As social media ad spend continues to rise (up 40% this year), brands are leveraging every avenue available to connect with consumers. But how can you ensure that you reach them at the right time with the right message?Influence.This social explosion has resulted in countless personas not only rising to superstardom, but gaining loyal followings that hang on their every word. Personalities shine through with their unique content. And more recently, brands have found overwhelming advertising success with influence marketing. Unfortunately, it’s not all roses and rainbows. There are countless things that go into powering these campaigns -- brand affinity, level of influence, transparency, KPIs -- which can get a little overwhelming on the brand and agency level.This is why WHOSAY is giving brands and agencies free access to its Match Platform, in an effort to help streamline and optimize influence marketing campaigns. The proprietary platform was built using data from more than 100 brands, 300 campaigns, thousands of influential people, and can uncover the perfect influencer (of any level) for any campaign.There are several key aspects that must be considered when powering a campaign, all of which are incorporated into the Match Platform:Brand Affinity Even if you’re addicted to Oreos, there’s a chance you don’t publicly display your affection by following the brand on social media. Luckily for modern marketers, affinities for brands cluster in pockets. Use data combined with intelligence to discover which influencer’s followers have an affinity for your product (this is why we developed an affinity score along with other need-to-know influencer metrics).KPIsThe cries and claims that influencer marketing can’t be measured back to ROI is B.S. There, I said it. An influencer content is a type of media, and therefore metrics such as eCPM, eCPV, eCPC or others including engagement, sentiment and installs are all possible. The best part about these metrics? They allow marketers to optimize their campaigns.Levels of InfluenceWe boiled down the available public and our proprietary metrics into usable insights. At WHOSAY we categorize public figures into four categories-- “celebrities” like Sofia Vergara, “influencers” like Baddie Winkle, “trail blazers” like Stephen Curry (up-and-comers) and “micro-influencers" like Theo the French Bulldog (killing it in their niches). Being open to using a mix from every level of influence in your campaign allows a marketer to maximize campaigns’ reach and engagement.But beware: We found that only 10% of influencers available are professional, manageable, brand-safe and creative. Luckily for you the talent in Match has been vetted by our talent. Influencers are regularly added and removed.TransparencyTotal transparency is a baseline requirement for any marketing initiative -- and this doesn’t just mean clean data. It means that talent networks and platforms shouldn’t push you on a specific talent due to some hidden agenda, which is often the case when companies “represent” talent. We’re talent-agnostic for this reason and instead brand focused -- any influencer may work with your brand, and we emphasise that it must be a match that makes sense for the brand first.Control the MessageGreat, a Kardashian has agreed to post your product on Instagram. Contrary to popular belief, this is just step one. Don’t pop bottles just yet. Control the post yourself to avoid a brand-safety disaster. The talent should work with you, often handing over their social handles so the brand can manage the campaign on their behalf.Befriend influencers with a little help from data and brand affinity. While you’re working with a media type that can walk and talk, you still have the same level of control and metrics that you would with TV, mid-roll, out-of-home, you-name-it. Download the Match Platform to find your perfect influence partner and start seeing unparalleled results.