AUTHOR: JAKE SCHOFIELD
Social Media Coordinator
We’ve trawled through countless blogs that break down traditional influencer marketing metrics, but (as is often the case) the gaming equivalents have not received the same coverage.
To fill this void, we have collected and collated the most vital statistics you’ll need to draw upon to measure the success of a gaming influencer. Some of this is a tad mindboggling, so we’ve done our best to break these metrics down into a Lehman’s terms crash course.
Let’s take a look at how the world of video game streaming diverges from more traditional influencer measurements!
1. choosing the right gaming influencer
When locking in the ideal influencer for a gaming campaign, these are the key metrics to dig into before deciding whether or not they’re a right fit for your brand.
Streaming differs from traditional social media platforms in the sense that gaming influencers broadcast live and across varying periods of time. This means a basic total view count won’t suffice to gauge a streamer’s efficacy – longer streams tend to guarantee more overall viewers.
For this reason, you should wrap your head around these time relative metrics.
Average Concurrent Viewers (AVC) – this is your GO-TO engagement metric for streaming. Whether the stream was 6 hours long or 20 minutes, this metrics tells you how many people on average were watching live at any one time.
With this, you can even work out how long the average viewer watched the stream (or ‘how engaged audiences were’) which we detail further below.
Peak views – indicate the most engaged moments of a broadcast. This metric can reflect the optimal moment of a stream that draws in audiences – a great indicator especially when incorporating with other social marketing techniques.
Unique Chatters – in basic terms, it’s a real-time comments section. But in reality, it’s a community. We see this as a measure of connection between not only the streamer and the audience, but also between audience members themselves. Like peak views it indicates engagement, but also provides instant valuable qualitative feedback.
Follower Demographics – what good is engagement if your audiences aren’t aligned? Gaming already makes your job finding the right audience a little easier – each game already has a personalised audience. For example, genres such as sports, mobile and First-Person shooter all carry vastly different demographics and age ratings.
You can use this knowledge as a springboard to establish a range of aligned gaming influencers. Better yet, from there bringing multiple influencers together is easy – gaming audiences love collaboration!
2. brand awareness
Engagement is great, but let’s talk business.
How many people saw my brand?
Well, here’s the quick breakdown of understanding awareness metrics when it comes to streaming:
Total Views – this is your ‘impressions’ in the streaming world. For those that don’t understand what that means, it is basically the total number of times the stream was watched.
Unique Viewers – a.k.a. ‘reach’. Different to total views, as the same viewers can come back and watch the stream multiple times. This removes that variable.
Follower Growth (%) – perhaps no difference from typical social channels, but important nonetheless to track during a campaign. A noticeable increase in followers but with low engagement might indicate that audiences aren’t resonating with your content.
Brand Name – As well as on traditional socials, brand name mentions can be gathered from the live chat function of the stream. You can track how many times your brand was mentioned and the context it was mentioned.
Brand Emotes – you can create your own branded emotes for your chat – and can even tier them based on how active audience members are. Talk about brand interaction! Oh, and you can track how many times each one is used.
3. Data. Backed. engagement.
Time to get analytical.
Don’t be put off – once you get to grips with these you’ll be a master of gaming influencer KPIs – a title you’ve always dreamed of I’m sure. Let’s get to it.
By combining the metrics mentioned above, you can extract a wealth of info about a streamer’s audience, and specifically how engaged they actually are.
Followers/Hours Streamed – ‘who is growing the most efficiently?’ You want to know who’s trending – and that’s not the person gaining 3 followers after 60 hours of streaming. BUT, be sure to keep tabs on that streamer because hard work pays off.
AVC/Followers (%) – the undisputed engagement metric. Loads of followers but very few turn up to watch a stream? Not a good sign.
A high % indicates a very active and niche community – and should be considered a strong indicator of influence. This can help to underscore the devoted audiences which micro-influencers often boast and should be taken into account.
In Game Voting Systems – placing power in the hands of the audience.
Video games streaming offers a unique mode of interaction, giving viewers an opportunity to adjust the content as they see fit. Audience votes may decide as which game mode to play next and who with.
Streamers often dish out prizes to their audience for added incentive, perhaps even getting a winner to join in as a player at an event.
Click Through Rate – promoted content mid-stream is another simple way to lead audiences to your brand site. As a bonus, impressions are easily trackable this way.
Referral Traffic – as streamers engage viewers from all across the webspace, you may be asking which corner of the internet they’ve arrived from.
Using referral traffic you can track how many views you have gained from each influencer and from which platform or website you’ve stolen them from.
combination of new and old
Using gaming influencers combines the impact gaming influencers can have with traditional influencer marketing, as gaming influencers will all have an established presence on other social media platforms other than Twitch. Favourites include Twitter, YouTube and Discord. Therefore, you are building your presence across multiple social media touchpoints. Gaming influencers represent an extension of typical influencer marketing, often boasting a more engaged audience and providing more hours of content.
We at BADASS specialise in identifying the right influencers to be a part of holistic, interactive and authentic gaming experiences that will allow your brand to resonate with gaming audiences for years to come. Head over to our main site to see how you can get involved with the BADASS team.