I’ve been running influencer campaigns between our Russian-founded brand and US-based creators, and the hardest part isn’t execution—it’s proving the value to US partners and stakeholders who want hard numbers.
Back home, we have relationships built on years of trust and we’re pretty clear on what ‘good’ looks like. But when I’m talking to US agencies and investors, they want everything measured and benchmarked. They’re asking for things like cost per engagement, conversion attribution, audience quality scores—stuff we track, but not always in the same way they expect.
The problem is that cross-market data gets messy fast. Different platforms report metrics differently, currencies convert, and it’s hard to isolate what’s actually driven by the influencer partnership versus other marketing touchpoints. Plus, when I share results with US partners, I’m often explaining why our numbers look different from industry benchmarks because of market differences.
I’ve pulled together case studies, shared aggregate performance data, and tried to benchmark our campaigns, but it still feels like I’m speaking a different language than my US counterparts. They want clean attribution, I’m giving them complex multi-touch models.
How do you guys present cross-market campaign results to partners who aren’t familiar with your market? What metrics or frameworks have actually landed for you? Do you adjust your reporting based on the partner, or do you try to stick to one standard approach?
This is such a real challenge! Honestly, I think the key is translating your data into the language THEY speak, not forcing them to understand yours.
So like, instead of just sending raw metrics, I build a one-page summary that says: ‘Here’s what we invested, here’s the reach we got, here’s the engagement rate compared to platform averages, and here’s the business outcome.’ That last part—the business outcome—is what actually matters to them.
I also try to over-communicate during the partnership, not just at the end. Like, weekly check-ins where I’m sharing real-time performance and context. By the time the campaign ends, they’re not shocked by the numbers because they’ve been watching it happen.
And honestly? Don’t be afraid to ask them what metrics THEY care about. Some partners care about reach, some care about engagement, some care about follower growth on a specific channel. Once you know that, you can focus your reporting there.
Oh, and one more thing—I always include screenshots or actual examples of content performance. Like, ‘this post got 50K impressions and 3% engagement.’ Seeing the actual numbers on the platform, not just aggregated data, makes it feel more real and tangible to partners. They can verify it themselves if they want.
Okay, from my perspective, you need to think about this as a benchmarking problem. The reason US partners are skeptical is probably because your numbers don’t align with industry standards they know.
What I do is actually run a competitive analysis alongside our campaign reporting. Like, ‘influencers in this category typically see X% engagement rate, we achieved Y%, here’s why that’s above/below average.’ That context is crucial.
Also—and this is important—segment your metrics by influencer tier and platform. A nano-influencer on TikTok will perform totally differently than a macro account on Instagram. If you’re lumping them together, the numbers will look weird to anyone who knows the industry.
Finally, I’d push your team to track attribution more rigorously. Use UTM codes, promo codes, affiliate links—whatever makes sense for your category. Hard attribution is what actually converts skeptical partners. ‘This influencer drove 500 sales worth $25K’ beats ‘this post got 100K impressions’ every single time.
We dealt with this when we were raising and had to prove our marketing efficiency to investors. The thing that actually worked was building a simple funnel: reach → engagement → website traffic → conversions. Then we could show exactly where we were weak and where we were strong.
US investors specifically wanted to see cost per acquisition. So we’d say ‘we spent $X on this influencer, it drove Y visitors, Z conversions, so our CPA was W.’ If the CPA looks good relative to your CAC for other channels, suddenly it makes sense to them.
The hard part was attribution. We used UTM parameters religiously and even built custom landing pages for specific influencers so we could track exactly what they drove. Tedious, but worth it.
I want to add something from the creator perspective—a lot of times the issue isn’t the data, it’s that partners don’t understand what influencers can actually move. Like, an influencer can drive awareness and engagement, but if the product isn’t good or the landing page is confusing, you can’t blame the influencer.
So when you’re presenting results, it helps to be honest about that. Like, ‘we got awesome engagement, here’s what drove it, but conversion was lower because X.’ Partners actually respect that honesty. It shows you understand the whole picture.
Also, smaller question—are you comparing apples to apples when you’re sharing benchmarks? Like, are you comparing nano-influencers to micro-influencers? Because that’ll totally skew results.
Let me ask you something harder: are you tracking the metrics US partners actually care about, or are you tracking what’s easy to measure?
Because here’s the thing—reach and engagement are easy. Conversions and actual business impact are hard. But that’s what matters. So I’d flip your reporting structure.
Start with business metrics: revenue influenced, new customers acquired, LTV of customers from influencer channel. THEN explain how you got there. ‘We invested in influencers in these categories, they reached high-intent audiences, here’s how many converted and what they spent.’
Second, I’d establish a process for actually collecting feedback from partners DURING the campaign. Not just ‘here are the numbers at the end,’ but ‘here’s what we’re seeing that’s working, what would you want us to adjust?’
Lastly—and I think this might unlock things for you—create a one-page executive summary separate from your detailed report. Execs don’t want nuance, they want clarity. Summary should answer three things: Did we hit our goal? What drove success? What do we do next time?