What is a realistic ROI on a nano-influencer campaign?

The most defensible figure we know: €5.44 in revenue per euro invested, from Café Royal's seeding programme (archive.com sector analysis, 2025). More spectacular returns circulate in this market; they don't survive being checked, so we don't use them.

Even this figure comes with the question of what sits in the denominator. Product cost only, or also shipping, selection, briefing, follow-up and fee? Over what period was it measured — seeding keeps working for months — and which purchases were attributed to the campaign? One case with clear boundaries is usable. A sector-wide average is not.

What we advise a brand to do is the reverse sum. Don't calculate what you hope to get; calculate what you need to break even: number of athletes × product cost, plus fee and logistics, divided by your margin per sale. That tells you how many sales the campaign has to produce, and whether that's realistic given the reach you're buying. The sum is boring, and it's the only part you can check up front.

And count the content. Alongside sales, a squad produces dozens of usable assets you can licence for your own channels and ads. Leaving that out of the calculation understates the ROI by exactly what a photo shoot would have cost.