Whether to increase brand awareness, customer loyalty or generate business opportunities, brands and their agencies compete to build relationships with relevant influencers. Since increasingly important budgets are attributed to this growing practice, the question of measuring contribution and ROI is more relevant than ever.

According to a poll of marketing professionals, conducted by Tomoson in 2015, for every dollar spent on influencer marketing, companies earned $ 6.50. The survey also found that this method is most effective to acquire new online customers, and this exceeded organic searches and email marketing. Here are some ways to determine the ROI of these campaigns.

The value of the influencer

Finding the right influencers who both fit the image of the brand and are followed by targeted customers is the first challenge. Fortunately, there are new tools to measure and rank the value of these influencers from the point of view of commitment. Several variables, both quantitative and qualitative, can be considered:

-Visibility: distribution, circulation, page views, unique visitors
– Social commitment: “Likes”, shared content, comments
– Content quality, aesthetics, relevance and artistic direction

The cost of the relationships

For specific campaigns, some brands unlock budgets to pay influencers. Visibility and parameters are negotiated and the influencers in most cases mention to their audience that this is sponsored content. For example, Lise Watier and popular YouTuber Alex Fashion Beauty created a collaboration that is unique. Watch this video to learn more !

On the other hand, brands also use targeted mailings to influencers in order to advertise their products. This is done without entering into a visibility agreement. It is then up to the influencers as to whether or not they mention products and brands according to their assessment of the product or experience. For example, Lacoste recently sent out a number of polos in order to celebrate the « joie de vivre » with the arrival of spring and, of course, to create a buzz on social networks about its brand.

In both cases, we should consider some of the following variables in order to be able to properly calculate the costs:

-The value of the contract which varies according to the content to be created
– Expenses related to promotional campaigns (products, packaging, complementary gifts, delivery costs, etc.)
– The agency fees that apply when developing creative and strategic concepts related to marketing objectives

A logical method would be to calculate the value of the visibility offered to the brand by the influencer divided by the sum invested in the campaign. However, there is still no single method to determine the ROI of influencer marketing campaigns. We can bet that the industry will soon develop standards. To be continued!