Influencer Marketing Guide: Strategy, Platforms & ROI

The rise of the influencer marketing space — a $21 billion industry, projected to grow to $32.5 billion by the end of 2025 — is one of the clearest examples of how social media has transformed traditional marketing.

Social media influencers help branded messages get seen by a relevant audience while adding a level of relatability and authenticity that can only come from the endorsement of a trusted third party. Well-respected influencers spend years building up organic audiences who trust their recommendations. Brands can build their presence, encourage more sales, and find new audiences of loyal customers through well-planned influencer partnerships.

Our buying behavior today is heavily influenced by those we admire or those whose recommendations we trust. As an example, check out this comment left by one of Alexa Chung's followers on this post: “Already ordered and will forever order anything AC approved.”  

But for all its advantages, influencer marketing is hard to get right. The explosion of influencers on social media means it can be difficult to find the right influencers and creators to work with. And then there's the hurdle of managing those relationships at scale, plus the difficulty of measuring influencer ROI.

In this post, we'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

Jump to a section

• What is an influencer?

• What is influencer marketing?

• Why is influencer marketing effective?

• What are the benefits of influencer marketing?

• What is the current state of influencer marketing?

• How should I define influencer campaign objectives?

• What kind of influencer should I work with?

• How do I find the right influencers?

• How do I manage an influencer network?

• How to run an influencer campaign (5 steps)

• How do I measure an influencer campaign?

• What are notable influencer campaign examples and what can they teach me?

• Influencer Marketing FAQs

• What are the next steps to achieve influencer marketing success?

What is an influencer?

An influencer is a person whose opinions, recommendations, or content can change other people’s attitudes or purchasing behavior.

Influencers range from celebrities to nano-creators and are defined less by follower count and more by their ability to persuade a specific audience through trusted, relevant content.

In order to be considered an influencer, a person must be able to affect change on our buying behavior based on their status, position, or even fanbase. 

So, an influencer can be anyone (regardless of follower count) that is able to influence our way of thinking and, thus, our purchase tendencies.

Tip: Learn more about Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), how to become a content creator, and how to negotiate as a creator, and read this blog to learn more about the question "What is an influencer?"

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing where brands partner with creators to reach targeted audiences and build trust.
It connects brands to highly engaged communities and is used for awareness, engagement and conversion campaigns.

Influencer marketing is no longer just a fringe strategy; it has become a core marketing tactic for many consumer-facing brands. Influencer marketing is a unique marketing channel that builds meaningful connections between you and your audience through authentic brand promotion. Authenticity is really the bread and butter of influencer marketing. And now that we know who is an influencer, let’s explore how influencer marketing can help your brand.

Tip: With new social platforms popping up all the time, it's important to stay on top. Look at the top beauty influencers, the top South African beauty influencers, the top beauty influencers in Indonesia, the best global food influencers, the top 5 gaming influencers, the top food influencers in Malaysia, the top business influencers, the top sports & fitness influencers, the top Instagram Influencers, the top Finnish influencers, the biggest Swedish influencers, the top Instagram couple influencers, the top influencers in the UK, the top Irish influencers, the top Instagram influencers in Malaysia, the top TikTok influencers in Malaysia, the top Malaysian YouTubers, the top Indonesian Instagram influencers, the top Indonesian YouTube influencers, the top Instagram Influencers in Hong Kong, the top Instagram influencers in Singapore, the top Facebook influencers, the top South African Instagram influencers, the top South African TikTokers, the top TikTok influencers in the Philippines, the top beauty influencers in the Philippines, the top Australian TikTokers, the biggest Australian YouTubers, the top female influencers from Ukraine, and the top Australian (Instagram) influencers.

Why is influencer marketing effective?

Influencer marketing is effective because it leverages creators’ built trust and relatability to make brand messages feel like personal recommendations.
That trust typically drives higher engagement and conversion than banner ads, and influencers’ storytelling formats often cut through social clutter more efficiently than traditional ads.

It is more challenging than ever to connect with your customers with so many competing ads and posts online. There's a lot of clutter in your target audience's social media feeds and email inboxes that your brand's message is competing against.

Influencer marketing is a way to cut through the noise and deliver a message to your audience that appears in a way that may be more compelling and relevant.

How can influencer marketing help your brand?

1. Reach new audiences
2. Engage existing audiences
3. Create brand awareness
4. Drive sales or web traffic

Reading tip: How To Promote Branded Influencer Content As Ads

All of these can be outcomes of an influencer marketing program because of the bonds that influencers have established with their followers.

While traditional advertising still has its place, it’s been proven to be less effective than word-of-mouth marketing or personal recommendations, which is how an influencer's endorsement should appear when done correctly.

Consumers are seeking out reviews, testimonials, or endorsements when they are in the buying process, which is partly influencer marketing has taken off.

One study, for example, found that 84% of people trust online reviews from strangers as much as those from friends and families. Influencers who are known and respected can provide a business with valuable recommendations that consumers will trust, especially when the message is delivered in an authentic manner.

For more insights into the effectiveness of influencer campaigns, check out our blog on influencer marketing statistics.

In order to make the most of influencer marketing, however, you need to follow certain guidelines. We’ll discuss these guidelines later on, but first, let’s evaluate the influencer marketing landscape of today.

What are the benefits of influencer marketing?

Key benefits include building trust and credibility, reaching highly targeted audiences, increasing brand authenticity, and generating repurposable content and user-generated content (UGC).

Influencers can create content and endorsements that feel organic to followers, help brands access niche communities, and supply creative assets that improve owned and paid channel performance.

In short, influencer marketing helps:

• Build trust and credibility

• Reach highly targeted audiences

• Increase brand authenticity

• Curate new content & UGC

We’re living at a time when people are bombarded with advertisements. Traditional marketing efforts seem to be losing their effectiveness. That’s why influencer marketing is so appealing. It empowers brands to connect with, and build, their target audience in new and fresh ways. Let’s explore some of the benefits of influencer marketing for companies today: 

Build trust and credibility

When potential customers see an influential figure endorsing a product or service, they are more likely to believe in its quality and value. Influencers can help put your products into perspective so others can see themselves using it. 

As the old saying goes, two brains are better than one. Working with influencers allows you to promote your products in ways your marketing team hasn’t yet thought of. You’re tapping into the creative powers of professional content producers—it’s like having an enterprise-sized marketing team at your fingertips without the overhead.

Reach highly targeted audiences

Instead of casting a wide net with traditional ads, brands can work with influencers who have a dedicated following within a specific niche or industry. This allows your message to reach those who are most likely to be interested in what you offer. Targeting your marketing efforts can help you to reduce costs while optimizing your results.

Reading Tip: How Automotive Brands Are Driving Mega Results with Micro and Macro Influencers

Increase brand authenticity

Influencers often have a unique voice and storytelling ability that resonates with their followers. By collaborating with influencers, brands can latch onto this authenticity and create content that feels genuine rather than forced or overly promotional.

Tip: Learn how to use Instagram collab posts to increase your reach.

Curate new content & UGC

Content creation gets expensive, but brands don’t have to shoulder the whole cost alone. Working with influencers means not only getting access to content created on your behalf but also having it distributed for you. 

Influencers are their own content marketing team, who handle the whole process for you. This means you’ll end up with lots of new curated content you can repurpose and share on your own channels, which also benefits the influencer by helping them gain more exposure—it’s a win-win!

What is the current state of influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a maturing, fast-growing category worth roughly $33 billion in 2025 and projected to expand further in the coming years.
As the creator economy grows, more brands and creators compete for audience attention, which raises the importance of authenticity, audience fit and data-driven selection to avoid noise and fraud.

As the number of influencers continues to grow, the influencer marketing landscape has become quite competitive. In some verticals where there is an abundance of influencers, (such as health, fitness, beauty, and fashion) audiences have become increasingly skeptical of the content they see.

Here are some points to keep in mind about influencer marketing:

• Audiences want to see that influencers are truly knowledgeable and impressed with the products they endorse. Otherwise, their messages just come across as social media versions of TV commercials.
• Don't choose influencers simply because they have lots of followers. It's more important that they have engaged and loyal followers. Additionally, you want to find people who are the right match for your audience.
• Authenticity is essential. Messages delivered in a canned manner do not come across as persuasive. This speaks, once again, to working with influencers who are genuinely enthusiastic about their message. The most persuasive messages are more spontaneous and involve storytelling. For example, an influencer explaining exactly how they use your product or giving a live demonstration.
• Organic content typically performs better than sponsored content, so consider the long-term relationship when partnering with influencers. Read more about this, from the perspective of content creators, in our Marketing Playbook from Meltwater Summit 2025.

Did you know that 40% of marketers say they use influencer marketing or plan to do so in 2024? For more facts, check out our influencer marketing statistics blog.

How should I define influencer campaign objectives?

Define campaign objectives by the specific behavior you want to change (awareness, loyalty, traffic, or conversions) and tie each objective to measurable influencer marketing KPIs.
Clear objectives (for example, impressions for awareness or link clicks for traffic) determine the right influencer tier, creative brief and attribution method for the campaign.

Knowing the type of behavior you want to influence, will help you identify the objectives and right influencers for your large-scale marketing campaigns.

Some common examples of influencer marketing objectives include:

• Brand awareness

• Brand loyalty

• Web traffic

Let's take a look at each in more detail:

Brand awareness

Perhaps your brand is new to the market, or you are about to launch a new product, you need audiences to know about it. And if that is the case, the primary objective of your influencer marketing campaign should be brand awareness. You would want to work with influencers who would reach a large number of people.

Garmin worked with several top Singaporean fitness influencers like @elaineruimin, who has a large follower base of over 100K, to raise awareness about the launch of their new smartwatch, Garmin Venu.

However, generating brand awareness alone isn’t truly influencing anyone’s behavior (technically this could be considered to be only a celebrity endorsement), which is why you’ll want to make sure there is a strong CTA attached to the post.

Tip: These are the top South African fitness influencers.

Brand loyalty

Think about your favorite brand. More often than not, you become a fan because the brand’s values and personality align with yours. Influencer marketing is a great way for brands to communicate their values and realize deeper brand loyalty. Brand values can not only be communicated via the content that’s shared but also signaled by the choice of an influencer.

One prime example would be Lululemon’s ambassador program. They identified local influencers in the fitness scene who embodied their brand values, exposed these influencers to Lululemon’s values, and gave them high-quality activewear for free. In exchange, these influencers chose to promote the Lululemon brand on their social platforms and run classes at Lululemon’s studios. The influencers became ambassadors for the brand’s values as well as products. And Lululemon eventually transitioned from being an activewear retailer to becoming a lifestyle brand with a lively, engaged community of fitness fans.

Tip: Learn how to run an influencer loyalty program, learn more about value-based influencer marketing, and how the Klear Brand Score helps you determine how influencers align with your goals.

Web traffic

This is one of the most common goals of influencer marketing campaigns. Influencer marketing is well-known for being able to generate website traffic and sales within a short amount of time. Based on the principle of word-of-mouth marketing, consumers are more likely to trust the recommendation of someone they personally know. Hence, having influencers talk about the benefits of your product has been proven effective in driving sales.

Once you have nailed down your campaign objectives, the next step is to think about which influencers to partner with.

What kind of influencer should I work with?

Choose influencers based on campaign goals, audience fit, and creative style: nano/micro for high engagement and niche authenticity, macro/celebrity for scale and mass awareness.
Beyond follower counts, evaluate audience demographics, topical expertise, past content performance, and the influencer’s ability to tell a credible story that matches your brand.

Celebrity influencers

Celebrity influencers are often the go-to choice for big multinational brands who have a large pool of resources and existing relationships with the celebrity. While it is expensive to engage them, it will put your brand in front of millions of people. This is especially effective in establishing top-of-mind awareness.

Celebrity Influencer: @kyliejenner, 400m followers

Macro influencers

While they may not have celebrity status, power users or macro influencers, still have a substantial following and clout within certain groups. Using power users in your campaign, you can almost guarantee that your content will reach a targeted audience who likely share a similar interest. Power users are great for mass-market brands who are trying to reach a particular segment. Huge clothing brands often engage power users to raise awareness about their new collections and launches.

Power influencer: @massy.arias, 2.8m followers on Instagram

Tip: Take a look at the top Instagram influencers for Coachella.

Micro-influencers

Micro-influencers are less costly and can be an effective alternative to celebrity or power user influencers. Studies have shown that followers of micro-influencers tend to trust their recommendations more than that of celebrity influencers. As this group is perceived to be more authentic, micro-influencers often command greater influence over their followers and generate higher engagement rates with each post they push out. This is why a stronger connection may be forged between a brand and a consumer when a micro-influencer is engaged.

Reading Tip: Learn about micro-influencer rates and pricing.

Micro-influencer: @itsmariahazel, 16.5k followers

Nano-influencers

Despite their modest number of followers, hiring nano-influencers for your campaign may be a faster way to spread brand awareness through niche communities. They are more proactive in promoting products as well as sharing their opinions with their circle of friends. 

Getting nano-influencers to be advocates of your brand is also cost-effective! Nano-influencers often don't charge fees. Instead, brands reward them with complementary products to start reaching out to their own social circles, thus extending your brand’s reach and goodwill.

Reading Tip: Learn about nano-influencer rates and pricing.

Nano-influencer: @amychowmakeup, 2k followers

Consider your budget

Running an influencer marketing campaign does not have to take a huge chunk out of your budget. While, yes, some brands may pour thousands of ad dollars into running their influencer programs, consider that they may be focused on mega or celebrity influencer partnerships.

This isn't the only option, however. Many successful influencer marketing initiatives can focus on nano or micro influencers, which are more cost effective, and often yield stronger results. To get the most out of your campaign, it is essential that you ask yourself the following questions:

Are you wondering how much influencer marketing costs? Learn more about influencer rates and pricing and download our influencer rate card. Also, take a look at the top influencer marketing certificates to add to your LinkedIn, Top 5 Twitch Influencers to work with and the best influencer marketing courses.

How do I find the right influencers?

Use topic, audience and engagement filters plus tools that show true reach and audience demographics to identify creators whose followers match your target profile.
Combine platform discovery with social listening, campaign hashtag analysis, and influencer databases to shortlist creators, and always vet recent content and audience quality before outreach.

Reading Tips: How To Amplify Your Brand With a Blogger Outreach Campaign, How To Scale Your Influencer Outreach, How to Approach Influencers Through Emails, How To Perform an Instagram Influencer Audit, How to Perform Influencer Marketing Competitor Audit, Free Influencer Marketing Competitor Audit Template, How to Find Twitter Influencers to Grow Your Brand, three types of influencers driving results for alcohol brands.

Meltwater’s social media influencer discovery filters

1. Influencers engaged with your brand, competitors, or campaign hashtags
2. Topic/ area of knowledge or expertise, such as Yoga, Art, or Travel
3. Audience demographics
4. An influencer’s network to find other relevant profiles

Meltwater’s Social Media Influencer Discovery platform offers a robust influencer search engine, allowing users to discover influencers. Say your brand sells sports apparel — you can search for “fitness influencers" and refine the search by filtering based on factors like follower count, location, and audience demographics, among many others.

Tour our influencer platform now!

In addition, the Klear Brand Score helps you determine how well influencers align with your brand goals.

Two common pitfalls when selecting influencers

When brands and agencies do not use an influencer database to help them find influencers that match their brand values or align with their target audience, they risk failing before they've even begun. Avoid these common influencer marketing pitfalls to set yourself and your team up for success:

• 1. Selecting influencers based on vanity metrics

• 2. Selecting an influencer whose followers don't align with your target audience

Reading tip: Why You Should Perform an Influencer Risk Assessment

1. Selecting influencers based on vanity metrics

One common pitfall among marketers is selecting a partner based on vanity metrics like follower count or engagement numbers. The existence of fake bots, spam, and inactive accounts can drive up these numbers. 

In fact, aspiring influencers often head to influencer pods, which are public and private forums, to exchange likes, follows, and comments to increase their social media presence. As a result, many brands waste their resources on fake influencers with high reach and engagement, but with little influence.

The Meltwater social influencer marketing tool, Klear, helps with this by calculating the true reach of every Instagram account. True reach removes fake bots and spam accounts from the equation, and this reflects a more accurate depiction of a user’s influence.

Did you know? Influencer marketing hubs can help you collect the right influencer metrics. We also recommend our Influencer Engagement Rate Calculator & Guide to you.

Many marketers fail to understand how Instagram ranks posts on our feeds and how this ranking can impact an influencer marketing campaign. Instagram posts are no longer ranked chronologically, but rather, by relevance to the specific user.

How is the relevance of a post determined? Two factors are weighed by the algorithm: The user’s historical interactions with the poster’s content and the user’s interaction with similar posts from other influential creators. This means that only those who recently engaged with the influencer’s content or content similar to what was posted may see the post.

Our platform's technology attaches an "influence score" to each user and this represents how influential an account is in their social network. It takes into account (1) the frequency that active users interact with the content and (2) how influential these active users are. Furthermore, if an influencer is an expert in their field (i.e., fashion), their influence score will increase. The influencer score is a great indicator of how much action and impact that influencer will drive for your brand.

Tip: These are the top global fashion influencers, the top sustainable fashion influencers, top sustainability influencers, top fashion influencers in Singapore, top fashion influencers in South Africa, top travel influencers, top tech influencers. Also, learn about 3 Examples of Influencers Driving Impact for Luxury Fashion Brands.

2. Selecting an influencer whose followers don't align with your target audience

But what if an influencer has a high number of active, engaged followers? It is easy to conclude that the influencer would be an ideal partner for your brand. However, many brands fail to consider who exactly these followers are and if they would be reaching their target audience.

Assuming that an influencer’s followers all share the same interests and values as the brand is the second mistake marketers commonly make. As more brands begin to understand the complexity of influencer marketing, they’ve started investing in influencer management tools like Meltwater that provide them with rich data on an influencer’s audience.

Tip: These are the best influencer management platforms & tools and here you find the best influencer marketing platforms on the market. Also, take a look at The Total Economic Impact™ of the Klear Platform.

With Meltwater, marketers are able to take a deep dive into the demographics of an influencers’ audience. This helps marketers ensure that their brands’ target audience is aligned with the followers of their partners. For each influencer, our tool generates a global influence score that helps clients understand the impact they can expect when collaborating with an influencer, based on their reach and engagements. The score is from 0-100, with 100 being the highest.

Additionally, because there are often varying factors that are highly specific to each brand campaign, you’re able to set up custom brand scores for influencers. Audience age, audience gender, audience location, and audience topic are some of the parameters that make up a custom brand score. This, in turn, will give you a more customized experience in identifying influencers that align with your brand’s profile.

Lastly, Klear AI is another way to streamline discovery. Simply enter your criteria and some information about your brand, and Klear will provide AI-driven overviews indicating if an influencer is a good match or not.

Want to learn more about Meltwater's influencer tool? Complete the form and we'll be in touch!

Tip: Download your free Influencer Marketing Platform Buyer’s Guide.

How do I manage an influencer network?

Manage influencer relationships centrally. Treat creators as partners with CRM-style workflows for briefs, approvals, assets, payments, and performance tracking.
Centralized tools reduce messy DMs and email threads, enable transparent communications and task tracking, and make it easier to scale programs, enforce compliance, and nurture long-term advocates.

This means your relationship with an influencer should go beyond a purely transactional one, and as you work with them as true partners they could become your brand ambassadors — not only spokespeople. 

The way you change this relationship begins with how you reach out to them and engage with them on a day-to-day basis.

Reading Tips: Influencer Management: How To Build Successful Relationships, Klear Connect: The CRM To Manage Influencer Relationships!, Free Download: Influencer Marketing Strategy

Reaching out to influencers

Building a relationship should begin even before an influencer contract is signed. In most cases, influencers would only choose to work with brands they believe in, regardless of the cash incentives. Once you have identified the influencers that you believe embody your brand personality, you need to get them excited about working with you. 

A common strategy that brands employ to get the attention of influencers is to mail them free samples of their products, without asking for anything in return. However, you don’t want to just send them free stuff, you want to personalize the package based on your knowledge of them. You may also want to consider reaching out to check in — not only when you want or need something.

Communicating expectations

Some brands fall into the opposite ends of the spectrum where they pander too much to their partners' demands such that they lose control of the partnership.

It is important that brands clearly spell out their expectations about the campaign and ensure that their partners understand them. From the type of content to the frequency of posts, these expectations should be communicated from the start in an influencer campaign brief.

Tip: Download this marketing campaign brief template and our free influencer marketing proposal template.

Centralizing communications

By centralizing communication, you can say goodbye to messy email threads, DMs, and communication roadblocks and hello to better collaboration! For example, from Meltwater’s influencer tool, you can:

• Invite influencers to join a campaign
• Share influencer campaign briefs
• Build and send an influencer proposal
• Build and send contracts (tip: download your free social influencer contract template)
• Send direct message
• Monitor and manage campaign assets, such as verifying content before it goes live
• View outstanding tasks
• Pay influencers (using an influencer payment solution helps. Also, be aware of the influencer pay gap!)

Communication is automatically saved within one interface for complete transparency between you and your influencers. That way, you can simply open a campaign and see where each influencer stands at a glance, or identify which tasks have been completed, or which require more focus.

Content Tips: FTC Regulations and Influencer Marketing, How To Write an Influencer Marketing Request for Proposal, Download our free influencer marketing vendor RFP Template

Turning influencers into ambassadors

After expectations have been communicated and the contract signed, many brands make the mistake of neglecting their partners until they need something from them. While there is nothing inherently wrong with that, influencers, like people, would appreciate brands who go the extra mile to build a relationship with them.

Regardless of whether your organization is B2B, B2C, or an NGO, you can benefit from Influencer Advocacy programs. Not only are they useful in building lasting relationships with existing clients, but they can also be used to connect with new clients in a more authentic and organic nature. Additionally, as Ambassador programs are intended to promote sales, measuring ROI is relatively easy.

To help drive advocacy amongst your network of influencers, try keeping them updated about the latest happenings, inviting them to exclusive brand events, or simply sending them a token of appreciation every now and then. The key here is to be genuine and authentic in maintaining a good relationship with them.

Meltwater's Social Media Influencer Discovery platform offers a “Campaign” feature that allows users to develop relationships with your selected influencers — moving them down the funnel from “Fresh” to “Advocates”.

When influencers enjoy the experience in this partnership, they will develop trust and a connection with your brand. And once they are avid fans of your product, they will continue to give your brand exposure even after their work commitment is over. This is when you know your influencer has transformed into a powerful brand advocate and brand ambassador.

Reading Tip: How To Find and Collaborate with Influential Clients

How to run an influencer campaign (5 steps)

1. Define objective & KPIs
   (awareness, traffic, conversions, brand lift).
2. Research & shortlist creators
   (audience fit, past content, true reach).
3. Brief & contract
   (creative brief, disclosure requirements, deliverables, rights).
4. Launch & amplify
   (paid amplification, cross-posting, real-time monitoring).
5. Measure & iterate
   (UTMs, cohort windows, brand lift surveys, postmortem).

How do I measure an influencer campaign?

Measure campaigns with a mix of reach and engagement metrics plus outcome metrics. Link clicks, conversions, and any brand lift indicators that map to your objective.
Use UTMs and time-window attribution to tie social referrals to web behavior, and pair quantitative metrics with qualitative signals (earned coverage, sentiment and UGC) for a full performance picture.

Tip: Read our in-depth blog about influencer campaign measurement, KPIs, and ROI

The two most common metrics marketers often use to measure the success of their campaigns are reach and engagement. While they are important metrics to measure, using these numbers as your be-all and end-all would limit the potential of your efforts. Furthermore, with the recent announcement around Instagram’s decision to hide like counts, marketers have to start thinking of a more holistic framework to measure their success. 

Here are some other quantifiable metrics that can give a comprehensive picture of your campaign’s performance:

1. Earned media

It’s great when someone likes your post, but it’s even better when that person chooses to share that post with their audience. For example, a user can share an influencer’s post on his or her own Instagram Stories, which would help you increase your reach. Alternatively, users could begin to use your branded hashtag in their content, which, again, would lead to greater reach than what you originally paid for.

2. Instagram story views

Since its launch, the growth of Instagram Stories has been astounding. Many influencers have adopted this new format to talk about a brand, product, or service. It offers a real-time authenticity that makes users feel that the influencer is letting them into their lives. However, one challenge marketers face is tracking engagement and views of Instagram Stories — given its perishable nature. The good thing is that our social influencer tool can track and store Instagram Stories even after 24 hours!

Reading Tip: How to Track Instagram Stories of Influencers

3. Link clicks

If your objective is to drive web traffic, the number of link clicks is the most relevant metric to measure the success of your campaigns. Developments within the Instagram app have facilitated the ease of inserting links into posts. If you use a UTM code in the URL, you can easily track how much traffic is generated from that particular piece of content.

With so many numbers to stay on top of, we understand the challenges that marketers face in creating timely and insightful reports.

Our social influencer tool also allows marketers to keep track of their campaign’s performance in real-time and generate reports in an instant. From engagement numbers to follower growth, earned media value to link clicks, marketers have all the data they crave at their fingertips. We even track perishable content like Instagram Stories.

Tip: Learn how to access your Instagram analytics and metrics and learn more about the outcome of your influencer campaigns. Most people work with influencer affiliate programs. We also have a guide on Influencer Marketing Reporting & Analytics for you.

How do I calculate influencer marketing ROI?

Calculate ROI by attributing revenue or desired actions to influencer activity using UTM tracking, conversion windows, and complementary brand lift studies.
Combine direct attribution (sales, leads) with uplift analysis and long-term effects (repeat purchases or loyalty) to capture both short-term and sustained campaign impact.

Learn the ins and outs of measuring influencer ROI on our blog, and in our Influencer Marketing Ebook

What are notable influencer campaign examples and what can they teach me?

Successful campaigns (e.g., Daniel Wellington, Dove, Warby Parker) align influencer content with brand values, create a clear customer journey and often rely on authentic, repeatable creative formats.
These examples show that clever hashtag strategies, product seeding, and long-term ambassador programs can scale organic participation and produce sustained social proof at relatively low cost.

You are now one step closer to running a successful influencer marketing campaign, but before you get started, you might want to take a look at these influencer campaign examples for some inspiration.

Reading Tip: Influencer Marketing Inspiration: Tuft & Needle

1. #ImWithCHARLESKEITH by Charles and Keith

The Charles and Keith team employed several influencers to promote the launch of their new collection. A search of the hashtag #IMWITHCHARLESANDKEITH on Instagram will return over 20,000 Instagram posts. While it raised social media awareness for the launch, Charles and Keith wanted influencers to help drive traffic to their own Instagram page. 

Once on Charles and Keith’s page, users would see a link to shop their Instagram feed in their bio. But instead of bringing users to their e-commerce website, the link brings them to a completely new platform that resembles their Instagram feed. Users can click on the items featured in the photos and they will be shown more information about the products. Clicking again would bring them to the product page where they can purchase it.

Reading tip: How to Use Ecommerce Influencer Marketing to Grow Your Business

Charles and Keith’s smart move to create a seamless, fluid customer journey is something we can all learn from.

Tip: Learn more about social commerce and livestream shopping.

2. #danielwellington by Daniel Wellington

Boasting 4.7 million followers on Instagram, @danielwellington has perfected its influencer marketing strategy. Entering the market in 2011, they did not have the resources for huge ad campaigns to boost their branding. As such, they engaged the help of micro-influencers. The DW team sent samples of their watches to selected micro-influencers. As long as they posted a photo of themselves sporting the Daniel Wellington watch, they would get to keep it for free.

Many micro-influencers were happy to take up the offer, and combined with the use of the targeted hashtag: “#danielwellington.” The campaign exploded! Soon, Daniel Wellington consumers started sharing photos themselves, giving the brand a sustainable stream of social media publicity at a low cost.

3. Dove supporting the LGBT+ community

Dove’s brand ethos has been equality, diversity, and fair-representation. As a beauty brand, Dove is strongly dedicated to erasing biased and unattainable beauty standards and creating visibility for all.

In the #ShowUS campaign, the brand partnered with a Transgender biologist to spread visibility and break beauty stereotypes surrounding transgender representation. This campaign perfectly aligns with Dove’s past campaigns. It is not a random piece of content, rather it contributes to a larger conversation the brand has been having with its audience.

Reading Tips: Influencer Inspiration: Dove raises the bar with its #ArmsUp campaign, How To Boost Your Conversion Rate with Influencer Marketing, L’Oréal Shows The Beauty of Diversity With Influencers, Celebrate Pride with the Top 5 LGBTQ+ Influencers, How to Plan Your Pride Influencer Campaign, Top Diverse Influencers We Love, Influencer Marketing Goes Green: #SecondHandFirst With ThredUp

4. Warby Parker and voter registration

This is a clever campaign because it carefully aligns a brand’s product with brand values. Warby Parker is a glasses and sunglasses retailer, well-known for the ability to seamlessly shop for glasses online.

In a campaign promoting National Voter Registration Day, the brand helped people that were “looking” (get it?) for facts about voting. Leading up to the US Presidential election Warby Parker had shared similar posts offering generalized facts to help inform their primarily Millennial and Gen Z audience.

Fact-checking aligns with the expectations of Warby Parker’s audience. Gen Z and Millennials want to trust a brand, and that means a brand is honest and reliable. Showing that you take the time to research important information relevant for your clients, will only help gain trust and show your overall value.

The massive influencer market will only continue to expand – by 12.3% up till 2027 to be exact. The benefits of influencer marketing are there for your brand to enjoy if done well.

Are you looking for more influencer marketing campaign examples? Check out these blogs: #unlabeled: Diet Coke Uses Influencers to Fuel A Powerful Conversation, Starbucks #RedCupArt Influencer Marketing Report, Influencer Marketing and Mental Health: Lessons From Maybelline

Influencer Marketing FAQs

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a social strategy where brands partner with creators to reach targeted, trusting audiences and drive outcomes. It’s useful for awareness, engagement, and conversions.

How do I choose the right influencer tier (nano → celebrity)?

Choose the tier by objective and budget: nano/micro for engagement and niche trust; macro/celebrity for scale and awareness. Always match creative style and audience demographics, not follower count alone.

What KPIs should I track for influencer campaigns?

Track reach, engagement, link clicks, conversions and brand lift; choose KPIs that map directly to your campaign objective and use UTMs and attribution windows for accuracy.

How do I measure influencer ROI?

Tie social referral data to web conversions, use UTM tracking and cohort windows, and complement quantitative data with brand lift studies or surveys.

What tools help find and vet influencers?

Use influencer discovery platforms like the Meltwater Influencer Marketing Suite for audience demographics, engagement rates and topical relevance, plus social listening and manual vetting for content authenticity.

How long should influencer relationships last?

Prefer multi-post or ambassador relationships (months) for trust and sustained performance; longer partnerships typically produce better long-term results than one-off posts.

How do I avoid fake or fraudulent influencers?

Check true reach, audience quality, engagement patterns and referral traffic; use platforms that detect bots and flag suspicious activity.

What legal and disclosure rules apply?

Follow local advertising rules (e.g., FTC in the U.S., ASA in the UK) and require clear paid disclosures (such as #ad); include compliance clauses in all contracts.

How can small budgets get value from influencer marketing?

Work with nano/micro creators, prioritize highly targeted niche communities, use product seeding and affiliate models to maximize ROI.

How do I manage influencers at scale?

Use a campaign CRM to centralize briefs, approvals, assets, payments and reporting; automate reminders and content checks to maintain quality and compliance.

Should I repurpose influencer content?

Yes. Repurpose creator content for ads, product pages and owned channels (with rights granted). UGC extends campaign ROI and supports omnichannel attribution.

How often should I audit influencer performance?

Monitor real-time dashboards during campaigns, run weekly performance checks and conduct monthly strategic reviews to capture learnings and optimize future creative.

What are the next steps to achieve influencer marketing success?

Start by defining clear objectives and KPIs, investing in discovery and management tools, and piloting a tightly scoped campaign to validate creative and attribution methods.
Then iterate. Scale successful partnerships, document learnings, formalize briefs and contracts, and integrate influencer metrics into broader marketing analytics for continuous optimization.

A media intelligence company like Meltwater provides end-to-end product services such as social influencer marketing services and analytics, social media analytics and management, and mainstream media monitoring.

If you don’t want to miss out on capturing those new markets for your brand, make it your priority to include social influencer marketing in your strategies. Tour our influencer marketing suite or get a personalized demo by

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This blog was adapted in part from our whitepaper: "The Social Media ROI Playbook: Driving Growth with Social".