19 influencer marketing KPIs to track your collab success

What is influencer marketing KPI

Influencer marketing KPIs are measurable metrics used to track how well an influencer campaign is achieving its goals. These KPIs help brands evaluate performance, optimize strategy, and prove ROI from influencer partnerships.

Influencer marketing KPIs fall into categories: 

• Engagement (likes, comments, shares), 

• Reach (impressions, audience growth), 

• Conversions (sales, lead generation), 

• and Cost (Cost Per Mille, Cost Per Engagement). 

Think of it like this: whenever you run a campaign with influencers whether that’s a micro-influencer shouting out your brand on TikTok or a YouTube creator doing a deep dive on your product, you need some way to know if it’s actually working. 

That’s where influencer KPIs come in.

Instead of just guessing, “Oh, this campaign felt good” or “We got a few likes,” you’re looking at concrete numbers that tell you if the resources you invested are actually working for your business.

For example, they answer questions like:

• Are people actually engaging with the content?

• Did your follower count or website traffic spike after that post?

• Are new customers showing up and actually buying from you because of the influencer shout-out?

They help you cut through the noise, avoid the vanity metrics (because who cares about 100K followers if no one’s clicking?), and focus on what really matters (awareness, conversions, or sales).

Here’s why tracking them is essential 👇

Why you need to measure influencer marketing KPIs

Social media is blowing up and you’re probably already thinking about running a few campaigns. If you’re not measuring your influencer marketing KPIs, you’re basically throwing darts in the dark and hoping one sticks. From years of working in influencer marketing, I’ve noticed that many brands fail simply because they ignore measuring the right KPIs.

You’ll know what’s actually working (instead of guessing)

I can’t tell you how many brands my team’s seen get hyped because an influencer post got “a ton of likes.” But likes themselves don’t always equal sales. When you measure KPIs, you’re not just chasing vanity metrics. You’re looking at the real stuff that matters to your bottom line: clicks, conversions, reach, ROI. 

Once a haircare brand that came to IQFluence was absolutely buzzing because an influencer’s reel hit 150k views in 24 hours. They were like, “This is it, we’ve made it!” 

But when they tracked other KPIs? Nothing. Barely any clicks, zero conversions.

When they started measuring the right stuff, like cost per click and actual sales attributed to those campaigns — everything shifted. They ditched the hype-driven partnerships and reinvested in smaller creators who had way less reach but were insanely trusted by their audiences. That one shift doubled their revenue twice in 3 months.

You’ll choose the right influencers to collaborate with

Influencers are partners, not magicians. If you don’t set clear KPIs, how can either of you know if the collaboration is actually successful? By tracking performance, you set expectations, create transparency, and bonus — you protect your budget. No more paying thousands for a post that looks pretty but brings nothing. 

KPIs give you leverage to double down on the right types of creators and politely part ways with the wrong ones.

When you track campaigns, you build historical data. That data shows you what to realistically expect next time. For example, how much reach and sales an influencer with 1% engagement and 500k followers is likely to deliver.

You’ll build smarter, stronger campaigns over time

Each campaign leaves behind data points on audience behavior, product–market fit, and which creators truly drive results. As you accumulate this history across campaigns, those breadcrumbs turn into a roadmap.

That roadmap lets you forecast new collaborations with greater accuracy — simply by looking at a creator’s past performance and the campaign brief. At that point, you’re not just experimenting with influencer marketing. You’re building a predictable, repeatable growth engine, and that’s where marketing becomes both scalable and profitable.

My favorite story is one wellness brand that treated every campaign like a mini science experiment. They used IQFluence to track engagement, conversions, and long-term customer retention from influencer campaigns. 

At first, results were mixed: some posts delivered, some not.

Fast forward a year: they had a full playbook of exactly which creators, platforms, and campaign types delivered the highest ROI. Now? They’ve got a clear strategy they can repeat and it always delivers results.

To cut through the noise and know exactly what’s driving results, here are 19 KPI for measuring influencer marketing 👇

19 Influencer marketing KPIs to track

Influencer marketing isn’t just about throwing content on TikTok and crossing your fingers for virality. If you want this channel to actually drive business, you need to track the right stuff.

Otherwise, you’ll end up chasing vanity metrics instead of real results.

To make it easy, we’ve laid these KPIs out like a funnel — from top-of-funnel brand awareness all the way down to those juicy bottom-of-funnel conversions and ROI. Think of it as your roadmap: start wide, then get laser-focused.

Let’s break it down 👇

Brand awareness and sentiment

This is all about how people feel about your brand after seeing influencer content. Are they buzzing with excitement? Are they skeptical? Tracking brand sentiment (positive, neutral, negative) alongside awareness gives you the “vibe check” you need.

👉  Reach & Impressions. Reach tells you how many unique eyeballs saw the content. Impressions tell you how many times it was viewed (because yes, the same person can binge-watch your ad). Together, they show you the scale of visibility you’re getting.

Reach = Number of unique users who saw content

Example: A TikTok video viewed by 800K different people → Reach = 800K

Impressions = Total number of times content was displayed (including repeat views)

Example: The same TikTok video shown 1.4M times in total, because some users watched multiple times → Impressions = 1.4M

👉  CPM (Cost Per Mille/Thousand Impressions). A fancy way of asking: “How much are we paying to reach 1,000 people?” Super useful when comparing influencer spend against other paid channels like ads.

Here’s the formula:

CPM = (Total Campaign Cost / Total Impressions) * 1000

Example: If you spent $5,000 on a TikTok influencer campaign and got 1,000,000 impressions, then:

Total Campaign Cost = $5,000

Total Impressions = 1,000,000

CPM = (5000 / 1000000) * 1000 = $5

So your cost per 1,000 impressions is $5.

👉  New Followers. Did the influencer bring more people into your brand’s world? Tracking how many new followers land on your account post-campaign is a clear signal of top-level interest.

But how do you know these are influencer-driven and not just organic growth?

✔️ Define a specific tracking period: e.g., from the campaign launch date until 7–14 days after the collaboration ends.

✔️ Compare follower growth during this window to your baseline organic growth rate (average growth before the campaign).

✔️ Any significant lift above baseline is a strong indicator the influencer campaign drove those new followers.

The key is consistency: always mark campaign start/end dates and allow a short post-campaign lag (1–2 weeks) to capture delayed effects before attributing results.

👉  Audience Growth Rate. Similar to new followers, but instead of raw numbers, this looks at how fast your community is growing. Perfect for spotting spikes tied to influencer campaigns.

Audience Growth Rate (%) = ((Followers After Campaign - Followers Before Campaign) / Followers Before Campaign) * 100

Example: Followers Before = 10,000

Followers After = 12,500

Audience Growth Rate = ((12,500 - 10,000)/10,000) * 100 = 25%

 🔮 Benchmarks: A growth rate of 3–7% is more typical, especially for smaller campaigns or collaborations with micro-influencers. When growth reaches 8–15%, it signals a strong performance, suggesting the collaboration effectively engaged the audience. Rates above 15% are considered exceptional.

Engagement

This is the big umbrella metric that sums up likes, comments, shares, and saves. It tells you how much people are vibing with the content, not just scrolling past.

Engagement Rate (%) = ((Likes + Comments + Shares + Saves) / Total Followers) * 100

Example: 

Likes = 300

Comments = 50

Shares = 20

Saves = 30

Total Followers = 10,000

Engagement Rate = ((300+50+20+30)/10000) * 100 = 4%

🔮 Benchmarks: As a rule of thumb, 2–3% engagement is pretty average across most platforms. Hit 4–6% and you’re doing great, while anything above that is stellar. Smaller creators usually drive higher engagement, while bigger names balance it out with reach.

👉 Collab Likes. Simple, but still a good sign of initial resonance. Likes show quick approval, even if it’s low effort.  

👉 Comments. Now we’re talking about deeper engagement. Comments take effort and can reveal if people are asking questions, showing interest, or (ideally) tagging their friends.

To assess whether likes and comments indicate a successful campaign, compare them to relevant benchmarks: previous campaigns with the same influencer, similar content types, or average engagement rates on the platform. Sudden spikes or sustained higher-than-usual engagement suggest the collaboration is performing well.

👉 Shares & Saves. These are gold. Shares amplify your reach organically, while saves signal content that’s worth coming back to. Both are indicators of strong brand relevance.

👉 Brand Mentions. How many times are people actually talking about you on TikTok or elsewhere after a campaign? Whether tagged or untagged, this is about measuring your footprint in the conversation.

Brand Mentions = Number of times brand is mentioned / Total Campaign Posts

Example: Brand Mentions = 50 mentions / 10 posts = 5 mentions per post

How to сheck It:

1. Use social listening tools (e.g., Brandwatch, Sprout Social, Talkwalker) to track mentions of your brand name, hashtags, or campaign-specific keywords.

2. Filter by campaign period to isolate mentions that occurred during and shortly after the influencer collaboration.

3. Compare to historical baseline — check how many mentions typically occur without a campaign to measure the lift.

🔮 Benchmarks: When evaluating brand mentions, numbers give context to impact. Fewer than 5 mentions per post generally indicates minimal audience buzz, barely above baseline activity. Between 5 and 15 mentions per post suggests moderate engagement, and if mentions reach 15–30 per post, the campaign is performing strongly.

👉 CTR (Click-Through Rate). This measures how many people clicked your link after seeing the influencer’s post. CTR is a huge trust indicator — did the influencer convince their audience to act?

CTR (%) = (Number of Clicks / Number of Impressions) * 100

Example: 

Number of Clicks = 500

Number of Impressions = 20,000

CTR = (500 / 20000) * 100 = 2.5%

 🔮 Benchmarks: A CTR under 0.5% is typically weak. Results in the 0.5–1.5% range are more common and considered average for most influencer campaigns. When CTR rises into the 1.5–3% range, that’s a strong outcome, showing the influencer’s audience is interested enough to take the next step. Anything above 3% is considered exceptional.

Quick tip: Always compare CTR within your industry and platform. A tech B2B campaign may have a lower CTR than a trendy e-commerce product simply because the audience behavior is different.

👉 Traffic. Once people click, where do they go? Tracking traffic from influencer campaigns shows you the direct pipeline of eyeballs landing on your site or landing page.

Traffic = Number of Website Visits from Campaign

Conversions

This is the money zone. Did people take the action you wanted? Whether it’s downloading a whitepaper, booking a demo, or filling out a form — conversions are the bridge between content and business outcomes.

👉  Sales. The ultimate proof point: did influencer campaigns actually drive revenue? Especially key in B2B where long sales cycles make attribution tricky but powerful.

How to Calculate. Track the number and value of sales that can be tied directly to the influencer campaign. This is usually done through unique links, promo codes, or CRM attribution models.

Over what period. Define a clear attribution window. For consumer products, 2–4 weeks after the campaign is common, since purchases tend to happen quickly. In B2B, the period may need to extend for months, depending on your average sales cycle. The key is consistency: always use the same window so results remain comparable across campaigns.

👉  Number of Target Actions. Think signups, free trials, newsletter opt-ins, or app installs. These micro-conversions often feed your pipeline before the big purchase moment.

How to Track It. Always make sure each influencer has a unique tracking setup. The simplest way is to generate a UTM-tagged link (e.g., with Google’s Campaign URL Builder) or a unique promo/referral link. These links should be connected to your analytics dashboard (Google Analytics, Mixpanel, HubSpot, etc.), so you can see exactly how many target actions came from that campaign, that influencer, and even that specific piece of content.

🔮 Benchmarks: If a campaign generates fewer than 50 actions, the impact is usually minimal. Reaching 50–200 actions is a solid result for most micro- to mid-tier collaborations, showing that the influencer’s audience is engaged enough to move into your funnel. Strong campaigns can drive 200–500 actions, and anything above 500 actions from a single campaign is considered exceptional.

👉  ROI (Return on Investment). The king metric. ROI tells you if the dollars you’re putting into influencer campaigns are paying you back (and by how much).

ROI (%) = ((Revenue from Campaign - Campaign Cost) / Campaign Cost) * 100

Example: Revenue from Campaign = $15,000

Campaign Cost = $5,000

ROI = ((15000 - 5000) / 5000) * 100 = 200%

This means your campaign generated 200% return, or $2 earned for every $1 spent.

🔮 Benchmarks:  In influencer marketing, anything below 100% ROI means the campaign didn’t break even — every dollar spent returned less than a dollar. ROI in the 100–200% range is generally considered solid, showing the campaign doubled its investment. When ROI climbs into the 200–400% range, the campaign is performing strongly, with each dollar spent generating two to four dollars back. Results above 400% are considered exceptional and rare.

👉  CPA (Cost Per Acquisition). How much did it cost you to acquire a customer through influencer marketing? A must-track for B2B where CAC (customer acquisition cost) is already under the microscope.

CPA = Total Campaign Cost / Number of Conversions

Example: 

Total Campaign Cost = $5,000

Number of Conversions = 50

CPA = 5000 / 50 = $100 per conversion

🔮 Benchmarks: If CPA is above $100 in most consumer markets, it’s generally considered high and may signal poor targeting or weak conversion mechanics. A range of $50–100 per acquisition is typical and often acceptable depending on product price and margins. 

When CPA falls between $20–50, the campaign is performing well, driving customers at an efficient cost. Anything under $20 is exceptional for influencer marketing, usually seen in low-ticket, impulse-purchase categories or when an influencer’s audience is extremely well-matched to the brand.

👉  CPC (Cost Per Click). This one breaks down how much each click actually costs. Helpful for benchmarking against paid ads and making sure your influencer campaigns are competitive.

CPC = Total Campaign Cost / Number of Clicks

Example::

Total Campaign Cost = $5,000

Number of Clicks = 500

CPC = 5000 / 500 = $10 per click

🔮 Benchmarks: In influencer marketing, a CPC above $2.00 is typically high and suggests the audience isn’t strongly motivated to act. Results in the $1.00–2.00 range are fairly standard across many industries and indicate an average-performing campaign. 

When CPC drops to $0.50–1.00, you’re seeing efficient traffic generation, often thanks to strong creative or good audience fit. Anything under $0.50 is exceptional.

👉 CPV (Cost Per View). Super useful for video-heavy platforms like TikTok. It tells you how much you’re paying for each video view and helps you weigh if those eyeballs are worth the spend.

CPV = Total Campaign Cost / Number of Video Views

Example:

Total Campaign Cost = $5,000

Number of Views = 200,000

CPV = 5000 / 200000 = $0.025 per view

🔮 Benchmarks: If CPV is higher than $0.10 per view, it usually signals inefficiency — the content isn’t pulling enough audience attention relative to spend. 

A range of $0.05–0.10 is considered average across most platforms, and when CPV drops into the $0.02–0.05 range, you’re looking at strong efficiency, where the influencer’s content resonates and delivers views at scale. Anything below $0.02 per view is considered exceptional and rare.

👉 Conversion Rate. Okay, bonus one (because it’s that important). Out of everyone who clicked, how many actually converted? This percentage is the sharpest measure of campaign efficiency.

Conversion Rate (%) = (Number of Conversions / Number of Clicks) * 100

Example:

Number of Conversions = 50

Number of Clicks = 500

Conversion Rate = (50 / 500) * 100 = 10%

🔮 Benchmarks: If the conversion rate is below 1%, it usually means the campaign failed to connect the audience’s interest to the offer. A range of 1–3% is fairly standard across most influencer activations and indicates an average level of performance. 

When conversion rates climb into the 3–5% range, the campaign is working well, with the influencer’s audience showing clear intent and alignment. Anything above 5% is considered exceptional.

However, how do you set up KPI goals for influencer marketing campaign? 👇

How to define what KPIs are more important for your campaign

Now you’re thinking: “Which KPI goals for influencer marketing campaign do I actually need to care about?”

Here’s the thing: not all KPIs for influencer marketing are created equal. The ones that matter most depend entirely on what you want your campaign to do. Let’s break it down, stage by stage, like I’m telling a friend who’s trying to make sense of this mess.

When you need brand awareness

Imagine you’re launching a new software or product and no one has ever heard of you. You don’t care about sales yet — you just want views.

KPIs to Track:

• Reach & Impressions: How many unique people saw your content.

• CPM: How much you’re paying to get those eyeballs.

• Brand Mentions: Are people talking about you?

• Sentiment: Are they saying good things, neutral, or… yikes, bad things?

Think of this as your “casting a wide net” stage. You want to make a splash, not close a deal.

When you need website traffic

Maybe you’ve already gotten some awareness, and now you want people to actually click the link and visit your site.

KPIs to Track:

• CTR (Click-Through Rate): Are people clicking through the influencer’s post?

• Traffic / Sessions: How many people actually landed on your site or landing page.

Here’s the deal: CTR tells you if your post is compelling, while Traffic tells you if people made it to your page. It’s basically checking if your content has the “magnet” effect.

When you need engagement

This is about people interacting with your content—liking, commenting, sharing, saving. If you want your brand to feel alive, engagement is your friend.

KPIs to Track:

• Likes, Comments, Shares, Saves

• Engagement Rate: Total engagement relative to audience size

Engagement is like having a conversation at a party. People could just nod politely (awareness), but here they’re actually talking to you — which is gold.

When you need lead generation

This is where B2B campaigns start getting serious. You want people to take a specific action, like signing up for a demo, downloading a guide, or subscribing to a newsletter.

KPIs to Track:

• Number of Target Actions (signups, downloads, form fills)

• Conversions

• CTR & Traffic (because clicks feed leads

• CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)

Here, every click and every form submission counts. You’re not just measuring clicks—you’re measuring intent.

When you need sales

Bottom-of-funnel territory. Now we’re talking dollars. This is the ultimate goal for most campaigns.

KPIs to Track:

• Sales / Revenue

• ROI

• Conversion Rate

• CPA

Pro tip: In B2B, sales cycles are longer, so track these over time, not just the first week.

To measure success accurately, it’s crucial to know how to monitor the KPIs of your marketing campaign 👇

How to track your marketing campaigns KPIs

You know what most companies do when they start  influencer marketing? They open up a Google Sheet and start plugging in names, dividing columns by campaign type, size, and goals.

Sounds organized, right? Except… it’s a total time-suck. It gets messy fast, you lose track of updates, and suddenly you’ve got 47 tabs open just trying to figure out who’s actually a good fit.

The solution? Influencer marketing tools. They literally hold your hand through every stage of the process: from discovering the right creators, to digging into analytics, to vetting, to actually managing the campaign.

Take IQFluence, for example. Instead of wasting hours spreading your life away, it gives you everything in one place so you can focus on running campaigns that actually move the needle.

IQFluence’s campaign monitoring dashboard. Try it for free.

Three things to start monitoring campaigns in IQFluence: enter campaign dates, enter keywords, hashtags, and mentions, and finally add influencers.

Besides, don’t forget to 👇

Set up tracking parameters

1️⃣ What is the period of your influencer campaign tracking? Set it first:

2️⃣ Then enter keywords, hashtags and brand mentions:

3️⃣ Enter the profile links of the influencers you want to track. You can add multiple links by pressing Enter after each URL. IQFluence system will verify the links and gather comprehensive statistics for each influencer.

4️⃣ Enter the direct links to the posts you want to track. You can add multiple links by pressing Enter after each URL. Our system will verify the links and gather comprehensive statistics for each post.

5️⃣ Enter your budget. Just the number. For example: $500. That’s the amount the system will use to auto-calculate your cost metrics later.

6️⃣ Log your UTM clicks. From your own analytics (Google Analytics, Shopify, Appsflyer—whatever you’re using), grab the total number of clicks on the UTM/UTAM link during the campaign period. Enter it here: 126 clicks.

7️⃣ Add your conversions. This part depends on your campaign goal:

• If you wanted app installs or registrations, pull that number (e.g., 23 installs)

• If it was sales or demo requests, log those as “target actions” (e.g., 20 demo requests or purchases.)

IQFLuence then auto-calculates CPM, CPV, CPC, CPI/CPR, CPA, ER%, likes, comments, views — no spreadsheets needed.

Now, let’s make sense of your campaign data

You’ve got the numbers in front of you — but what do they actually say? Let’s walk through this real example, together 👇

Campaign Reach & Engagement

You ran 1 post from 1 creator — a single video that pulled in 114,200 views. That’s your total audience exposure. Now here’s how that audience interacted:

IQFluence’s campaign monitoring dashboard. Try it for free.

What it tells you: Solid reach with a decent engagement rate for video content. The 2K likes show passive approval; the 33 comments are where to look for real signals — are people curious, tagging friends, asking questions? That’s where the intent lives.

Audience Quality

IQFluence’s campaign monitoring dashboard. Try it for free.

What it tells you: You’re reaching a mostly English-speaking, US-heavy audience — ideal for US/UK market targeting. If you're selling a global product, this breakdown helps validate alignment with your customer geography.

Let’s talk about conversions. Here's the journey from views to final actions:

IQFluence’s campaign monitoring dashboard. Try it for free.

What it tells you: Your CTR (click-through rate) is 0.11%, which is on the lower end — could mean the creative didn’t strongly push for a click, or the CTA wasn’t clear.
However, your conversion rate post-click is excellent:

• 18.25% from click to registration

• 86.9% from registration to action

That means the traffic that did click was highly motivated. Your landing page and offer are strong. The creative just needs tuning to drive more traffic up top.

Cost Breakdown

What it tells you: 

• CPV is super efficient — you got 114K views for $500.

• CPC and CPA are reasonable depending on your allowable targets. If your target CPA is under $30, you're good. If you're aiming for sub-$20, you’re close — and know where to optimize (creative, hook, CTA).

Final Takeaways:

• Audience: US-based, mostly English-speaking. Right market? ✅

• Engagement: Solid. Real humans interacting. ✅

• Conversions: Strong conversion rate from clicks → results. ✅

• Optimization path: Boost CTR with better call-to-action, stronger value prop, or earlier link placement in video/caption.

If this were my campaign, I’d mark it as a “Learn & Repeat”: The creator delivered, the funnel worked — now it’s time to test a new version of the content or expand to a similar creator with proven performance.

Ready to see this in action?

You’ve just seen how to analyze a real influencer campaign—from the first view to the final conversion—and how IQFluence turns raw performance data into insights you can actually use.

Now imagine doing the same with your own campaign.

Your brand.
Your creators.
Your budget.
Your results.

✅ No spreadsheets
✅ No guessing
✅ Just clean, clickable insight

You don’t have to commit right away. Just start where most teams do—by tracking your first influencer post with IQFluence and seeing how it works for you.

👉 Try it free for 7 days and run your next campaign with clarity:

Start your free trial