Our world is now a digital world. Anyone who owns a business should consider influencer marketing as a strategy.
It’s not just a hunch: according to the latest Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report by Influencer Marketing Hub, the projected market size for influencer marketing in 2025 goes up to a promising milestone of 32.55 billion dollars. YouTube, in particular, remains the third preferred channel for influencer campaigns.
So, if you’re entering the world of YouTube influencer marketing, you’re just in time! Renowned brands have done so already, from design brands like Envato to meal subscriptions like HelloFresh. It’s helpful to raise awareness and attract new potential customers.
Naturally, just like any other marketing strategy, this approach is only as effective as your efforts to make the most of it, and to get there, you must know how well your campaign is working. That’s how you gain an understanding of which elements are successful and which need to improve.
There’s a variety of key metrics that can help you make sense of your campaign performance. But how do you analyze them? Let’s dive deeper into the ins and outs of measuring a YouTube influencer campaign.
What are your campaign goals?
In order to analyze the performance of any marketing campaign, you need to set clear, measurable goals. These can be based on:
- Engagement
- Conversions
- Reach
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Return on investment (ROI)
We’ll explore the key performance indicators (KPIs) you can track in a moment. What’s important at this stage is that you’re well aware of what you want to achieve with your YouTube influencer marketing campaign.
Is it to grow brand awareness? Then the engagement metrics might be your priority.
Or maybe you want more people to visit your website/store—in which case, the click-through rate is what interests you the most.
Keep this in mind: All these metrics work hand in hand. Healthy engagement numbers often translate to a higher click-through rate. A higher CTR increases your chances of driving more conversions and, ultimately, growing your ROI.
What about KPIs?
KPI is a common term in business that refers to the metrics that help you track and analyze the success of a project. Unlike a simple metric, a KPI is always tied to a business’s strategic goals.
If you’re new to this and haven’t worked with these indicators before, no worries!
Here’s a handy table with some of the most useful key performance indicators—yes, we’ve mentioned some of these terms earlier in this article. If you were just nodding along but need to get a clearer idea of what they mean, it’s time to add them to your marketing lingo.
| Key performance indicator (KPI) | What it measures |
| Views | As straightforward as it sounds! This KPI is constantly tracking your YouTube video views. |
| Engagement rate | This indicator takes into account likes, comments, and shares. |
| Click-through rate | Learn how many viewers clicked on a button or link from the video. |
| Conversion rate. | Measures the number of viewers who took the intended action. |
| Watch time | Lets you know how long the viewers are staying and where you’re losing them. |
| Referral traffic | Tracks the traffic that was driven to your site from specific YouTube influencers. |
| Return on investment (ROI) | Evaluates the cost-effectiveness of a campaign. |
| Subscriber growth | Key to knowing how strong the interest caused by a campaign is. |
Cracking your YouTube Studio data
You’re aware of the goals you want to achieve and the KPIs that can help you track them. Now, let’s get into one of the tools that’ll make the process easier for you.
YouTube Studio is YouTube’s hub where creators manage their channels and videos. There, they can access valuable data that helps them keep an eye on their campaigns.
The collected data is distributed in several tabs:
Overview tab. Find the views, watch time, new/lost subscribers, and revenue (if you’re monetizing your content).
Audience tab. Check out the insights on returning/new/unique viewers, as well as subscribers, and their demographic profiles.
Content tab (channel). Find the number of views, impressions and their CTR, and the average view duration on your channel. You can also learn how the viewers find your videos, what your top videos are, and how the impressions lead to watch time.
Trends tab (channel). Discover what your audience is searching for on YouTube.
Reach tab (video). Shows information on impressions, CTR, views, and unique viewers for a specific video.
Engagement tab (video). More in-depth data on the watch time, average view duration, likes and dislikes, and audience retention for a specific video.
Revenue tab (video). Reveals how much you’re earning from YouTube ads, including Revenue Per Mille (RPM) and Cost Per Mille (CPM). “Per Mille” means “per one thousand” impressions.
You can also download performance data files directly from YouTube Studio. In the YouTube video Analytics section, hover over the top-right corner of your screen. Click on Advanced mode.
There, you can choose which metrics you want to see, apply filters, and compare data. Once you’re happy with the displayed information, export the CSV report with the metrics you selected.
The good news is that you’ve downloaded your YouTube Studio CSV file.
The not-so-good news is that while this data is a decent starting point, it’s not as detailed as you would hope. It may not go deep enough in the areas your particular influencer strategy needs to examine.
There’s a downside to this in the long run: you’ll have trouble getting an accurate perception of the impact the campaign has on your goals. Moreover, not everyone has the expertise, time, or patience to examine these numbers, let alone know how to benefit from them.
Luckily, there are tools out there that can save you the headache by helping you break down your numbers. Coupler.io is one of them.
How to pull campaign performance data from YouTube to your reporting tool
Coupler.io is a reporting and data automation platform. With its help, you can export data from YouTube Analytics, transform it into reports, and load them to spreadsheets or BI tools. Moreover, Coupler.io allows you to collect other data essential for influencer marketing campaign tracking:
- GA4 to analyze website traffic from YouTube.
- TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram to create an overview of social media performance.
- Vimeo to analyze videos from your and public accounts.
With the YouTube Analytics report, you can measure the performance of your content, the behavior of your audience, and more.
In addition to the data flow automation, Coupler.io offers ready-to-use dashboard templates. They allow you to connect your YouTube account and get instant insights into subscriber impact, engagement, traffic sources, etc. Check out the available YouTube dashboards for free.
YouTube channel overview dashboard
Get insights into how viewers discover and interact with your videos with the help of our ready-to-go YouTube Analytics dashboard.
YouTube KPIs dashboard
All the key information about your YouTube channel in one concise dashboard. Track performance, monitor subscriber base growth, and analyze the sources that bring you views.
Website traffic from YouTube – performance analysis dashboard
Analyze the traffic performance of your YouTube channel using the dashboard powered by data from Google Analytics 4.
How to use data from YouTube
Up to this stage, you know where to find your data, what each metric means, and ways to visualize it.
You’re probably eager to apply these insights and start improving your influencer marketing campaign on YouTube. Here are a few tips that can guide you through that process:
Identify successful influencer collaborations
When you’re checking out the outcome of each KPI, pay attention to which ones are helping you get to your goal.
If you’re after conversions, which videos are driving the most? Are they from the same influencer? Or are they from a variety of influencers?
In those cases where you’re getting positive numbers from different YouTube influencers, see what they have in common. Maybe there’s something that makes them appealing to your audience.
Are you working with only one influencer? Identify the moments of the video that drive more interest from the audience and what role they play in such impact.
Optimize your current content strategy
See what the best-performing videos have in common. There may be something that’s working better. You can pinpoint what it is by comparing the most successful campaigns against the least effective ones.
Another big part of optimizing your content strategy has a lot to do with the days of the week, the times of day, and the consistency with which you post. Adjust your posting schedule in a way that makes sense to your audience.
Refine your target audience
Are you crushing it on all of your KPIs, but you’re not getting any closer to achieving your goals? Maybe you’re attracting tons of viewers, but they’re not interested enough to take the next step with your brand.
Not everyone is a potential customer, so make sure you’re focusing on the right people: those who will fall in love with your brand, buy from you, and keep coming back again and again.
What to do (and avoid) to improve your campaign performance
Let’s now cover some of the best practices that you can use to boost your influencer campaign and grow a successful YouTube channel, as well as some things you may want to avoid.
What to do: Influencer marketing campaign best practices
- Collaborate with YouTube influencers who make sense with your brand.
- Whenever possible, list your product in the influencer’s storefront, created using apps like Creator Hero.
- Tell your brand’s story in creative and unique ways.
- Stick to your goals, but don’t be afraid of flexibility.
- Optimize your videos and use trending formats.
What to avoid: Practices to avoid in your influencer marketing campaign
- Choose just any influencer based on numbers.
- Ignore your audience for the sake of doing the same as everybody else.
- Overuse ads and promotional materials.
- Ignore the algorithm and try to follow other channels’ exact same formula.
Do I need custom YouTube performance reports?
Is the YouTube Studio data enough, or should you opt for custom reports? As we’ve covered in this article, YouTube Studio is an easily accessible and convenient tool. It’s a good choice for whenever you want to check out the basic numbers of your campaign in no time.
But with YouTube Studio, you’ll be missing out on data from GA4 and other social media platforms like TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram. These additional statistics help you understand the bigger picture of your social media performance. That’s something you can benefit from with the custom reports from Coupler.io.
All in all, it’s vital to measure your campaign performance because every brand has different needs. And every YouTube influencer content strategy helps each business in a unique way.
If you’re not measuring your campaigns, you’re wasting countless growth opportunities. And, most likely, you’re throwing your money away.
In order to have a thriving online presence, it’s vital to analyze the data and apply it accordingly. That’s how you make the most of your YouTube influencer marketing campaign.