CreatorIQ recently released its 2022 Influencer Marketing Trends Report, and unsurprisingly, measuring performance was the top priority for 64% of our brand respondents. While 30% of these brands cited engagement as the most impactful metric for performance measurement, another 37% cited conversions. Amid a dynamic ecosystem featuring countless metrics and ever-evolving social platforms, the question persists: how can influencer marketers leverage unified measurement to most effectively report on campaign performance?
On November 15, we hosted our latest webinar, Unified Measurement at Scale: How Marketing Leaders can Leverage Influencer Marketing to Prove Impact. The event featured Tim Sovay, Chief Business Development & Partnerships Officer, along with guest speakers Casey DePalma, Senior Director, External Communications & Engagement, Unilever North America, and Jessica Liu, Senior Analyst, Forrester. During the webinar, our expert panel addressed challenges, opportunities, and best practices surrounding unified measurement in influencer marketing.
Below are three key takeaways from the webinar:
- The main challenges around unified measurement in influencer marketing include lack of transparency in measurement, as well as nuances across social media platforms. Without sufficient data from social media platforms, it’s especially difficult for influencer marketers to advance their preferred methods of measurement. According to DePalma, any data available from the paid media side should also be offered within owned and earned media campaigns. Without this feature, “apples-to-apples” comparisons between paid, owned and earned remain a challenge.
- Additionally, there are nuances amongst varying social platforms. For instance, TikTok has fundamentally changed the way in which consumers receive content (the platform is based on a content-graph approach, versus a social-graph approach). Finally, different platforms quantify metrics differently—for example, there’s a discrepancy in how Facebook and YouTube measure video views.
- The current solution is to follow expertly-crafted guidelines, such as those formulated by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). It’s important to note, however, that these guidelines are only a starting point, and that the industry must continue working toward universal standards. Another key call-out for influencer marketers: like other marketing campaigns, an influencer marketing campaign’s metrics depend on the campaign’s objective(s), so be sure to take a flexible approach.
- Leverage technology, but don’t lose the “human element.” While there’s no one-size-fits-all formula, a balance between technologies and managed services is typically the “secret sauce,” according to Sovay. As your influencer marketing program scales and matures, it’s essential to begin automating your measurement process, especially for enterprise brands working with thousands of creators. Over time, data ownership and unified measurement will eventually be owned by your brand—and that’s where technology and managed services step in.
When it comes to leveraging technology for measurement, Sovay notes that this is not “programmatic” marketing. In fact, an inherent advantage of influencer marketing is the “human element” that characterizes creator content. Amid all these metrics, marketers should be careful not to lose this “human touch.”
