Inmar Intelligence
Influencer Marketing Measurement Pioneer

The Influencer Marketing industry has grown and evolved significantly over the last decade, and by 2022, it’s predicted the industry will be worth up to $15 billion. The outbreak of COVID-19 only accelerated that growth as consumers spent more time on social networks and looked to influencers for inspirational and relevant content. However, accurately measuring the impact of an influencer campaign on ROI remains a struggle for marketers. In a recent study, Inmar found that 44 percent of marketers believe they are altogether unable to quantify ROI from Influencer investments due to the lack of data even though 60 percent say driving sales is their main goal for influencer campaigns.

That’s where Inmar Intelligence can help. The company’s ShopperSync^™ retail intelligence platform provides direct attribution capability across its entire Retail Cloud suite of products, soon to include influencer Marketing. Influencer Marketing is not typically a spend where direct attribution reporting is made possible due to the tracking complexities within platforms like Facebook and Instagram. “The benefit of the ShopperSync^™ platform is that it makes the data both accessible inside of platforms like Facebook as well as providing the data for targeting and analysis capability across our media activations in real-time. Our platform isn’t just a data management platform, it’s a connected ecosystem that helps our clients connect all the consumer touchpoints and understand more about the customers themselves— because it's not enough to just have data from multiple channels, you have to connect them to truly create an impactful customer experience,” says Leah Logan, the Vice President of Social Commerce at Inmar Intelligence.

Due to strong ties to retailers like Walmart, Kroger and Publix, Inmar has always prioritized measurement capabilities within their media suite. They were absolutely a pioneer in influencer marketing measurement, being the first player to provide sales lift analysis for clients dating back to 2017. Inmar has analyzed over 150 influencer campaigns for sales lift, across 9 distinct categories. Results show a 6.05 percent average sales lift across all retail channels and a 2X average incremental return on ad spend (ROAS). In one case, Inmar Intelligence worked with a Laundry Detergent brand to determine ROAS for their upcoming Influencer marketing program.

We are leveraging our ShopperSync^™ data platform (in partnership with Facebook) to feed Inmar’s first-party purchase data into the platform allowing our clients to amplify influencer content and social ads to known shoppers

As Influencers created Instagram and Blog content sharing their laundry challenges as parents, Inmar measured the impact on in-store sales throughout the campaign’s duration. Sales across this brand in test regions were up $233K when compared to control stores, resulting in a 3.1X ROAS for the client. In addition to its retail sales lift analyses, the company also offers a variety of other measurement solutions like brand sentiment analysis, inventory impact analysis, and foot traffic studies.

What sets Inmar’s Influencer platform a notch above the rest is its ability to use data at each step of the campaign instead of just measuring the post-campaign results. “We examine dozens of data points to determine the optimal conditions for our clients’ campaigns, and prescribe the most informed solutions for their unique challenges,” says Leah. Using its PrescriptiveIQ^™ insights engine, Inmar helps plan content themes, uncovers unique audience characteristics, and determines the best time for content to go live. Further, using its Influencer FitScore^™ matching algorithm, the company helps marketers to find and select the right influencers. The matching tool takes into account brand fit, geographic/demographic fit, past performance, reach, and audience demographics.

Inmar is also smart about how they amplify influencer content. By analyzing tens of thousands of influencer posts the company came to the conclusion that, on Instagram specifically, only around 10- 20 percent of an influencer’s followers actually see their content. This influencer buying model ensures that clients are never wasting their dollars on followers who’ll never see the content, instead, they are paying only for actual, verified views of organic content in its native environment.

They are also working on pioneering other influencer and media measurement tactics. “In partnership with Facebook, we are leveraging our ShopperSync^™ data platform to feed Inmar’s first-party purchase data into the platform allowing our clients to amplify influencer content and social ads to known shoppers,” states Leah. The next step in that partnership will be focusing not just on targeting known purchasers but providing closed-loop attribution reporting for participating retailers and brands. “This holy grail suite of targeting and attribution capabilities means brands can, for the first time, ensure their Influencer campaigns are reaching verified retail shoppers and can be accurately measured for return on ad spend,” concludes Leah.