. It identifies which influencers truly resonate with your audience, allowing you to analyse your share of voice by assessing metrics such as EMV, audience size, and engagement.
Social listening helps with many parts of an influencer campaign:
Brands can identify influential individuals discussing relevant topics to create more effective partnerships that enhance their ROI.
Conducting social listening and getting it right is time-consuming. In fact, 57% of brands rely on tools to guide their influencer marketing campaigns.
To measure social listening, brands should first define clear objectives, such as brand positioning, campaign performance, or identifying sales opportunities. Next, determine your data sources by selecting the most relevant social networks and digital media.
Kolsquare’s social listening module streamlines the process by enabling brands to:
You can transform these insights into strategic decisions that inform strategies and improve your reputation.
Social listening is a great way to find influencers who are sharing impactful social media posts. But you also need demographic data about influencers' audiences. It's crucial to ensure that your social media strategy targets the right people.
Instead of focusing solely on influencers with large followings, choose those whose audience aligns with your target market. These influencers will save you money in the long run, as you can rely on them to develop impactful and relevant content. The customers they bring are more likely to get your brand and stay loyal.
Collecting key demographic factors such as age, gender, location, income, and interests, you can tailor campaigns to resonate more deeply with potential customers.
When campaigns are tailored to specific demographics, they tend to drive higher engagement and conversion rates. This is because the content feels more authentic and relevant to the audience, increasing the chances of meaningful interactions and purchases.
Tools like Kolsquare’s Chrome extension offer marketers free access to in-depth audience insights. This includes essential metrics like engagement rates, audience growth, and demographic information such as location and gender.
Simply download the extension, sign up for a free account, log in, and start browsing influencers on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. The extension works as a sidebar, providing you with data as you browse.
Start analysing influencer audiences from your browser today!
The 50/30/20 rule gives a framework for running different types of campaigns. It tells you how much you should focus on each approach.
Here's a breakdown of the 50.30/20 rule:
The 50/30/20 rule is effective because it ensures a balanced marketing strategy that keeps your audience engaged without overwhelming them with promotional messages.
Focusing on value-driven content builds trust and credibility, while promotional content drives conversions. On the other hand, shared content adds diversity and social proof, reinforcing your brand's position within the industry. Together, these social media posts combine to give shoppers a clear understanding of product benefits and brand values.
While this can be a helpful framework, it's not a law. Your approach must be tailored to your overall marketing strategy and goals.
Phew, that's a lot of data. Marketing teams need a comprehensive approach to run a data-driven social media strategy. But it's hard to keep track. So let's create a simple checklist.
Here is a list of social media metrics, their formulae, and how you can track them:
We've covered many of the most crucial metrics, but this is marketing! There's always more data to dive into. Let's explore it.
Surveying your audience on social media is an effective way to gather insights, understand customer preferences, and refine your strategies. Social media platforms make it easy to engage your audience through tools like polls, surveys, and reward-based participation. By including targeted questions and incentivising responses, brands can gain valuable data while boosting engagement.
There are a few different ways to ask questions on social media without being invasive.
First, there are polls. Polls are short, interactive questions with multiple-choice answers.
Platforms like Instagram Stories, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook allow you to post polls directly to your feed or stories. It's easily accessible for shoppers and non-invasive.
Here are the best practices for social media polls:
For example, you could ask:
“Which product feature excites you most? 🛍️
A) New designs
B) Improved quality
C) Discounts”
Second, there are surveys. These are longer forms for gathering detailed feedback.
Here are the best practices for surveys:
For example you could add a link in an Instagram bio: “Share your thoughts with us and receive 10% off your next purchase! Complete this quick survey: [Link in bio]”
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) can be attained from surveys. It's a key metric for evaluating how happy your customers are with your brand’s social media interactions, products, or services. It’s one of the most straightforward ways to gauge customer experience and pinpoint areas for improvement.
CSAT is typically measured by asking customers a simple question, such as: "How satisfied were you with your experience?" Customers respond using a scale, usually ranging from 1 to 5, where:
The CSAT score is calculated as the percentage of positive responses (4s and 5s) out of the total responses.
CSAT data can tell you how your content is really performing, which provides the following benefits:
But remember to follow best practices, such as:
Kolsquare is Europe’s leading Influencer Marketing platform, offering a data-driven solution that empowers brands to scale their KOL (Key Opinion Leader) marketing strategies through authentic partnerships with top creators.
Kolsquare’s advanced technology helps marketing professionals seamlessly identify the best content creators by filtering their content and audience, while also enabling them to build, manage, and optimize campaigns from start to finish. This includes measuring results and benchmarking performance against competitors.
With a thriving global community of influencer marketing experts, Kolsquare serves hundreds of customers—including Coca-Cola, Netflix, Sony Music, Publicis, Sézane, Sephora, Lush, and Hermès—by leveraging the latest Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning technologies. Our platform taps into an extensive network of KOLs with more than 5,000 followers across 180 countries on Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, and Snapchat.
As a Certified B Corporation, Kolsquare leads the way in promoting Responsible Influence, championing transparency, ethical practices, and meaningful collaborations that inspire positive change.
Since October 2024, Kolsquare has become part of the Team.Blue group, one of the largest private tech companies in Europe, and a leading digital enabler for businesses and entrepreneurs across Europe. Team.Blue brings together over 60 successful brands in web hosting, domains, e-commerce, online compliance, lead generation, application solutions, and social media.
Your monthly dose of exclusive insights, strategies and trends shaping the creator economy. For insiders, by insiders.
.png)
%20(2).webp)
