Your Metrics Are Mid. Use This Instead.
Introducing my Q² Framework: A better way to evaluate campaign performance without relying on vanity metrics.
CPMs are not strategy.
CTR is not performance.
And “the brand was happy” doesn’t mean the campaign worked.
Welcome to the era of actual analysis. This is your new post-campaign bible.
Most campaign recaps are built to protect egos and retain clients. They’re designed to highlight views, engagement, and sprinkle in a feel good anecdote about how “one creator got amazing DMs.” We avoid the tough conversations about underperforming formats, and we triple down on volume instead of insight.
And this is why most campaigns flatline by Q2.
The Q² Optimization Framework (Quantitative × Qualitative = Quality)
My Q² Framework is how we move away from vanity metrics and create campaigns that learn and adapt. It’s about looking at both the hard data and the soft signals to measure performance and storytelling. Because only by understanding both, can we actually know what’s working.
It’s simple… quantitative data shows us the hard results but the qualitative side tells us the story and how that data connects with your audience.
1. Quantitative: What the Numbers Say
These are the hard stats, but looked at through a performance lens.
Engagement Performance
We’re looking for the quality of engagement, instead of volume.
Are we seeing strong saves, shares, and comments, relative to follower count or platform averages?
You could have a post with 100K followers but only 2K views. If those 2K views include 500 saves and 300 shares, that tells us a lot more than just the number of views. Saves indicate that people want to come back to your content and that they see it as valuable and worth saving for later.
Shares and saves are higher quality engagement metrics than likes and comments alone. Prioritize these when evaluating performance.
Conversion Proxy
What are people doing after watching the content? Are they clicking on the affiliate link, visiting the website, or using a promo code? This is the real conversion indicator.
Let’s say an influencer’s post led to 100 clicks on a booking link or 500 affiliate code uses. Conversion proxies like these show that people took the action you wanted them to take. Metrics such as views, likes, or reach, don’t.
Conversion proxies tell you if your content is actually driving action.
Spend Efficiency
This is about return on investment. Are you getting the intended result for the money spent? Most people focus in of cost per view but you need to track cost per action.
A campaign with a low CPM might seem like a win, but if the conversion rate is poor, the actual ROI is not there. Low cost, low return isn’t a good deal.
Track CPA and evaluate whether you're actually achieving the goal within the budget.
Distribution Strategy
How are you distributing the content?
Did you boost the right content on the right platform, or did paid media cannibalize the organic performance?
Paid media should amplify the organic momentum.
If an organic post is performing well but you decide to boost a different post with paid media, does it lead to the same performance? If not, you need to evaluate whether your media strategy is optimized.
Align paid and organic content strategies. Don’t overspend on paid media if it’s not amplifying good organic content.
Quantitative Score: Each factor gets scored from 1–5.
Total Quantitative Score: /20
2. Qualitative: What the Content Communicated
This is where campaigns live or die. Beyond the numbers, it’s about the message you’re conveying and how it resonates with the audience.
Story Clarity
Was the content cohesive?
Did it explain why the product mattered in a way that felt authentic and aligned with the audience’s values?
A beauty influencer showcasing a skincare product should be sharing why it works for their skin, how it fits into their routine, and what difference it made. The product becomes part of their narrative.
Story clarity is the core of meaningful content. Make sure the creator integrates the product into their story.
Audience Resonance
Were the comments aligned with the message or was it all superficial praise? “So pretty!” and “Omg slay” are nice, but they don’t tell you much about message resonance. Most times, it’s from other influencers hyping up their own community.
Look for comments like:
“Wow, I didn’t know I should have been applying it every four hours, l’ll need to grab a mini for on the go.”
“I love how you mentioned X, it really resonated with my experience.”
These comments show that the audience is engaged with the content on a deeper level and indicating purchasing intent.
Audience resonance is key to building community trust. The deeper the interaction, the better.
Creator Fit
Did the creator actually feel like a trusted source for the product, or were they just reading the brief like a script? Authenticity is everything.
If a fitness influencer promotes a supplement but the tone of the ad feels robotic and disconnected from their usual content, you’ve lost the trust of their audience and you’ve just thrown away your campaign.
Choose creators who authentically connect with your product. The audience knows when it’s genuine.
Momentum Potential
Does the format have legs?
Can you take it further, iterating into a series or long term content?
If a creator creates an initial post about a product, can that format evolve into a long form video, YouTube tutorial, or story series? Or is it a one-off that has no future growth potential?
Look at the long term story telling potential of your campaign formats. If it works well once, it could work better next time with tweaks.
Qualitative Score: Each factor gets scored from 1–5.
Total Qualitative Score: /20
Q² Final Score: /40
Now you have a campaign score based on both performance and storytelling. You’re no longer guessing or relying on vanity metrics. You have a holistic view of what worked, what didn’t, and what you can improve for the next round.
Why Most Wrap Reports Miss the Point
Most campaign reports are superficial.
They summarize numbers but don’t reflect on what those numbers mean.
They hide behind averages, and doing this does nothing for optimization.
For example, "Overall CPM was $12.13." That’s fine, but it doesn’t answer the real questions:
Why did one creator’s CPM crush, while another tanked?
What about engagement? How did the comments relate to the message?
IMO the issue here is that scale is rewarded over substance. Just because the campaign hit a million views doesn’t mean it’s hitting the right people or telling the right story.
If you can’t explain why a campaign worked or didn’t work, you’re guessing and if you’re guessing, you’re not scaling effectively.
How to Use Q² on Your Next Campaign
Step 1: Pull platform and performance data for each creator.
Step 2: Watch the actual content (yes, all of it). Score both Quantitative and Qualitative out of 20.
Step 3: Look for patterns:
Are high qualitative creators under indexing in paid?
Are top quantitative performers flopping in comments?
Look at what worked. Look at what didn’t. Now you’ve got a roadmap for improvement.
My Q² Framework is the foundation of effective campaign evaluation. It’s a system that measures performance and storytelling. By focusing on both the hard data and the soft signals, you can create campaigns that actually work, learn, and adapt.
When you can score both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of a campaign, you’re building and scaling and most importantly, you’re delivering results.
Want to take it even further? I’m working on a worksheet in the coming weeks.
Paid subscribers get the Q² Worksheet, plus:
Creator analysis templates
Example wrap report slides
Swipe copy for breaking down poor performance without killing the client relationship.
J.