Ambassador and influencer marketing is one of the most explosive forms of media today.

The worldwide estimated spend on sponsored content in the influencer space was at $3B just five years ago. The influencer market for branded and platform deals is projected to skyrocket to $28 billion by 2026. According to eMarketer, “influencer marketing is projected to grow 23.4% and 15.9% YoY in 2023 and 2024."

What about consumers? According to a 2022 GoodFirms survey, 56.8% of respondents buy products based on the advice of social media influencers.

There's plenty of research about the steady growth of influencer marketing and you may be ready to jump in on the action. What are the first steps for your brand to get started? Here are three things to consider as you plan your campaigns.

First, Define Success for Your Brand

A tale as old as time for our Fohr campaigns team is that they approach brands with the following questions:

• Are you looking for brand awareness opportunities or a shift in brand perception?
• Are you budgeting for economy and efficiency, or premium assets and great storytelling?
• Is your goal to increase web traffic, email acquisitions, or sales and conversions?

To which the answer is usually: Yes. All of the above.

Unfortunately, as our campaigns team likes to say, you can’t shoot three targets with one arrow.

Defining success in influencer marketing is challenging because it varies from brand to brand. For brands to build toward an imminent future where influencer and ambassador marketing is the most dominant form of marketing, a consistent plan must be to learn, improve and evolve. This means focusing on long-term success rather than pursuing short-term high performance or reaching for misinformed goals.

It would be best if you made sure to set your goals and define what success is for your brand before commencing influencer identification to ensure you are selecting the right partners.

Bonus content: We hosted a webinar on How to Measure Influencer Performance. Download the key takeaways here.

“There is a tendency to get excited and jump directly into the partnership without a strong campaign foundation.  Start by defining the output of your campaign, then use this understanding to inform the platforms you activate against, the types of influencers you partner with, and how the campaign runs.” — Crystal Duncan, WIIM.

Second, Set Your Campaign Goals and Key Metrics

Once you decide what success looks like, we can narrow down which area of the funnel we want to focus on and establish our key metrics.

Advertising theory tells us that a consumer needs to see a product 6-7 times before pulling the trigger. Use this funnel to help guide you through which metrics to optimize for and focus on, then map back to your goals.

Key Metrics

• Awareness: Impressions, Viewership, Reach, EMV
• Interest + Education: Likes, Comments, Shares, and Sends
• Consideration: Clicks, Sticker Taps, Saves
• Intent to Purchase: Clicks, Sticker Taps, Saves
• Conversion or Purchase: Promo Code Redemptions, Affiliate Sales, Paid Media Results

Persuasion Over Performance

Positive sentiment is another qualitative key metric to help you evaluate success. Sometimes one great comment can tell a more impactful success story than a whole slide of stats. The zoom-out is essential, but so is the zoom-in. Remember that one like for the right reason is better than receiving five likes for the wrong one.

Then, Set Fair Benchmarks for Your Brand

At Fohr, we’ve coined the 4 C’s of Benchmarking:

1. Category: setting benchmarks based on players within your vertical.
2. Company: setting benchmarks based on your brand’s past performance.
3. Creator: setting benchmarks based on your chosen partners’ averages.
4. Chapter: benchmarking performance by each phase of a long-term campaign.

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To learn more about benchmarking and setting campaign goals, download the key takeaways from ‘How to Measure Influencer Performance.’

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Every brand varies in experience, vertical, campaign goals, brand love, and price point. We would love to develop a more tailored measurement strategy or answer any of your questions. Sign up for a brand trial here.