Which KPIs really matter in influencer marketing?

Cost means everything the campaign costs you: fees, commissions, products sent out, shipping and, if you are liable for it, the artists’ social security levy (Künstlersozialabgabe) on the fees. If you only count the fee, ROAS looks better than it is.

Tools and agencies calculate engagement rate in different ways: by followers, by reach or by views. The same goes for click-through rate: according to its help pages, Google Ads divides clicks by impressions, meaning the number of times an ad is shown, not by accounts reached. Only compare figures that were calculated the same way. And take care with Google Analytics: there, engagement rate means the share of sessions on your website that last longer than 10 seconds, include a key event or have at least two page views. It has nothing to do with likes and comments.

1. Say you pay three creators €1,000 in fees between them and send out products worth €200. Your cost: €1,200. All amounts are net of VAT, and shipping and levies are left out to keep it simple. These figures are made up and are not benchmarks.
2. The posts reach 80,000 accounts and get 3,200 interactions. Engagement rate: 3,200 ÷ 80,000 × 100 = 4%.
3. The links get 1,600 clicks between them. Click-through rate: 1,600 ÷ 80,000 × 100 = 2%.
4. They lead to 40 orders, averaging €75 net. Conversion rate: 40 ÷ 1,600 × 100 = 2.5%. Revenue: €3,000. CPO: €1,200 ÷ 40 = €30.
5. ROAS before returns: €3,000 ÷ €1,200 = 2.5. In Google Ads you enter target ROAS as a percentage, so 2.5 corresponds to 250% there.
6. Assume 30% of the revenue comes back as returns. That leaves €2,100, and ROAS after returns is 1.75.
7. Now check your margin. Say half of net revenue is left after the cost of goods. Of €2,100 that is €1,050, less than the €1,200 cost. At this margin the campaign only pays for itself from a ROAS of 2 after returns.
8. Repeat purchases may still make the campaign pay off. That depends on how many new customers you won. Say 26 of the 40 orders were first orders: that is a new customer share of 65%.

An example: someone taps the link in a story on Monday, looks at the product, searches for it on Google on Thursday and orders. In a last-click model the last channel before the purchase gets all the credit, in this case Google search. The creator gets no credit in the report, even though their link brought the first visit.

According to its help pages, Google Analytics now offers only three models in its attribution reports: data-driven attribution and two last-click models. Data-driven attribution uses your account’s data to share the credit for a purchase across the clicks before it, so the story link from the example can get a share too. Google Analytics marks the purchase event as a key event by default and looks back 90 days for it, and you can also choose 30 or 60 days.

Web analytics only sees what reaches your website. If someone just watches the video and later types in your shop’s address, it counts as a direct visit there. According to Google, direct visits get no credit in any model unless the entire path consists of them. Discount codes per creator and a “How did you hear about us?” question after checkout pick up part of this.

This is the campaign from the worked example, split across the three creators (cost = fee plus products). A brings the most reach and the most expensive orders, B the most orders with less than half the reach. The €30 average CPO hides this. You only get this split if each creator has their own link or code.

A table like this needs creators who actually post. If creators can pick your products in an affiliate programme, that alone does not produce a single post, so there are no figures either. Many partners never become active, and creators that brands would most like to work with rarely post without a reason. The real task is getting many creators to post at the same time and then seeing, creator by creator, who sells.

With wyrld Boost, metrics like the ones in the table above become the basis for the payout: before the start you set which KPIs the pool is paid out on, for example sales, clicks, watch time or reach in Black Friday week. You provide a campaign budget and choose the products and period. Many creators can take part at once, and each one decides whether to join. wyrld measures clicks through the links. Sales count where the shop reports them. Creators upload watch time and reach from their insights. After the campaign you see which creator delivered which results. You decide where people buy, for example only in your own shop. Creators label campaign videos as advertising.

Without a campaign, the brand and shop subscription shows you which creators feature your products, who brings clicks and who sells. For creators who link through wyrld, your affiliate programme usually does not give you a row per creator, because wyrld shows up there as a single partner. With the creators who sell, you can set up your own terms, such as a higher commission or a bonus.

Your products are connected through your existing affiliate programme with one of the major networks, where creators can usually pick them already, or directly with wyrld. Pricing for the subscription and Boost is available on request. We are glad to talk through which should come first for you: Boost, the subscription or connecting your products.