You need more than a sales total to decide whether a creator campaign earned its cost. Codes can connect orders with creators, tagged links can describe visits, and cohorts can show what happens after the first purchase. Each answers a different question. Bring them together through clear definitions and an order level record. Your goal is a result you can explain and use, including the uncertainty, rather than a single impressive figure that hides discounts, returns, or duplicated attribution.
Define the return and cost before publishing
Choose a consistent basis for your calculation. For a practical campaign view, start with eligible merchandise revenue after discounts and refunds. Subtract product cost, variable fulfilment and payment costs, and other order costs you include in contribution. Then subtract campaign costs such as creator fees, samples, shipping, subscriptions allocated to the campaign, and marketplace charges. Record each cost once. If you have already deducted creator commission per order, do not deduct the same commission again as a campaign expense.
You can express campaign ROI as the contribution remaining after campaign costs divided by campaign costs. State the formula beside the result and use the same scope in both parts. A revenue divided by spend figure is a different measure and does not show profit after product costs. If the campaign cost denominator is zero, report the components instead of presenting a misleading ratio. Ask your finance team which costs belong in your decision model.
Set a reporting window and explain when results become final. An order placed after publication may be returned later, so an early report is provisional. If you want to include repeat purchases, define a separate follow up window rather than mixing them into the initial result without explanation. Keep the original campaign view available. You need to understand both immediate performance and later customer behavior to make a useful decision.
Use codes and tagged links for different evidence
Give each creator a unique code such as HER-NAME10 and record the offer attached to it. Test the code on your store platform and confirm where it appears in your order export. Decide how you handle codes shared outside the original content, orders using multiple offers, and returns. A code identifies the offer used at checkout. It does not establish that the person would have avoided buying without the creator's content.
Add consistent UTM parameters to each destination link. Use utm_source to identify the traffic source, utm_medium for the channel category, utm_campaign for the campaign, and utm_content to distinguish the creator or placement. Keep a naming register with consistent spelling and letter case. Avoid customer information in links. Test that the destination loads correctly and that your analytics records the visit under the intended labels, subject to your consent settings.
Expect code and link reports to disagree sometimes. A viewer may copy the code and visit later on another device. Another buyer may follow the tagged link but choose a different offer. Consent choices and missing visit history can limit the link record. Preserve both signals when available, but count the purchase once in your campaign total. Explain which rule assigns credit when signals point to different creators.
Build an order record you can reconcile
Create a campaign ledger with order identifier, purchase date, code, relevant attribution labels when available, eligible merchandise value, refund adjustments, and costs needed for contribution. Add a customer status field using a consistent definition of new and returning. Keep access limited to the people who need it and avoid copying personal details into reports when an internal identifier will do. Your store order record should be the reference for whether a purchase exists and what was refunded.
- Deduplicate purchases by order identifier before adding creator totals.
- Keep refunds and cancellations linked to the original order.
- Separate attributed orders, unassigned orders, and unresolved attribution conflicts.
Reconcile the ledger against your store totals for the same period and scope. Differences may come from taxes, shipping, cancelled orders, currencies, or refunds recorded on a later date. Investigate rather than adjusting the totals silently. If your campaign includes multiple currencies, use a documented conversion method. Keep a note of report dates and definitions so a later review can reproduce the calculation without relying on your memory.
Review exceptions before settling commission. A missing code, a conflicting link signal, or a partial refund may change the eligible amount under your agreement. Record the decision and its reason. Apply the rule consistently across creators, and provide a clear route for questions. Reporting and compensation do not have to use identical rules, but you should be explicit about any difference before the campaign begins.
Use cohorts without claiming more than they show
Group customers by their first purchase period and the creator attribution available at that purchase. Compare repeat purchases over the same elapsed time. An older cohort has had more opportunity to return, so comparing its lifetime revenue with a recent cohort can mislead you. Also consider differences in product mix, offers, and season. Show contribution after returns where possible, and keep the number of customers in view when interpreting a small group.
Cohorts help you ask whether acquired customers return and whether later contribution changes your view of the campaign. They do not prove that the creator caused those later orders. Your email tool, product experience, other marketing, and existing demand can all matter. Where practical, a carefully designed comparison group or staggered campaign can help assess incremental impact. Define that approach in advance and avoid treating a simple before and after sales change as causal proof.
End your review with an action tied to evidence. You might continue a creator whose eligible orders produce viable contribution, improve a page that receives interested visits, or revise an offer associated with frequent returns. Show what you know, what remains uncertain, and what the next test should resolve. A useful measurement process helps you allocate the next campaign budget more thoughtfully even when the current evidence is incomplete.
Connect creator code sales through Her
Her at her.promo helps brands selling to women find creators, assign individual promo codes, and see which code sold. Creators join free. Brands pay a subscription plus about fifteen percent marketplace commission on campaigns settled through the platform. Include the applicable subscription allocation and commission in your campaign costs, then use code sales alongside your order records and customer cohorts to assess the result.