How can you determine the actual effectiveness of an influencer marketing campaign beyond vanity metrics like likes or shares?

To determine the actual effectiveness of an influencer marketing campaign beyond vanity metrics like likes or shares, you need to focus on metrics that directly correlate with your business goals, such as app downloads, user acquisition cost, and return on investment (ROI). First, implement trackable links or promo codes specific to each influencer. This allows you to directly attribute app downloads and user activity to their specific campaigns. Second, monitor app store analytics for a surge in organic downloads and product page views during and immediately after the influencer campaign. Compare this to your baseline performance to assess the incremental impact of the campaign. Third, track user behavior within the app, such as registration rates, feature usage, and in-app purchases, for users acquired through the influencer campaign. This provides insights into the quality of the acquired users and their long-term value. Fourth, calculate the user acquisition cost (CAC) for users acquired through the influencer campaign. Compare this to your CAC for other marketing channels to determine the cost-effectiveness of influencer marketing. Also, measure the lifetime value (LTV) of users acquired through the influencer campaign and compare it to the campaign cost to calculate the ROI. This will show whether the revenue generated by those users offsets the campaign expense. Finally, conduct surveys or polls to assess brand awareness and sentiment among users who were exposed to the influencer campaign. This provides insights into the campaign's impact on brand perception. Keep in mind the time to conversion may be longer than the actual period of the campaign.