A full-service marketing agency for international premium and luxury brands, WHITE Communications, has released a report titled “Influencer Marketing Report 2024.”

The research aggregates data and best practices from WHITE Communications’ 30 years of experience running luxury influencer campaigns for brands like Pepe Jeans, Steve Madden, Silhouette Eyewear, Eisenberg Paris, and LuisaViaRoma. Case studies demonstrate how strategic influencer programs increased sales, brand awareness, and cultural relevance. 

The report surveyed companies in industries such as fashion, jewelry, automotive, and beauty to understand the biggest obstacles they face with influencer campaigns. Nearly half of companies cite measuring return on investment (ROI) and proving branding impact as their biggest challenge with influencer marketing.

“If there is no coupon code for direct sales measurement, the campaign results are often overlooked or evaluated only after the campaign has already concluded,” the report states. “This leaves a lot of potential for campaign optimization untapped.”

To address this, WHITE advises brands to establish clear KPIs (key performance indicators) before launching influencer campaigns. Metrics like total reach, content interactions, click-through rates, user-generated content, and growth of owned and earned media can help quantify performance. 

The report highlights three specific KPIs to focus on:

• ROI
• media value
• customer acquisition cost (CAC)

For campaigns focused on revenue, WHITE calculates ROI by subtracting the total investment costs (influencer fees, production, employee hours, product discounts) from the revenue generated and dividing that net return by the investment costs.

If the goal is awareness rather than sales, the report advises calculating the cost per new follower, video view, download, or other metric by dividing the total spend by the volume of that KPI achieved.

To measure CAC, brands take their total campaign costs and divide them by the total number of new customers acquired during that period. They then compare the CAC to the average revenue generated per new customer to assess profitability.

“It is important to continuously measure success and optimize ‘on the fly’ if necessary,” the analysts state. “Ensure that your influencers are clearly informed about what you expect from them and how success will be measured.”

The research also cites “failure to tailor the strategy to the luxury segment” as a top mistake, with the most common reason for campaign failure being “the absence of a suitable strategy.” 73% of luxury brands consider preserving exclusivity their greatest challenge on social media.

Other critical errors include poor influencer selection that doesn’t align with the brand identity, choosing campaign types that don’t match the marketing goals, and not evaluating results until after the campaign ends.

To solve these issues, WHITE recommends defining clear objectives and relevant KPIs upfront, conducting in-depth research to identify authentic influencers who are the right fit, and implementing established campaign formats like product seeding, paid sponsorships, collaborations for new launches, or cause marketing.

With younger consumers like Gen Z and Millennials set to comprise 70% of the total luxury market by 2025, WHITE positions influencer marketing as crucial for lifestyle brands. However, measuring impact remains the top challenge that brands must address upfront through proper planning, execution, and analysis. Read the full report here.