As Influencer Marketing continues to grow exponentially with significant momentum, it is nearly inevitable for clients to think about it as an approach to their overall sales and marketing strategy. Before they begin, they usually have questions like, “How do I know if it’s a good fit for my company or business?” Or, “How do I know if it’s a good use of our marketing budget?” Or, more recently, “How do I know an influencer’s following is authentic?” As with most marketing questions in general, the answers involve taking the time to understand a client’s needs and goals. Let’s start at the beginning and determine if influencer marketing is the right approach for you. 

Evaluating Influencer Marketing As A Strategy 

To know if influencer marketing is right for your business, start with your overall marketing plan: What are your goals? Your key messages? Your key milestones? The success or failure of an influencer marketing campaign can highly depend on the marketing plan and the team executing the program, and there’s usually nuance involved. You may want to work with an influencer marketing partner to help evaluate and shape your strategy. To make the process of prospecting the hundreds of companies, platforms, and agencies that claim to specialize in influencer marketing less daunting and your programs more successful, consider using this ultimate list of questions. 

Now that you understand how influencer marketing fits into your overall sales and marketing plan, you now need to understand how to evaluate your spend (ROI). 

Analyzing the Potential for Influencer ROI 

Over 84% of marketers confirm that influencer programs will claim a portion of their current budgets. As brands turn to this most-trusted form of marketing, every marketer grapples with the challenge of quantifying the value of this dynamic and evolving strategy. It’s no surprise that measuring ROI is currently the number one pain-point for marketers. 

Calculating ROI of influencer marketing can be challenging — but measuring the gain in sales due to your investment in sponsored influencer programs is now more possible than ever with access to the right tools, agency partner, and sales data. However, there is much more to influencer marketing than immediate sales lift. Don’t get me wrong: influencer marketing is a tremendous conversion driver. The magic is in the mix of awareness, brand affinity, and conversions—activating the entire purchase funnel and yielding long-term results. 

With a structured approach, measuring Total Impact of your program is not only manageable, but it can prove the “magic” of your influencer marketing strategy. If you don’t have the technology or personnel needed, work with a top-tier agency for program design, management, and reporting. To dive into more on the ROI of influencer marketing, check out this white paper that explains the process and metrics step-by-step. 

You plan is in place, you have clear goals and a measurement plan that tracks to those goals. The last piece of the puzzle is to hire the right influencers for your campaign. Marketing trade news is rife with articles about how influencers can’t be trusted because their followers are fake. But, is that really the case? A reputable influencer marketing partner works with reputable influencers AND has a transparent plan in place to vet for authentic influencer audiences. 

How Can I Be Sure Influencers’ Followers Aren’t Fake? 

Any reputable influencer marketing practitioner should be able to disclose authentically and transparently how they vet their influencers for bots and fakes. Many practitioners hide behind the veil of “it’s proprietary” because they cannot defend (or don’t have an actual method) for vetting. 

To learn more about how one reputable agency vets for fakes, download this helpful resource for details on: 

● The three levels of fraud detection 

● How to apply rates and ratios that adjust for inherent differences in influencer audiences 

● Measuring engagement performance 

● Quality assurance for your current or future fraud detection tools 

Now that you have an understanding of how to evaluate Influencer marketing strategies for your needs, how to measure ROI, and how to vet for fake followers. The last step is to work with a reputable partner to get your plan into place.