The Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing Tools in 2019

Why 2019 Was a Pivotal Year for Influencer Tools

2019 was a turning point for influencer marketing. More brands saw the power of authentic content. So, budgets for influencer campaigns grew a lot [source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/influencer-marketing-stats/]. This growth created a need for better tools.

The industry faced new problems. It was hard to grow campaigns. It was also tough to measure return on investment (ROI). On top of that, worries about fake followers and influencer truthfulness grew. This situation pushed companies to create new tools.

A new wave of influencer marketing tools appeared. These platforms did more than just find influencers. They offered strong features to handle the new challenges. As a result, 2019 proved that special tech was needed in this growing field.

How to Choose the Right Tool for Your Goals

Selecting the ideal influencer marketing tool takes careful thought. No single tool works for every brand. Your marketing goals should guide your choice.

First, know what you want to achieve. Are you trying to build brand awareness? Is your main goal to increase sales? Being clear about this makes your decision easier.

Think about these key factors when looking at tools:

• Budget: Decide how much you can spend on a tool. Options range from free to costly enterprise plans.
• Key Features: List the features you must have. Do you need to find influencers, manage campaigns, or get detailed analytics?
• Influencer Vetting: Look for features that spot fake followers. Make sure it can also check an influencer's audience information.
• Platform Support: Be sure the tool supports your target social media channels. Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube often have special needs.
• Scalability: Check if the tool can grow with you. It should handle more influencers or campaigns over time.
• Ease of Use: A simple interface helps your team work faster. An easy-to-use design means less training.
• Reporting and Analytics: Look at the quality of the data reports. Good reports are vital for measuring a campaign's success.

A smart choice ensures you get good results for your money. The right tool helps you build strong influencer partnerships. In the end, it drives major growth for your brand.

Top Platforms for Influencer Discovery

In 2019, finding the right influencers was key for a successful campaign. Brands needed good tools to find creators who fit their goals.

These platforms offered advanced filters and large databases. They let marketers quickly check potential partners to ensure a good brand fit.

• Heepsy: Heepsy was a top platform for finding influencers. It offered huge databases and strong filters for all major social networks. Brands could easily sort influencers by audience size, location, and content type.

  This tool made it easier to find the right creators. It helped make outreach more focused and effective.

• HypeAuditor: HypeAuditor was essential because it focused on audience authenticity. It gave deep analytics to find fake followers and check engagement quality [source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/07/22/the-growing-problem-of-fake-followers-in-influencer-marketing/].

  This platform helped marketers spend their budget on real influencers. It provided key details on audience demographics and interests.

Key discovery features from these tools included:

• Advanced search filters for audience details, interests, and keywords.
• Checks for real followers and fraud detection.
• Detailed performance data, including engagement rates.
• Tools to compare with competitors.

Top Platforms for Campaign Management

After finding influencers, managing campaigns was a big challenge in 2019. Central platforms were needed to simplify complex work.

These tools helped with communication, content approval, and tracking results. They turned messy work into organized campaigns that could grow.

• CreatorIQ: CreatorIQ was a top solution for large businesses. It handled everything from discovery to payments. Its powerful analytics gave deep insights into campaign ROI [source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/creatoriq-review/].

  The platform helped brands grow their influencer programs with more control. It also made sure campaigns followed the rules and performed well.

• Upfluence: Upfluence was a complete tool that combined influencer discovery with campaign management. It let brands handle their entire process from one dashboard.

  This platform made it easier to contact influencers, work on content, and get reports. It was useful for brands that wanted to make influencer marketing a core part of their strategy.

Essential campaign management features included:

• Simple tools for influencer outreach and communication.
• Workflows for reviewing and approving content.
• Contract management and payment tools.
• Dashboards for real-time performance tracking and reporting.
• Tools to manage influencer relationships (CRM).

Top All-in-One Social Suites

Specialized tools were common, but broader social media suites also played a role in 2019. They started adding influencer features to their platforms.

These suites were helpful for brands already using them for social media. They offered an easy, but less focused, way to work with influencers.

• Sprout Social: Sprout Social was popular for managing all social media. It had strong social listening features. These let brands find potential fans or new influencers [source: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/sprout-social-reviews/].

  Its single dashboard helped track brand mentions and talk to influential people. This created a base for natural partnerships.

• Hootsuite: Hootsuite had strong tools for scheduling, monitoring, and reporting. Its features helped brands follow conversations in their industry.

  While not just for influencers, it gave good information on who was talking about a brand. This helped find potential partners in their own community.

Features from these all-in-one suites often included:

• Social listening for brand mentions and industry news.
• Basic ways to identify influencers by their engagement.
• Content scheduling and publishing to multiple platforms.
• A single inbox to manage messages and community communication.
• Analytics for overall social media performance.

In 2019, the world of influencer marketing was changing fast. There wasn't one single tool that everyone used. Instead, brands picked different tools based on their size and campaign needs. But a clear trend appeared: more companies began using special platforms to work more efficiently and grow their efforts.

The influencer marketing industry grew a lot, reaching an estimated $6.5 billion in 2019 [source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-survey-2019/]. This growth created a need for better and more complete tools. Simple, manual methods were no longer enough.

Dedicated Influencer Marketing Platforms

For brands and agencies running serious influencer campaigns, special platforms were the top choice. These tools handled the entire process. They made everything from finding creators to analyzing results much simpler.

These special influencer marketing tools from 2019 had key features. They allowed users to:

• Discover relevant influencers: Advanced search filters helped find the right creators based on specific demographics, topics, and audience interests.
• Manage campaigns efficiently: A single dashboard made work easier. It simplified communication, content approvals, and tracking key steps.
• Analyze performance data: Detailed analytics provided key information. Users could see their reach, engagement, conversions, and return on investment (ROI).
• Combat influencer fraud: Tools to check for fake followers and other types of fraud became very important.

Platforms like CreatorIQ, Upfluence, and AspireIQ were some of the top choices. They offered advanced features for growing campaigns and making them successful. In addition, tools like HypeAuditor became popular for their strong audience analysis and fraud detection.

Other Commonly Used Approaches

While special platforms became more popular, other methods were still common. This was especially true for smaller businesses or those just starting out.

• Manual Outreach: Many brands still used direct messages on social media (like Instagram or YouTube) and email. This was how they first contacted influencers and discussed deals.
• Spreadsheets and CRM: Many used simple spreadsheets or customer relationship management (CRM) systems. They used them to track influencer contacts, content schedules, and payments.
• Social Media Management Suites: Tools like Sprout Social and Hootsuite were mainly for managing social media. But they started adding simple features to find and watch influencers. This gave some businesses an all-in-one option.

In the end, the most "commonly used" tool in 2019 depended on a company's needs and budget. But the industry was clearly shifting. More businesses chose powerful, dedicated platforms to get the best results from influencer marketing.

To succeed in influencer marketing, you need a clear plan. The "3 R's" provide that plan, acting as core principles for good campaigns. These principles help brands pick the right partners and measure real results. Understanding these ideas was key to getting the most from your investment, especially with the advanced influencer marketing tools in 2019 [source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/influencer-marketing-tools/].

Relevance

Relevance is the most important part of influencer marketing. It means an influencer's content and audience are a good match for your brand and customers. A relevant influencer shares your message in a natural way. This ensures your campaign reaches people who are truly interested in your products.

Choosing relevant influencers builds trust. When content feels natural, customers are more likely to engage. In 2019, new tools helped find influencers with specific audiences, moving beyond simple follower counts.

Reach

Reach is the potential size of an influencer's audience. It tells you how many different people might see your campaign message. While a large reach is good, it must be paired with relevance. A big audience that isn't interested offers little value.

However, a large reach is still important for brand awareness. It helps your message spread widely on social media. Studies show influencer marketing can have an 11 times higher return than traditional ads. This is often driven by a big reach combined with relevance [source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-statistics/]. High-reach influencers get your brand seen more often, building name recognition.

Resonance

Resonance measures how much an audience connects with an influencer's content. This is more than just views or follower numbers. It shows if the audience likes, shares, or acts on what they see. True resonance means followers are commenting, sharing, and ultimately buying.

High resonance shows a strong bond between an influencer and their audience. This leads to better campaigns and more sales for your brand. In 2019, brands began to focus more on engagement rates and sales to measure an influencer's true impact. Look for strong engagement rates, which can reach up to 5.7% for micro-influencers [source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/07/22/influencer-marketing-how-to-choose-the-right-influencer-for-your-brand/].

Tracking Engagement Rate

It's important to track engagement in an influencer program. This shows how well the content connected with the influencer's followers.

In 2019, high engagement showed real interest, making it a key metric. Good engagement means the content got people's attention and made them interact.

• Likes and Reactions: These give a quick look at how the audience first felt.
• Comments: Good comments show deeper interest and can start a conversation.
• Shares: When people share content, it reaches new audiences for free.
• Saves: Saves mean people found the content useful and want to see it again.

You can also calculate the engagement rate. Just divide the total engagements by the follower count. A good rate is about 2-5% on most platforms, but it can change based on the topic and follower size [source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-engagement-rate-what-it-is-and-how-to-calculate-it/]. This number helps you compare influencers, even if they have different numbers of followers.

Measuring Conversions and Clicks

Authenticity is a priority, but you still need to track real actions. These actions show the program's direct effect on your business goals.

Clicks and sales link what influencers do to real results. For example, you can watch for more traffic to a product page right after an influencer posts about it.

• Website Clicks: Use UTM codes to track traffic from influencer posts or bio links. This helps you see what content sends people to your site.
• Product Page Views: See how many people looked at the products shown by influencers.
• Sign-ups or Subscriptions: If you want leads, track new sign-ups that come from the campaign.
• Sales (Direct/Assisted): It can be hard to track these sales, but look for a sales increase after an influencer posts. Special landing pages for influencers can also help.

In 2019, many influencer marketing tools had helpful analytics. These tools could track traffic and sales, giving you more detail [source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-roi/]. Understanding these numbers helps make sure your efforts lead to business growth.

Assessing Brand Mentions and Sentiment

An influencer program can make your brand much more visible. That's why tracking brand mentions is a key measure of success.

It's also good to know the feeling behind those mentions. This tells you how people see your brand.

• Total Brand Mentions: Count every time your brand is mentioned by influencers and their fans.
• Reach of Mentions: Estimate how many people could have seen these mentions. This shows the campaign's total visibility.
• Share of Voice: Compare your brand's mentions to your competitors' during the same time.
• Sentiment Analysis: Look at the tone of the comments. Are they positive, negative, or neutral? Positive feelings build loyalty.

Using social listening tools was very important. Many marketing platforms in 2019 included them. These tools could automatically track mentions and check the sentiment [source: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-listening/]. In the end, more positive mentions mean your brand is healthier and better known.

What were the top free influencer marketing tools in 2019?

In 2019, most advanced influencer marketing platforms cost money. But brands could still use several free options. These tools offered key insights for managing smaller campaigns.

Most free tools provided basic analytics and helped brands find influencers by hand. This was very helpful for companies with small budgets or those new to influencer marketing.

• Social Media Analytics: Sites like Instagram and Facebook gave free data to business accounts. This data included reach, engagement, and audience details. Brands could ask influencers for these numbers to check their results.
• Google Analytics: This free tool was key for tracking website traffic from influencer campaigns. It helped brands measure referrals, user actions, and sales [source: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/].
• Manual Search & Outreach: A popular free method was searching keywords on social media (like #fashionblogger). Brands then checked profiles by hand and contacted influencers directly.
• Free Trial Versions: Many paid influencer marketing tools offered free trials. These let brands test features for a short time, usually for 7 to 14 days.
• Content Curation Tools: Some tools, like BuzzSumo, had limited free plans. They helped find popular content and top creators in certain areas. This made it easier to start the search for influencers [source: https://buzzsumo.com/].

How did brands use tools to find influencers in 2019?

In 2019, brands used special tools to find influencers more easily. These platforms went beyond simple searching. They offered better filters and data analysis.

These tools helped brands find the right creators for their campaigns. They found people who matched the brand's goals and audience. This made influencer partnerships more effective.

• Database Searching: Brands used tools with large lists of influencers. They could search by keyword, industry, location, and audience details. This allowed for very specific targeting.
• Audience Demographics: Advanced filters helped find influencers whose audience matched the brand's ideal customer. This data included age, gender, interests, and location.
• Performance Metrics: Tools gave important data to help brands choose. They could filter by engagement rate, follower count, and real followers. This helped them find good partners and avoid fake accounts.
• Content Analysis: Many tools let brands look at an influencer's old posts. This helped make sure their style, tone, and content were a good match for the campaign.
• Competitor Insights: Some tools let brands see which influencers their competitors used. This gave them useful market information and new ways to find people.

What KPIs were most important for influencer campaigns in 2019?

In 2019, measuring campaign results was key to showing a return on investment (ROI). Brands used a mix of metrics. They looked at engagement, reach, and sales to measure success.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) helped brands improve their plans and justify their costs. They gave clear data on how well a campaign worked.

• Engagement Rate: This was a top KPI. It measured how many people engaged with a post through likes, comments, shares, and saves. It showed if the audience was real and interested [source: https://influencermarketinghub.com/engagement-rate/].
• Reach and Impressions: Brands tracked how many people saw the content (reach). They also tracked how many times it was shown (impressions). These numbers measured brand awareness.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR was very important for campaigns with a call to action. It measured how many people clicked a link from the influencer. This sent traffic to a website or product page.
• Conversion Rate: In the end, conversions showed the campaign's financial success. This included sales, sign-ups, or app downloads that came directly from the influencer's work.
• Brand Mentions and Sentiment: Social listening tools tracked brand mentions. They also checked if comments were positive or negative. This showed if people felt better about the brand after the campaign.
• Cost Per Engagement (CPE) / Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): To make the most of their budget, brands looked at these cost metrics. They helped them see if an influencer or campaign was worth the money.