INFLUENCER MARKETING

Guidelines to help advertisers measure influencer effectiveness

By our News Team | 2022

Association of National Advertisers says measuring the success organic influencer marketing has been an ongoing challenge.

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) in the United States has introduced its first set of guidelines for measuring influencer marketing. This in an effort to help advertisers overcome a challenge that has thwarted them for several years.

The ANA said the guidelines were needed because, while measurement guidelines have been available for paid advertisers for almost a decade, organic influencer marketing has not benefitted from a similar standardisation application. The lack of both consistency and transparency has limited organic influencer marketing’s value to advertisers, hamstrung its growth and disguised its true ROI.

Influencer marketing

Photo by Rodnae Productions from Pexels

The guidelines were created by the ANA’s Influencer Marketing Advisory Board in collaboration with agency partners and the major platforms. They have also been endorsed by the Media Rating Council.

According to a statement released by the ANA this week, Influencer Marketing Measurement Guidelines is divided into sections that address key issues in measuring organic influencer marketing:

  • Awareness Metrics to generate visibility for and consumer recognition of a brand, product, service or message.
  • Engagement Metrics to get the consumer to interact directly with the brand messaging through different actions (commonly clicks, likes, comments and shares) as a means of indicating brand interest or affinity.
  • Conversion Metrics designed to get the consumer to take the desired action toward a predetermined goal, purchase, or transaction in which KPIs will be highly dependent upon the data available to advertiser.

The Awareness Metrics section provides definitions and examples of terms, including total reach, cost per reach, total video views, and total impressions. while the Engagement Metrics section covers cost per engagement, overall campaign sentiment, and engagement rate. 

The Conversion Metrics section offers definitions and insights on total traffic generated, total conversions, cost per conversion, total sales generated, and return on investment.

“Two years ago, in the ANA’s State of Influence report, we asked its members to identify their single biggest challenge in implementing influencer marketing, and the overwhelming response was measurement,” said ANA CEO Bob Liodice. 

“These new guidelines will help all marketers harness the power of this important and growing discipline and help them maximise their ROI.”

The guidelines can be accessed on the ANA’s website in the Marketing Knowledge Center.




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