79% Can’t Prove Influencer ROI, So Brands Are Going Always-On

Social media marketing in India spent years chasing spikes: sign creators for a launch, run a two-week burst, count views, repeat. That model hasn’t disappeared, but the question from marketing leaders is changing. Fewer ask how to go viral; more ask how to build content audiences return to.

The measurement problem

In Linqia’s 2026 State of Influencer Marketing report, 79% of more than 200 enterprise marketers said influencer ROI was hard to measure. Agency Charlie Oscar adds more texture: only 38% of brands judge influencer campaigns on ROI or return on ad spend, and just 26% use sales as their main KPI.

Many brands then judge the channel by its narrowest, most trackable slice—clicks and discount codes—and conclude it isn’t profitable. The real issue is attribution blindness, especially when sales happen across marketplaces, quick-commerce and offline stores at once.

Go Zero founder Kiran Shah shut the ice cream brand’s influencer budget after running about 30 collaborations at a time. His team couldn’t tell him what a paid reel from March had achieved. He said the inability to see his own spend broke it, not the money. “Not the money. The blindness.”

Over-briefed creators feel like ads

Measurement isn’t the only problem. Brands often pay for a creator’s believable relationship with their audience, then brief it out. Disclosure labels rarely tell followers anything they haven’t sensed: the sudden product shot, the discount code read mid-sketch. When briefs demand a logo on screen, a product name in three seconds and a word-for-word claim, the content begins to sound like a TV commercial filmed on a phone.

The shift to formats people return to

Audiences now follow channels the way they once followed TV. They return for a recurring segment, a familiar tone, a story that continues. That reliability—not a one-off viral moment—is the asset a brand can build and own.

This is always-on as editorial property, not daily posting to please the algorithm: a fixed format, a familiar host, a schedule people can count on. Think of it as social TV.

Microdramas are the clearest proof. Vertical episodes of one to two minutes, each ending on a cliffhanger, have built large audiences. A Meta-Ormax study found 89% of viewers discover microdramas on platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. ShareChat and Moj report users spend 40 to 60 minutes a day watching them.

Indian brands have begun moving in. Myntra, Ajio, Nykaa’s Wanderlust and Underneat have all released microdrama series. In fashion, beauty and innerwear, the product can sit naturally inside a story instead of interrupting it.

Measure the habit, not the campaign

Always-on content is brand building, so it needs different KPIs. A useful measurement stack has three layers:

• The habit: returning viewers, completion rates and series follow-through.
• The brand: branded search, share of search, aided and unaided recall.
• The business: sales trends in exposed markets or cohorts, read over quarters, not weeks.

Before launch, agree milestones with finance for 90 days, six months and a year. A long-term property is easier to defend when success was signed off before the first episode.

Five decisions for CMOs

Running always-on content looks more like running a small media company than buying media space. It comes down to five moves: start from what your audience already watches, pick one format and protect it, own the show and hire creators as hosts, write the brand into the story naturally, and fund it like a media property for at least two to three quarters. A sensible first step is moving 20 to 30% of the creator budget into one owned property, keeping the rest for bursts that amplify it.

Virality was a lottery ticket. A recurring show is a habit, and habits compound. The brands that win will be the ones audiences make time for every week.

Source: Afaqs!