What to Look for When Working with Influencers

Interest in influencer marketing continues to increase—and prices are rising in tandem—but measurement capabilities haven’t kept pace.

Measurement starts with evaluating which influencers to work with, according to Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst and author of our new report, “Measuring Influencer Marketing: A Guide for Marketers.” (Subscribers to eMarketer PRO can read the full report here.)

“Best practices include looking beyond the size of an influencer’s audience, matching the influencer’s audience to your target audience and gauging the audience’s receptivity to branded content,” Williamson said.

Once influencer campaigns are underway, basic strategies for measurement include applying techniques learned from social media, looking beyond vanity metrics and measuring influencers like paid media.

Businesses need to know what they are getting, and that’s difficult to determine with influencer marketing. Williamson highlights several important reasons why measurement should be a priority for marketers this year:

•     Spending is increasing, especially as influencer marketing continues to gain status not only for fashion, beauty and entertainment brands, but for more mundane products as well.
•     Influencers’ prices are rising, and it’s difficult for marketers to call bluff on a quote if there’s no common set of measurement tools.
•     Influencer marketing has gone multiplatform, which makes it even more important for marketers to understand performance across platforms.
•     Influencer marketing is becoming part of paid media, which requires it to be much more accountable than it has been in the past.

Courtesy of eMarketer