5 Mistakes Brands Make in Influencer Campaigns & ( How to Avoid Them )

Running influencer campaigns shouldn't feel like rolling the dice, but for a lot of brands, that's exactly what it is. They send a few products out, maybe get some posts, and then wait around hoping something goes viral. What happens next? Confusion, ghosted creators, and a lack of any real performance metrics. Not because influencer marketing doesn’t work—but because it wasn’t set up to work in the first place.

Here are five of the most common mistakes brands make with influencer campaigns, and how to avoid each one.

Need the full playbook on how to build an influencer program that scales ? Check out our full guide here

Mistake 1 : Choosing Creators Based on Vibes, Not Value

This is the classic one. A brand picks a creator because they “look cool” or have a big audience, but never actually checks :

• Who that audience is
• How they engage
• Whether the creator has driven results before

What to do instead :

• Look at the creator’s engagement rate, not just follower count
• Check their content style and how they talk about brands
• Use performance data where available (Growi provides GMV and conversion insights across past campaigns)

Creators are not interchangeable. One might be a great fit for your brand’s tone and audience—another might do nothing for you. Choose based on alignment, not just aesthetics.

Mistake 2 : Running a Campaign Without Clear Goals

“We just want to get some content out there.”

This line should set off alarms. Without a clear goal, you can’t measure success—and if you can’t measure success, you can’t optimize or scale.

Every campaign should start with a single primary objective :

• Drive sales (GMV)
• Generate UGC to reuse in ads or product pages
• Launch a new product with buzz
• Get traffic to a landing page

Once you know the goal, your campaign structure, creator brief, and measurement framework fall into place.

We cover how to set campaign goals and structure them correctly in our full influencer strategy guide.

Mistake 3 : Paying Everyone the Same (Regardless of Value)

Not all creators bring the same value—and your payout structure shouldn’t treat them like they do.

Brands often make one of two mistakes :

• Overpaying creators who don’t drive conversions
• Under-incentivizing high-performers, who then bounce to a competitor

A better way :

• Offer a hybrid deal: a small base + a performance bonus
• Use tiered payouts: e.g., $250 base + $500 bonus if they drive $10k GMV
• Structure retainers for top performers who consistently deliver

Growi lets you build custom payment models with automated tracking, so you’re paying based on actual outcomes—not guesswork.

Mistake 4 : Treating It Like a One-Off Instead of a Program

You ran a one-off campaign. It worked. Now what ? Most brands stop here and go back to paid ads or email. But the real value in influencer marketing is compounding—running consistent campaigns, improving them over time, and building a network of high-performing creators.

Think long-term :

• Track which creators perform best and re-engage them
• Build a calendar of launches, drops, or seasonal promos tied to creator content
• Create repeatable briefs so setup time shrinks as you scale

In Growi, you can tag creators by performance, manage all campaign timelines, and clone successful campaigns for the next wave.

Mistake 5 : Measuring the Wrong Things

This is where most campaigns quietly fail. If you’re measuring likes and comments, you’re not measuring performance.

What you should actually track :

• Click-through rate (CTR) : Did the content drive traffic ?
• GMV or revenue: Did it convert ?
• ROAS : What’s the return on what you paid ?
• Time to post : Are creators reliable partners ?

These are metrics you can act on. They help you double down on high-performers and cut what isn’t working—just like any performance channel. Platforms like Growi make this easy with real-time dashboards and post-by-post attribution.

TL;DR — How to Avoid These Mistakes

• Choose creators based on fit and performance, not just vibes
• Set a clear, single objective for every campaign
• Pay based on results, not flat rates across the board
• Think systems, not one-offs
• Measure what actually matters—revenue, ROAS, CTR

Influencer marketing works, but only when you treat it like a real growth channel. These five mistakes are avoidable—and fixing them puts you way ahead of most brands in your space.

Want to go deeper? Read our full guide to influencer marketing for brands