Нow to track influencer marketing: Top 5 influencer campaign tracking tools

June 20, 2025 · 16:28

Author

Filip Allard

Remember 2018? Back then, we used sticky notes on a whiteboard to keep an eye on every influencer’s post? I can’t help but smile when I recall my jury-rigged system from my first ever beauty client! It’s been seven years, with a lot of campaigns under our belt, and I’m still surprised at how far we have gotten with tracking influencer marketing.

Yesterday, Jess and I were on the phone, and she reminded me of how we began our work together on that first campaign.” Do you remember the three days we spent by hand taking screenshots of every single Instagram Story mention? I still feel a bit of pain in my thumb thinking about it!”

Those wild west days taught me the hard way that tools are needed to help you improve your work. After experiencing hundreds of influencer campaigns on IQFluence, I learned a lot and can’t wait to tell you all about it.

Grab that oat milk latte (or whatever gets you through your morning meetings), and let's chat about how to actually track your influencer marketing like the savvy marketer you are.

Track influencers with IQFluence: a 7-day free trial

Search for Influencers

What is an influencer tracking

Elen, Chief Product Officer at IQFluence:

"Influencer tracking is the process of monitoring, vetting and analyzing the performance and impact of your existing or new influencers on brand marketing campaigns.

It involves:

collecting data on key metrics such as audience engagement (likes, comments, shares),
reach (how many people saw the content),
impressions (how many times the content was displayed),
conversions (clicks, sales, sign-ups, or other actions driven by the campaign)."

Why influencer tracking is vital for your business in 2025

Last summer, I was eating dinner with a CMO and they proudly talked about their $100K influencer program. I was met with surprise when I inquired about their tracking system. He looked at me like I'd grown a second head. "We measure followers and likes, obviously.

Y'all. I was so caught off guard that I nearly spat out my Moscow Mule.

Here’s the real truth that has helped keep me employed for 7 years: A majority of marketers — 42% — still measure influencer marketing success the same way they did in 2016, states Influencer Marketing Hub. (Report)

That's nearly half of us throwing money into the digital void and hoping something sticks!

Now, compare that with what I witnessed last quarter with our skincare client. They implemented proper tracking, discovered their ideal influencer profile (turns out dermatology students with 5-20K followers were CRUSHING it), and tripled their ROI in six weeks. Not 20% better. Not 50% better. THREE TIMES better.

Want to know why proper influencer tracking makes such a ridiculous difference?

You stop funding what's not working — Remember that wellness brand I worked with in 2020? They were dumping 65% of their budget into a celebrity partnership that looked great on paper but was delivering crickets in sales. One month of proper tracking redirected that money to micro-influencers, and their conversion rate jumped 340%. I still have the thank-you champagne they sent!
You discover unlikely heroes — Last fall, I was analyzing performance data for a home goods client when I noticed something weird. A quirky interior designer with barely 18K followers was outselling everyone else — including the account with 1.2M followers they were paying 10x more for! Without proper tracking, that gold mine would've stayed hidden.
You gain negotiation superpowers — Picture this: influencer asks for a 30% rate increase. Instead of panicking, you pull up your tracking dashboard and say, "Actually, your conversion rate justifies a 50% increase — but we need these specific deliverables." I've played this card dozens of times since 2019, and watching the influencer's face light up? Priceless. (And they consistently over deliver after that!)
Content patterns become crystal clear — Three years back, I couldn't figure out why certain influencers were outperforming others for our coffee subscription client. After tagging content types in our tracker influencer system, the pattern jumped out: posts featuring the unboxing experience drove 3.2x more conversions than static product shots. This insight literally shaped their entire 2023 strategy.

Think about it — you wouldn't run Google Ads without analytics, right? So why are so many of us tracking influencer marketing campaigns the wrong way?

How to choose the best tool for tracking influencers

After testing (and honestly, cursing at) dozens of influencer tracking tools since 2019, I've developed strong opinions about what actually matters. Let me spill the tea:

Non-negotiable features in any influencer tracking software:

Real-time alerts — I learned this lesson during the last Black Friday the hard way. An influencer talked up our client’s competition, not our product. Since we were able to watch things in real time, we acted within minutes and saved the relationship. I no longer use apps that don’t give me instant alerts.
Cross-platform tracking — You may remember the influencer campaign I ran for that fitness app in 2021? Based on the data from Instagram, things were looking average for them, but when we tracked the content on TikTok, it was getting 8 times the engagement. The lesson? Instagram-only tracking is so 2020
Engagement authenticity scoring — Y'all, I've been burned by this one personally. In 2022, I nearly doubled investment with an influencer showing "impressive" engagement until our tools flagged that 65% of their comments came from the same 50 accounts – all follow-for-follow networks. Trust me, you need tools that can spot fake engagement.
Conversion pathways — My favorite client story: a luxury candle brand insisted that Story mentions weren't worth the money. When we implemented proper attribution tracking, we discovered that while the initial Story got few direct clicks, it started a customer journey that ended in purchase 3-5 days later. Without tracking the full conversion pathway, we'd have cut their most profitable content type!
Content categorization — Back in 2020, I manually tagged 842 influencer posts for a haircare client (my wrist still hasn't forgiven me). But that analysis revealed that tutorials under 45 seconds with a specific before/after format drove 5x more sales than any other content. This insight literally doubled their 2021 revenue.
Audience alignment tools — The most painful lesson from my early years? Reach means nothing without relevance. Last year, a DTC shoe brand was thrilled with their fashion influencer's massive reach, until we analyzed audience data and discovered they were primarily reaching teenage boys – not exactly the 25-45 year old professional women who actually buy their products.I know the search for free Instagram tracking tools is tempting. I've been there! Back when I was starting out, I built an ungodly Excel system that took 30+ hours weekly to maintain. Now? I'd rather give up my morning coffee than go back to those days.

How to track influencer marketing (The step-by-step guide)

Alright, let's get into the nitty-gritty of how to track influencer marketing campaigns based on what actually works in 2025:

1. Strike the compass by setting your important metrics ahead of launching the product

In 2019, it was a disappointing experience when I found out that my client and I did not share the same expectations of our work. They wanted brand awareness; I was tracking sales. After three weeks into the campaign, we were forced to return to square one. Before we start our campaign, I make sure we have a workshop to agree on:

Key objective (sales, spreading awareness, increasing engagement, etc.)
Secondary metrics that matter
Success benchmarks that YOU decide (not the industry averages)

2. Create influencer-specific tracking links

I can’t get over the number of brands that forgo this important process! About six months back, a client called me because they didn’t understand why their influencer campaign wasn’t working. Interestingly, each one of the influencers had the same default link. It seemed impossible to tell who was actually responsible for making the changes?

Every influencer requires a link with UTM parameters that should consist of:

Campaign identifier
Influencer handle
Platform
Content format

For example: yourwebsite.com/product?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=summer_launch&utm_content=@influencername

3. Build your tracking command center

Whether it's a scrappy spreadsheet (like my first one in 2018 that crashed Excel every third day) or sophisticated influencer tracker, you need one centralized dashboard with:

Reach metrics (views, impressions, story completion rate)
Engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares, saves, and the ratio between them)
Traffic metrics (clicks, landing page visits, bounce rate)
Conversion metrics (sign-ups, sales, AOV)
ROI calculations (cost per acquisition, return on spend)

4. Do the detective work on content patterns

This is where my inner data nerd shines! Start categorizing content by:

Product featured
Content format (static, carousel, video, etc.)
Creative approach (tutorial, lifestyle, unboxing, etc.)
Posting time/day
Caption style/length
CTA type

Last year, I helped a pet food brand discover that videos of dogs' "first reaction" to their food posted on Sunday evenings drove 4.2x more conversions than any other content type. That insight alone paid for their entire tracking system in three weeks.

5 . Weekly performance check-ins are non-negotiable

Monthly reviews are about as useful as flip phones in 2025. By then, you've missed critical optimization windows. Effective tracking influencer marketing campaigns requires weekly adjustments based on performance data, not waiting for campaigns to conclude.

Look, I've spent countless nights building tracking systems the hard way.

After years of perfecting this process with brands across every industry, we built IQFluence to automate what was draining my nights and weekends. If you're managing more than a handful of influencers, do yourself a favor and try our free trial. Your social life will thank you!

IQFluence

Suits for: Small to medium-sized brands to find and track influencers.

Trial period: 7 days. Try it for free.

Price: From $295/mo (paid monthly) or $236/month (paid annually).

IQFluence is an AI-powered influencer tracking software that helps you discover and track creators around the world according to your criteria. Over 230 M+ profiles on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.

Features

⭐ Campaign monitoring. Track influencer content and performance, by simply creating a campaign and mentioning certain hashtags.

Include the campaign dates, the influencer's profile link, and the relevant keywords or hashtags associated with your campaign. Then, analyze key performance metrics for your business, such as views, clicks, reach, and other important indicators.

⭐ Advanced Search Filters. Find influencers instantly using convenient filters such as location, gender, age, engagement rate, lookallikes, saves, views and more with both influencer. Apply filters to both the influencer and their audience.

Pressing the analyze button will generate precise and insightful reports, featuring detailed graphs and diagrams that visually represent key metrics. These visualizations make it easy to interpret complex data and assess influencer performance at a glance.

In-depth reports on each influencer's audience, including demographics, audience lookalikes, and authenticity. This allows you to gain a clearer understanding of an influencer’s relevance, helping you choose the best influencer that aligns with your brand’s goals and target audience.

Pricing

There are three pricing plans: Starter, Advanced, and Business, designed to suit individuals, as well as small and medium-sized agencies. You can choose to pay monthly or annually with a 20% discount for yearly payments. The prices are quite affordable, starting at $236 annually if paid monthly, with the most expensive plan costing $1,300.

Pros and Cons

Advantages

• User-Friendly Interface.
• Comprehensive Influencer Marketing Tools with a niche search feature.

• Mediaplan Builder that collects fresh metrics (for 30 days.)

• Very helpful technical support.

Disadvantages

• 7-day trial period instead of 14 days.

• Need to check if the influencer is relevant when searching for narrow topics.

Try tracking influencers with IQFluence: 7-day free trial

Serach for Influencers

Modash

Suits for: B2C e-commerce & app companies.

Trial period: 14 days.

Price: From $299/month or $199/month ( if paid annually).

Image source.

Modash is an influencer tracking platform for finding and analyzing influencer campaigns. It gives access to over 200 million influencer profiles on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. Brands can use Modash to find the right influencers based on audience, engagement, and content performance. Built on core values like innovation and growth, Modash guides its platform development and approach to influencer marketing.