How to Measure Influencer Campaigns Effectively in 2025

As the influencer marketing landscape has evolved, marketers are getting better at measuring the impact of their influencer partnerships. In fact, 70% of marketers now measure the ROI of their influencer marketing, according to our State of Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report. However, while there’s a significant drop in the number of marketers struggling with campaign measurement, 13.6% still face this challenge.

That’s why we put together this detailed guide on how to measure influencer campaigns more effectively. We walk you through the key metrics and the tools you need to use. We also share some best practices to address the leading challenges of campaign measurement. Let’s get started.

Key Metrics to Measure Influencer Campaign Success

Knowing what to measure is a key step in understanding the impact of your influencer marketing efforts. With influencer marketing mostly being carried out through digital channels, several digital marketing metrics come into play when measuring campaign success. These metrics can be divided into three main categories – immediate campaign metrics, ROI and sales-related metrics, and brand awareness and sentiment metrics.

Immediate Campaign Metrics

These are metrics that gauge the direct impact of your campaign. They help you understand how your campaign is reaching and engaging people. According to our report, these are the most common metrics for measuring influencer marketing success.

Audience Growth

Are you experiencing any increase in followers since launching your campaign? Your audience growth is a clear sign that your campaign is directly bringing followers to your social media page. You can use native social media analytics tools to track follower growth patterns since your campaign launch.

For instance, The Influencer Marketing Factory tracked follower growth for O-Cedar’s influencer marketing campaign. By working with 83 influencers having a combined following of over 50 million, the brand earned over 114k new followers on their TikTok page.

@kristy.sarah and he will never know… reaction at the end 😂 @O-Cedar #OCedar #OCedarClean #OCedarPartner #OCedarPACS ♬ original sound - Kristy Sarah

Engagement Rate

Another good indicator of an influencer marketing campaign's success is engagement rate. How are people engaging with the campaign? Look at the likes, comments, and shares on the influencer’s sponsored post and compare it against their audience size.

When Tim Hortons teamed up with House of Marketers for a Christmas promotion involving influencers, engagement was a major campaign metric. In addition to a 1.3% engagement rate on Instagram, the influencers also generated a 5.17% engagement rate on TikTok.

Impressions and Reach

For some campaigns, visibility is an important measure of success. That’s where metrics like impressions and reach come into play. In the case of campaigns that involve video content, views are also a relevant visibility metric. Brands often consolidate each of these metrics to calculate the combined reach, impressions, and views across multiple platforms.

When NeoReach launched a campaign for Laifen, the agency closely monitored the views and impressions generated by the influencers they activated. With just eight creators creating 43 social posts, the campaign ended up with 14.6 million impressions and 12 million views.

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ROI and Sales-Related Metrics

Next, you have metrics that are related to measuring the actual business value of your campaign. This involves looking at the sales and conversions generated by influencers so you can see if your influencer marketing strategy is yielding returns for your business. 

Conversions

Measuring conversions or conversion rates for your campaigns involves tracking the actions taken as a result of the campaign. These actions aren’t necessarily just purchases but can also be sign-ups, downloads, and subscriptions depending on your campaign goal. 

For example, when USIMS launched an influencer marketing campaign with NeoReach, their goal was to drive awareness and downloads for their eSIM product. So they used downloads as a conversion metric and ended up with over 300k total downloads from the campaign.

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Revenue Generated

While certain conversion actions are great for measuring campaign success, some brands may also want to look at the actual revenue generated by influencers. This involves measuring the sales coming from influencers by tracking purchases made using affiliate links or promo codes.

For example, HelloFresh partnered with House of Marketers to promote their service with the help of TikTok influencers. The campaign led to over 500 monthly sales generated via influencer promo codes.

Earned Media Value (EMV)

One of the biggest benefits of influencers is that they’re able to get your brand in front of a large audience through high-quality content. Some brands want to measure the value of this publicity in comparison to typical paid advertising campaigns. This involves measuring the earned media value (EMV) generated through influencer marketing.

When MLB wanted to introduce “America’s favorite pastime” to the U.K., they worked with the GOAT Agency to set up an influencer marketing campaign. The agency activated several key influencers in the U.K. market, who helped them to generate an earned media value of £32,992.

@cultureforce Day in the life: Had a great time at Home Run House ahead of the MLB London Series next weekend! C’mon cardinals ⚾️ AD @MLB #londonseries #mlbcreatorclass ♬ Pieces (Solo Piano Version) - Danilo Stankovic

Brand Awareness and Sentiment

For some brands, the whole purpose of working with influencers is to ensure that more people learn about them. Even if this doesn’t necessarily lead to direct sales initially, the goal is to raise brand awareness and improve sentiment so that they gain credibility and attract future customers. 

Mentions and Share of Voice

Metrics like mentions and Share of Voice help you measure how much buzz your brand is generating online. Mentions give you an idea of the volume of conversations taking place about your brand. Share of Voice weighs this volume against the competitors’ to see where you stand in the market.

Pernod Ricard worked with the GOAT Agency to help make the Beefeater Pink gin go viral, meaning that they needed to raise awareness and improve cultural relevance. They built an influencer marketing campaign with the hashtag #OnWednesdaysWeDrinkPinkm, which trended across the U.K., helping the brand see a 1,500% increase in organic user-generated content. 

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Sentiment Analysis

Sometimes, just getting more mentions doesn’t give you the full picture. You also need to see a boost in sentiment to make sure that influencers are positively influencing brand perception. This is where sentiment analysis comes in, helping you understand the impact of your campaign on customer sentiment.

When Nivea launched the “Living in My Skin” podcast featuring key influencers, the goal was to provide comfort and advice to their brand community. So they closely tracked the campaign’s impact on positive sentiment, which was close to 100%.

YouTube

As a long-form video platform, YouTube provides valuable insights into audience behavior beyond basic view counts. The platform's algorithm prioritizes watch time and viewer retention, making it critical to track metrics such as average watch duration and video completion rate to assess content effectiveness. The number of views can give you an idea of whether your campaign is giving you enough exposure. Additionally, engagement indicators such as likes, comments, and shares help measure how well viewers are responding to the content. If subscriber growth is a key campaign goal, tracking net new subscribers attributed to influencer content can help determine the long-term impact of the campaign.

When ASUS commissioned The Influencer Marketing Factory for a campaign to promote the new Zenbook 14x OLED, they leveraged multiple platforms with YouTube being one of them. On the platform, they were able to reach 597k views with 29.5k likes through their influencer partnerships.

Twitch

As a live streaming-centric platform, Twitch focuses heavily on real-time interactions, making live engagement metrics essential for campaign evaluation. Metrics such as peak concurrent viewers (PCV), average concurrent viewers (ACV), and total minutes watched provide a clear picture of audience interest and retention. Subscriptions and donations can also give you an idea of how engaged the audience is with the influencer’s content. Furthermore, chat activity analysis, including the frequency of messages and sentiment, helps brands gauge how viewers are responding to the campaign in real-time. Brand mentions and custom overlays featuring sponsor messages can also serve as key performance indicators.

Fuze Tea worked with Upfluence to build a presence on Twitch with the help of influential Twitch creators. They tracked key engagement metrics on the platform and achieved 13k viewers of the “Fuze Tea pause” segment with over 1.5k average concurrent views and 870 total minutes streamed. 

LinkedIn (Emerging Platforms)

LinkedIn is becoming an increasingly important platform for implementing B2B influencer marketing strategies, offering a unique opportunity to establish thought leadership and industry authority. Since LinkedIn prioritizes professional interactions, key metrics to monitor include post reach, engagement rates (likes, shares, comments), and article views. On this emerging platform, it’s important to closely monitor B2B influence by measuring the reach and engagements on an influencer’s post. Additionally, tracking growth in professional connections, InMail response rates, and mentions within industry-related discussions can help assess campaign effectiveness. Monitoring LinkedIn analytics provides insights into audience demographics and content performance to refine strategy. 

Tools for Measuring Influencer Campaign Success

Once you know which metrics you need to measure for your influencer marketing campaign, you’ll need to look for tools that can provide you with those key insights. Note that depending on the metrics you need to track, you may need to employ multiple tools to get a comprehensive view of your campaign success.

Google Analytics

Your Google Analytics can help you understand the impact of your influencer marketing campaigns on your website performance. You can use links UTM parameters to track website traffic and conversions generated through specific influencer content. This makes it easy to attribute your website performance to individual influencers. 

Social Media Analytics (Native Platform Insights)

For campaigns that heavily focus on social media content, you can get most of the metrics you need on the native social media analytics dashboard. Instagram Insights, TikTok Insights, and YouTube Analytics can help you track how your campaign is impacting your account performance based on follower growth. You can also track how specific content and influencers are performing to understand how your campaign is paying off. 

Below are the key measurement areas for major platforms:

1. Instagram Insights

Measurement Areas:

• Audience Demographics: Age, gender, location, and active hours of followers.
• Engagement Metrics: Likes, comments, shares, saves, and direct messages.
• Content Performance: Post reach, impressions, and profile visits.
• Story Insights: Views, completion rate, exits, and interactions (polls, stickers, swipe-ups).
• Reels Analytics: Plays, watch time, shares, and saves.
• Follower Activity: Growth trends and most active times.
• Website Clicks: Traffic directed from bio links.
• Shopping Insights: Clicks and conversions from product tags.

2. TikTok Analytics

Measurement Areas:

• Video Performance: Views, watch time, replays, and engagement (likes, comments, shares).
• Audience Insights: Follower growth, gender distribution, top territories, and peak activity times.
• Engagement Rate: Interaction per video relative to reach.
• Traffic Sources: Breakdown of where views originated (For You page, profile, sounds, hashtags).
• Trending Content: Analysis of most engaging videos and trending sounds.
• Live Analytics: Viewer count, diamonds (virtual gifts), and live duration insights.

3. YouTube Analytics

Measurement Areas:

• Watch Time: Total minutes watched and average view duration.
• Audience Retention: Drop-off points and completion rates for videos.
• Traffic Sources: Views from search, suggested videos, external sites, and social shares.
• Engagement Metrics: Likes, comments, shares, and subscription growth.
• Revenue Analytics: Estimated earnings from ads, memberships, and Super Chats.
• Demographics: Viewer age, gender, device type, and geographic location.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): Percentage of impressions that turned into views.

4. Facebook Insights

Measurement Areas:

• Page Performance: Page views, likes, and reach (organic vs. paid).
• Post Engagement: Reactions, comments, shares, and clicks.
• Video Insights: Average watch time, video views, and audience retention.
• Ad Performance: CTR, impressions, reach, and conversion tracking.
• Event Insights: Engagement for Facebook-hosted events.
• Messenger Analytics: Message response rates and conversation statistics.

5. LinkedIn Analytics

Measurement Areas:

• Follower Demographics: Industry, job function, seniority, location, and company size.
• Content Performance: Impressions, engagement rate, clicks, and shares.
• Post Effectiveness: Dwell time, video views, and document downloads.
• Profile Analytics: Profile views, search appearances, and connection requests.
• Employee Advocacy Metrics: Reach and engagement from employee-shared content.
• Website Traffic: Clicks generated through LinkedIn posts.

6. Twitter Analytics (Now X)

Measurement Areas:

• Tweet Activity: Impressions, engagement rate, retweets, likes, and replies.
• Audience Insights: Follower growth, interests, demographics, and locations.
• Hashtag Performance: Engagement rates and reach of specific campaign hashtags.
• Video Analytics: Views, completion rates, and shares.
• Link Clicks: Traffic driven to external sites.
• Mentions and Sentiment: Brand mentions and audience sentiment analysis.

7. Pinterest Analytics

Measurement Areas:

• Pin Performance: Impressions, saves, clicks, and engagement rate.
• Audience Insights: Demographics, interests, and engagement trends.
• Referral Traffic: Clicks leading to website visits.
• Top Performing Content: Most popular boards and pins.
• Conversion Insights: Pin-driven sales and sign-ups.

8. Twitch Analytics

Measurement Areas:

• Live Stream Performance: Peak concurrent viewers, unique viewers, and total watch hours.
• Engagement Metrics: Chat messages, follower growth, and average view duration.
• Revenue Breakdown: Subscriptions, donations, and ad revenue.
• Clip Performance: Views and shares of highlighted stream moments.
• Audience Retention: Viewer drop-off rates and returning viewers.

Third-Party Tools

The easiest way to track your influencer campaign performance is through third-party influencer analytics tools like Brandwatch, Modash, and Upfluence. These tools integrate with various social media platforms and website analytics tools to give you comprehensive insights into your campaign and influencer performance.

Some of these platforms will let you track sales and conversions generated by each influencer by tracking purchases made using their unique affiliate links or promo codes. You can even use them to track cost and spending, which makes it easier to measure your campaign ROI. 

How to Calculate Return on Investment (ROI) for Influencer Campaigns

Tracking metrics is the easy part of measuring your influencer campaigns. What’s difficult is calculating the return on investment (ROI) of your campaigns, as there are a lot of moving parts to consider. Your calculation method will also largely depend on the type of ROI you want to track, such as revenue, media value, or customer lifetime value.

Revenue-Based ROI Calculation

If your campaign involves generating sales, then you’ll want to measure the profits generated with the help of influencers. The following formula can be used to measure revenue-based ROI for your influencer marketing campaign:

ROI = [(Total Revenue Generation – Cost of Influencer Campaign)/Cost of Influencer Campaign] x 100

Some platforms automatically collect the data to simplify the calculation process. Platforms like LTK even perform the calculation for you.

Media Value and Equivalent Earned Media

Another effective way to calculate your influencer marketing ROI is by comparing your earned media value compared to other paid advertising equivalents. In other words, how much media value did you generate? How does this compare to other forms of earned media? The following formula can be used to calculate your influencer marketing EMV:

EMV = Impressions x Cost Per Impressions (CPM) 

Some agencies also include an adjustment variable to further increase the accuracy of their EMV calculation. This variable depends on the objective of your campaign and may include metrics like clicks, click-through rate, and more. Tools like Upfluence can even give you an automated estimate of your EMV to save time on manual calculation.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) vs. Acquisition Cost

Some businesses may also consider influencer marketing ROI as the long-term value of customers acquired through their campaign. This involves tracking metrics such as customer lifetime value (CLV) and measuring the cost of acquisition. So you can get an accurate picture of whether the campaign had a long-term impact on your business.

The following formula can be used to calculate your CLV:

CLV = Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan

Meanwhile, the following formula can help to calculate your acquisition cost:

Acquisition Cost = (Cost of Sales + Cost of Marketing) / Number of New Customers Acquired 

Common Challenges in Measuring Influencer Campaigns

In spite of the importance of measuring your influencer campaigns, many businesses struggle with the process due to a few key challenges. Let’s take a look at some of the common challenges that you should be prepared to face when measuring the impact of your influencer marketing campaigns.

Attribution Issues

One of the major challenges that brands face when measuring their influencer marketing impact is in terms of attribution. With customer journeys often being non-linear, it’s difficult to determine which sales or actions can be attributed to an influencer marketing campaign. This may create inaccuracies in campaign measurement, meaning that you won’t be able to see which influencer marketing tactics or which specific influencers are delivering results.

Solution

The best way to address issues with attribution is by leveraging better tracking tools like UTM parameters to track clicks coming from your influencer marketing campaigns. You can also leverage unique landing pages and promo codes to track traffic and sales generated by each influencer. Many influencer marketing platforms come with built-in features to streamline sales tracking and attribution in one place.

Fake Followers and Engagement

Influencer fraud continues to be a serious concern, with the number of firms experiencing it jumping from 31% in 2022 to 59.8% in 2024, according to our State of Influencer Marketing Benchmark report. As such, fraudulent performance metrics like fake followers and fake engagements can get in the way of brands accurately measuring their influencer marketing performance.

Solution

The best way to tackle this issue is by being extra cautious in the hiring process and working with vetted influencers. This involves partnering with agencies that have performed a thorough verification of their influencers’ authenticity. Additionally, you can make use of platforms like HypeAuditor to check the audience quality of an influencer before working with them.

Source: hypeauditor.com

Make sure to check our other resources on how to spot fake YouTube subscribers and how to spot fake Instagram followers. Also, get a comprehensive guide on how to tackle this in our Influencer Fraud influencer marketing manager’s playbook.

Long Sales Cycles and Delayed Conversions

As mentioned earlier, the customer journey isn’t always linear. This means that even though an influencer initially encouraged them to buy something, some customers may take a longer time to finalize their purchase. These longer sales cycles and delayed responses prevent you from measuring the full impact of your influencer marketing campaigns.

Solution

Utilizing robust analytics tools is the best way to better account for delayed conversions and allow for improved attribution when it comes to longer sales cycles. Find influencer analytics tools that can integrate with your Google Analytics and ecommerce platforms to ensure that you’re accurately tracking sales generated by influencers. Additionally, allow for longer measurement windows (30-60 days) for a more comprehensive analysis of your influencer marketing results.

Best Practices for Reporting Influencer Campaign Success

With a clear idea of the metrics you want to measure and a robust influencer analytics tool, you’re mostly equipped to start your campaign measurement. However, the following best practices will help you better report on your influencer campaign success.

Tailor Your Reports to Your Audience

It’s important to remember that your influencer marketing reports aren’t always for just one type of audience. Sure, you’ll need to report to the company’s stakeholders, but are there other key players who need to understand how your efforts are paying off? 

Make sure you’re tailoring your reports according to the campaign’s goals and the priorities of relevant stakeholders. This involves focusing on the KPIs that matter the most to your audience. For instance, sales may be more interested to learn about conversions and revenue while marketing leaders may want to understand campaign costs and ROI.

Use Visual Data for Clarity

Your reports should be easy for everyone to interpret, which makes it crucial to visualize key data points. Make use of clear graphs and charts to simplify key metrics, so it’s easy to understand even for those who aren’t experts in data analytics.

You can use tools like Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) to create custom charts for your reports. Most influencer marketing platforms provide visual reports with key performance metrics, which you can export and share with relevant stakeholders.

Include a Narrative

In addition to the visual data, it’s important to include and explanation to further improve understanding. Explain why certain content performed well, whether there’s a connection between specific types of content and overall campaign performance, and so on. This type of narrative helps everyone make sense of the data to get a clear idea of what works and what doesn’t. You can even highlight your successes and areas for improvement.

Showcase ROI Clearly

While impressions and engagements are great for showcasing influencer marketing performance, it’s best to clearly showcase the direct benefit to your business. Present direct revenue or conversions from the campaign, such as sales via promo codes and affiliate links. Additionally, include your campaign’s earned media value to show value beyond direct revenue.

Make the Reports Actionable

Most businesses have realized the importance of incremental testing and running consecutive campaigns for influencer marketing. Make sure your reports highlight information on what actions can be taken based on your current performance.

Link back your metrics to your original campaign goals and highlight how you meet, exceed, or fall short of expectations. Provide suggestions on how to optimize influencer marketing campaigns in the future.

About the Author

Jacqueline Zote

Writer

Jacqueline Zote is a freelance writer and content producer. She writes for leading blogs in the digital marketing space. Her areas of expertise include influencer marketing, social media marketing, social media management, and content marketing.