As brands develop their influencer marketing strategies and their KPIs, it becomes increasingly difficult to align campaign goals with multiple performance indicators. When brands expand their scope of influencer activations, KPIs and their connection to the campaign objectives can get lost while trying to achieve scale. This blog explains how marketers can better determine their campaign goals while multiple KPIs are at play.
Aligning Your KPIs with Your Objectives
When running an influencer campaign, it’s important that your KPIs are actual indicators of how you will achieve your campaign goals. For instance, say you know that you want to achieve a 30 percent conversion rate on a trackable link and want 20 percent of website traffic coming from those same links. Simultaneously, you want your campaign goal to revolve around increasing your brand following on Instagram, for example. Here you can see the misalignment between your KPIs and your goal.
For this example, you should instead have your campaign goal focus on driving sales, which goes hand in hand with the conversion rate KPI and website traffic KPI. Keep in mind that your KPIs should always align with your campaign goals, which should in turn align with your overarching influencer marketing goals, general marketing goals, and the overall business goals.
Working Through The Funnel
By starting with your company’s overall business goals, then working down to your marketing-specific and finally influencer-specific objectives, you can better develop KPIs that are accurate and actionable. While some think of this process as a one-way funnel, it’s actually a cycle allowing you to create a feedback loop between your campaign goals, KPIs, and marketing goals. Constant learning and adjusting your tactics accordingly is essential to a dynamic and impactful influencer marketing strategy.
Let’s walk through the KPIs mentioned above using an example scenario. Say you run a makeup company and the overall business objective is to generate sales by supporting individuality, through your makeover expertise and via unique customized experiences. To drive sales by supporting individuality, the company has a standing partnership with mega beauty influencer Jackie Aina and is committed to amplifying faces and voices of all colors and genders. Next, you look at how the company supports its primary initiatives throughout the business and you see that it does this through two primary tactics: through its diverse face and skin cosmetics line and by manufacturing high-quality brushes and brush cleaners. Finally, you determine how you’ll enhance those tactics through integrations like influencer marketing campaigns, paid media, and market research.
When you have all of that finalized, you’re ready to establish your KPIs. Focusing on influencer marketing, your goal would generate sales through a campaign comprised of a diverse group of influencers promoting your skincare products with copy that includes unique promo codes and tracking links. By doing this, you can accurately track your original KPIs of achieving a 30 percent conversion rate on a trackable link and want 20 percent of website traffic coming from those same links.
Getting Creative with Your Campaign Mix
Campaign goals and KPIs will vary depending on the type of influencer activation. With many brands running influencer marketing strategies across multiple use cases, it’s normal for KPIs to align with a variety of different campaigns.
When trying to achieve multiple KPIs, it’s best to run different types of campaigns with unique goals that connect back to those specific KPIs. This connection can be partial or whole (i.e. one campaign contributes 50% to your KPI and another contributes the other 50%), enabling you to work to achieve your KPIs as accurately and realistically as possible.
By working top-down starting with your company’s goals, and getting creative with the types of campaigns you execute, you can determine which campaign objectives align best with your KPIs. Additionally, by evaluating changes in your company, department, and marketing team, and realigning your goals and KPIs along the way, you can ensure that you stay on track to achieve your objectives.
Speak with one of our specialists who can help to determine your campaign goals in your influencer marketing strategies.
