30 Influencers were generating value. No one knew which ones were the most valuable.
As part of an influencer marketing team, a marketing firm was managing nearly 40 influencers across several platforms. Each relationship, performer, and audience was unique. At the highest level, the marketing firm could identify their top and bottom performers, but the middle tier was chaotic. Some influencers had small contracts with a low cost per impression, while others had large contracts with high numbers but only average cost per impression. Additionally, other qualitative factors needed to be captured, such as the ease of working with the influencer, their audience's association with the brand, and the end-customer's perception of the influencer.
The marketing team introduced a framework for scoring the influencers, but it required refinement. There were numerous smaller concepts with inflated value and some significant issues that were underrepresented. The key areas of Partnership, Program, Performance, and Perception needed better alignment with their respective concepts.
The customer needed a way to assess their influencer team without relying solely on a mathematical performance framework.
In this case, the business brought a solution that needed refinement to be operationalized. Starting with the business solution, I molded it into a more traditional benchmarking solution.
Typically, solutions are assembled using a set of predefined rules. In this case, each concept was assigned a specific number of points to total 100. However, when using a business-weighted form of benchmarking, some forms of scoring cannot be reasonably captured within a 100-point scale.
During the assessment, the Perception category had three points allocated for “Authentic Product Usage Outside of Deliverables.” Influencers, bound by exclusivity clauses, could not use competitors' products. A three-point deduction did not adequately address the Perception quality. Instead, I recommended a 30-point deduction for breach of contract. This penalty wouldn't be fatal but required the influencer to excel in all other areas to remain valuable.
The business-weighted benchmark provided the marketing team with a tool to analyze each influencer's effectiveness. It helped influencers understand their performance and how to improve, and allowed the client to make data-driven decisions about contract renewals. The outcome included a four-tiered status analysis: Renew, Renew at a Lower Rate, Observe, and End the Relationship.
The tangible value was evident, with the cost per impression dropping by more than half between Q1 and Q2 across the team. The deeper analysis motivated influencers, knowing their overall performance was closely monitored.
Having managed five analytics benchmarking projects, I recognize the importance of senior stakeholder engagement. One project failed due to a lack of interaction with the senior stakeholder, resulting in a lack of trust. Benchmarking projects hinge on trust: trust in the data, the KPIs, and the data team. This influencer benchmarking project succeeded because it had all three elements. The data made sense, the KPIs aligned with client goals, and the data team understood the business perspective. In this case, the business was paramount in making sure we had all the contextual information necessary. It made the project so much better.
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