marketing · 2026-05-01
Compute return on ad spend (ROAS) for an influencer campaign — followers, engagement rate, click-through to site, conversion, AOV.
| Influencer fee | $5,000 |
| Followers | 150,000 |
| Engagement rate % | 3% |
| Engaged → site CTR % | 8% |
| Site → purchase % | 3% |
| Average order value | $95 |
| Posts in campaign | 3 |
| Revenue generated | $3,040 |
| Total conversions | 32 |
| Net return | -$1,960 |
Influencer marketing has one of the widest CPA distributions of any channel. Top creator with perfect fit + strong creative = 5-10x ROAS. Wrong creator + generic creative = 0.3x ROAS (lose money). Until you measure, you're guessing.
followers → engagements (likes/comments/saves) → site clicks → conversionsEach stage drops dramatically. Default scenario: 150k followers, 3% engagement, 3 posts → 13,500 engagements; 8% CTR → 1,080 clicks; 3% conversion → 32 sales × $95 AOV = $3,040 revenue. ROAS 0.61 — losing money.
That's the realistic baseline. Improving to 2x+ ROAS requires:
Most engagements are passive (auto-likes, saves) or non-buying-intent (comments). Of the people who actively engage, maybe 5-15% click through. Of those, only a few percent buy. The full funnel multiplies down dramatically — 150k followers can become 30 sales easily.
Influencer grants brand permission to run paid ads from the creator's handle. Vastly extends post reach + targeting precision. Typically costs 20-50% of organic post fee. Common addition: $5,000 organic post + $2,000 whitelisting = $7,000 deal that often outperforms a $7,000 organic-only.
Three layers: (1) discount code attribution — clean signal but underestimates non-code conversions, (2) UTM URL attribution — captures direct clicks but loses to brand search and dark social, (3) lift study — measure conversion rate during/after campaign vs control period; messy but most honest. Use all three; settle on lift study for major spends.