Creative agencies today are under pressure to prove that partnerships with creators don’t just spark interest in brands but actually move people to act. To prove ROI for creator campaigns, vanity metrics such as likes and follower counts won’t show the needle moving. However, the right bottom-of-funnel results can illustrate how a creator partnership is genuinely driving revenue and retention.
Here, 14 members of Forbes Agency Council share practical ways to tie creator content to BOFU metrics to demonstrate real ROI. From using smarter attribution paths to focusing on loyalty-based metrics, the insights below highlight how teams can document real impact and make a stronger case for further client investment by proving their creator strategy is working where it matters most: in the buyer’s decision stage.
1. Leverage Unique Links And Discount Codes
A strong way to show ROI is by tracking creator-driven conversions through unique links or discount codes. Measuring metrics like sales lift, sign-ups or repeat purchase rates directly ties content to results. It moves the focus from popularity to performance and can help to prove how creators actually drive revenue. – Bryanne DeGoede, BLND Public Relations
2. Track Assisted Conversions And Post-Engagement Actions
A good way to show ROI for creator campaigns is by tracking assisted conversions and post-engagement actions rather than surface metrics. Connecting creator-driven traffic to metrics like sign-ups, demo requests or purchases through UTM parameters and attribution tools shows how content actually influences decision-making. It turns creative reach into measurable business impact. – Ajay Prasad, GMR Web Team
3. Benchmark Creator Impact Using Clean Attribution Paths
Tie creator campaigns directly to business outcomes. Use tagged links and clean attribution to measure assisted conversions, revenue per visit or customer acquisition cost. Then benchmark creators’ incremental impact—how many new customers or dollars they drove, not how many hearts they collected. – Alex Yastrebenetsky, InfoTrust
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4. Connect Creator Campaigns To CRM Data
Connect creator campaigns to your CRM with UTM links. This will let you track every lead back to its source and measure conversions, whether through demo requests, sign-ups or downloads. Then, segment creators based on the number of qualified leads and retention potential to prioritize your resources and efforts wisely. – Nataliya Andreychuk, Viseven
5. Set Business-First Metrics Before Launching Campaigns
Brands need to put their egos to one side and focus on business outcomes for all campaigns, particularly collaborations with creators. All too often, a campaign is about the creator, not the brand. Marketers fail in their jobs by being deferential to the creator. If you set measurable business metrics (I’m thinking sales!) at the start of the campaign, meaningful metrics are easy to create. – Mike Maynard, Napier Partnership Limited
6. Compare Creator-Driven Revenue To Total Costs
Keep it simple: Give each creator a unique link and track how many orders and dollars come from it after returns. Compare your profit with what you paid them, specifically, then see if you made more than you spent and how fast. If those answers and sales beat a holdout with no creator ads, then you’ve got real ROI. – Gabriel Shaoolian, Digital Silk
7. Link Content To Specific Business Outcomes
Measure creator ROI by linking content to business outcomes such as revenue velocity, lead quality and retention lift. Vanity metrics are noise. What matters is whether the partnership influenced behavior, accelerated decisions or strengthened brand affinity. – Amy Packard Berry, Sparkpr
8. Tie Creators’ Efforts To Qualified Demo Requests
You can demonstrate ROI by directly linking marketing efforts to sales demo requests. Use UTMs, CRM attribution and targeted landing pages to track which campaigns and messages drive qualified demo inquiries. Then, analyze performance through metrics such as cost per demo request, conversion rate to opportunity and total pipeline value influenced to demonstrate a tangible business impact. – Elyse Flynn Meyer, Prism Global Marketing Solutions
9. Use Rotating Coupon Codes For Accurate Attribution
Giving your creators specific coupon codes to share with their followers can help track direct ROI from campaigns, attributing sales to their specific creator content. Make sure to swap out codes regularly to maintain attribution integrity and avoid code farming. – Bernard May, National Positions
10. Measure How Reengagement Boosts CLV
Think beyond the funnel and track how creator content accelerates conversion. Measure how awareness converts faster, loyalty deepens and reengagement increases customer lifetime value. – Dennis Consorte, Consorte Marketing
11. Track Revenue- Or Conversion-Driving Actions
Measure actions that drive revenue or conversion, not vanity metrics. Track sales via promo codes, affiliate links or landing pages. Analyze lifetime value, incremental purchases or retention from creator campaigns. ROI is strongest when influence translates directly into tangible business outcomes, not just likes or follower counts. – Jacquelyn LaMar Berney, VI Marketing and Branding
12. Use Creator-Specific Variations To Improve Tracking
Having unique product variations or special offers tailored for different creators’ followers is a great way to measure ROI. This strategy goes beyond just having an affiliate link or special code, as codes are sometimes forgotten. Make the creator’s audience feel loved and give them a product or offering that no one else can provide for them. – Adrian Falk, Believe Advertising & PR
13. Measure CPA, Repeat Purchases And Lifetime Value
A strong way to show ROI is by tracking creator-driven attribution paths—using unique discount codes, UTM links or post-purchase surveys to tie sales directly to creator content. Measuring cost per acquisition, repeat purchase rate and lifetime value from these campaigns reveals how influencer partnerships drive real revenue, not just reach. – Boris Dzhingarov, ESBO Ltd
14. Validate True Conversions And Retention Rates
Metrics can be deceiving, especially in AI-driven environments where clicks and likes have become a kind of currency and can be artificial. A better way to prove creator-driven ROI is to track true conversions: how content influences actions like sign-ups, product trials or purchases. Pair that with attribution data and customer retention metrics to see if the audience actually stayed, not just scrolled. – Goran Paun, ArtVersion