How do you translate influencer strategy into executive-level KPIs?

Stop bringing engagement rate to the board. Translate it into revenue, acquisition cost and pipeline, the numbers leadership already lives by.

The gap is language. Engagement rate is an operating metric, not a board metric. Executives track revenue, customer acquisition cost, pipeline and retention, so your job is to connect influencer activity to those, not to defend likes.

Build a funnel they can read in one glance: reach at the top, then engagement and clicks as leading indicators, then conversions, new customers and the cost to acquire them at the bottom. Engagement still appears but framed as the early signal that predicts the revenue line rather than as the result itself.

Then benchmark against the channels they already fund. If your influencer customer acquisition cost beats paid social, say so in those words. A board approves more budget when the metric on the slide is one they were already using to judge every other channel.