If your objective is driving sales, it will be important to measure your ROI. However, for other objectives – for example, brand awareness or social engagement – ROI will be harder to quantify or less important.

If you do plan to calculate ROI, here is a simple model which includes the variable costs and revenue of the specific campaign.

You may already have understood ‘values’ against your data or stages in the engagement loop. In which case you can apply them to this calculation.

Cost

• Asset creation
• Influencer fees
• Other influencer costs (product samples, expenses, etc.)

Income

• Ecommerce profit
• Data collection financial value (optional)
• Engagement financial value (optional)

Process

Step 1: Add up all your costs – this is your investment

Step 2: Add up any e-commerce profit or other financial values – this is your return

Step 3: Calculate the return as a ratio of your investment

Example

Return = £4,000 Investment = £1,500 £4000 – £1,500 = £2,500 £1,500 as a percentage of £2,500 = 166% You have a return on investment of 166%

If you are measuring profit, revenue or ROI, you can relabel the ‘Other’ column in the influencer planning template and insert the data there.

Join the discussion

Practice using the ROI formula to calculate return on investment for the following examples. Write your answer to each question in the comments below.

1) Return = £3245
Investment = £2050

2) Return = £465
Investment = £5487

3) Return = £1230
Investment = £657

Use the discussion section below and let us know your thoughts. Once you’re happy with your contribution, click the “Mark as Complete” button to check the Step off, then you can move to the next step.