How to Measure Influencer Marketing ROI on Instagram

influencer marketing roi

As Andrew Tate says, we now live in an attention economy, so it is no surprise that influencers are selling their influence through online marketplaces. They are following the trend set by gaming influencers who have to sign up to publishers in order to get free codes and free social media promotion if they say nice things about the games they review and test. Nowadays, other influencers can join Shoutcart where they may sell sponsorship opportunities. Businesses are able to buy promotions and shout-outs from influencers. This article helps you measure how much impact your influencer is having on your campaign.

Run Concurrent Campaigns on Different Instagram Accounts

You already probably have several Instagram accounts, but most are probably very underpopulated. In order to correctly measure your influencer’s effect on your campaigns, you need to run some tests on accounts that have a following. You can buy Instagram accounts from real users on social media marketplaces like Fameswap. Buy a few accounts that have a reasonably good following. Then, run campaigns at the same time as you run your influencer campaigns.

Doing this allows you to see if the content is doing the selling, or if the influencer’s input is doing the selling. You can check your numbers using different discount codes, different QR codes, or different tracked links. For example, let’s say you are offering a 30% discount. On your purchased accounts, you offer the discount with a discount code like “DISC30”. On your main account that has been promoted by your influencer, you use the discount code “30SALE”. If the “30SALE” gets more hits on a fairly similar following sample size, then you know the influencer had an impact.

However, with that said, your audience on your primary account is probably far better targeted. So, make sure you run concurrent offers on several of your different Instagram accounts, each with similar following sizes. And, keep in mind that your influencer-promoted site should do notably better than your other Instagram accounts. There has to be a definite difference in performance. Otherwise, you are not getting good value for your money.

Each Industry Has Its Nuances

As mentioned in the introduction, the gaming influencer crowd signs up with publishers. They do this so that they can play games for free, receive free publicity on their social media channels, and play games prior to their release. This is because an influencer’s influence has a very short time window. They are only powerful during the early days after release. After that point, people will read and watch reviews from regular people. Then, the community will make its own mind up. The only way a gaming influencer’s reviews remain relevant is if they follow public opinion.

For example, if the reviewer says a game is awesome at release, despite it sucking, the influencer will help make a few sales but will be largely ignored when it turns out that people disagree with the review. On the other hand, if the reviewer said the game is good and the public agrees, then people will check back with the reviewer time and time again before buying because they want to know “Why” other people like the game.

Take the example of the movie industry. In these cases, influencers have an impact prior to release (creating hype). But they also have a slightly longer window to press their influence after the release of the movie. This is because it takes a while for public opinion to come out on a movie. Ultimately, because it involves going to the cinema, which takes time. Plus, movie developers can pay for hundreds of positive reviews on websites like Rotten Tomatoes. So, they can fool people for a little longer than game influencers.

Nevertheless, the point is that each industry has its own nuances. In some cases, you want your influencers to create evergreen content, such as if they are comparing lawnmowers or luxury cars. In other cases, you want the influencers to create as much hype as possible because the product or service may only have a short window before it is dwarfed by another product or made irrelevant by the passage of time.