How to Set Goals for Your Influencer Marketing Campaigns

If you’re reading this, you’re likely a marketing leader or founder evaluating whether influencer marketing is worth a deeper investment. Perhaps you’ve run small “test” campaigns before sending out products to creators, tracking likes and views, and wondering, “Is this really moving the needle for our brand?”

The reality is: influencer marketing can be a powerful growth channel but only if approached with the same strategic rigor you apply to your performance marketing or brand campaigns.

Why This Matters

Many companies fall into the trap of treating influencer marketing as an experimental side project,  without clear objectives tied to revenue or brand equity. The result? Campaigns that look good on paper but fail to build a case for real investment.

What You’ll Gain From This Guide

In this article, you’ll learn how to set influencer marketing goals that go beyond superficial metrics. You’ll discover a strategic framework for establishing influencer campaign objectives that:

• Align with your broader marketing and business goals
• Deliver measurable, meaningful outcomes
• Justify budget allocation with clear ROI indicators

Key takeaway: You’ll move from running one-off influencer tests to building a repeatable, scalable strategy that contributes directly to your company’s growth.

Let’s dive in.

Step 1: Align with Your Core Business Objective (The “Why” Before the “What”)

Before you set any influencer marketing goals, step back and ask yourself:

What is the single most important outcome I need right now?

Influencer campaigns often fail to deliver business value because they’re treated as isolated tactics rather than direct extensions of your core objectives. Your influencer marketing goals should ladder up to the primary need of your business at this moment, whether that’s driving revenue this quarter or building brand equity for the long term.

Below are four common scenarios to illustrate how your influencer campaign objectives should change depending on your overarching goal.

Are You Launching a New Brand or Product?

Objective: Build Awareness

If you’re entering a new market or launching a product line, your focus should be maximum exposure to relevant audiences. Influencers can amplify your messaging quickly by:

• Creating unboxing videos and first-look reviews
• Sharing their authentic experiences to generate buzz
• Introducing your brand to their community in a trusted, relatable way

💡 Example: A skincare startup launching a new serum partners with 20 beauty micro-influencers for TikTok “first impressions,” each highlighting different product benefits to broaden messaging angles and reach.

Are You Trying to Drive Immediate Revenue?

Objective: Generate Sales

When your priority is sales, influencer goals must be tied to conversion metrics such as discount code redemptions, affiliate link purchases, or tracked checkout sessions. In this case, creators become a performance channel, and your approach should include:

• Clear calls-to-action in posts or Stories
• Exclusive discount codes or offers to incentivize purchase
• Affiliate partnerships with tiered commissions to motivate creators

💡 Example: A DTC fitness brand runs an influencer campaign with personalized discount codes, tracking which creators drive the highest sales to optimize partnerships in real time.

Do You Need Authentic Content for Your Ads?

Objective: Build a Content Library

If your team struggles to produce enough authentic content for paid ads or organic content. Influencer marketing can double as a content generation strategy. Goals here focus on:

• Acquiring diverse UGC-style creatives
• Securing perpetual usage rights in contracts
• Briefing creators for specific ad placements (e.g. Meta Reels, TikTok Spark Ads)

💡 Example: A CPG startup briefs food influencers to produce recipe Reels featuring their product, then runs top-performing videos as paid ads to drive traffic efficiently.

Are You Trying to Build a Loyal Following?

Objective: Foster Community & Trust

If your brand is established but you want to deepen customer loyalty and advocacy, influencer campaigns should aim to nurture community connection and trust by:

• Partnering with creators who share your brand values
• Encouraging long-term ambassadorships instead of one-off posts
• Facilitating interactive formats like AMAs, livestreams, or product co-creations

💡 Example: An athleisure brand recruits wellness coaches as ongoing ambassadors, hosting monthly Instagram Lives on fitness topics to create consistent, value-driven touchpoints with their audience.

Key takeaway: Setting influencer marketing goals without aligning to your core business objective is like running a race without knowing the finish line. Start with the “why,” then build your influencer strategy around it.

Step 2: Use the SMART Framework to Define Your Goals

Once you’ve aligned your influencer marketing goals with your core business objectives, it’s time to sharpen them using the SMART framework.

SMART is a proven methodology for setting effective business objectives. It ensures your goals are clear, actionable, and measurable eliminating ambiguity that leads to wasted budget and inconclusive results.

Here’s how to apply SMART to your influencer campaign objectives:

Specific: Move from Vague Ambitions to Concrete Targets

Too many brands set goals like “We want brand exposure,” but vague goals produce vague results.

Instead, define exactly what you want to achieve.

✅ Example:

Move from: “We want brand exposure.”

To: “We want to increase brand mentions by 25% among female millennials in metro cities.”

This level of specificity guides:

• Which influencers you select
• What type of content you brief them to create
• How you structure messaging and calls-to-action

Measurable: Tie Every Goal to a Concrete KPI

If you can’t measure it, it’s not a business goal – it’s a wish.

Identify the exact KPI that proves success. For example:

• Awareness goals → track impressions, reach, mentions, and share of voice
• Sales goals → track affiliate link clicks, discount code redemptions, conversions, and revenue
• Content goals → track number of assets delivered, formats produced, and engagement per asset
• Community goals → track new followers, community engagement rate, and sentiment in comments

💡 Tip: Decide how you will measure these KPIs before launching your campaign to avoid data gaps later.

Achievable: Set Realistic Benchmarks for Your First Campaign

This is critical, especially if you’re early in influencer marketing. Overly ambitious targets lead to frustration and poor strategic decisions.

✅ Examples of realistic expectations:

• Don’t expect a 10% conversion rate. For DTC brands, a 1-2% conversion rate from influencer traffic is a great start.
• Don’t expect to go viral overnight. Instead, focus on consistent engagement within your target niche, building a strong foundation for scale.

Key takeaway: Influencer marketing success compounds over time as you optimize creator selection, briefing, and content strategy.

Relevant: Ensure Goals Directly Support Your Primary Business Objective

Always sanity-check your goals:

Does this goal directly advance the primary business objective I identified in Step 1?

For example:

• If your core goal is revenue, setting “number of influencer posts” as your KPI is irrelevant unless it’s directly linked to tracked conversions.
• If your core goal is awareness, focusing solely on discount code redemptions misses the mark.

Keep goals laser-focused on outcomes that matter most to your business right now.

Time-bound: Assign a Clear Timeframe

A goal without a timeframe is just an open-ended intention. Define when you will achieve it:

✅ Examples:

• “Increase brand mentions by 25% among female millennials in metro cities over the next 60 days.”
• “Generate $25,000 in tracked influencer-driven sales during our Q3 campaign.”
• “Acquire 30 new UGC video assets from creators by end of month for upcoming Meta ad testing.”

Setting a timeframe creates urgency, focus, and accountability for your team and partners.

Key takeaway:

By applying the SMART framework, you transform influencer marketing from an ambiguous brand play into a strategic, measurable investment that justifies and guides further budget allocation.

Step 3: A Menu of First-Time Influencer Campaign Objectives (with KPIs)

If you’re wondering how to set influencer goals for your first campaign, use this practical menu. Each objective is paired with clear KPIs so you can measure real business outcomes not just “likes.”

Primary Goal: Brand Awareness (Top of Funnel)

What it looks like:

Your objective is to get your brand in front of as many relevant people as possible, creating familiarity and recall within your target audience.

✅ KPIs to Track:

• Reach: Number of unique users who saw your content
• Impressions: Total number of times your content was displayed (including repeat views)
• Video Views: Total and average watch time for Reels, TikToks, or YouTube Shorts
• Growth in brand hashtag usage: Increase in posts using your branded hashtags, signaling user participation

💡 Example: A startup beverage brand partners with lifestyle creators to produce Reels showcasing their drink in daily routines, driving 500,000+ unique reach within a week.

Primary Goal: Building Consideration & Engagement (Middle of Funnel)

What it looks like:

Beyond awareness, you want potential customers to interact with your brand and take a step closer to purchase whether that’s visiting your website, saving a recipe, or commenting on an explainer video.

✅ KPIs to Track:

• Clicks to website or landing page views: Measurable via UTM parameters or influencer affiliate links
• Comments: Reflecting deeper interest or questions from potential customers
• Shares: Indicates viewers find your content valuable enough to forward
• Saves: A strong signal of intent, especially on Instagram where saves influence algorithmic reach

💡 Example: A skincare brand briefs influencers to share before/after results with links to product pages, generating 1,200 landing page views in a 2-week campaign.

Primary Goal: Driving Conversions (Bottom of Funnel)

What it looks like:

Here, the focus is direct action: sales, sign-ups, or leads generated through influencer activity.

✅ KPIs to Track:

• Number of Sales: Tracked via unique discount codes or UTM-tagged links
• Conversion Rate: Percentage of influencer-driven traffic that purchases or signs up
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): Total campaign cost divided by number of conversions
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Revenue driven divided by campaign spend (important if repurposing influencer content as paid ads)

💡 Example: A DTC fitness brand runs Stories promotions with fitness coaches sharing exclusive codes, driving $18,000 in tracked sales at a CPA below paid social benchmarks.

Primary Goal: Generating High-Quality Content

What it looks like:

Influencers aren’t just distribution channels; they’re powerful content creators. If your goal is to build an authentic visual library for organic or paid use, track:

✅ KPIs to Track:

• Number of high-quality photos/videos received: Count assets delivered per your brief (e.g. vertical videos for Reels/TikTok, lifestyle photos for ads)
• Cost per asset created: Total spend divided by number of usable assets

💡 Example: A new nutrition brand partners with 10 micro-influencers, paying $250 each for 2-3 recipe videos, generating a library of 25+ authentic creatives for upcoming paid campaigns.

Key takeaway:

Selecting a single primary objective for each influencer campaign ensures your strategy is focused and measurable. As your influencer program matures, you can design layered campaigns targeting multiple funnel stages in tandem.

A Phased 90-Day Plan for Your First Campaign

Launching your first influencer marketing campaign doesn’t have to be a risky. Adopting a phased approach allows you to de-risk your investment and build a learning feedback loop that drives smarter decisions with each stage.

Here’s how to structure your first 90 days for maximum insight and ROI:

Phase 1 (Days 1-30): Test & Learn

Goal: Focus on Engagement & Content Generation

In your first month, prioritize learning over immediate conversions. Your objective is to identify:

• Which influencer types (nano, micro, macro) best engage your target audience
• What content formats (Reels, TikTok, carousels, Stories) generate the highest engagement
• Which messaging angles resonate and align with your brand voice

✅ What to do:

• Partner with a small, diverse mix of creators to test different approaches
• Brief them to produce authentic, educational, or entertaining content showcasing your brand
• Track engagement metrics such as likes, comments, saves, shares, and brand sentiment in captions and comments

💡 Example: A DTC wellness brand works with 5 micro-influencers on Instagram Reels and Stories, testing educational tips, humor, and daily routine integrations to see which style sparks the most conversation.

Phase 2 (Days 31-60): Optimize

Goal: Focus on Driving Website Traffic

In your second month, take your Phase 1 insights and double down on what worked. This stage shifts from pure engagement to driving qualified traffic to your website or landing pages.

✅ What to do:

• Re-engage the top-performing influencers from Phase 1 for additional posts with clear calls-to-action
• Allocate budget to amplify their content via paid partnerships or whitelisting for increased reach
• Brief them to include direct links to your site, product pages, or sign-up forms

💡 Example: After learning that nutrition tips performed best, the wellness brand partners again with their top two creators to share Stories featuring “Swipe Up” recipe links, driving a surge in landing page views.

Phase 3 (Days 61-90): Scale for ROI

Goal: Focus on Conversions

With data from Phases 1 and 2, you’re ready to optimize for bottom-of-funnel results. This phase turns influencer marketing from a test channel into a revenue-generating engine.

✅ What to do:

• Provide proven influencers with affiliate links or unique discount codes to track sales directly
• Launch targeted promotional campaigns leveraging their highest-performing content styles
• Monitor key metrics such as conversions, CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), and ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)

💡 Example: The wellness brand gives its top-performing influencer a unique 15% discount code, generating $10,000 in tracked sales within 3 weeks at a CPA below their paid social benchmark.

Key takeaway:

By structuring your first campaign as a 90-day phased approach, you create:

• A safe environment to test assumptions
• Clear data to optimize strategy
• A strong foundation to confidently scale influencer marketing as a repeatable growth channel

Conclusion: Your Goals Are the Foundation of Your ROI

If there’s one key takeaway from this guide, it’s this:

A successful influencer marketing program starts with clear, realistic, and strategically-aligned goals.

When you define exactly what you want to achieve, align it with your core business objectives, and apply a structured framework like SMART, you transform influencer marketing from a hopeful experiment into a measurable, growth-driving investment.

Final Thought

By adopting the phased approach outlined here – test, optimize, and scale you can build a program that delivers:

• Tangible business outcomes
• Actionable insights for continuous improvement
• A repeatable, predictable influencer marketing engine

Your goals aren’t just a planning formality. They’re the foundation that turns your influencer efforts into a scalable growth channel for your brand.

Frequently Asked Questions for Business Leaders

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1. What is a "good" engagement rate for a first influencer campaign?

For your first campaign, use these benchmarks to set realistic expectations:

• Micro-influencers (10k–100k followers): Aim for an engagement rate of 2–5%. Anything above 5% is excellent.
• Macro-influencers (100k+ followers): Engagement rates tend to be lower due to broader audiences. 1–2% is considered strong.

💡 Remember: Engagement rates vary by platform, niche, and content style. The key is to benchmark your selected influencers against their category norms, not against each other.

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2. Should my first Influencer campaign focus on awareness or sales?

For most brand-new companies, it’s more effective to start with an Awareness or Engagement goal.

Why? Because:

• You build social proof and familiarity, priming your target audience for future conversions.
• Immediate sales require trust and brand recognition, which your first awareness campaigns will establish.

Key takeaway: Don’t try to achieve both awareness and sales at once in your first campaign. Focus your strategy for clearer, measurable results.

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3. How do we accurately track sales from an influencer?

To track sales effectively, use these two primary methods:

1. Unique discount codes:
2. Provide each influencer with a personalized, trackable discount code (e.g. SARAH15). This allows you to see exactly how many sales each creator drives.
3. UTM parameters in links:
4. Create UTM-tagged links for influencers to use in Stories, bio links, or post captions. Track clicks and conversions in Google Analytics or your attribution platform.

💡 Best practice: Use both methods in tandem to cross-verify performance data.

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4. How much budget should I allocate to achieve these goals?

Your budget should align with:

• Your primary campaign goal (e.g. awareness vs. conversions)
• The influencer types needed to achieve that goal

For example:

• An awareness campaign with 20 micro-influencers may cost less overall but reach niche audiences broadly.
• A conversion-focused campaign with one macro-influencer may require a higher per-creator investment but can drive rapid sales if their audience aligns closely with your product.

Key takeaway: Budget planning starts with goal clarity. Define your desired KPIs first, then select influencer types and quantities accordingly.

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5. What's the most common mistake leaders make when setting influencer goals?

The #1 mistake is having misaligned objectives.

For example:

Running an awareness-style campaign (e.g. a single post from a large influencer) but expecting immediate bottom-of-funnel sales results.

Avoid this by:

Always matching your campaign style, influencer selection, and content brief to your desired outcome. Awareness, engagement, and conversions require different approaches, messaging, and success metrics.

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