The best influencer marketing KPIs can dare we say it, transform an influencer marketing strategy. Using the KPI framework, you’ll be laser focused, up to date with your progress, and more likely to track success.  To discover how to develop strategy-aligning KPIs, keep reading. 

First up is the most essential element you need to consider before choosing your KPIs. Following that, you’ll find example KPIs you can use to get started writing your own, plus the metrics that you can assign to each KPI.  

You’ll find examples and metrics covering:  

• Influencer management KPIs
• Content production KPIs
• Sales KPIs
• Conversion KPIs
• Engagement KPIs
• Brand awareness KPIs

How to Choose the Right Influencer Marketing KPIs for Your Brand

What is a key performance indicator (KPI)?

Key performance indicators, or KPIs for short, are metrics used to track progress toward a goal or objective. They’re the signposts marketing teams use to understand where they are on a map at any given time.  

Is there a difference between KPIs and metrics?

Yes, and it’s a subtle one. While KPIs are metrics, not all metrics are KPIs. Essentially, KPIs are the metrics that make a difference to the bottom line. They’re VIP metrics. The most important metrics to your business.  

Quite often KPI metrics are a collection of metrics. Take conversion rate for instance. It’s calculated using two separate metrics. 

Most marketers can measure and collect tons of data from different sources leading to reporting and tracking getting out of hand. KPIs help you focus and control the “mess.”

How to choose the right KPIs for your brand or campaign

There are no industry-standard KPIs for influencer marketing. 

Instead, the KPIs you choose will largely depend on business goals and the maturity of your influencer marketing program. For example, KPIs will be different if you’ve just started testing the influencer marketing waters than if you’re scaling your efforts. 

KPIs will also be different if your business goals are more focused on attracting and reaching new audiences than if goals are more focused on growing revenue. They’ll also be different if you’re creating overall influencer marketing KPIs or campaign-level KPIs. 

Whatever your specific use case for developing KPIs, the first step is to ensure they align with the higher-level objectives. 

When preparing KPIs for your overall influencer marketing, align your KPIs to business objectives. When preparing campaign-specific KPIs, make sure they align with your marketing goals. 

Once you’ve chosen the higher-level objectives that influencer marketing can impact, it’s time to start drafting your KPIs. 

Note: It’s normal to start thinking about the “how” of KPIs while you’re writing them. How will we achieve this? At this point, stay focused on the “what”. What metrics do we want to see change? Remember, KPIs set the direction and will tell you where you are at any given point. They do not tell you how you’re going to get there. 

Make sure your KPIs follow this adapted SMART goals framework. 

1. Is it simple?
2. Is it measurable? Can you track changes daily or weekly to monitor progress?
3. Is it realistically achievable?
4. Does it drive action? Is it in our control?
5. Is it relevant? Does this KPI align with our business and/or campaign goals?
6. Is it time-based? Is there a deadline?

Pro tip: Resist the data-driven marketers' urge to keep track of everything. Repeat after us “KPIs are our VIP metrics only.” Do not track more than 3 metrics per KPI. 

Now let’s take a closer look at the different types of KPIs you can develop to track your progress, and include in a marketing report. We’ve included tons of examples you can use to understand what KPIs generally sound like. 

Influencer management KPIs

Developing KPIs around influencer management will keep you focused on improving key processes that can have a significant impact on all your other goals. Let’s face it, without the right influencers and right campaigns, your other goals will be hard to reach. 

Influencer management can include optimizing your outreach and recruitment process, adding more creators or brand ambassadors, and even adding more campaigns to your calendar. Whether you’re just starting out with influencer marketing or you’ve found some success and want to double down, consider developing KPI(s) around management. 

Some example KPIs to get you started:

Example KPIs 

• Increase the number of influencers to [number] by [deadline]. 
• Run [number] of [monthly/quarterly/seasonal/annual] campaigns by [deadline].
• Add [number] of candidates to our pipeline by [deadline]. 
• Improve outreach response rate by [percentage] by [deadline]. 
• Improve outreach open rate by [percentage] by [deadline]. 
• Send a minimum of [number] outreach emails or DMs per day for [duration] by [deadline].

Some metrics to assign to influencer management KPIs

• Number of active influencers in your roster
• Number of active campaigns per [month/quarter/season/year]
• Number of ambassadors added to the program
• Number of outreach emails sent
• Email response rate
• Email open rate

Content production KPIs

Why develop a KPI around content production? Because content production is the first tangible deliverable you get with influencer marketing. And with the right contracts in place, you’ll be able to use or repurpose that content beyond social media platforms. You can use influencer-generated content on your website, in your newsletters, on paid ads, and even in printed assets. Repurposing content will also lower your content production costs freeing up your budget to invest in other more impactful activities. (Perhaps, even work with more influencers!). 

Here are a few examples of KPIs for you to imagine what yours could look like. 

Example KPIs 

• Collect [number] of [content types] from [channel] by [deadline].
• Increase volume of content from [number] to [number] from [channel] by [deadline].
• Repurpose [number] posts for [channels] by [deadline].

Some metrics to assign to content production KPIs

• The sum of photos, reels, and videos created per campaign: (Modash’s Campaign Monitoring tool automates this process for you which is super helpful when you're working with over 10 influencers.)
• The number of content produced per influencer: You may want to increase the volume of posting, especially among your high-performing creators. This will give you more content to repurpose and put your brand in front of more eyeballs. 
• Content production value. What would be the dollar value of all the content generated by your campaign if you directly paid for it? You could track this & consider it a part of your overall ROI.

Sales KPIs 

Some of the most effective KPIs in influencer marketing focus on sales. With the right creators on board and a well-thought-out campaign, influencer marketing can have a direct impact on revenue from the very first campaign. We’ve seen this happen both in eCommerce and consumer apps. 

When developing a sales KPI, make sure you track the metrics that most closely align with the overall business goals. Revenue is a popular one whether you measure it as a sales target ($100K AR) or as a growth percentage. (20%)

Example KPIs

• Increase growth in revenue by [percentage] through all influencer marketing campaigns by [deadline]. 
• Hit [sales target] from [name of campaign] by [deadline].
• Improve average order value by [value] from high-performing influencers by [deadline]. 

Some metrics to assign to sales KPIs

• Revenue 
• Sales conversion rate
• Average order value
• Cost per acquisition (CPA)
• Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Conversion KPIs

Establishing conversion KPIs will turn your focus on activities that prepare an audience for a future purchase. Instead of only offering CTAs for immediate purchase, you can create micro-conversion activities. 

This is especially true for higher-ticket products. If your product is over $100, it’ll be harder for an audience to spontaneously shop, instead, you want to give them an alternative action to take so you can keep in touch and nurture the relationship. 

Conversion-focused KPIs usually track with longer-term goals like improving engagement or follower growth. 

Example KPIs

• Increase the number of newsletter subscriptions from influencers by [percentage] by [deadline].
• Increase follower growth by [percentage] for [channel] by [deadline]. 
• Run [number] of influencer-led contests by [deadline]. 

Some metrics to assign to conversion KPIs 

• Email and text subscriptions 
• App installs 
• Accounts created 
• Items added to wishlists
• Adds to cart  
• Contest sign-up or participation
• Cost per conversion

A fun and engaging activity to improve micro conversions and meet related KPIs are influencer-led contests. Whether the entry requirements are to follow your social media account, subscribe to your email list, create an account, add items to a wishlist, or anything else you dream up, influencers can drive these lower-effort audience activities. 

These micro-conversions add up to bigger email lists, higher follower growth, and more brand awareness. 

Engagement-focused KPIs

As your KPIs get further up the funnel or further away from a purchase decision, the objections will naturally change. The goals of engagement usually include some type of action from people that indicates they’ve interacted with your brand’s messaging.  

Whether you decide you want more engagement on your social media accounts or your website, it’s up to you. 

Example KPIs

• Improve the engagement rate of branded posts by [percentage] by [deadline].
• Grow average time on site by [percentage] from influencers by [deadline]. 
• Increase the number of site sessions from [number] to [number] from influencers by [deadline]. 
• Improve positive brand sentiment from [percentage] to [percentage] by [deadline]. 

Some metrics to assign to engagement KPIs

• Sessions
• Average time on site
• Engagement rate
• Cost per engagement
• Overall campaign sentiment/brand sentiment

Brand awareness KPIs

You’ll want to develop brand awareness KPIs when your main goal is to create visibility, recognition, or familiarity with your brand, product(s), or messaging. Brand awareness KPIs can apply to your overall influencer marketing program or on a campaign level. 

Example KPIs

• Grow share of voice from [percentage] to [percentage] by [deadline].
• Improve branded search volume by [percentage] by [deadline]. 

Some metrics to assign to brand awareness KPIs

• Branded search volume
• Direct traffic
• Impressions
• Reach
• Views
• Earned media value
• Share of voice
• Brand lift

Now you’re ready to start tracking!

Using a KPI framework for influencer marketing will keep you and your team focused on activities that impact specific business goals. This way when it’s time to show ROI or prove success to your stakeholders, you’ll be ready. 

But how do you attribute your results to influencers and specific campaigns? Learn how to track influencer marketing activities next, including 8 proven methods. 

(Unless of course, you're tracking for BFCM – that's an entirely different beast)

And when you’ve done your research, start creating KPIs to track progress, drive action, and get results that matter. 

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