Influencer gifting is one of the smartest ways for brands to get authentic visibility without a massive ad budget. But without clear measurement, it becomes difficult to scale or justify the investment. While sending products to influencers can spark authentic content, tracking what you actually gain in return is often overlooked.
In this post, we’ll break down how to approach influencer gifting with a performance mindset, what metrics matter, and how to ensure your efforts are measurable from day one.
We'll also show you how Companion makes the process effortless.
Influencer Gifting Campaigns: What They Are and Why They Work
A gifting campaign is a form of influencer marketing where brands send products to creators in hopes they’ll post about them. No contracts, no payments, just a beautifully wrapped box and a bit of brand trust. Gifting campaigns rely on product quality and relevance to inspire organic posts.
The strategic benefits of gifting for brands:
- Cost-effective visibility. They help you reach new audiences without spending on ads.
- Authentic content. Creators often share what they genuinely like, which drives more interest from their audience.
- Relationship-building. A low-barrier way to start working with creators – especially effective with micro and nano influencers, and with bigger creators, hard-to-get for a paid campaign.
- Scalable. Works well for both small, targeted activations and large-scale or ongoing brand awareness campaigns.
Gifting campaigns result in more authentic and relatable brand mentions than traditional paid content. When creators choose to feature your product on their own terms, it comes across as genuine interest rather than sponsored post. That kind of trust with their audience is hard to replicate.
The Challenges of Gifting Campaigns
At first glance, influencer gifting might seem like a straightforward approach but in practice, it can be tricky. Here are common roadblocks:
- No guaranteed content. Since gifting doesn’t involve a formal contract, creators are under no obligation to produce or share content.
- Inconsistent tags and limited visibility. Posts can be easy to miss, especially if creators don’t tag your brand or use the agreed-upon hashtags.
- Fragmented performance insights. Manually tracking posts across platforms, especially when there’s no agreed-upon timeline for content or a clear brief, is time-consuming and unreliable. It’s difficult to know when to check for posts, what to look for, and how to compare performance across creators or campaigns.
- Unclear ROI. Without proper attribution, it’s difficult to understand whether the campaign generated measurable value or simply consumed resources.
These limitations make it challenging for marketers to scale gifting with confidence or justify the investment to stakeholders.
The Tool to Track Gifting Campaign Automatically
Companion takes the manual work out of tracking influencer gifting campaigns—even when there’s no paid partnership involved.
Just upload your influencer list, and the platform handles the rest.
It automatically:
- Detects any relevant content posted by your creators.
- Pulls in key performance metrics for each post
- Captures Stories before they expire
- Organizes everything into one exportable report
No more digging through feeds or chasing screenshots. Just accurate, real-time data you can trust.
Whether you're working with 10 influencers or 1,000, Companion helps you stay on top of your campaigns – and clearly show what they delivered.
Metrics to Measure the Performance of Your Gifting Campaigns
If you managed to track all the posts shared, here are the key metrics to evaluate gifting impact:
1. Content Output Rate
What it tells you: The percentage of influencers who posted after receiving a gift.
Formula: (Influencers who posted / Total gifts sent) x 100
This helps gauge how effective your product is at prompting content, and how eager influencers are to share about it.
If this number is lower than you’d like it to be, there can be some reasons for that:
- The product might not have been a good fit for the creator or their audience.
- It may not have felt exciting or useful enough for them to want to share. A quick follow-up after a couple of weeks can help you understand what they thought.
- The packaging or presentation might not have stood out. Even if they liked the product, it might not have inspired them to post.
- There could be a mismatch between your brand and theirs, or they may have existing contracts and commitments with other brands that stop them from promoting your product.
To find out the true reason, ask them about it directly and adjust your future gifting campaigns accordingly based on their feedback.
2. Engagement Rate per Post
What it tells you: How audiences responded to the content.
Formula: (Total likes, comments, shares / Influencer’s follower count) x 100
Compare this across influencers to identify top performers.
3. Earned Media Value (EMV)
What it tells you: The estimated value of influencer content if you had paid for it as ads.
How to track it: Use platforms like Companion. This assigns a monetary value to content performance.
4. Link Clicks and Conversions
What it tells you: Whether content drove traffic or sales.
Tactics: Include UTM links, custom codes, or QR codes. You can also use short links like Bitly for simple tracking.
5. Sentiment Analysis
What it tells you: The tone of influencer content and audience comments.
Use AI-based social listening tools to assess whether reactions are positive, neutral, or negative.
Best Practices for Improving and Measuring Gifting ROI
- Vet your influencers: Prioritize engagement quality over follower count.
- Send a brief: Offer posting guidelines without being prescriptive.
- Make tracking easy: Include links or codes that benefit the creator's audience.
- Follow up: A simple reminder after delivery increases the chances of a post.
- Monitor timing: Log when posts go live to identify patterns.
Final Thoughts
Influencer gifting works best when treated as a strategic channel rather than an experiment. With the right tools, tracking methods, and a clear understanding of what success looks like, you can confidently scale your campaigns and prove their value.
Want a streamlined way to measure it all?
Book a demo with Companion and see how effortless performance tracking can be.