Partnering with influencers has become an essential marketing channel for brands looking to connect with their target audience. Brands like Gymshark, Lululemon or Daniel Wellington all worked with influencers to grow their brands into household names.
According to the management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company the influencer marketing economy was valued at USD 21.1 billion in 2023 (McKinsey & Company, 2023) and is expected to continue to grow.
Next to paid social media advertising, organic social media and search engine optimization, influencer marketing has become a crucial marketing channel for brands to accelerate growth.
What exactly is influencer marketing, how do you get started and implement a successful campaign? All of this will be covered in detail in this guide, where we walk through different examples, ROI figures, case studies and explain step by step how you can succeed with influencer marketing as a brand.
Influencer marketing is a strategy where brands collaborate with individuals who have a significant and engaged social media following to promote their products or services. These individuals, known as influencers, leverage their online credibility and personal connection with their audience to drive brand awareness, trust, and sales. Unlike traditional advertising, influencer marketing feels more authentic, as it often comes in the form of relatable content rather than overt promotions.
Influencer marketing is successful because it creates a sense of trust and relatability. In a McKinsey analysis of more than 2,000 influencer marketing posts, the strategy consistently showed a positive return on investment (ROI). Furthermore, 34% of consumers in a survey admitted to making purchases on Instagram due to influencer endorsements, underscoring its ability to drive tangible results.
This approach benefits all parties:
One of the key advantages of influencer marketing over other forms of advertising is the trust it creates. Especially if a brand is not well known yet, having an influencer review and recommend the product creates the trust needed to drive conversions.
A major benefit of influencer marketing is that it touches the entire customer journey from upper, mid, to bottom of the funnel.
Read our detailed post: 5 reasons you should invest in influencer marketing here
In this chapter we will explain step by step how to create an effective influencer marketing program / campaign.
The first step in creating a successful influencer marketing campaign is to clearly define your objectives. These goals will guide the structure of your strategy and vary based on the size, stage, and needs of your brand. Whether you're a small business testing the waters or a large enterprise scaling efforts, clarity in goals is essential for success.
Certain products or services are simply suited better for certain platforms. The most popular platforms for influencer marketing are:
Each platform comes with benefits and challenges. Below is a quick overview comparing the top 3 most popular social media platforms for influencer marketing.
Other platforms which are being used for influencer marketing are:
Once the objective and goal is defined and you decide on the platform you want to target it is time to get started on the actual campaign. The first step is to find the right influencers to work with.
Although it is unfortunately not possible to predict the outcome of an influencer partnership there are certain metrics through which you are able to increase your ROI.
Based on a research we conducted where we analyzed over 10K commercial influencer posts our data scientists were able to determine which metrics correlate with conversion.
You can access the full influencer research report here but below are the key metrics which showed a positive correlation with conversion:
Besides these quantitative metrics also make sure to look at qualitative elements such as:
To ensure accurate comparisons, we've created a comprehensive benchmark overview for you. Using data from over 150 million Instagram influencers, we've compiled this resource to help you effectively evaluate and benchmark the influencers you’re considering collaborating with.
You can also use our free engagement rate calculator.
When it comes to the size of the influencers there are different options each coming with their own benefits and challenges.
The table below compares each of these influencers and highlights some of the key benefits and challenges.
One trend is that brands increasingly prioritize working with micro and nano influencers, as their content tends to feel more authentic and relatable than that of larger influencers are more cost effective to work with hence yielding a higher ROI.
When searching for influencers, you have two main approaches: manual searches and influencer discovery tools.
Manual searching is a low-cost method, but it can be extremely time-intensive as you sift through countless profiles to find the right match. On the other hand, influencer discovery tools are highly time-efficient and provide advanced filtering options to streamline your search, but they come with a cost.
With Influencer Hero for example you can use detailed filters such as audience location, engagement rate, demographics, lookalikes, and more, enabling you to hyper-target influencers that perfectly align with your campaign goals.
Below are some of the best influencer discovery tools:
Once you've identified the influencers you'd like to collaborate with, the next step is to reach out and onboard them to your campaign. Crafting a strong and personalized outreach strategy is essential to maximize your response and onboarding rates.
There are several ways to contact influencers, each with its own pros and cons.
Read more in detail how to optimize your influencer outreach templates here.
Manually reaching out to influencers can be time-intensive, especially for large campaigns. Leveraging automation tools can save time, improve organization, and maximize your outreach efficiency. Below are some popular tools you can use for influencer outreach:
After reaching out to influencers, the next crucial step is managing your campaign effectively to ensure everything runs smoothly. Whether you're working with a handful of influencers or executing a large-scale campaign, proper organization is key to achieving your goals. Here's how to manage your influencer marketing campaigns efficiently.
If you're working with a small number of influencers, a simple spreadsheet or Google Sheet can help you track responses, deliverables, and campaign progress. Here’s what to include in your spreadsheet:
Pros:
Cons:
When managing campaigns with multiple influencers, relying on manual tracking can become overwhelming. This is where Influencer Relationship Management (IRM) tools come in handy. These platforms help you automate processes, streamline communication, and monitor performance in real-time.
Here are some of the best tools for influencer campaign management:
Once you’ve onboarded influencers to your campaign, the next step is tracking their performance to measure ROI and optimize future efforts. Below are some of the most effective techniques to track influencer marketing campaign performance across various platforms.
Affiliate links are unique URL paths assigned to each influencer. These links automatically embed a cookie in the browser of the person who clicks on them, allowing you to track:
Assigning personalized discount codes or coupons to each influencer allows you to track their performance based on code usage. When customers redeem these codes, you can directly attribute the sales to the influencer.
Tracking campaign performance manually can be overwhelming, especially for large campaigns. That’s why many brands use 3rd party software to track affiliates.
For campaigns focused on brand awareness or engagement, tracking likes, comments, shares, and views is crucial. Most social media platforms provide insights into these metrics for influencer content.
Use UTM parameters in your URLs to gain deeper insights into influencer performance. By tagging links with source, medium, and campaign details, you can track:
This is what most affiliate software uses automatically but this can be done manually if needed but using a UTM builder.
Once the influencers have posted using this link you can create reports in Google Analytics and filters based on the UTM under traffic acquisitions and campaigns.
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Once your influencer marketing campaign is underway and tracking tools are in place, creating detailed reports is essential to showcase its effectiveness. These reports help you analyze performance, optimize future campaigns, and demonstrate ROI to stakeholders. Below are the most important metrics and KPIs to include in your influencer marketing campaign reports.
Influencer programs require significant time investment, but software tools can streamline the process. The table below shows a detailed overview on the time involved in organising an influencer campaign manually vs using an influencer software in this example Influencer Hero.
Read about the hours behind an influencer campaign in detail here.
Below is an overview of the top 10 influencer marketing platforms currently available.
You can access a detailed comparison of the best influencer platforms here.
The overview below compares the key benefits and challenges of using an influencer platform and keeping your influence marketing in house vs working with an influencer agency.
Read in detail how to choose the right influencer agency here.
Influencer marketing campaigns come in various formats, each tailored to different goals and audiences. Choosing the right campaign type and compensation structure is critical to achieving success.
Below, we explore the most common types of influencer marketing campaigns, highlighting their advantages, challenges, and best practices.
Barter collaborations involve offering influencers a free product or service in exchange for a post, review, or mention. This method works particularly well when your product has a high perceived value or is highly desirable to the influencer.
Affiliate marketing campaigns reward influencers with a percentage of sales they drive through a unique affiliate link or code. This pay-for-performance model aligns incentives between your brand and the influencer.
Fixed-payment campaigns involve compensating influencers with a flat fee for their content, whether it’s a single post or a package of multiple posts. This approach is ideal for high-performing influencers where expected performance is predictable.
Brand ambassador campaigns involve long-term partnerships with influencers or celebrities who consistently represent your brand in exchange for a monthly fee. This strategy is commonly used for celebrity marketing.
Read more in detail about all the different types of influencer campaigns here.
Giveaways are a powerful marketing strategy to drive engagement, boost brand visibility, and attract new audiences.
Read more in detail how to organize a successful influencer giveaway campaign here.
Influencer rates vary significantly across platforms, influenced by factors like follower count, engagement rate, content type, and campaign specifics. Whether you're working with influencers on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or other platforms, understanding the pricing structure is crucial for planning your marketing budget.
Influencers are generally categorized by follower count, which heavily influences their pricing. Below is an overview of typical rates across platforms:
Note: Rates are approximate and can vary depending on engagement rates, niche, platform, and content requirements.
To estimate costs for influencer collaborations, you can use this formula:
Influencer Cost = (Target CPM / 1,000) × Average Views per Post
Example Calculation:
If your target CPM is $30 and the influencer averages 5,843 views per post:
Influencer Cost = ($30 / 1,000) × 5,843 = $175
This formula ensures fair compensation based on an influencer’s reach and your budget.
Read more in detail about influencer pricing and rate cards here.
If your main objective is to maximise ROI it is important to understand the two elements you can influence to increase ROI.
The formula to determine ROI = Revenue / Marketing Cost
Hence there are two elements you can influence as a marketer to improve ROI.
To understand this lets first take a look at the 80/20 principle in influencer marketing which states that 80% of the revenues are generated by 20% of the influencers. In reality this number is even higher and what we typically observe is that around 5-10% of the influencers generate 80% of the revenue.
This strong power law distribution makes influencer marketing such a challenging channel to master because the majority of the influencers are not able to drive significant conversions.
However, there is a small group of influencers which drive significant sales. We frequently have helped our clients to establish partnerships with influencers which generate > USD 1 million in sales within a 1-2 year time period.
Read about this strategy in detail and everything else on Influencer marketing ROI here.
Influencer marketing is a powerful strategy for brands looking to build trust, drive engagement, and boost sales in an authentic way. By leveraging the reach and credibility of influencers across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, brands can connect with their target audience effectively. This guide has provided actionable insights into influencer marketing strategies, pricing, ROI optimization, and campaign management. Whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, implementing a well-planned influencer program can unlock substantial growth for your brand.
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