7 KPIs for successful influencer marketing

What is a KPI?

First things first: what is a KPI? The abbreviation stands for Key Performance Indicator. It comes from the English Key Performance Indicator. You use a KPI to track your progress on objectives and strategy. In other words, it tells you whether you are doing well.

A simple example: you have an online store and are looking for a reliable revenue stream. Your strategy is to create a loyal group of regular customers. KPIs you can use for this purpose are: “number of returning customers,” “number of newsletter signups,” or “growth rate of returning website visitors.”

Matching KPIs to strategic goals

KPIs alone won’t do you much good. You need to link them to strategic goals, as we did in the example above. But how do you effectively link KPIs to a strategy? This is done in three steps:

• Set a strategic goal: For example, you want more loyal customers, additional sales, or increased brand awareness.
• Think about how to measure that goal: for example, brand awareness can be measured by the number of Google searches on your brand name. This is then a KPI.
• Make your KPI a SMART objective: If your KPI is “number of Google searches,” your SMART objective could be “Within a year, the number of Google searches on my brand name will have increased by 20%.”

The 7 best KPIs for influencer marketing

Now you know what a KPI is. You even know how to link it to a strategic goal! But which KPIs are key to a successful influencer marketing campaign? I list my 7 favorite KPIs for you. But note: you don’t need all 7 of them. There is also such a thing as too many KPIs. Just pick the ones that best fit your goals.

1. Number of website visitors from social media

A lot of influencer marketing takes place on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and other social media. But ultimately, of course, you want to see results on your own website. A good KPI is therefore “number of website visitors from social media”. Because only then can you really see what your marketing is delivering!

2. Number of participations in a giveaway

The great thing about influencer marketing is its versatility. For example, you can organize a cool giveaway for extra engagement and brand awareness. But of course you want to know how effective such a giveaway is. The number of participants then gives a good indication.

3. Growth rate of social media followers

Sometimes you deploy influencers to boost your own status on social media. If that’s your goal, then of course the number of social media followers is a logical KPI. But absolute numbers are not always the most important thing. Sometimes the growth you experience is much more fascinating. That’s when the KPI “growth rate of social media followers” comes in handy.

4. Number of returning buyers after using an influencer code

It’s a well-known influencer trick: handing out discount codes. It can be an excellent way to attract new buyers to your website. Ideally, you want to turn those new buyers into loyal customers. You can see if that works by looking at the KPI “number of returning buyers after using an influencer code”. It may take some searching in your analytics tool, but it provides valuable insights.

5. New website visitors from influencer channels

This KPI is very similar to the first one I mentioned. But there is an important difference. Whereas the first KPI only looks at social media, this KPI looks at new visitors from all of your influencer channels. Of course, if you also work with influencers who have a YouTube channel or blog, you want to be able to see the big picture.

6. Profit per visitor from influencer channels

This is a complex but super useful KPI for influencer marketing. By looking at profit per visitor from influencer channels, you can measure the absolute effectiveness of your campaign. At the end of the day, we all want to see that profit increase. With this KPI, you can measure that.

7. Absolute growth in visitors from desired target audience

If you ask me, influencer marketing is perfect for tapping into new audiences. That also makes this one of my favorite KPIs. It shows that you have found the right influencers to reach individuals you didn’t know how to reach before. The magic of influencer marketing!

Finding influencers through Hulc

With these KPIs in your pocket, you’ll be starting a smashing influencer marketing campaign in no time. All you need now are the right influencers. You can find them on Hulc’s influencer marketplace. It’s simple: post your campaign and wait for bloggers, YouTubers and social media influencers to respond.

Wondering if it’s something for you? Then check out Hulc.io