10 Social Media Metrics Brands Should be Measuring

Influencer marketing has become a cornerstone of modern digital marketing strategies. Brands collaborate with influencers to reach new audiences, build credibility, and drive sales. However, measuring the success of these campaigns can be complex. Focusing on the right social media metrics is crucial for understanding the impact of an influencer marketing campaign and for refining future content strategies. Let’s explore how to measure influencer marketing key metrics, providing specific examples to illustrate their importance.

1. Engagement Rate

Engagement rate is one of the most critical metrics for gauging the success of an influencer marketing campaign. It measures how actively the audience interacts with the influencer’s content through likes, comments, shares, and saves.

Why It Matters: High engagement indicates that the content resonates with the audience, which can lead to greater brand awareness and loyalty.

Example: If an influencer posts a photo featuring your product and it receives 10,000 likes and 500 comments out of their 100,000 followers, the engagement rate is 10.5%. This high engagement rate suggests that the audience is highly interested in the product.

Many brands fall into the trap of fixating on engagement rate alone, while neglecting to giving into the other metrics we’ll mention below, but we would be remiss if we didn’t highlight a tool we introduced in 2023 called Intellifluence Herd Worth. This data-driven metric helps put a price tag on the value an influencer offers – across their entire portfolio of social profiles. We consider influencer engagement rate data when establishing dollar values but go far beyond with our proprietary algorithm to help brands anticipate the value they can expect when collaborating with specific influencers.

2. Reach and Impressions

Reach refers to the total number of unique users who see the content, while impressions measure the total number of times the content is displayed, regardless of whether it was clicked or not.

Why It Matters: These metrics help brands understand the potential audience size and the frequency with which the content is viewed, providing insight into the campaign’s visibility.

Example: An influencer’s Instagram story about your brand has a reach of 50,000 and impressions of 80,000. This indicates that some users viewed the story multiple times, suggesting high interest and potential influence.

Intellifluence provides up-to-date engagement rate and reach data where applicable within influencer profiles to help brands determine the true influence of an influencer.

3. Click-Through Rate (CTR)

CTR measures the percentage of users who click on a link or call-to-action (CTA) embedded in the influencer’s content.

Why It Matters: A high CTR indicates that the audience is not only engaged but also motivated to learn more about the product or service being promoted.

Example: An influencer includes a swipe-up link to your online clothing store in their Instagram story. If 1,000 out of 20,000 viewers click the link, the CTR is 5%. This high CTR demonstrates effective persuasion and interest in your product.

4. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate measures the percentage of users who take a desired action after clicking on the influencer’s link, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading an app.

Why It Matters: This metric directly ties the influencer’s efforts to tangible business outcomes, providing a clear indication of ROI.

Example: If 200 out of the 1,000 users who clicked on the link in the influencer’s story end up making a purchase, the conversion rate is 20%. This high conversion rate highlights the influencer’s effectiveness in driving sales.

5. Brand Mentions

Brand mentions track how often your brand is mentioned in posts, comments, and hashtags by the influencer and their audience.

Why It Matters: Increased brand mentions can indicate growing brand awareness and interest, which can lead to more organic engagement and long-term brand loyalty.

Example: During a campaign, an influencer’s followers use your brand’s hashtag 500 times across various posts and comments. This surge in brand mentions suggests successful brand exposure and engagement.

6. Sentiment Analysis

Sentiment analysis evaluates the tone and emotion behind social media mentions and comments to determine how people feel about your brand.

Why It Matters: Understanding the sentiment helps you gauge the qualitative impact of the campaign, revealing whether the audience’s perception of your brand is positive, neutral, or negative.

Example: After an influencer collaboration, you notice that 80% of the comments on posts mentioning your brand are positive, praising the product’s quality and usefulness. This positive sentiment indicates a successful campaign in terms of audience perception.

7. Audience Growth

Audience growth measures the increase in your brand’s social media followers during and after the influencer campaign.

Why It Matters: A significant increase in followers suggests that the campaign successfully attracted new potential customers who are interested in your brand.

Example: Your brand’s Instagram account gains 5,000 new followers during a month-long influencer campaign. This growth indicates that the influencer’s content effectively drew attention to your brand and sparked interest among their audience.

Featured Influencer: Katie Shaffer
Lifestyle content creator sharing my life, routines, outfits and inspiration! Aim to inspire women to be their happiest, authentic selves and build a beautiful life around what they love!

8. Cost Per Engagement (CPE)

CPE calculates the cost incurred for each engagement (like, comment, share, etc.) generated by the influencer’s content.

Why It Matters: This metric helps assess the cost-effectiveness of the campaign, allowing brands to compare different influencers and optimize their budget allocation.

Example: If you spent $10,000 on an influencer campaign that generated 50,000 engagements, the CPE is $0.20. A lower CPE indicates a more cost-effective campaign.

9. Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI measures the overall return from the campaign compared to the amount invested. It considers all relevant metrics such as sales, leads, and other conversions.

Why It Matters: ROI is the ultimate measure of a campaign’s success, showing whether the influencer marketing efforts were profitable.

Example: Your brand invested $15,000 in an influencer campaign and generated $50,000 in sales directly attributable to the campaign. The ROI is 233%, indicating a highly successful campaign.

10. Content Performance

Content performance involves evaluating the individual pieces of content created by the influencer to identify which types were most effective.

Why It Matters: Understanding which content resonates best with the audience helps refine future strategies, ensuring that you focus on creating high-impact content.

Example: Analyzing an influencer’s posts reveals that video content about your product generates twice as much engagement as static images. This insight can guide future campaigns to prioritize video content.

Putting it all Together

Gauging the success of an influencer marketing campaign requires a multifaceted approach, focusing on a combination of quantitative and qualitative metrics. By paying attention to engagement rate, reach, impressions, CTR, conversion rate, brand mentions, sentiment analysis, audience growth, CPE, ROI, and content performance, brands can gain a comprehensive understanding of their campaign’s impact.

These metrics not only inform the immediate success of a campaign but also provide valuable insights for developing better strategies in the future. With the right metrics in focus, brands can optimize their influencer marketing efforts, ensuring they build meaningful connections with their audience and achieve their business objectives. By continuously analyzing and refining their approach based on these metrics, brands can stay ahead in the competitive landscape of influencer marketing.