Insights From Our Experts

Whoa: According to Invesp, 94% of B2B marketers who have run influencer marketing campaigns are reporting those campaigns as successful. But what does success mean, exactly? And, more importantly, how are marketers using traditional and nontraditional metrics to measure that success? 

Whether you’re still searching for an influencer who fits your brand’s personality or you’re wondering just how well your current influencer is driving conversions, knowing how to accurately calculate the ROI of your influencer marketing campaign is crucial. This article will walk you through the basics of B2C vs. B2B influencer marketing, and help you choose and measure the best performance indicators for your business goals. 

B2C and B2B Influencer Marketing: Understanding the Difference

Welcome to the world of influencer marketing. As far as we’re concerned, it’s an effective strategy for B2B and B2C marketers alike, but there are some key differentiators in audience engagement and campaign analysis that you should know before you get started. 

For starters, B2B influencer marketing offers a customer journey while B2C influencer marketing provides an immediate solution or product. That’s why B2C influencers are often celebrities or well-known public figures. When your goal is to sell and generate rapid conversions, the more familiar the face, the better. B2C influencer marketing is typically evaluated based on conversion rates and referral traffic. It’s also a far more common strategy than its B2B counterpart, but don’t let that discourage you. 

B2B influencer marketing is changing the game. These influencers don’t have to be celebrities because they don’t require a level of fame or recognition outside of your potentially niche audience. Their focus tends to be authenticity, brand loyalty, thought leadership, and a genuine connection to the challenges your clients face. If you can partner with someone your audience respects and acknowledges as an empathetic expert, you’re well on your way to a great marketing campaign. As for an effective analysis of campaign performance, we’ll get into that shortly. 

How to Get a Sharper Look at Your Influencer Marketing 

Best practices for measuring the impact and effectiveness of influencer marketing campaigns are always evolving. What you’ll find below is a list of reliable methods for measuring ROI and staying up to speed with the fast, flashy world of influencer marketing. With Zen Media claiming B2B marketers saw an 11x higher ROI with influencer marketing vs. other advertising techniques, it’s certainly worth crunching the (right) numbers!

Identify Your Goal

Guess what? Your influencer marketing strategy isn’t going anywhere without a clear goal. Ask yourself: What does a winning marketing campaign look like? What metrics would my team typically pay attention to? Once you’ve answered those questions, turn to your other digital marketing efforts and check that your usual methods of selling and converting are aligned with your influencer experience. Measuring the ROI for one should be just as easy as measuring the ROI for all the others. 

Consider the Customer Journey

As we’ve mentioned, B2B and B2C influencers have very different connections with their audiences. A great B2B influencer will weave a narrative aimed at enhancing the customer experience and building a long-term relationship based on thought leadership and brand loyalty. On the other hand, a great B2C influencer will inspire rapid sales conversions. Why does this matter? Learning how to follow your customer’s journey from that first click to the final sale or lead generation can give you a chance to evaluate your marketing campaign’s cost effectiveness and get a more accurate glimpse into overall ROI. 

Set Your Sights on Shares and Saves

Believe it or not, likes, comments, and follower counts aren’t necessarily your go-to when calculating ROI. If you have a B2B influencer who is a trusted voice in your field, their authenticity and thought leadership should resonate with your audience and get them talking. More shares and saves equal more reach and engagement, creating the perfect recipe for heightened brand awareness — plus a way to measure it. This may not be as useful for B2C marketing campaigns, but don’t underestimate your influencer’s ability to create a strong first impression that generates future sales. 

Track Smarter, Not Harder

You read that right. If you’re a B2C marketer focusing on revenue, a unique discount code or tracking URL shared with your influencer’s audience will allow you to measure sales, conversions, and website traffic with ease. If you’re a B2B marketer looking to boost brand recognition, unique codes can help you track influencer performance via views and clicks. Engagement, audience growth, comments, and social mentions are some additional metrics we recommend tracking. You can also use a targeted influencer brand survey to get a snapshot of brand awareness and credibility. 

Take Advantage of Artificial Intelligence Tools 

AI continues to be the subject of much marketing chatter, and when it comes to B2B influencer marketing, it’s easy to see why. Sophisticated data visualization AI tools such as Google Cloud can supply precise influencer analytics and help you determine how well your marketing channels are performing. Using real-time campaign insights such as age, location, gender, and more, you can cultivate a more meaningful connection with your audience and decide what’s cost effective and what’s not. For B2C marketers, this may amplify your ability to give your customers personalized product recommendations. Meanwhile, an accurate, data-driven portrait of your influencer marketing campaign’s ROI is right at your fingertips. 

Power Up Your Paid Ad Campaigns 

Brand-generated content can take a back seat for a second. When you lean on influencer-generated content for your paid ad campaigns, you have an opportunity to achieve higher conversion rates (looking at you, B2C marketers) and higher engagement rates (we couldn’t forget you, B2B specialists). Talk about an ultra-clear channel for measuring the ROI of your influencer marketing campaigns!

Don’t Forget Brand Lift and Landing Pages 

We’ve covered tracking coupon codes and URLs, but what about brand perception? Tracking brand lift goes deeper than engagement to measure how people feel about your brand or product based on their interaction with your B2C or B2B influencer marketing campaign. An excellent landing page can track engagement via web traffic and help you capture leads or generate conversions, depending on the goals you’ve set for your influencer. Paired with other methods for measuring ROI, these digital tools can be a nice finishing touch as you evaluate your influencer’s potential, continue to build trust with your audience, and assess how cost effective your campaign strategy is. 

Ready to Make the Most of Your Influencer Marketing Campaigns?

The future of B2B influencer marketing is brighter than ever. To evaluate your campaign’s impact, track shares, saves, engagement, audience growth, website traffic, and more. Go deeper than the metrics, too, and ask incisive questions. How has your perception of your brand changed since your influencer marketing campaign launched? Has this helped your brand become established as a thought leader? 

For additional information about evaluating the strengths and pitfalls of your marketing strategies, read our recent article on metrics for success. 
Want an expert opinion on your approach to influencer marketing? Contact us today!