D2C brands urged to replace influencer sales attribution with brand-lift metrics

KlugKlug CEO argues Indian D2C brands should judge creator campaigns by branded-search lift, audience relevance and engagement depth—not raw views or direct sales alone—following a debate involving Go Zero founder Kiran Shah over influencer ROI.

— Source publishedFri, 18 Sept, 2026, 09:30 IST·First seen Fri, 18 Sept, 2026, 10:35 IST·Source ET Brand Equity

What happened

Go Zero · KlugKlug’s CEO argues Indian D2C brands should assess influencer campaigns through branded-search lift, audience relevance and engagement-depth

Key facts

  • India's influencer marketing industry is assessed at over ₹10,000 crore
  • Over-used creators' branded posts can receive less than 10% of the engagement of their regular content
  • Marketing cycles are described as recurring every five or six years

Why this matters

Look for creator-tech, social-listening and attribution partners that connect influencer exposure to branded search, audience quality and longer-term conversion.

What to watch

  • Growth in branded-search volume during and after creator bursts versus paid-search spend.
  • More D2C brands publishing incrementality or brand-lift case studies.
  • Agency contracts shifting from per-post fees to retainers, performance bonuses and usage-rights packages.
  • Platform rollout or adoption of creator brand-lift, search-lift and audience-quality measurement products.
  • Widening gap between creators with high views and those driving qualified site traffic, new-customer cohorts or repeat orders.
  • Run geo, cohort or audience holdout tests for major creator campaigns.
  • Set creator scorecards combining branded-search lift, qualified traffic, saves/comments, CAC, conversion assist and 60- to 90-day repeat purchase.
  • Separate creators into awareness, consideration and conversion roles with different KPIs and compensation structures.
  • Negotiate longer creator partnerships and content reuse rights rather than relying on one-off posts.
  • Require agencies and platforms to disclose methodology, baseline periods and incremental-versus-attributed results.

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