How can you track the success of an influencer marketing campaign in real-time?

1 Define your objectives and KPIs

Before you launch your influencer marketing campaign, you need to define your objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs). What are you trying to achieve with your campaign? Is it to increase your followers, engagement, traffic, leads, or conversions? How will you measure your results? You need to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals and KPIs that align with your overall social media strategy. For example, if your objective is to increase your website traffic, your KPI could be the number of clicks on your influencer's link.

2 Choose the right tools and platforms

The next step is to choose the right tools and platforms to track your influencer marketing campaign in real-time. Depending on your budget, needs, and preferences, there are many options available. Google Analytics is a free and powerful tool that allows you to track website traffic and conversions from your influencer marketing campaign. Utilizing UTM parameters to tag your influencer's links can provide insight into sessions, bounce rate, time on site, and goal completions. Social media analytics can also be used to monitor influencer posts and stories, allowing you to see impressions, likes, comments, shares, saves, and views generated by them. Additionally, influencer marketing platforms such as AspireIQ, Upfluence, and Klear offer specialized features such as influencer discovery, campaign management, content approval, payment processing, and real-time reporting.

3 Monitor your reach and impressions

One of the most basic metrics to track your influencer marketing campaign in real-time is your reach and impressions. Reach is the number of unique users who see your influencer's content, while impressions are the total number of times your influencer's content is displayed. These metrics help you understand how far your influencer's content is spreading and how much exposure your brand is getting. You can use social media analytics or influencer marketing platforms to track your reach and impressions across different channels and platforms.

4 Track your engagement and sentiment

Another important metric to track your influencer marketing campaign in real-time is your engagement and sentiment. Engagement is the number of interactions your influencer's content generates, such as likes, comments, shares, saves, and views. Sentiment is the tone and emotion of your audience's reactions, such as positive, negative, or neutral. These metrics help you understand how your influencer's content is resonating with your audience and how they feel about your brand. You can use social media analytics or influencer marketing platforms to track your engagement and sentiment across different channels and platforms.

5 Measure your conversions and ROI

The ultimate metric to track your influencer marketing campaign in real-time is your conversions and return on investment (ROI). Conversions are the actions you want your audience to take after seeing your influencer's content, such as visiting your website, signing up for your newsletter, downloading your app, or making a purchase. ROI is the ratio of your revenue to your costs from your influencer marketing campaign. These metrics help you understand how your influencer's content is driving your business goals and how profitable your campaign is. You can use Google Analytics or influencer marketing platforms to track your conversions and ROI across different channels and platforms.