What are the main KPIs for influencer marketing?

Pick by goal. For awareness: views, median views per post and cost per thousand views. For consideration: engagement rate per view, shares, saves and link clicks. For sales: tracked conversions, cost per acquisition and revenue per creator. Track three to five that match the goal you set before the campaign, not all twelve.

Is engagement rate a good KPI for influencer campaigns?

It is a good diagnostic and a weak goal. Engagement rate tells you whether people who saw a post reacted to it. It says nothing about whether they bought. Use it to compare creators and posts, and pair it with a click or sales metric if the campaign has a sales goal.

How do you track sales from influencers?

Give each creator a unique discount code and a UTM-tagged link, then count orders and revenue against each one in your store and analytics. Both undercount: people forget codes and buy days later on another device. Treat tracked sales as a floor, not the full picture.

Should I use earned media value as a KPI?

Not as a headline number. Earned media value converts views and likes into a dollar figure using assumed rates, and every vendor uses different assumptions. It is not revenue and it can't be compared across reports. Report the views and costs it is built from instead.

How many KPIs should an influencer campaign have?

One primary KPI tied to the goal, plus two to four supporting ones that explain it. More than that and the report turns into a hunt for whatever number went up. Write the primary KPI and its target into the brief so the creator knows what success looks like too.

Influencer marketing KPIs: the 12 that matter (and 5 that don't)

A KPI is only useful if it changes a decision. The test for each metric below: if this number came in low, would you drop the creator, change the brief or move budget? If not, it is decoration. Set KPIs when you set the influencer marketing strategy, before anyone posts. Picking them afterwards means picking whatever went up.

What KPIs should you track for influencer marketing?

Twelve that earn their place, grouped by what you are trying to do:

KPI	Stage	How to calculate it	Where the number comes from
Total views	Awareness	Sum of views on all campaign posts	Creator screenshots or ad platform
Median views per post	Awareness	Middle value of views across posts	Same
Cost per thousand views	Awareness	Total cost ÷ views × 1,000	Your spend plus views
Unique reach	Awareness	Accounts reached, as reported	Creator analytics (ask for a recording)
Engagement rate per view	Consideration	(Likes + comments + shares) ÷ views	Public post data
Shares and saves	Consideration	Count per post	Public data or creator analytics
Comment quality	Consideration	Share of comments about the product	Read them
Link clicks and CTR	Consideration	Clicks ÷ views	UTM links in your analytics
Tracked conversions	Sales	Orders using code or link	Your store
Cost per acquisition	Sales	Total cost ÷ tracked conversions	Store plus spend
Revenue per creator	Sales	Revenue on that creator's code and link	Your store
Content reuse value	Efficiency	Paid ad results using creator content vs your other ads	Ads manager

You don't need all twelve. Pick one primary KPI that matches the goal, then two to four that explain it. A sales campaign with a high cost per acquisition needs click-through rate next to it, so you can tell whether the problem was the creator's audience or your landing page.

Which influencer KPIs matter for awareness?

Median views per post is the number to plan with. Totals hide a lot: one viral post can carry nine flops. The median tells you what a normal post from this creator does, which is what you pay for next time. We explain why views beat followers in engagement rate vs views on TikTok.

Cost per thousand views lets you compare creators of different sizes on one scale, and compare the whole campaign against your paid social. Use real post-campaign views, not the creator's follower count.

Unique reach is only visible to the creator. Ask for a screen recording of the post analytics a week after posting. A screenshot is easy to edit. A recording that starts on the profile is not.

Which KPIs show consideration?

Engagement rate per view tells you whether the people who saw the post cared. Divide by views, not followers, so a creator with a stale audience doesn't get a pass. Use the TikTok engagement rate calculator to keep the formula the same across creators.

Shares and saves are the strongest public signals. A share puts your product in front of someone who trusts the sender. A save means someone plans to come back.

Comment quality has no formula and still matters most. Count comments that ask about the product: price, shade, size, where to buy. Ten of those beat five hundred heart emojis.

Link clicks are the bridge to sales. Give every creator their own UTM-tagged link so you can see clicks by creator in your analytics.

Which KPIs track sales?

Tracked conversions come from unique discount codes and links. In Influencer Marketing Hub's 2026 benchmark report, promo codes were the most common tracking method at 45.9% of respondents, ahead of affiliate links at 26%. Codes are easy. They also leak to coupon sites and undercount people who buy later without one.

Cost per acquisition is total cost, including product, shipping and fees, divided by tracked orders. Compare it against your other channels, knowing it undercounts.

Revenue per creator tells you who to rebook. In most campaigns a few creators drive most of the tracked sales. Pay those ones again before you test new names.

Content reuse value is the one most brands forget. If a creator's video beats your studio ads when you run it as a paid ad, that result belongs in the campaign report. It is often where the money is.

Public data stops at the click. It can't show what happened in your checkout, and no tool can see it for you. For the full sales-to-spend picture, see how to measure influencer marketing ROI without fooling yourself.

The 5 KPIs that don't matter

Follower count. It counts everyone who ever tapped follow, including people who stopped watching years ago. Price and plan on views.
Total likes. Likes are the cheapest reaction and the easiest to buy. They tell you little on their own.
Impressions with no source. If the creator reports impressions and won't show the analytics, the number is a guess.
Earned media value. It turns likes and views into dollars using assumed rates. Every vendor uses different ones, so it can't be compared across reports, and it is not revenue.
Hashtag volume. Total views on a campaign hashtag mix your posts with everyone else's. It is easy to inflate and impossible to tie to your spend.

None of these are useless as context. They are useless as goals.

How to set KPI targets before a campaign

Write the primary KPI and a target into the brief. "500K views at under $10 per thousand" or "200 tracked orders at a cost per acquisition under $40" gives the creator, the agency and you the same scoreboard.

Base the target on something real: your paid social benchmarks, last campaign's numbers, or the creators' own median views. Then decide in advance what you'll do if you miss. Rebook, rebrief or cut. If you can't name the action, the target isn't doing any work.

If you want someone to set the targets, pick creators who can hit them and report against them, send us a brief. We'll agree the KPIs with you before a single creator is contacted.