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In today’s digital landscape, influencer marketing is a powerful tool for small hospitality brands to connect with their audiences. However, many businesses struggle to measure the effectiveness of these campaigns. To help, we’ve created a simple Guide to evaluate the success of influencer campaigns.

Influencer Marketing: Quantitative and Qualitative effects

Influencers aren’t just about conversions and quantitative metrics like new customers. Their impact should be assessed holistically, looking at both quantitative and qualitative results. 

But we obviously can not forget about the numbers, thus how we propose to measure them. 

Let’s compare traditional ad campaigns with influencer campaigns:

Quantitative Metrics:

Traditional Media Campaigns:

• CPM (Cost Per Mille): Cost per 1,000 impressions.
• CTR (Click-Through Rate): Percentage of users who click on an ad after seeing it.

Influencer Campaigns:

• ER (Engagement Rate): Audience engagement.
• CPE (Cost Per Engagement): Cost per engagement

To calculate CPM for influencer campaigns, use the formula:
CPM = Total Campaign Cost / Total Views × 1000

Total Campaign Cost should include:

• Ripple subscription divided by number of collabs per month
• Internal costs 

For example, in 2025, Instagram feed ads have an average CPM of 7.4 Euro, while Stories are around 6.03 Euro. 

If your influencer campaign delivers a lower CPM, it’s already successful!

But even if it’s not – don’t panic. Just keep reading!

Evaluating Engagement: ER vs. CTR

The average CTR for traditional ads is between 0.5% and 1.5%. To ensure success with influencers, aim for influencers with higher ER (Rippla provides this figure to all of the influencers). 

You can calculate ER of your collab post using the formula:
ER per post = Total Engagements (Likes + Comments + Shares + Saves)​ / Total Followers * 100 

Keep an eye on this metric to measure campaign success.

ROI: Influencer Marketing vs. Targeted Ads

We DO understand that the only thing business wants and believes in is Return of Investments. And we don’t forget about it!

But let’s be clear here. There are huge differences between ROI of targeted ads and influencer marketing campaigns. And here is why:

Targeted Ads:
Tend to provide a more immediate and measurable return in terms of conversions.

Influencer Campaigns:
ROI might be less direct but can provide long-term benefits such as brand credibility, customer lifetime value and long after-effect.

Brand Credibility

Influencer marketing is particularly powerful for building brand credibility. Micro- and nano-influencers are seen as more authentic and trustworthy than traditional ads. Their followers tend to trust their recommendations because they are based on personal experiences. This authenticity fosters deeper trust between your brand and potential customers, something that can’t be achieved through conventional advertising alone.

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer throughout their relationship with the brand. Influencer marketing plays a key role in increasing CLV by fostering long-term relationships. By partnering with influencers whose followers align with your target audience, you can nurture customer loyalty and improve retention. 

Long-Term Effects of Influencer Marketing

Influencer content can continue to gain views for weeks, months, or even years after it’s posted. This creates lasting contact with your brand, where potential customers may not engage immediately but will remember and return later.

Tracking Long-Term Impact

You can track this “long after-effect” with simple methods:

• Surveys: Ask new visitors how they found out your place.
• Promo Codes: Give influencers unique codes and track their usage.
• Influencer-Specific Sets: Create exclusive product sets and monitor how often they’re ordered.

By using these methods, you can effectively measure the long-term impact of influencer collaborations.

We hope this guide helps you evaluate the effectiveness of influencer campaigns. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to the Rippla team!