When you launch an influencer campaign, you need access to reliable influencer evaluation tools so that you can understand the impact your campaign has made and whether it is performing as you hoped. That way, you know whether you need to make any adjustments to your strategy and if you are getting a worthwhile return on your investment.
Today, we are going to talk about which influencer evaluation tools you need for your campaigns so that you can select the right platform for the specific needs of your brand.
Let’s start by discussing what influencer evaluation tools are and why tracking tools are so important for effective campaign management.
Influencer evaluation tools are features included in an influencer marketing platform that you can use to analyze your campaigns and determine how well they are performing. These tools can help you gain a lot of insight including whether they are reaching the right audience, if your content resonates, and if followers are engaging with it.
You can also use these tools to identify and evaluate influencers before deciding whether to collaborate with them. Factors you can analyze include how well an influencer has performed with their past campaigns, what their reach is, and the quality, authenticity, demographics, and interests of their audience. Moreover, if you work with multiple influencers, you can use these tools to create profiles for organizing, comparing, and managing your relationships.
All this research can be done manually. However, a manual analysis takes a great deal longer and you’re not guaranteed access to all the data you need to make an informed decision. In turn, by using these tools to automate the process, you can generate detailed insights at the click of a button and make faster, data-driven campaign management decisions.
Let’s take a look now at some of the evaluation tools and features of an influencer marketing platform that you should be looking for in 2023.
Before we do, though, there’s one important point that we need to make: whatever influencer evaluation tools you use, it’s important that you don’t rely exclusively on them when evaluating influencers and campaigns. It’s just as important to rely on your own personal data and insights. The key is finding the right balance between automation and human insight.
Influencer discovery tools help you find and connect with relevant influencers for your campaigns. You can use these influencer evaluation tools to access a wide pool of potential candidates and apply a range of filters to search for someone who aligns perfectly with the vision, objectives, and values of your campaigns.
For example, with Influencity’s Discover influencer evaluation tool, you get access to a large database of influencers with search engine filters for exploring by content style, location, products, social media platforms, audience size, demographics, and segmentation. You can also compare influencers directly on the search results page. That way, you can find an influencer who can reach the right market and create highly engaging campaigns to stimulate audience-brand affinity.
An influencer audience analysis tool helps you analyze an influencer’s following so you can determine if they are relevant and authentic. This type of influencer evaluation tool is essential, as if a profile’s following is not authentic or interested in the product you offer, you won’t get a satisfactory return on your investment. With so many fake influencers who have falsely inflated their stats by purchasing bots and fake followers, this is a very real risk, so make sure you protect yourself by using the right tools.
Many of these influencer evaluation tools use automated AI features to scan an influencer’s audience and determine if someone is as good as they claim to be. For example, Influencity’s Audience Quality Score calculates the quality and authenticity of an influencer’s audience by reviewing engagement rates, follower activities, and the types of responses that an influencer’s content generates.
The final influencer evaluation tool that you need for your campaigns is one that helps you organize and manage your influencer collaborations. The best solution for this is an Influencer Relationship Management (IRM) tool.
For example, with Influencity’s IRM feature, you get access to an intuitive interface where you can centralize all your influencer data and build a detailed profile of everything relating to your collaboration with an influencer. This includes their contact details, their profile and market segmentation, their price historicals, and their campaign preferences.
Finally, don't forget the value of adding your own notes to an influencer's profile. Many platforms including Influencity’s solution allow you to keep a running log of all your interactions so that you know exactly what’s happening at all times. Your entire team can add comments to your influencer profiles so that everyone has visibility and it’s much easier to put an influencer's analytics into context. That way, together with the other influencer evaluation tools we have mentioned, you can nurture productive and long-term partnerships with all your influencers so that you get consistently good results from all your campaigns.