Those who launch successful influencer marketing campaigns and maintain strategic partnerships are those who have their finger on the pulse.
By accessing data-driven insights, marketing teams can adapt as needed. Based on the data they collect, marketers can adjust campaigns and partnerships to protect their budgets and return on investment.
How?
It all starts with choosing the right metrics and experimenting with what works best.
Whether you’re launching your first influencer campaign or want to improve an ongoing campaign, here are some of the metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) you should be mindful of.
Choosing the Right Metrics To Track Outdoor Campaigns
Outdoor industry brands can leverage a range of metrics and KPIs to gauge the success of influencer marketing campaigns. Some metrics and KPIs focus on reach and impressions, while others target traffic and engagement. Whether your goal is to improve conversion rates or boost brand awareness, tracking relevant metrics is critical to ongoing influencer marketing success.
While you may adjust these metrics as campaigns progress and partnerships evolve, you’ll likely start with metrics that focus on reach, engagement, and conversions.
Reach and Awareness
By tracking these metrics, you will be able to assess the effectiveness of a campaign, especially when paired with engagement and conversion metrics. Consider the following valuable metrics, which are particularly important for brand awareness and traffic growth.
- Follower growth: Track increases in followers for both the influencer and your brand’s profile, especially during a specific campaign.
- Post reach: See how many unique users viewed influencer content related to your brand.
- Impressions: Measure the total number of times content was displayed, including repeat views from the same user.
- Website traffic: Analyze increases in visits, focusing on pages linked to the influencer campaign.
- Mentions: Track both the volume and sentiment of brand mentions.
Engagement
The following metrics will help you see how users interact with your brand. From behavior to satisfaction, these metrics tell a story that can help you improve your offerings.
- Likes, comments, and shares: Assess how users are connecting with and reacting to branded content.
- Engagement rate: Calculate the percentage of users interacting with content. Compare across campaigns to find what boosts ROI.
- Brand mentions: Monitor buzz surrounding your brand after a campaign launches.
Conversions and Return on Investment
These metrics focus on monetary impact and help optimize marketing budgets.
- Unique URLs: Track purchases attributed to specific campaigns or influencers with promo codes and links.
- Affiliate links: Measure clicks and sales generated through affiliate programs.
- Conversions: Track desired actions such as newsletter sign-ups or product purchases.
- Return on investment (ROI): Compare revenue to campaign costs to determine which campaigns are most effective.
What Are the Most Important Metrics to Focus On?
You will likely experiment with all of the metrics above and add others as you create new objectives. The most important metrics depend on your brand’s goals and the insights you want to pull from a specific campaign.
A good starting point includes the following:
Traffic
Tracking traffic helps estimate reach and see how many people are absorbing your content. When paired with other metrics, it can highlight issues and opportunities.
For example, if traffic is high but conversions are low, test the landing page with A/B testing. Traffic data also provides insights such as new visitors, total sessions, page views, time on site, and referral sources.
Engagement Rates
Engagement rates provide a deeper view of campaign performance. Traffic shows how many people see the campaign, but engagement reveals relevance and impact. Choose which engagement signals matter most—comments, clicks, shares, or mentions—and use them to adjust priorities and resources.
There is no one-size-fits-all strategy. As you discover the most meaningful KPIs for your campaigns, you can start tracking trends and adapt.
Unsure where to start or what metrics are best suited for your outdoor brand? Let’s chat about how we can help.
