Influencer marketing has inspired dozens of blog posts, videos, and guides on strategies, and goals, identifying and analyzing influencers, reaching out to them, and building relationships. However, very few cover campaign planning, execution, and analysis - and here we refer to the procedure of putting together and running an actual campaign, not the entire strategy from defining goals to reporting.
We intend to fill this void with this blog post. We start our article by touching briefly on influencer negotiations. Next, we focus on how to prepare your campaign plan and use it for preliminary calculations. We'll cover content review and approval, what to track when running a campaign, and how to minimize the chances of errors. Lastly, we will discuss campaign analysis and reporting. Having said that, let's begin!
Your Campaign Execution Starts with Negotiations
Let's say you’ve already done half the work. More precisely, you created a strategy, you defined your goals and budget, and identified your target audience. You shortlisted several content creators and contacted them. Now you can focus on implementation.
This begins with a dialogue where your brief plays a significant role, and finishes with a contract agreeing on compensation, use of content, access to social media accounts, and other terms. You are now entering the realm of influencer relationship management. The negotiation process will take your campaign from outreach to executing it. At this stage, you will find out which influencers' rates fit within your budget and the contents will begin to take shape.
The following is a quick overview of what you need to cover during this stage.
Prepare an influencer brief that you'll send to the creators. Your brief contains all details about the campaign, including the message, vision, goals, and timeline, plus content ideas and references. It is tricky to write influencer briefs that are neither too restrictive nor leave room for confusion. Make sure you strike a balance so that the creator knows what's expected from them without being overbearing. If you're not sure what information to include in it, check out our related article about influencer briefs.
Once the creator knows what you expect from them, you can discuss remuneration. Negotiate the conditions of the payment. Besides a fixed fee, you can offer incentives such as commissions and gifts. The most important thing is that the compensation is in line with the creator's work. You can learn more about influencer payment in this article.
Lastly, you must agree on content usage, exclusivity, termination, and how your partnership will be disclosed. By clarifying legal matters, you will protect yourselves and ensure a smooth collaboration. Check out our extensive blog article about influencer-brand negotiations.
If you have reached an agreement on all points, draft a contract and both of you must sign it. A contract between influencers and businesses eliminates doubts, clarifies misunderstandings, and resolves legal disputes.
Develop a Plan with Pre-Estimates Before the Campaign Launch
Before you start putting together the current campaign, you should create a pre-campaign plan with estimations that are as detailed as possible. By compiling your plan, you can see the data of all the influencers you are working with, the kind and amount of content they will publish, and the budget you intend to spend on the campaign in one place. You can use all of this information to make a preliminary calculation of the possible outcome of your campaign; and if your estimates fail to meet your expectations, you can still make changes.
This is a critical stage of the influencer marketing workflow that isn't frequently mentioned on the internet. However, we believe it's worth the time and effort. Your pre-campaign plan provides a comprehensive overview and the opportunity to fine-tune your strategy - if necessary - before launching your campaign.
What to include in a pre-campaign plan?
Since the goal is to determine your possible campaign results, use Excel or Google spreadsheets. You decide how detailed to make your document. The more data you enter, the more accurate the forecast. Obviously, there is some data you must include, which is what we will list below.
Add all the influencers who joined your program, along with their social media usernames and links. Provide their key data, such as the number of followers, estimated ER, individual engagement data (likes, shares, comments, clicks), and estimated reach. If you have conducted a thorough influencer analysis, this data is already available to you. You can either ask influencers for their reach and engagement data of their posts from the past 30 days and count an average engagement rate and estimate the reach from that, or you can calculate this data with an online tool for influencer analysis. As another option, you may use an influencer marketing platform that counts several performance metrics automatically aside from ER and reach. By collecting this information in one place, they enable you to review and judge the effectiveness of your campaign.
Let's move on to your campaign's monetary aspects. You will agree on the remuneration with each creator during negotiations, so enter the total amount paid to each influencer in the table. Once you know the fees as well as all engagement metrics (likes and comments), you may calculate the cost per engagement (CPE) of each influencer by dividing their fees by their engagement metrics.
You can similarly calculate the CPE of the entire campaign by dividing the campaign budget by the total engagement value. Here's one example. Let's say, the total amount you spend is $35,000. Now, you have to divide this by the total engagement (all creators' engagement) which is 330,000. Your CPE will be 0.11%, making it a cost-effective campaign.
As a reminder, the formula is:
CPE = total amount spent / total measured engagement.
Due to the lack of revenue, it is tricky to calculate return on investment (ROI) at this point. You can, however, still take a stab at estimating your conversion rate and thus an average revenue from each conversion - or more precisely, each purchase - based on historical data. Remember that this calculation relies on a predictive approach, so take the results with a grain of salt.
In case you decide to figure pre-campaign KPIs yourself, you can collect the below data without using extra tools.
Performing these calculations can help you demonstrate to your team and supervisors, or your clients that you have chosen qualified influencers and your strategy is solid.
Pre-campaign Content Review
The last step before your campaign begins is to review influencers' first drafts, request changes if necessary, and finalize the posts with them. You can, of course, accomplish this simultaneously with the pre-campaign plan creation if you assign these tasks to multiple people.
Remember how we stressed previously the importance of the influencer brief? Here, it will be verified whether the creator's first draft corresponds to what was written in it. Maybe you had too many requests, and the influencer misinterpreted your message and didn't reflect your ideas, or they deviated too much from their usual style because of it. You may have also given the creator too few guidelines and examples, so the content no longer relates to your brand.
Thus, the first thing to check is whether the campaign message is clearly conveyed in the content.
Next, examine whether the influencer used similar imagery to the examples you provided.
As a third step, make sure the text and images won’t impact your brand negatively.
In either case, it's not just for this reason that some content checkpoints should be included before promotions begin.
The text must be free of typos and grammatical errors.
Check that all hashtags, keywords, mentions, and links you provided earlier are included. Be sure that there are no broken links.
It is your responsibility to double-check whether the influencer indicates that the post is an advertisement for a product. Make sure the disclosure is compliant with the country's and the social platform's regulations. Videos - even live videos - and podcasts must announce the disclosure and mention it in the description.
The simplest solution: Create a content review template that lists all the elements your content must meet. You can use this template for all campaigns; just add 1-2 points based on each campaign's unique content requirements.
As part of the process, you should keep all your influencer drafts together so that your team members can see how content creation and previews are going. In this case, cloud services are helpful, since influencers can upload their finished drafts. Once you review them, you can discuss any needed adjustments by email or video call.
Campaign Launch and Real-Time Tracking
Now that everything is in place, your campaign can go live. Influencers run the show at this stage of your influencer marketing workflow, and you watch them from the sidelines. All the work and effort of the past months will finally pay off and make sense. All steps involved in influencer marketing are important, but campaign tracking should be explored at least as thoroughly as choosing the right influencer or developing a full campaign plan.
During your campaign, you should pay attention to two things. To begin with, you have to ensure that influencers follow the posting schedule and publish the right content. Similarly, you must monitor published content performance, including likes, comments, shares, clicks, and reach, and how they compare against your budget. Some of this information is available online, but you will have to request the non-public data like reach from the creators themselves. Another solution would be to use an influencer platform, where the tool keeps track of and automatically calculates all relevant data after auto-tracking the posts is enabled.
How to measure your current influencer campaign’s success?
Let's examine first what metrics you can measure without extra apps during your campaign and how you can estimate its results. As you will see, this information must be compiled manually and enables you to make basic estimates about your program's impact. You'll need additional tools to get a more detailed picture.
Again, you can use Excel or Google Sheets to track your campaign's impact. Add your total budget, how much you've spent, and how much you still have left to the table. The campaign may incur expenses even before it starts, such as payments to the influencer in installments, fees for analytical tools, and costs associated with product placement.
Essential metrics you can track and KPIs you can estimate without tools
Ensure that content is published on time and measure the number of likes, comments, shares, clicks, and purchases coming from it. It is necessary for you to request the reach of each post from the influencer if you don’t use an influencer platform's campaign monitoring solution. Finally, include each post's fee. Having all of this data will enable you to calculate the ER and the costs per thousand (CPM), clicks (CPC), and engagements (CPE).
Here’s how you can estimate the engagement rate of one post. Add up all the likes and comments, divide it by the creator’s follower number, and multiply the amount by 100. So if an influencer has 76,000 followers and their Instagram post gains 856 likes and 62 comments, the total engagement will be 918. This is divided by 76,000 and then multiplied by 100. The post’s ER will be 1.2%. This value determines how well the content resonates with the target audience. In general, the higher the better.
The formula for estimating ER per post:
ER = (total measured engagement/follower count)x100%.
To determine the cost of clicks, simply divide the fee you paid to the influencer for the actual post by the number of clicks attributed to the content. If you spend $250 on an Instagram post that generates 178 clicks, your CPC will be $1.4. The lower the CPC, the more efficient your campaign will be.
CPC is calculated as follows:
CPC = total cost/total number of clicks.
If you use videos in your promotions, knowing the cost per thousand (CPM) will help you gauge their efficiency. To estimate the cost per thousand views, divide the reach by 1,000. Once you have that number, divide the cost of the video by it. Let's say that the creator's content reached 255,000 people and cost you $350. First, divide 255,000 by 1,000, which is 255, and then divide this by 350. $0.73 will be the CPM.
To calculate CPM, use this formula:
CPM = total cost/(reach/1,000)
As a reminder, you can calculate the following metrics manually without using a third-party analytics tool:
Nevertheless, tracking is easiest with tools like Google Analytics or a CRM. A third option would be end-to-end influencer marketing suites that provide campaign tracking and performance measurement features. These tools continuously track and update information related to the content and collect key metrics for you. As a result, you will be informed not only of CPC and CPE but also of CPA, ROI, and EMV.
What can go wrong during the campaign?
Planning in advance and constructing a step-by-step strategy will minimize the number and severity of problems that arise. Furthermore, you need to put serious effort into choosing influencers and maintain open communication. In spite of this, it can’t be completely ruled out that some small error can slip into the machine, although many of these are more like 'life happens' situations.
Let's first discuss potential issues related to the content, the influencer, and publishing and how to resolve them.
1. The influencer fails to post at the designated time
Nowadays, most creators use a social media scheduler tool, which allows them to schedule posts ahead of time. Therefore, the chances of them not posting are very slim. Even if your partner doesn't use such a solution, you shouldn't automatically assume the worst. Delays can also be caused by force majeure events, such as illness, unexpected personal matters, or internet or power outages.
How to fix it?
Try to contact the creator and clarify what happened. In addition, always have a backup plan. For example, have another influencer's post ready for the same date and swap the two publication times.
2. The public reacts negatively to the campaign or the influencer
Even the most detailed influencer vetting and content control can be in vain if the posts make people feel uncomfortable or dislike the influencer. Social media users' negative reactions to the posts or the influencers themselves unfortunately negatively affect the campaign's outcome.
How to fix it?
Keep track of user reactions, especially sentiments, and be ready to handle negative feedback as soon as it arises. It is up to you whether you apologize in an announcement to the audience or whether you rethink your strategy after carefully studying users’ reactions.
3. The influencer is involved in a scandal
Influential people live their lives in front of the public so if they are connected to a controversial situation, your campaign and even your brand can suffer from it.
How to fix it?
When selecting creators, you can easily eliminate the bad apples by reviewing their social media content dating back several months, as well as watching how they appear in the press. Even though there is a small chance, the influencer could become embroiled in shameful events during the promotion. You can dissociate yourself from their actions in an official statement and cut off contact with them. Additionally, you should prepare for such scenarios in the contract to ensure that you are legally covered.
Now let’s examine some of the challenges regarding campaign efficiency.
4. Some influencers’ posts generate low engagement
Pre-estimates in your plan will already give you an idea of each influencer's average ER. Consider this a benchmark against the ER you will measure during the campaign. Don't panic if some influencers' posts do poorly compared with their average.
How to fix it?
Talk to the influencer about what might be causing the low ER, as they may have a solution. It is possible that their content doesn't resonate with the intended audience. If this is the case, you need to adjust the content or try different formats, to elicit more interaction.
5. Conversions are below expectations
When trying to increase conversions, expect that not every customer will convert right away. For instance, buying involves a longer decision process, which may account for the low conversion rate. When this doesn't change as the campaign advances, you should reach out to the creator and discuss the issue.
How to fix it?
Optimizing the content or modifying the call-to-action can solve this issue.
6. Returns on the campaign are low
The low conversion rate mentioned above can contribute to a low ROI.
How to fix it?
Changing the call-to-action or writing new captions may help. If an influencer's posts still do poorly, you can offer discount codes to get their followers to engage with them.
Preparation and effective response to problems that may arise during the campaign will allow you to reap the benefits of your effort and time.
Final Campaign Reporting and Analysis
YAY! The campaign is finally over, now you can sit back and relax. Well, not quite yet! Even though you tracked the progress of your campaign and reported partial results to your managers or clients, now is the time to prepare a final analysis and draw conclusions. Let's not waste any more time. This is what you need to include in your report - mainly information that can be obtained manually.
Campaign overview: Add a short description of your brand and the product and provide the essential details of the campaign, such as the name, message, goals, target audience, and dates.
Performance overview: In this section, summarize the campaign's performance. You can include the total reach, the campaign ER, the number and types of posts published, and the number of content creators participating in the promotion. Give an overview of how effective the program was in meeting your marketing goals.
Audience demographics: Give a more detailed overview of who you targeted with your campaign and how you succeeded in reaching them.
Reach and impressions: These two metrics are especially crucial if you aim to grow brand awareness or visibility and video content was a crucial part of your strategy.
Engagement: All reactions, interactions, and actions generated by the content must be displayed, including likes, comments, shares, clicks, downloads, registrations, and purchases.
Budget and return: You must include all financial information here, including your total budget, CPE, CPC, CPM, and total revenue. Now that your campaign has ended, you can calculate the ROI and EMV. Your return is calculated by dividing the income by the costs and multiplying them by 100. EMV calculation for Instagram campaigns requires the use of adjustable variables, so that's a bit tricky. A free EMV calculator, such as ours, is a better choice.
Visuals: Use photos, charts, and other visual elements in your report to spice it up. Add screenshots of the most successful posts. Provide diagrams showing the top audience age and gender and the most active times of the audience.
In one sense, the report proves the campaign's success to your stakeholders and clients. In another, it allows you to secure funding for subsequent campaigns. Furthermore, it helps you identify gaps and weak points in your strategy, which you can improve in future campaigns. As a bonus, you will also know which influencers are worth partnering with long-term based on their performances and attitudes.
Manage Influencer Campaigns from One Place
Planning, monitoring, and managing an influencer campaign by hand requires a great deal of time and effort. You can carry out all the processes mentioned in the article through HypeAuditor’s influencer marketing platform. Along with monitoring and measuring critical campaign data, our platform also facilitates communication with influencers and the management of contractual and payment procedures. Let our tool handle the time-consuming tasks of managing campaigns so that you can focus on enhancing your strategy.
Influencer marketing just got a whole lot easier
Manage every step of your influencer marketing campaigns from start to finish. Analyze your competitors, find and recruit influencers, track live campaigns, and generate finalized reports – automatically.
Book your free demo now
