Influencer ROI calculator
Turn a creator fee and a funnel into revenue, ROAS, ROI, CPA, and the fee that breaks even.
Calculator
The form opens on the worked example below. Edit any field and the address bar keeps the scenario so you can share it. The calculation stays in your browser.
Results
- Clicks
- 800
- Buyers
- 32
- Revenue
- $1,440.00
- Gross profit
- $1,008.00
- ROAS
- 3.43×
- ROI
- 140%
- CPA
- $13.13
- Break-even creator fee
- $988.00
Views × click-through rate
Clicks × conversion rate × scenario
Buyers × order value × LTV
Revenue × gross margin
Revenue ÷ total cost
(Gross profit − cost) ÷ cost
Total cost ÷ buyers
Gross profit − gifting − usage rights
The maths runs in your browser. Total cost is the creator fee plus gifting plus usage rights: $420.00.
Worked example
A creator is paid $400. The seeded product costs $20. Usage rights are $0. The post gets 40,000 views, a 2% click-through rate, and a 4% conversion rate. Average order value is $45, gross margin is 70%, and the LTV multiplier is 1.
- Clicks = 40,000 × 0.02 = 800
- Buyers = 800 × 0.04 = 32
- Revenue = 32 × $45 × 1 = $1,440
- Gross profit = $1,440 × 0.70 = $1,008
- Total cost = $400 + $20 + $0 = $420
- ROAS = $1,440 ÷ $420 = 3.43×
- ROI = ($1,008 − $420) ÷ $420 = 140%
- CPA = $420 ÷ 32 = $13.13
- Break-even creator fee = $1,008 − $20 − $0 = $988
The same inputs at 0.75× conversion produce 24 buyers, $1,080 of revenue, $756 of gross profit, and 80% ROI. At 1.25× they produce 40 buyers, $1,800 of revenue, $1,260 of gross profit, and 200% ROI. The $400 fee is inside the break-even fee in all three cases.
Influencer ROI formula
Every output on this page uses the formulas below. Percent fields are entered as percents and stored as decimals, so 2% is 0.02.
- 1
Enter the costs
Enter the creator fee, the product and gifting cost, and any usage-rights cost in dollars.
- 2
Enter the funnel
Enter views, click-through rate, conversion rate, average order value, gross margin, and an optional LTV multiplier.
- 3
Read the return
Read clicks, buyers, revenue, ROAS, ROI, CPA, and the break-even creator fee. Switch the conversion rate to 0.75× or 1.25× to see a conservative or optimistic case.
clicks = views × CTR
buyers = clicks × conversion rate × scenario
revenue = buyers × AOV × LTV multiplier
gross profit = revenue × gross margin
total cost = creator fee + gifting + usage rights
ROAS = revenue ÷ total cost
ROI = (gross profit − total cost) ÷ total cost
CPA = total cost ÷ buyers
break-even creator fee = gross profit − gifting − usage rights
Scenario is 0.75, 1, or 1.25, and it multiplies the conversion rate. When total cost is $0, ROAS and ROI are left blank. When buyers are 0, CPA is left blank. The break-even fee can be negative when gifting and usage rights already exceed gross profit.
ROI vs ROAS
ROAS answers “how much revenue came back per dollar of cost?” ROI answers “how much gross profit came back per dollar of cost?” In the worked example the ROAS is 3.43× because $1,440 of revenue came from $420 of cost. The ROI is 140% because only $1,008 of that revenue is gross profit, and $1,008 is $588 more than the $420 cost.
A fee quote is a different question. The influencer rate calculator estimates what creators in a follower tier publish as a range. Attention has its own price: the earned media value calculator values impressions, engagements, and clicks, and that figure can be large on a campaign whose ROI is negative.
How to get real revenue numbers per creator
Replace the conversion rate in this model with sales you can tie to one creator. In Smler, each creator gets a ?ref=<handle> link. Clicks, sales, and revenue for that handle show on the Influencers leaderboard. The 400-day first-party cookie can still credit a purchase that happens weeks after the click. Connect Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, or Polar, or report the sale with the server-side sale API. Deferred deep linking is included, with 25,000 attributed installs free every month, and links never expire.
Track the sales this ROI depends on
Create a campaign, give each creator a ?ref= link, and read revenue per creator on the Influencers leaderboard.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate influencer marketing ROI?
Clicks equal views times the click-through rate. Buyers equal clicks times the conversion rate. Revenue equals buyers times average order value times the LTV multiplier. Gross profit equals revenue times gross margin. ROI equals (gross profit minus total cost) divided by total cost. Total cost is the creator fee plus gifting plus usage rights.
What is the difference between ROI and ROAS?
ROAS is revenue divided by total cost, so it tells you how many dollars of sales came back per dollar spent. ROI uses gross profit instead of revenue, so margin is already taken out. A 3× ROAS can still be a negative ROI when the gross margin is thin.
What is a break-even creator fee?
It is the creator fee at which gross profit equals total cost. The formula is gross profit minus gifting minus usage rights. Pay more than that and the campaign loses money on these assumptions. Pay less and it clears a profit.
Should gifting and usage rights be in the cost?
Yes. A free product still has a cost of goods and shipping, and a license to run the creator’s video as an ad is a separate cost. Leaving them out makes ROI look higher than the campaign was.
What do the 0.75× and 1.25× toggles change?
They multiply the conversion rate only. Views, click-through rate, order value, margin, and costs stay as you entered them. Conservative is 0.75× buyers. Optimistic is 1.25× buyers.
Where do the revenue numbers come from?
This page is a planning model. For a real campaign, give each creator a ?ref= link, then read clicks, sales, and revenue on the Influencers leaderboard. A 400-day first-party cookie can still credit a purchase weeks later. Connect Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe, or Polar, or send the sale with the server-side sale API.