How to choose the best influencer tracking software
Working with influencers can be expensive, especially for smaller businesses that don’t have a huge budget.
That’s why conversion tracking is essential, so you know the influencer’s impact on sales. Choosing software to track influencer-driven sales can be tricky, but this article aims to help you make the best decision for your business.
In this article, we’ll cover:
- Why is influencer conversion tracking important?
- How can you track influencer conversions?
- What to look for with an influencer conversion tracking software
- Which brands use influencer marketing to drive sales?
- You’ve found your influencer tracking software. What next?
- How do you know if an influencer campaign was successful?
- Start tracking your influencer sales today
Why is influencer conversion tracking important?
With any influencer collaboration, you usually get given vanity metrics like engagement rate, likes, and reach from your influencer, which means increased brand awareness for your business. However, these vanity metrics are hard to quantify in terms of the impact on your business. Does reach mean increased sales? Do posts with more likes mean more sales of a specific product?
Of course, there IS value in including influencers in your marketing strategy, but vanity metrics don’t tell the whole story. An influencer’s metrics don’t tell you anything about the number of sales your influencer had a direct hand in and how impactful the campaign was in revenue for your brand.
Having a system to track influencer marketing sales (aka conversions) means you get two buckets of data - the vanity metrics data provided by the influencer and the sales data. Doing this means you can be more strategic with your influencer marketing and start analyzing the trends with each campaign and what works in driving conversions.
How can you track influencer conversions?
In short, the quickest way to track your influencer marketing efforts is by using conversion tracking software - it saves you time and effort, and everything is in one place. Several tools offer conversion tracking, and many have free trials (including Tapfiliate.)
You’ll need a unique link or a discount code to track your sales. The tracking software will automatically recognize which influencer is responsible for which sale. You pay the influencer based on their performance.
Learn more about how to track influencer conversions
What to look for with an influencer conversion tracking software
When looking for a conversion tracking software to track your influencer marketing campaigns, there are several vital things you need to consider:
Usability and features
An essential part of having conversion tracking software is to ensure that it is easy to use and has the right features for your business. The dashboard should be intuitive, and you should know where to find things quickly.
Note: With influencer tracking software, you can choose to pay influencers a commission on each sale they refer. Doing this can help with negotiating on price. If you prefer to pay the influencer without adding a commission payment, you can.
Learn more about Tapfiliate’s features.
Integrations
With conversion tracking software, you will need to integrate your cart or payment provider to track the sales. Check to see what integrations the software has - usually, you will be able to do this in a couple of clicks. If you have a custom website or cart, what do you need to implement the code to enable you to track sales? You might need to use your in-house developer or find a developer to help you with it.
Reporting and tracking
Tracking your influencer marketing campaign’s success can be done with transparent reporting and tracking. Ensure that it has detailed reporting to see which influencers are driving sales.
Documentation and customer support
Ensure that the company you choose has adequate documentation for setting up tracking and that they have an excellent customer support team that can answer your questions.
Pricing
Check what their pricing is - is it within your budget? Are there different pricing levels available? Which works best for your brand? Additionally, many tracking solutions offer free trials so you can ensure that it is the best fit for your business.
Sign up to Tapfiliate’s free trial to start tracking your influencer marketing results ❤️
Which brands use influencer marketing to drive sales?
Several brands use influencer marketing to drive revenue to their business. Here are a couple of examples that have used Tapfiliate to track their influencer sales.
The nu company
Vegan snack bar business The nu company creates delicious organic snack bars with plastic-free packaging. They use ethically sourced natural ingredients and plant a tree for every bar they make. The nu company works with influencers to spread the word about their brand.
Image source: The nu company
The NU Company uses Tapfiliate to track its brand ambassador program sales. They have increased conversion rates and revenue for their company. Their sales get tracked using a unique URL automatically created by Tapfiliate and provided to the influencer.
Cubus
Cubus is a Norwegian clothing brand that is a part of the Varner family. They cover the basic clothing needs of families using natural materials, and they have been around for more than 40 years. Sustainability is critical for them.
Image source: Tapfiliate
Cubus uses Tapfiliate to track their sales from influencers that promote their products on social media. They issue coupon codes to some influencers and utilize the unique URLs for influencers to share with their audience.
You’ve found your influencer tracking software. What next?
To ensure that the software is right for your business, ensure that you entirely use the free trial if your chosen software offers one. That way, you’ll be sure when you start. The following steps are:
Get integrated
You will need to ensure that the tracking software gets integrated to track sales effectively when you first start. Check to see which shopping cart or payment provider you can integrate with, and follow the instructions.
Invite influencers
The next step is to invite influencers to promote you. Finding the right influencers for your brand is key to your success. You could place a link promoting your influencer program on your website and send out an email to your client list.
Run your first campaign
Once you have influencers, then you need to run your first campaign. Depending on your brand, that could be a shoutout, competition, or coupon. When running campaigns, it’s essential to organize the start and end dates so you can track the campaign’s success.
How do you know if an influencer campaign was successful?
You can measure the success of an influencer marketing campaign with several different data points. For each campaign check
- Revenue
- Conversion rate
- Return on investment
- Vanity metrics like reach, likes, and comments
These metrics will enable you to make strategic decisions about your business and which influencer campaigns work best with your brand.
Start tracking your influencer sales today
Now that you know why tracking your influencer sales is essential, you can decide on a tracking software that meets your needs in terms of features, integrations, customer support, and pricing. Then you can get started and integrate, invite your influencers and organize your first campaign. Learn more about what Tapfiliate can offer and get a free 14-day trial.
