Why an ‘ineffective’ influencer could be the best choice for your brand

An influencer delivered a high CPA and fewer direct conversions than expected. The obvious conclusion: the campaign underperformed. But is it really that simple?

Start with the goal, then choose the metrics

Influencer marketing is often judged in simple terms: it worked, or it didn’t. But that approach overlooks an important distinction. Performance-focused and awareness-focused influencers serve different purposes, so measuring both against the same CPA can give you the wrong picture.

Performance campaigns are built around direct conversion: how many users reached the product, registered, made their first deposit and how much it cost to acquire them.

Awareness works differently. You’re paying for reach, brand recognition and exposure to new audiences, while the impact may take longer to materialise and be harder to measure directly.

If you reduce both scenarios to CPA alone, one is likely to look worse by comparison. That’s why the campaign goal should come first, followed by the influencer’s role and the metrics used to evaluate the results.

An expensive influencer ≠ a bad investment

Celebrity influencers (1M+ followers) come with a built-in brand premium. If you evaluate these placements purely through a performance lens, you may end up overpaying on CPD and CPM, making the investment look difficult to justify.

But for an established brand entering a new market or looking to build awareness, that premium may make sense – even if the placement delivers a higher CPA than a performance-focused campaign.

That doesn’t mean awareness can justify any result. The campaign goal and the way you measure its performance need to align.

What if the brand is still testing a GEO?

If the goal is to test a GEO, validate the product and understand the economics, a large influencer may not be the best place to start. At this stage, the aim isn’t to bet on one expensive placement, but to gather enough data to see what works.

Smaller influencers let you spread the budget across several tests and scale the ones that deliver performance.

A bigger audience doesn’t automatically mean better results. Each influencer segment has a different role depending on the goal and the product stage.

When it’s too early to say it didn’t work

An influence campaign shouldn’t be judged on the first deposit alone. Player behaviour and cohort economics change over time, so first-month results don’t always provide enough data to make a final call.

Alongside CPA and FTD, you need to track how performance develops over time and how long it takes for the traffic to pay back.

One of Makeberry Affiliates’ internal benchmarks is 100%+ payback by month 6. At that point, a streamer can be considered a proven partner and additional activities can be explored.

And that’s just one of the team’s practical benchmarks.

Years of influence traffic experience – in one guide

There’s still no single standard for evaluating influence traffic quality. That’s why Makeberry Affiliates has brought together the team’s experience, key benchmarks and proven approaches for Tier 1 and Tier 2 in one practical guide.

It covers how to choose the right influencer for your goal, which metrics to track, how to evaluate performance over time and when it makes sense to continue or scale a partnership – all based on practices the team uses in its day-to-day work.

To get the full guide, follow the link to the Telegram bot and subscribe to the Makeberry Affiliates channel.