How to Measure Influencer Marketing Metrics and ROI on Instagram

The marketing landscape is ever-evolving, having notably undergone an overhaul since the inception of social media. This relatively new medium has served as an incubator for the rise of the online influencer.

Smart marketers have invested a lot of resources into Instagram specifically, and driving growth on the channel often encompasses the employment of these mini-stars with a ton of authority. Problem is, there have been no metrics to measure the return on this spend. 60% of marketers struggle to measure ROI, noting it as one of their top 3 reporting challenges in the social media space.

How are brands supposed to be evaluating the investment they're making on Instagram when it comes to hired Influencer and content creators?

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Brands across all sectors - whether they offer a product, a service, or entertainment - are bound by one common denominator: the desire to grow. In this day and age, that extends to a variety of channels, with (surprise!) Instagram unequivocally topping the list.

The difference between success and stagnation - or worse, failure - is the ability to build an engaged audience on Instagram with beautiful visual storytelling and a robust strategy. Doing so facilitates success, whatever your primary goals may be. With 400 million unique monthly users available to hook, it's a market that companies do not want to miss out on.

That said, there is a secret sauce to this Instagram thing and not everyone gets it right. It takes time to hone a voice, to master the proper aesthetic, to carve the right image, to build a community. Running influencer marketing campaigns also helps a great deal, not only as a branding strategy, but also because word of mouth is how most consumers make purchase decisions.

Any good marketer will tell you that while intuition means plenty, it can only take you so far. All of those aforementioned points should be part of your game plan, but it's hard to inherently narrow in on a course of action without backing up impactful decisions with cold hard facts. Instagram business account offerings are expanding, but stats for the common practice of influencer marketing remain unavailable. Being aware of superficial figures like audience size and number of likes can leave you temporarily satiated, yet still swimming in obscurity.

Let Dash Hudson be the flashlight.

@thesaltyblonde's post from earlier? Brought a whopping 120 new followers to @augustethelabel's account. WUT.

3 Top Influencer Marketing Metrics To Measure

Commissioned creatives with large IG audiences have a lot of leverage because the lack of performance metrics available to brands gives them the upper hand. Working with Instagrammers should be a collaborative partnership that takes into account intangible factors beyond the size of their following, such as brand fit and engagement, but once those sponsored posts go out, their performance should ideally be tracked to see what you're getting for your money.

Our unique arsenal of robust analytics tools delivers the following metrics to measure influencer and creator ROI:

1. New Followers on Instagram

Beyond being a branding exercise, the purpose of influencer marketing is account growth through being exposed to various audiences. Our tools will track that on a daily basis, as well as measure individual performances.

Dash Hudson's sophisticated tools measure individual influencer performances.

2. Instagram Reach

We give you the reach for each individual post and tell you who contributed what on what day. Knowing the exact number of users who were exposed to your brand is an essential figure, but calculating impressions also provides a good benchmark for the CPM you're paying.

3. Engagement Rate on Instagram

Various engagement rates need to be taken into account. First, the ambassador's average rate, which is explicitly telling of how much their content is resonating with their audience, as well as a direct correlation to their level of influence. A low engagement rate means disconnected followers, or worse, bought/bot followers. Second, the sponsored post's individual engagement rate. This will tell you if your chosen Instagrammer's audience is on brand: if their followers are responding positively to your @ mention, you've chosen well. It's also indicative of content quality.

Dash Hudson's influencer platform provides all of those concrete engagement and reach metrics so that you don't have to keep playing the guessing game.

Measuring the impact of influencer marketing is still a shot in the dark for some, but blindly trusting Influencers to drive results is no longer the only option. Dash Hudson provides a full spectrum of analytics to properly track all of the important metrics that accurately measure ROI and better devise goals and strategies.