How to Measure Influencer Campaign Results: Discount Codes, UTM and Sales Step by Step

A brand pays a creator, the content goes live, and a week later nobody can say how many sales it brought. Usually not because it can't be done, but because tracking gets set up after the post, when it is already too late. Below is the setup you do before launch: a discount code, a UTM link, a Google Analytics report and one spreadsheet where it all comes together.

Goal first, tools second

Measurement starts with one sentence written down before launch: what counts as a result and where we will see it. For an online shop that is usually a paid order in the shop panel, for a service a booking, for an app a new account. What a conversion is and why you set it upfront is explained in our glossary: conversion. This text assumes the goal is already chosen and shows how to set up tracking technically, so that after the campaign you have numbers, not impressions.

You need to prepare three things:

• a discount code for each creator,
• a link with UTM parameters for each creator and format,
• a spreadsheet where orders, clicks and cost meet after the campaign.

All three go into the brief, so the creator gets a ready code and link instead of inventing their own. How to build such a brief is described in How to write a brief for a creator.

Which trace catches what

No single tool sees all the sales from a campaign. That is why you combine at least two.

Trace	What it shows	What it misses	Where to read it
Discount code	Orders where the customer entered the code	Purchases without the code, e.g. a few days later from another device	Shop panel, discount report
UTM link	Visits from the creator's link and what happened after them	People who didn't click but typed the brand name into a search engine	Google Analytics, Traffic acquisition report
Dedicated landing page	All traffic from one collaboration in one place	Same as UTM if someone lands on the home page	Site analytics
“How did you hear about us?” question	Some purchases missed by both code and link	Imprecise, depends on the customer's memory	Order form

The minimum for every collaboration is code plus UTM. A dedicated landing page makes sense for bigger campaigns, and the checkout question only needs to be added once, permanently.

Step 1: a discount code you can count

In popular shop platforms a code takes a few minutes to set up. Shopify, for example, lets you create codes for a fixed amount, a percentage, “buy X get Y” or free shipping. To make a code useful for measurement, not just for sales, set it up like this:

• One code per creator. A shared code for all creators shows total sales but won't tell you who brought them.
• A name the creator can say easily. A first name or profile name plus a number, e.g. ANIA15. People mistype codes that have to be spelled out.
• An expiry date. A code without an end keeps working for years and mixes this campaign's results with later ones.
• One use per customer. It protects your margin and doesn't inflate the number of “new” orders.
• Rules for combining with other promotions. Decide upfront whether the creator's code stacks with a sale. Otherwise some customers take the cheaper route and the creator's code disappears from the order.

Record in the spreadsheet which code belongs to which creator and when it starts. After the campaign, an export from the discount panel gives you a list of orders with numbers, values and dates.

Step 2: UTM links under one naming convention

UTM is a set of parameters added to a page address. When someone clicks such a link, Google Analytics records where they came from and shows it in the Traffic acquisition report. Google Analytics Help recommends always using three parameters: utm_source, utm_medium and utm_campaign. The fourth, utm_content, is meant to tell creatives apart, and that is exactly what makes it useful for telling creators apart.

A convention that works for creator collaborations:

Parameter	What to enter	Example
utm_source	The platform the creator posts on	instagram, tiktok, youtube
utm_medium	The channel, the same for all collaborations	influencer
utm_campaign	The campaign name, identical everywhere	autumn2026_serum
utm_content	Creator and format	ania_story, ania_reel

A finished link looks like this:
yourshop.com/serum?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=influencer&utm_campaign=autumn2026_serum&utm_content=ania_story

Three rules that save the most work when reporting:

1. Lowercase only. Google Analytics is case-sensitive, so SpringSale and Spring_Sale are two different campaigns to it.
2. One source value per platform. Don't mix ig, insta and instagram in one campaign.
3. The brand builds the link, not the creator. The official Google Campaign URL Builder makes it easy, and all links live in one table.

A long address with parameters can be shortened with any link shortener. Before sending, click the short link and check that the UTM parameters are still in the address.

Step 3: where to find results in Google Analytics

UTM data shows up in the Traffic acquisition report: campaign name, source and medium appear next to sessions and key events such as purchases. There are two things to know before you show these numbers to anyone else. Both are described in Google Analytics Help on attribution.

• Attribution model. Google Analytics offers data-driven attribution and last-click models. The same campaign can show a different number of purchases depending on the model, so always state in the report which one was set.
• Direct visits don't count. Attribution models ignore direct traffic unless the whole path consisted only of direct visits. Someone who saw the content and then typed the shop address by hand won't be credited to the creator.

With data-driven attribution, conversions can be reattributed up to 7 days after they occur. In practice, close the campaign report only once the numbers stop changing, not the day after the post.

Step 4: a spreadsheet that joins code, link and cost

The shop panel and analytics show two different lists. The result only appears once you join them. A simple sheet with one row per order is enough:

Column	Source
Order number	Shop panel / Google Analytics
Date	Shop panel
Net value	Shop panel
Discount code	Discount report
utm_content	Google Analytics
Attributed creator	Code or UTM (if both, count once)

Next to it, a second sheet with one row per creator: cost (fee, product value, shipping, usage rights), number of orders, order value and cost per order. These columns also give you return on investment, as long as you account for margin and returns. How to do that honestly is described on our ROI page, and planning amounts before a campaign on the campaign budget page.

How to read the result honestly

Compare with the period before the campaign. Sales on the day of the post say little if you don't know how much you sell on a normal day. Note the average from a few weeks before launch.

Look beyond code orders. Some people will buy later without the code, and some will type the brand name into a search engine. A rise in branded search and direct traffic in the days after the post signals that the campaign worked more broadly than the code shows. Don't force-attribute those sales to a specific creator, though.

Separate the content from the page. If the link gets many clicks but almost no orders, the problem is usually the offer or the landing page, not the creator. More on this on the CTR page.

Don't judge by a single post. One piece of content is a test. Conclusions about a creator come after several collaborations or after comparing several creators in the same campaign. Why reach alone doesn't guarantee sales is covered in Big influencer, zero sales.

Example: a cosmetics shop and three creators

The numbers in this example are illustrative and only serve to show the method.

A shop sells a serum and orders three Instagram stories in the same week. Each creator gets her own code and her own link:

Creator	Code	utm_content
Ania	ANIA15	ania_story
Kasia	KASIA15	kasia_story
Ola	OLA15	ola_story

After the report is closed, the sheet shows:

Creator	Cost	Orders (code or UTM, no duplicates)	Cost per order
Ania	PLN 1,200	30	PLN 40
Kasia	PLN 800	8	PLN 100
Ola	PLN 600	20	PLN 30

The cheapest collaboration wasn't the weakest, and the most expensive wasn't the best. Ola has the lowest cost per order, so she is the one to work with again or to buy rights from so her content can run in paid ads. With Kasia, check whether the problem is the content or that her audience bought from another device without the code. How to plan the video itself so it is easier to measure later is shown in UGC video script.

The most common measurement mistakes

• One shared code for all creators. You know how much the campaign sold, but not who sold it.
• The creator builds the link. Instagram, IG and insta appear, and the report splits into several rows.
• Linking to the home page instead of the product. Some people won't find the product and leave.
• No record of cost. Without product value, shipping and usage rights, cost per order comes out too low.
• Double counting. The same order with a code and a UTM counted twice.
• Reporting the next day. Conversions are still coming in and can be reattributed.
• A code without an expiry date. Campaign results mix with the following months.

A discount code is not an ad disclosure

According to the recommendations of the President of UOKiK (September 2022), a discount code or a commission on sales from a link is one of the forms of material benefit that make content commercial. Such content must be labelled as an ad and name the brand. UOKiK gives an example of a story in which the creator gave only a discount code and did not describe the advertising nature of the content. That labelling was found insufficient. So put both the code and the disclosure method into the brief. Details on the ad disclosure page.

How it works on Blogger Bank

On Blogger Bank a brand publishes a task: format, deadline and amount or barter. The discount code, UTM link and disclosure method can go straight into the task description, so every selected creator receives them together with the task. Agreements stay in the chat attached to the task. Before content approval, check that the post contains the right code and a working link.

Payment is secured: the creator gets paid after approval. The commission is 5% on the brand side and 5% on the creator side. Create an account and publish your first task with a ready code and link, or see how Blogger Bank works for brands.