Are Influencer Marketing campaigns now trackable?

Influencer marketing campaigns have been all the rage in the past couple of years. However, the inability to accurately track them has held back some brands from participating in all the fun. It has always been difficult to prove a return on investment. Even so, recently, Instagram has been testing a native affiliate tool that could solve the problem at hand. The tool directly track shows how many people are specifically purchasing products from which influencers, adding a new level of commerce understanding for brands

How does it work?

Instagram’s new affiliate tool is being tested both in-feed posts and in Stories. Influencers are working with brands to tag products in their posts or Stories will lead shoppers to an in-platform checkout. Thus, all sales happen within the Instagram app. When using affiliate tags in-feed or Stories, marketers will be able to see insights under the Commerce Manager insights section on Facebook under “affiliate” in the “promotions” tab. Brands and merchants will be able to see both the overall performance of their affiliate creator campaigns and insights at the creator level, with all insights customized by time period. Brands and merchants will be able to see product detail page views and estimated commissions to be paid to influencers as well as orders and sales attributed to affiliate posts. At the creator level, sellers will be able to see the number of posts creators have used their product tags in, the number of orders they’ve driven, sales they’ve driven and their estimated commission payout.

Instagram vs. TikTok

This couldn’t come at a more perfect time for Instagram, as they face competition from TikTok. Instagram is facing more competition from competitors when it comes to social commerce and retaining creators who can drive brand campaigns. Last year, TikTok launched its $200 million creator fund, letting users earn money from their videos. In October, the platform partnered with Shopify to let merchants create and run campaigns directly from the Shopify dashboard. TikTok has also developed new e-commerce tools for brands and invested into live shopping. Instagram’s new affiliate tool will put the app back on the map, as it competes for creators and brands against TikTok.

Carolina Macedo, the author, is Project Coordinator of Marketing Keys.

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