One thing about influencers is that they can influence many, many metrics. 

One thing about marketing is that you won't know what’s happening (or get the credit) if you don’t show your work.  

In this issue, I’m zooming in on internal reporting.

If you want to get credit, secure a larger budget, show your value, figure out what’s working, or all of the above, you need to get your reporting right. 

After hearing from a few senior influencer marketers, I’m sharing 3 tips to make your reports more useful, aka how to show your work.  👇

TIP#1

Lead every influencer campaign with One Core Goal

It’ll be incredibly difficult to produce useful reports if you have a fuzzy strategy and fuzzy goals.

Each campaign should have a core goal. Is this long-term evergreen campaign made for brand awareness? Great. How will you measure it?

Is the goal of this short-term activation sales? How will you measure it?

By setting clear objectives and a way to measure them, your reporting will instantly get better.

Mike Newton, influencer marketing strategist at Building Influence, shared how he did it at Discord.

• When Mike was at Discord, the OBN was Cost Per Retained User (CPRU) because the company wanted to grow its active user base.

• For eCommerce brands, your OBN could be sales via unique links or promo codes.

• If you’re running UGC or product seeding campaigns, it could be the number of live influencer posts. 

Choose One Big Number and lead with it in your reports. Your stakeholders will learn to expect this number, and it’s a simple way for you to track what’s happening over time.

A Q FOR YOU

TIP #2

Every data point must have a purpose

Whatever you do, don’t show leadership your master report with every single metric you track. 

Instead, you want your report to tell a short story. What changed? What did you do to influence that change? What will you do next based on your learnings?

What changed?

When you report on a number, make sure to address the change.

Don’t just say,  “We had 10K sales this month.”

Instead, say, “We had 10K sales this month, which is a 100% increase compared to last month.” 

Explain what you did to influence the change

You want to highlight why a number increased, decreased, or stayed stable compared to a previous period. 

It could be because you increased your outreach efforts from 100 to 200 creators per month or a specific creator over-delivered on their expected targets.  

Share next steps

When you share a metric, you want to share how this result will inform your strategy for the future. 

Let’s say you shared that your sales (core goal) doubled for the month because you vetted creators thoroughly before collaborating with them (your action).

Maybe you’ll keep doing more of the same. Maybe you’ll purchase an influencer analysis tool (like cough Modash cough) to speed up the vetting process. Or perhaps you’ll aim to maintain the same results with fewer creator partners because you have a better idea about what works. 

🚀Bonus: Show the numbers and the content 

Data and hard KPIs are essential to making your reports useful. But you also want to show the actual influencer content.

It helps your team members and leaders see how influencers represent your brand.

The team at Burga keeps it simple. They have a Slack channel where every influencer marketer posts links to live influencer content.

On the other hand, in their monthly report, Aumio includes a slide with details of the best-performing influencers, their category, and Cost per Lead (CPL).

Whatever the case, find your story (What changed, what did you do to impact the change, and what will you do next) and tell it with numbers and pics. 

🤓See examples of actual reports: 4 Brands Share How They Do Influencer Marketing Reporting

TIP #3

Don’t make reporting more complicated than necessary

You might have the urge to report on everything. Maybe you’ve seen others do it that way, or you figure the more numbers, the more impressed leadership will be.

Influencer marketing consultant Georgina Whalen recommends the following:

Just because a larger team might have three reports and a gazillion metrics to track, it doesn’t mean you need to, too.

When Georgina was at One Medical, she tracked sales, total CAC, regional CAC, impressions, and engagement in-depth. But her goals were complex.

If you’re a one-person team with a single goal of building “brand awareness via product seeding,” your report will look different. 

You might include the number of live posts per month, outreach response rates, and collective reach of creator content.

The bottom line? Does a metric affect your decisions in any way? If not, cut it.

Think of the metrics that truly move the needle and report only on them. This will make your reports more concise and impactful (and save you time!)

HANDPICKED JOB OPENINGS

• The Beauty Crop is looking for an Influencer & Partnership Manager in London. (Hybrid)

• Wild Cosmetics has a number of open positions for Influencer Marketing Executives in London. (Hybrid)

• Golden Hippo is looking for an Influencer Content Specialist and an Ambassador Specialist. (Remote: US) 

• Social Discovery Group is looking for a Senior Influencer Marketing Manager and an Influencer Marketing Manager. (Remote: Global)

See you in the next issue of ROI!
Eleni Zoe xx
Marketing @ Modash and Person Who Had To Call The Fire Service To Get Her Cat Out of a Wall. Say hi on LinkedIn or visit Modash.