Going Off The Rails On A Lazy Train: Vanity Metrics Still Dominate Influencer Marketing

by Freddy Tran Nager, Founder of Atomic Tango + Influencer Marketing Analyst…

So I’m reading this Influencer Marketing Hub study and am disappointed (but not surprised) to see that nearly 80% of marketers still believe easily-faked vanity metrics (views, engagement, etc.) are measures of influencer campaign “success.”

No wonder the engagement-fraud business is so big.

What’s more, let’s not forget that on most platforms a view/impression is less than one second — so even legit ones are worthless.

On another page in this study, nearly 60% of respondents say they have experienced influencer fraud. No kidding.

Quoth Campbell’s Law:

“The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures, and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.” — American social scientist Donald T. Campbell

In other words, when a metric becomes a goal, look out for the manipulation and deception to achieve it — and more.

I figured that such lazy metrics would be espoused by agencies and unethical influencers, who can easily buy those likes, views, etc. to meet their clients’ demands. But seeing that the majority of the study’s respondents (which includes both brands and agencies) buy into empty metrics induced serious head-shaking on my part. I think I have whiplash.

I’m not saying that conversions/sales are the only measure of success — though those are the least likely to be faked. But there are other Key Performance Indicators that better demonstrate progress toward a conversion, such as email registrations and store visits.

Marketers should also measure the impact of an influencer campaign on the product’s brand (consumer sentiment) and buzz (press coverage). Yes, such qualitative metrics require actual work to gauge, since they’re not spoon-fed by the social platforms. But who wants to do actual work in an age when efficiency is everything?

Lazy metrics win. You know who loses.