Case Study

194% Sales growth & #2 Hot new release in 1 week via influencer marketing

October 31, 2019

Metrics

194%

Weekly sales growth

#2

on Amazon’s Hot New Releases List

$11K

Attributable Sales Revenue from $0 Influencer Fees

2650%+

Return on Investment

Context

A keto/protein/snack bar brand* had just launched into market and on Amazon. The brand wanted to drive brand awareness, have content created that could be repurposed, drive traffic to their online store and Amazon product pages, and of course, drive sales. They wanted to do this by providing the influencer with free product (aka a “product-for-post“ collaboration). However, for the influencers that performed well, they would then look to extend the partnership into a paid structure for future campaigns.

Tactics

1. RESEARCH

Using influencer data analytics software and internal strategies, we researched influencers on Instagram and YouTube that have:

Audiences that resonate with the brand

High engagement rates (5%+)

Following of less than 50K, except for a few (micro and nano influencers)

2. OUTREACH

After our research, we narrowed our list down to around 100 influencers. We then communicated with the influencers via branded emails and social media platforms and proposed a product-for-post collaboration.

3. NEGOTIATION

Once the influencer exhibited interest in moving forward with a product-for-post collaboration, we negotiated the requirements (i.e. a 24-hour Instagram story, a static Instagram post that stays on the feed, an unboxing video on YouTube, a review video on YouTube, etc.) while also striving to ensure the influencers content would be as authentic as possible.

4. CUSTOMIZED UNBOXING EXPERIENCE

In order to elevate the experience for all involved (the influencer, the influencers audiences, the brand, and the brands audience) we created unique, branded, and photo-friendly packaging for the protein bars. We also created a custom insert with a hand-written note and a custom 30% off discount code for the influencer to share with their audience.

RESULTS

194% Weekly Sales Growth

11K+ Attributable Sales Revenue from $0 Influencer Fees

#2 on Amazon's Hot New Releases List

2650% Return on Investment

11K+ Attributable Sales Revenue from $0 Influencer Fees

Influencer Selection

We ended up reaching agreements with 18 total influencers (15 from Instagram and 3 from YouTube)

The average followers were 18K on Instagram and average subscribers were 250K on YouTube

The range of followers on Instagram were 3K to 41K

The range of subscribers on YouTube were 3K to 733K

Drove Nearly 50% of All orders

Within 2 weeks of the campaign going live, 46% of total orders (190 out of 411) were attributed to influencers. Because the brand was a startup and did not anticipate such a massive flood of orders, they actually sold out and had to begin taking pre-orders for when their next production of product was ready.

Continued to Drive Pre-Orders

One month after the campaign went live and the product sold out, orders continued to come through on pre-order with a great majority of those orders being attributed to the influencer campaign.

Category Winners on Amazon

The products 3 flavor variations reached #2, #3, and #5 on Amazon’s Hot New Releases list for the Protein Bar Category and #19 and #20 overall on Amazon’s Best Sellers list for the Protein Bar Category. Prior to the influencer campaign, the products were ranked around #150.

Increased Sale by Nearly 200%

Within 2 weeks of the campaign going live, weekly sales had increased 194%

Resulted in a 2650% ROI

2 months after the campaign went live, the ROI was measured at 2650%. Since the influencers were paid with product and not a fee or commission, the only costs were the cost to make the product, the packaging, the handwritten cards, and the shipping.

Content Creation

The influencers gave us their video and photo content so that we could repurpose it across our marketing channels. Some of this content was very professional and authentic, thus replacing the need – and cost – for a professional photoshoot.

Influencer Performance

The one aspect that all of that these top-performing influencers had in common was that their niche was closely aligned with the niche of the brand.The top performing influencer (Youtuber with 733K subscribers) drove 180 orders, the second highest performing influencer drove 12 orders (Instagram influencer with 36K followers). In addition, 5 other influencers drove sales ranging between 1-5 units.

Influencer Niche Matters! The one aspect that all of that these top-performing influencers had in common was that the niche as the brand.

*For example, somewhat separate from this specific campaign, we had also gifted 3 Instagram influencers with followers ranging from 170K to 1 million. While these influencers clearly had large followings, they did not drive any sales because they were not in a close enough niche as the brand.