Influencer marketing ROI: from engagement rate to revenue
Influencer ROI is decided twice: when you choose creators, and when you measure the campaign. The metrics for each stage, with formulas and worked examples.
By Commently · · 4 min read
Two moments decide ROI
Most of a campaign's return is decided before it starts, when you choose creators and set budgets. The rest is measured after it ends. Each moment needs its own metrics.
Before: choose creators on more than one number
Engagement rate, three ways
Per post, engagement rate is:
ER = (likes + comments) ÷ followers × 100
Then across recent posts:
Classic ER: the average.
Organic ER: the same, leaving out sponsored posts. It shows how the audience responds when nobody is paying.
Median ER: the middle post. One viral post cannot move it.
Example: a creator with 10,000 followers and three recent posts.
Post
Likes
Comments
ER
1
300
20
3.2%
2
500
40
5.4%
3 (sponsored)
5,000
200
52.0%
Classic ER is 20.2%, organic ER 4.3% and median ER 5.4%. The classic number is nearly four times what a typical post earns, and pricing a collaboration on it would overpay. You can run your own numbers in our free engagement rate calculator.
Commently's own calculation goes a step further: no single post can count for more than three times the follower count, pinned posts are left out, and shares are added on TikTok (retweets and quotes on X).
Follower quality and comments
A follower-quality estimate is a flag, not a verdict. Read the comments under the creator's recent sponsored posts: are people asking about the product, or only complimenting the creator?
Estimate before you spend
For each creator, set a budget and a number of posts, and estimate reach, impressions, engagement, CPM, CPE, conversions and revenue. The conversion assumptions are yours, so look at a range rather than a single number: Commently's ROI simulator shows a ±20% sensitivity band. An estimate is for comparing options, not a promise.
After: measure the campaign
Campaign engagement counts likes, comments, shares and saves, where the platform reports them.
Metric
Formula
What it tells you
Average post ER
the average of each post's ER
what a typical post earned; small accounts count as much as big ones
Campaign ER
total engagement ÷ total followers × 100
what the campaign produced as a whole; big accounts weigh more
CPE
spend ÷ engagement
the cost of one interaction
CPM
spend ÷ views × 1,000
the cost of reach
Viral Multiplier
views ÷ (average followers × number of creators)
how far the content travelled beyond the creators' own audiences
Revenue ROI
(revenue − spend) ÷ spend × 100
the return in money
Example: four creators with 150,000 followers on average. Spend $20,000; 50,000 engagements; 1,000,000 views; $34,000 in revenue from their discount codes.
If spend or revenue was never recorded, ROI is unknown, not 0%. Zero says "we measured, and nothing came back". A report that shows 0 where data is missing teaches the team to distrust the report.
Attribute revenue honestly
Record revenue and sales per creator, from discount codes or tracked links. Then read the comments: a sponsored post with a high ER and a comment section full of complaints is not a win, whatever the CPE says.
A short checklist
Before: three engagement rates, follower quality, the comments under recent sponsored posts, an ROI estimate with a range.
After: spend, both ERs, CPE, CPM, Viral Multiplier, Revenue ROI and comment sentiment, with campaigns compared side by side.
How Commently does it
The Creator CRM keeps every creator's followers, three engagement rates, follower quality, recent posts and the comments under them. The ROI simulator estimates a campaign before you commit budget. Campaign Intelligence measures it after: spend, ER, CPE, CPM, Viral Multiplier and Revenue ROI, with a health score and up to four campaigns compared side by side. Influencer management in Commently
Questions
How do you calculate influencer marketing ROI?
Revenue ROI = (revenue − spend) ÷ spend × 100, using the revenue you can attribute to the campaign, for example through discount codes.
What is a good engagement rate for an influencer?
It depends on the platform and the account's size: smaller accounts usually have higher rates. Compare creators of similar size on the same platform, and look at the median as well as the average.
Why use median engagement rate?
An average can be pulled up by one viral post. The median shows what a typical post earns, which is a fairer basis for pricing a collaboration.
Access is granted in small batches. We set Commently up for your brands, competitors and category, and a free pilot lets your team judge it on its own data.
Influencer marketing ROI: from engagement rate to revenue
Influencer ROI is decided twice: when you choose creators, and when you measure the campaign. The metrics for each stage, with formulas and worked examples.
By Commently · · 4 min read
Two moments decide ROI
Most of a campaign's return is decided before it starts, when you choose creators and set budgets. The rest is measured after it ends. Each moment needs its own metrics.
Before: choose creators on more than one number
Engagement rate, three ways
Per post, engagement rate is:
ER = (likes + comments) ÷ followers × 100
Then across recent posts:
Example: a creator with 10,000 followers and three recent posts.
Classic ER is 20.2%, organic ER 4.3% and median ER 5.4%. The classic number is nearly four times what a typical post earns, and pricing a collaboration on it would overpay. You can run your own numbers in our free engagement rate calculator.
Commently's own calculation goes a step further: no single post can count for more than three times the follower count, pinned posts are left out, and shares are added on TikTok (retweets and quotes on X).
Follower quality and comments
A follower-quality estimate is a flag, not a verdict. Read the comments under the creator's recent sponsored posts: are people asking about the product, or only complimenting the creator?
Estimate before you spend
For each creator, set a budget and a number of posts, and estimate reach, impressions, engagement, CPM, CPE, conversions and revenue. The conversion assumptions are yours, so look at a range rather than a single number: Commently's ROI simulator shows a ±20% sensitivity band. An estimate is for comparing options, not a promise.
After: measure the campaign
Campaign engagement counts likes, comments, shares and saves, where the platform reports them.
Example: four creators with 150,000 followers on average. Spend $20,000; 50,000 engagements; 1,000,000 views; $34,000 in revenue from their discount codes.
Unknown is not zero
If spend or revenue was never recorded, ROI is unknown, not 0%. Zero says "we measured, and nothing came back". A report that shows 0 where data is missing teaches the team to distrust the report.
Attribute revenue honestly
Record revenue and sales per creator, from discount codes or tracked links. Then read the comments: a sponsored post with a high ER and a comment section full of complaints is not a win, whatever the CPE says.
A short checklist
How Commently does it
The Creator CRM keeps every creator's followers, three engagement rates, follower quality, recent posts and the comments under them. The ROI simulator estimates a campaign before you commit budget. Campaign Intelligence measures it after: spend, ER, CPE, CPM, Viral Multiplier and Revenue ROI, with a health score and up to four campaigns compared side by side. Influencer management in Commently
Questions
See it on your own brand.
Access is granted in small batches. We set Commently up for your brands, competitors and category, and a free pilot lets your team judge it on its own data.
Request access