How to Measure ROI, CAC, and ROAS with Influencer Content in 2025?

You’ve spent $$$ on paid ads and marketing campaigns . But still don’t see the ROI when the content goes live? It’s more common than you think.

Brands and agencies try their best to leverage paid ads but often witness underperforming metrics compared to UGC and influencer content, which are created with a minimum budget.

The majority of people are still unaware of the impressive returns they can get by repurposing influencer and UGC content, and we are here to talk about that.

In today’s article, we’ll discuss how you can leverage and measure ROI, CAC, and ROAs with repurposed content and make the most of your loyal customers’ opinions and influencer marketing.

Cost comparison: In-house content vs. influencer content

Content is an indisputable part of brand marketing, be it—written or visual. Your In-house teams spend hours creating content from scratch, but they need to reassess and blend both in-house and influencer content into their growth strategies.

Influencer content can very well account for genuine ad and multimedia assets when you know how to use them the right way.

For example, this is a comparison of a Maybelline ad and repurposed influencer content. Let’s see how they differ:

• Involvement of team members: For an ad, you need a content team, video production team, editors, models, makeup artists, etc. For influencer content, you’ll only need guidelines, a predefined script, an influencer manager, and a tracking tool like MightyScout to understand the returns. Maybelline could just hire a makeup influencer, and they can leverage the talent to save more money and reach more people.

• Cost: You’ll spend approximately $10,000 for a full in-house photo shoot, generating ten assets, while it can take around $2,000 for influencer content, generating 40 assets. Since most influencer content is created by the hired influencer, you just need to guide them. UGC content is free of cost (unless you’re hiring a UGC creator for content), and with permission, you can use it for paid ads, too.

• Use cases: When you create in-house content, you need to brainstorm ideas, and it’s not guaranteed that every ad will work. For example, Kendall Jenner and Pepsi ad. Your hired influencer will deliver quality work for influencer content because they know the audience and have a high engagement ratio compared to paid in-house content.

When we talk in terms of quality—ads need to be subtle, honest, high quality, creative, deliver ROI on dollars spent, and evergreen to capture the audience in the long term.

Most teams measure ROI by comparing the investment and revenue from the campaign. They can use this simple formula to calculate your ROI or, in our case—the quality.

• ROI = (Revenue/Cost) x 100

But this isn’t the ideal way to calculate your returns when dealing with hundreds of influencers for one program. You can use a profit calculator that will analyze multiple metrics, such as tools used, cost, hours spent, employee wages, and more, to give you the exact picture of whether you’re losing money or generating profits.

With a profit calculator, you can pinpoint the areas where you can make more money and where you need to cut down on expenses. Some more benefits that you can reap with the use of this calculator include:

• Helps you define budget planning to align with campaign goals
• Helps spot the KPI (Key Performance Indicators) and allot more budget on crucial areas which need more attention
• Helps find how much you can save on campaigns
• Helps you minimize risk and diversify your profit indicators
• Reduces scope for human error in terms of calculation Helps gain insights into profit strategies

Profit calculators help scale your program predictably and pre-determine the cost of investment for software tools, need for new members, etc.

Moreover, a profit calculator helps you:

• Scale influencer marketing programs more predictably
• Invest strategically in software tools for efficiency
• Optimize team structure
• Allocate budgets effectively
• Promote multiple products cost-efficiently
• Negotiate partnerships with data-driven insights
• Optimize campaigns in real-time
• Develop robust long-term strategies

Measuring ROI, CAC, and ROAS with repurposed influencer content

Let’s break down ROI, CAC, ROAS by comparing two ads—an influencer and in-house produced ad.

Influencer content (AD2), and paid content (AD1).

AD1 (Example)

In this reel with 3.1 million views, a famous fashion influencer, Madeleine White tries on multiple wedding dresses. She shows how they look in real-time and gives the audience an in-store shopping experience which sparks an interest for other to-be brides to also visit the shop and explore the range.

AD2 (Example)

In this ad by Wedding Asia, we can see 2 outfits representing the couture and the best pieces from a bridal experience. The team hired models, rented a set, photographer, and spent days bringing this ad to life.

But it might not be as enticing to the audience as it doesn’t show the full range of dresses as compared to AD1. Moreover, AD1 only requires the brand to invite the influencer to visit their shop, set a payment term, and the rest will be done by the influencer.

Measuring the metrics

Suppose, the total cost of the influencer AD1 is $x and AD2 is $2X. While the views on AD1 are 3.1million as compared to 1.55 clicks on AD2.

If Ad1 performs twice as well as AD2: - ROI on AD1 is 2x higher - CAC for AD1 is 50% less - ROAS for AD1 is 2x higher

Additionally, the cost of influencers is also low, you’ll spend less in turn for better revenue. You can leverage visuals of Instagram as stats show that it is a top platform for posting sponsored content influencers in the US, with over 98% posting reel, stories or feed posts on the platform.

To determine ROI from both ads—compare cost per lead to the worth of each lead. Some other important metrics to consider while comparing these ads are:

• CTR (Clickthrough rate): This measures the people who saw and clicked on your ad. Average CTR helps you understand the effectiveness of product placement, copy, and visuals. If you see a low CTR—people are scrolling past your ad.

• Conversion rate: If AD2 is giving more conversions—people who clicked on your ad and became your customer. Then you’ve repurposed it the right way, otherwise, try interchanging it with AD1, to see what works better. This is a crucial metric, and conversions are what bring in—revenues.

• CPC (Cost per click): When anyone clicks on your ad, you have to pay the advertising platform for it, whether conversion happens or not. You have a minimum bid to pay to the partner, and if that’s going higher than your conversions, for AD1, try placing a good and engaging influencer reel(AD2).

• Revenue: The most obvious indicator of your returns on repurposed influencer content. For this, compare the earnings from AD2 and AD1 with your yearly and quarterly goals.

You can also use a management tool to compare the metrics of influencer marketing campaigns, and choose the influencer content that drives the most sales.

For example, this influencer profile tracking example from MightyScout shows the active influencers, content posted, campaign status, tracking links, followers, views, CPE, ROI%, etc. This will help you make a more accurate comparison of the influencer ad with in-house content and analyze which one is more fruitful for your brand.

Hidden benefits of influencer content

Influencers deliver a lot of on-going benefits to brands. The reason why, many brands now believe in a long-term relationship/contract with creators, rather than hiring them for a one time-gig.

Once an influencer drives sales for a brand, customers start coming back for more suggestions, and with a tie-up from the creator, the brand can promote multiple products in a single reel or story.

Example, many influencers post Part 1 and Part 2 of hauls for brands that pique the ongoing interest of leads and customers. Plus, it’s fun to watch people try out new things online!

This profile posts two parts for trying out modest dresses from a brand, which brings more views. Both reels collectively bring in views for the same brand. However, you cannot pique as much interest with 2 ads for the same product, as it will cost more, and customers will get annoyed if a window with the same products pops up many times on their screen.

Here are some more hidden benefits of influencer content:

• Drives sales: Influencer content is evergreen. Meaning—it drives sales on its own. Once a reel or post goes live, it picks up pace, and brings in more lead and brand deals for both—the brand and the influencer. For example:

If one of their content goes viral, they gain perpetual views on new as well as old content. People discover an influencer, and watch their old posts too, which brings in better impressions and ROI.

If you repurpose content that already has a lot of views and features an influencer, people trust, it’ll naturally perform well due to recognition.

• CPM of influencer content: CPM is cost per mile, or cost of every thousand views you get from a content. Let's say you launch an influencer marketing campaign with an influencer who charges a CPM of $50. For every 1,000 people who see the influencer's post on social media, you'll pay $50. If their post reaches 10,000 views, you'll be looking at a total cost of $500.

Don’t get confused between CPI and CPM as both are different metrics, with different purposes.

• Additional revenue generated from the influencer's post: An influencer drives revenue through multiple sources. This is through views, their promotional content, stories, posts, and videos. They can promote content in multiple ways through a single content piece by editing it. And even though you might hire them for a single platform campaign, they tend to post in on their different accounts to reach more followers, which brings in revenue from multiple platforms.

Calculating the total ROI of repurposed influencer content

Repurposed content is a great way to create a personal relationship with your customers. People resonate with influencers and believe their recommendations. They yield multiple benefits.

Let’s understand the ROI from repurposed content with an example from an influencer post that is repurposed on another channel.

Littlebox saves a lot on models and shoots, as it repurposes the content of it’s influencer programs on their website as well. These influencers help generate profits for this brand by:

• Posting on their own channels and Instagram
• Creating collaboration posts with the brand
• Giving consent to post on the brand’s social media channels
• Creating review club on their website

The campaign's impact was threefold:

• First, it redirected followers to the brand's website, generating immediate online sales
• Second, it increased product visibility in real-world settings, increasing the desire to purchase among potential customers who saw the products being worn.
• Third, the post itself served as organic content marketing, driving additional sales without the need for a separate ad campaign.

This multi-channel approach resulted in a return three times higher than in-house content creation, while costing only a third as much as conventional marketing strategies.

Tip: You can get content rights from influencers from your last influencer campaign and use them for ads for almost half the cost of your in-house content.

Influencer marketing is your ultimate revenue source

To get a closer look at your ROI and find ways to manage your influencer campaigns efficiently, try out MightyScout today!