How are your influencer marketing campaigns going this year? Is there room for improvement?

The vast majority of marketers could enhance their approach to influencer selection by moving beyond high level vanity metrics such as follower count and engagement. While these metrics are definitely useful when evaluating potential influencer partners, they don’t necessarily reflect whether or not your target audience connects with or even follows them.

Most marketers don’t take an audience-first approach to influencer discovery because they don’t even know it’s an option. But that’s about to change. In this blog, we’ll break down:

• The difference between influencer analytics and influencer discovery tools
• 3 Essential Capabilities Influencer Discovery Tools Are Missing
•  How influencer analytics is transforming the way marketers conduct influencer campaigns 

The Difference Between Influencer Analytics and Influencer Discovery Tools

There’s often confusion between influencer discovery tools and influencer analytics tools, and it’s easy to see why—many might assume they serve the same purpose. However, they are distinct tools that serve different functions, and influencer programs are most effective when both are used together.

An influencer discovery tool, also often referred to as an influencer management platform, is a comprehensive tool for selecting, nurturing, and managing influencer relationships.

Influencer discovery tools typically use the following metrics for recommendations:

• Follower count
• Engagement rates
• Associated keywords via social listening

But if you frequent our blog, you know that these are high level vanity metrics which provide a solid starting point, but cannot ensure that an influencer’s reach extends to your target audience. And even if they may appear“right” at first glance, they may not always be the best option.

Influencer analytics or insight tools move beyond vanity metrics to fill in the gaps for discovering and validating influencers for your brand. Best-in-class influencer analytic tools (like StatSocial’s Silhouette™ platform) give you the following:

• An audience-first approach to influencer validation
• Influencer validation
• Campaign amplification through paid media

We’ll dive into the specifics of what this means and why this is a game-changer in the next section.

3 Essential Capabilities Influencer Discovery Tools Are Missing

We want to make it a point to say that influencer discovery tools (aka influencer management platforms) are incredibly useful, but they’re just simply not enough. You wouldn’t get a Big Mac without fries, right?

Influencer analytics from platforms like Silhouette provide the capabilities you need to maximize the impact of your next campaign. Here’s how:

1. Audience-first influencer discovery

Silhouette’s audience insights are based on self-declared data—data people publically share and engage with across major social channels.

Where most influencer discovery tools only allow you to filter based on follower count, engagement, and content topics, Silhouette actually enables you to start with your target audience and then evaluate the influencers they already engage with.

How it works

You begin by building or uploading your existing or ideal audience to identify the influencers that are the best fit for your campaign. Silhouette provides two key metrics to assist in selecting the right influencer partner:

• The Multiple: This metric offers a comparative analysis, showing how likely your audience is to follow a specific influencer compared to any other audience or a control group, such as the general population.
• The Similarity Score: This is a percentile ranking from 1 to 100%, indicating how closely an influencer’s audience aligns with any other audience—whether it’s your current customers, a specific consumer group, or even your brand’s social following.

For example, we built this audience for fans of Conan O’Brien.

You might expect Conan fans to be fans of other late night hosts, but the image above shows us that they actually have affinities for popular internet personalities like Pewdiepie and Destin Sandlin.

2. Influencer validation

If you want to ensure recommended or even existing influencer partners are the right fit, Silhouette can easily do the vetting for you by:

Analyzing any influencer’s audience
Dive into an influencer’s social following to identify their unique interests, brand affinities, and media preferences, ensuring alignment with the audience you are trying to reach. .

View your audience and the influencer’s audience side-by-side
If you are unsure after evaluating the influencer’s audience, take the analysis a step further by comparing your audience to the influencer’s audience side-by-side. Or, compare multiple audiences against one another.

3. Continue to reach an influencer’s audience post-campaign

Unlike an influencer discovery tool where your partnership ends with the final payment, an influencer analytics tool like Silhouette can continue reaching your influencer’s audience during or post campaign.

Once you build any audience (including your influencer’s) in Silhouette, you can then deploy that audience across the digital ecosystem, continuing to serve up personalized ads on paid social, CTV, and through other digital partners.

Case study: Influencer Casting Team & Silhouette

Just how powerful can Silhouette’s influencer analytics be? Check out this great case study from one of our clients.

Final Thoughts: Influencer Discovery Tools + Influencer Analytics = Highest Return on Spend

You don’t just have one tool in your tech stack—you rely on many to give you the insights you need to build powerful marketing campaigns. The same logic applies to influencer marketing.

Influencer discovery tools and engagement platforms are essential, but not exclusive. That’s one reason why we created Silhouette, ensuring you have the data and insights you need to partner with the right creators.

Stop second guessing your influencer choices and start getting the most out of your campaigns with Silhouette.

Schedule a demo with a member of our team to learn more.