Understanding the return on investment (ROI) of influencer marketing is crucial for Australian small and medium enterprises. It’s no longer enough to simply chase ‘likes’ – we need to connect influencer activity directly to business outcomes. Many businesses hesitate, fearing it’s too difficult to measure, but with a focused approach, calculating ROI is absolutely achievable.

The biggest mistake we see is treating all influencer campaigns the same. ROI varies massively depending on your goals. Are you aiming for brand awareness, website traffic, lead generation, or direct sales? Each requires different tracking and attribution methods. For example, a campaign focused on brand awareness will rely more on metrics like reach and sentiment, while a sales-focused campaign needs robust conversion tracking.

Here are some key insights to help you analyse your influencer marketing ROI:

• Unique Tracking Links: This is fundamental. Provide each influencer with a unique URL to share, allowing you to directly track website traffic and conversions originating from their audience.
• Discount Codes: Offering exclusive discount codes to an influencer’s followers provides a clear link between their promotion and sales. It’s a simple, effective method for attributing revenue.
• Attribution Modelling: Consider using multi-touch attribution. A customer might see an influencer’s post, then later find you via a Google search. Multi-touch models give partial credit to the influencer for contributing to the final sale.
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Calculate how much you’re spending to acquire a customer through influencer marketing. Divide the total campaign cost by the number of customers acquired. This is a powerful metric for comparing influencer marketing to other channels.

Don’t forget to factor in the value of earned media. Positive mentions and user-generated content resulting from an influencer campaign contribute to brand equity and can have a long-term impact. While harder to quantify, these benefits shouldn’t be ignored. We’re seeing more businesses in 2025 integrating social listening tools to better capture this value.

Ultimately, successful influencer marketing isn’t about vanity metrics; it’s about driving measurable business results. Start by clearly defining your campaign objectives, implementing robust tracking, and consistently analysing your data. If you’re unsure where to begin, a small-scale test campaign with a carefully selected influencer is a great first step.