Six essential influencer KPIs. What are they?
Influencer marketing in the Baltics is already well-advanced. However, we still often see brands choosing influencers based on their looks without measuring the potential for future results.
Today, it is no longer enough to simply look at the influencer’s profile when choosing the right influencer. Instead, it is crucial to assess and analyze the performance indicators. Qualitative indicators such as style, visual aesthetics, and originality are essential. But how should one know which influencer will be effective when selecting the right person?
It is a mistake to think that a large following and beautiful and stylish content will guarantee success. The results and effectiveness of influencers can vary greatly, regardless of their follower base. For example, a person with a hundred thousand followers may reach less than 10% of their audience with the content they create, and an advertisement for a Lithuanian product may be presented to an Indian or Brazilian audience. So here are the six indicators to consider in your daily work to avoid such situations.
Audience insights
Before you start working with an influencer, ask them to share their audience indicators. This is perfectly standard practice, as knowing that their audience matches your brand’s target group is the most important thing when choosing an influencer. Instagram allows you to see the influencer’s segments of male and female followers, their ages, and what percentage of the followers are from Lithuania or another market that is relevant to you. The latter can tell a brand a lot more. For example, suppose the Lithuanian audience is less than 70%, and the influencer has followers from India, Brazil, or other countries where the influencer has not lived in the last five years and has not created content in the language of that country. In that case, this is an alarming signal that some followers are fake.
Always consider the integrity of influencers’ audiences and the country of origin of their followers. We do not recommend choosing influencers with an audience of less than 60% of users in the country you are planning to promote your product. Otherwise, you will be paying an influencer a price based on his total number of followers while reaching a relatively small segment of your target audience.
Audience credibility
This indicator relates to the number of fake followers mentioned above and can reveal the percentage of the influencer’s real followers. However, it is worth noting that every social networking profile has fake followers, so it is unlikely that you will find an influencer with an audience credibility of 100%. It is normal for larger accounts to have between 10% and 20% fake followers, so if the audience credibility of the influencer you have chosen is 85%, you should not think that the remaining 15% is fraudulent. Often, large social network profiles become victims of online bots. However, if the audience credibility is below 75%, it is worth looking at the geography of the influencer’s followers. The worst possible investment is spending money on fake followers. Make sure that the person you have chosen did not buy their followers. You can check this with the help of specialized tools or by consulting with a specialized agency.
Interestingly, in 2019, Modash conducted research showing that influencers from the Baltics have around 4.5 million fake followers on their Instagram accounts. At first glance, this is a huge number considering the overall size of the market, but it does not mean that all influencers have bought their following.
Here are the statistics for fake followers in each country:
- Lithuanian influencers have more than 1.5 million fake followers. We are happy to say that the average credibility of the Lithuanian influencer following is 85%—a remarkable result in a global context.
- In Latvia, the situation of fake followers is not so encouraging—influencers have almost two million fake followers, and the average credibility score of Latvian influencer following is only 72.63%. It means that nearly 2.7 out of every ten followers are fake.
- In the Estonian market, influencers have just over one million fake followers, and the average Estonian influencer follower credibility is 78%.
Reach
Once you know your influencer’s audience, analyze their performance indicators. One of them is reach, which shows what part of the influencer’s audience is reached by their posts or stories. Each influencer sees the reach statistics on their Instagram account (see Insights), so if you are in direct contact with the influencer, you can ask them to share this information. We recommend asking for statistics on recent posts and taking an average so you can get the most accurate picture of your post’s estimated reach.
How to calculate the average post reach?
Firstly, ask the influencer for the reach of their last five promotional Instagram posts. Then, add up the reach results for all posts and divide by the number of posts. This gives you the average reach of the influencer’s posts and a rough estimate of how many people your promotional post will reach. A good result is when an Instagram post reaches 40-50% or more, an Instagram Reel video reaches 60-80%, and Instagram stories reach 20-30% or more followers.
Impressions
This indicator shows the number of times an influencer’s content has been shown. The number of impressions is always higher than the reach, as users return to posts or stories and revisit them for various reasons. As well as the number of people reached, the results of content views can be found in the influencer’s Instagram statistics section.
Engagement & engagement rate
Actions such as likes, comments, shares, and saves are considered engagement. All of these indicate that followers have not only seen the content but are also interested in it. In the influencer market, a good engagement rate is considered when at least 3% of an influencer’s followers engage with their Instagram. The higher the percentage, the more the influencer’s audience is interested in the person’s work, life, and the topics they follow.
Saves are a highly valuable type of engagement, as they show that the post’s content is not only relevant to followers at the moment but that they intend to return to it in the future. Followers will save posts that create value and provide useful information, so when creating content guidelines for an influencer, consider how to present the promotion in a way that makes it worth saving.
CPE & CPM
Once the influencer’s performance has been analyzed, it is also important to assess the influencer’s cost-effectiveness. At first glance, an influencer may seem to generate great results, but it won’t be effective if it costs three times the market average.
CPE (Cost per Engagement). Based on the average engagement rate, you can calculate how much a click, a like, a comment, or some other form of support for an influencer’s post will cost per engagement. Once you know how much the Instagram post of your chosen influencer costs, divide the cost of the post by the average number of engagements. In the market, a price per engagement of €0.15 or less is considered to be an excellent result If the price you get is significantly higher, try negotiating advertising rates with the influencer.
CPM (Cost per Thousand Impressions). A similar principle can be used to calculate the price per 1 000 content impressions. For example, if an influencer’s Instagram post price is €500 and their post receives, on average, 80,000 impressions, the cost per 1,000 impressions can be calculated as follows: 1,000 x 500 / 80,000 = €6.25. A perfect CPM is €10 or less.
The key indicator is dictated by the goal
For a long time, engagement in the influencer marketing field has been a key indicator of the influencer’s communication effectiveness. However, the most important indicators are dictated by the target. For example, if your main objective is to increase brand awareness, the most important indicator will be reach. If you want to strengthen brand positioning, engagement with the content and the audience’s reaction to your brand will be more important.
For a brand, looking at an influencer’s KPIs in advance can not only help to avoid wasted investments but can also be used as a basis for effective marketing objectives. The key is to put the knowledge into practice by doing your homework well.
