How to measure what a creator is really worth
Views and engagement don’t pay the bills. Here’s a simple way to measure creators on the sales they drive and the profit that’s left.
Creator marketing is one of the hardest channels to measure. Posts spread across platforms, buyers rarely click a tracked link, and costs are scattered across invoices, free product and shipping. The result: brands rebook the creators with the biggest reach, not the ones who sell.
Start with the full cost
A creator’s cost is more than their fee. Add the product you sent, shipping, any usage rights you paid for, and the time your team spent managing them. This is the number every result should be measured against.
Match posts to sales, not just clicks
Use more than one signal to connect sales to a creator:
- Discount codes and tracked links
- Spikes in orders for the featured product in the days after a post
- New customers in the creator’s main markets
No single signal is perfect. Together they give you a reliable picture.
Count the sales that stayed sold
Some creators drive impulse purchases that come back as returns. Subtract returns before comparing creators, or you’ll reward the wrong ones.
Compare on profit per dollar
Divide the contribution margin from each creator’s kept sales by their full cost. Anything above 1 is paying for itself. Rank your creators on this number and you’ll often find a mid-size creator beating accounts ten times their size.
How Purser helps
Purser picks up new creator posts featuring your brand, matches them to orders and returns, and ranks every creator on profit. It also drafts the rebook or brief for your best performers.
