Influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience—especially on social media platforms. But influencer costs can vary widely based on your business goals, industry, platforms you’re targeting, posting frequency, and more. How can you find the right influencer for your brand without breaking the bank?
In this article, we’re going to share 8 factors that impact influencer rates, average influencer rates for the most popular social media platforms, the types of influencer partnerships you can get, and how to find an influencer that will work with you to take your brand to the next level.
8 Factors That Impact Influencer Rates
There are a number of factors that can impact how much an influencer charges for their services and it’s rare to find an influencer who charges a flat rate. Influencer marketing is a legitimate business and influencers set their rates based on what brands will pay. While our list doesn’t cover everything that goes into determining how much an influencer might charge, these are the things you can count on to have an impact:
- The influencers reach and engagement
- The channel they use
- How many posts you want and if they include things like images, videos, and audio
- How much effort it will require from the influencer
- Where the ad will be promoted/cross-posted
- Agency fees (if the influencer is with an influencer marketing agency)
Let’s take a closer look at these parameters and more so you can get a better idea of what it is you’re paying for.
1. Social Media Platform
Some influencers might charge the same rate for the same type of posts no matter the channel it will be used on, but it’s much more likely that the rates will vary. After all, each social media platform has a different audience type and creator resources vary, too, from platform to platform.
2. Influencer Reach
Reach is how many people the influencer has access to from their platform. This is largely based on how many followers or subscribers the influencer has and how many they have the potential to reach. More often than not, the more followers an influencer has, the higher their rates are going to be.
Influencers fall into certain categories based on their reach:
- Nano-influencers: 1,000–10,000 followers
- Micro-influencers: 10,000–50,000 followers
- Mid-tier influencers: 50,000–500,000 followers
- Macro-influencers: 500,000–1,000,000 followers
- Mega-influencers: 1,000,000+ followers
You might see variations of this breakdown (some marketers consider a micro-influencer to start at 1,000 and don’t label nano-influencers in this way).
3. Follower Engagement
You’ll find that influencer rates fluctuate based on how much engagement an influencer generates on their organic vs. sponsored content. You may think that influencers with more followers are going to get better engagement rates, but that’s not usually the case.
Look closely at how much an influencer’s audience really engages and interacts with their content. The more engaged their followers are, the better for your message.
4. Industry or Specialization
Obviously, you’ll want to find an influencer who specializes in the industry you’re in. Would you trust a fitness influencer who suddenly started talking about financial services, especially if they’ve never so much as hinted that finance was an interest of theirs before? Popular niches (beauty and fitness, for example) are going to have more influencers available and the pricing will likely be lower than niches with fewer available influencers.
You can also take a look at the industries favored by an influencer’s audience to make sure that it makes sense to hire them for your brand.
5. Type of Content
The type of content you’re asking an influencer to create will also have an impact on the pricing. This is because influencers will need to spend time, energy, and resources to create the content and different types of content require different things. This includes considerations like how much content the influencer will need to create and whether they or you will be providing the necessary resources. The more effort it takes to create the content you’re asking for, the more you can expect it to cost.
6. Influencer Demand
If you’re asking for a seasonal social media campaign, you can expect that it will come with a premium price tag. This is standard economics: high demand leads to higher rates. You can also run into this issue outside of seasonal campaigns if you’re interested in an influencer that’s particularly popular.
7. Usage Rights
If you plan to repurpose an influencer’s content, be sure to discuss that with them ahead of time and outline the terms in the influencer contract. Some influencers will charge more for content that’s going to be reused. Think of each use as an individual product—once you’ve used the product up by having the influencer post a video about your brand to their Instagram account, you have no product left to use in your Facebook ads.
8. Exclusivity
Influencers make their money by promoting different businesses. It’s possible that you might choose an influencer that your competitor wants to use, too. In this situation, you might want to ask the influencer to sign a non-compete agreement or exclusivity clause with their influencer contract that will prohibit them from promoting a competitor for a certain period of time. But, you’d better be prepared to pay. Quite a bit, too, since you’re essentially asking them to give up other potential income.
Influencer rates are influenced by factors such as social media platform, reach, engagement, industry specialization, content type, demand, usage rights, and exclusivity.
How Much do Influencers Earn Per Post?
As we’ve already mentioned, the amount influencers earn is dependent on quite a few factors. Here, we’re sharing the average influencer earnings per post based on the type of influencer and social media platform.
According to this source, the top 5 social media platforms for influencer marketing are:
- Instagram (93%)
- TikTok (68%)
- Facebook (68%)
- YouTube (48%)
- Twitter (32%)
We’ll take a look at the average payment on each of these platforms for influencers of each of the levels we outlined earlier.
Want to check out a specific Instagram influencer to see if you can afford to bring them on? Or maybe you are an Instagram influencer wanting to get a better idea of what to charge? Use our Instagram Influencer Earnings Calculator!
YouTube
Some YouTube influencers charge based on video views (charging $50–$100 per 1,000 views).
TikTok
TikTok is pretty new to the influencer game, so there’s no real neat and tidy way to determine how much influencers earn. After looking at TikTok influencers who fall into these categories, we’ve included estimates.
TikTok has many influencers who aren’t necessarily celebrities, but who still have tens of millions of followers. These influencers can earn upwards of $10,000 per post. If you have your eye on a specific TikTok influencer just plug their username into our TikTok Money Calculator to see how much they average per post.
Influencer earnings per post vary widely based on platform and influencer level, with top influencers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram earning significant sums.
Types of Influencer Partnerships
Now that we’ve talked a bit about influencer rates, you might be wondering what your influencer marketing dollars will get you. In this section, we’ll walk you through the types of influencer partnerships available. Keep in mind that every influencer is different, uses different platforms, and engages with their audience through different formats, so check with your desired influencer to see if the influencer partnership you’re looking for is something they do.
Shoutouts
A shoutout happens when you pay a user to promote your brand or product on social media. They can be with or without a visual like video, images, or GIFs and can be used for any call to action (typically more sales, more followers for your brand, or more traffic to your website). Paid shoutouts are a classic influencer marketing tactic.
Giveaways
Giveaways are another popular influencer marketing tactic. They’re short-term, usually generate lots of interest, and provide value to both you as a brand and the influencer. Giveaways occur when a brand provides the influencer something of value that the influencer can then offer to their followers through a giveaway or contest. The result is usually increased brand awareness and leads.
Platform Takeovers
Takeovers are most popular on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. This is when brands give an influencer access to their social media channel of choice. The influencer can then curate content for the brand and send their own followers to the brand’s account so they don’t miss what’s usually branded as “exclusive” content.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing has been around for ages, hasn’t it? It works just as you’d expect for influencer marketing: an influencer promotes a brand’s product and gets a commission based on sales through the influencer’s platform. This is a bit skewed in favor of brands since the influencer only gets paid for actual sales. Brands like using influencers for affiliate marketing because having pay tied to production like this tends to make influencers more effusive about your product.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is an influencer partnership you can leverage whether or not your brand has a lot of content ready to share. You can either create content for influencers to share or engage them to create and post content for your brand. Remember that it will cost you more if the influencer has to create the content, too.
Product Seeding or Gifts
Product seeding happens when brands send prominent influencers products and hope that the influencer will share something positive about it. While this partnership can work on nano-influencers or micro-influencers, influencers with larger followings are definitely going to expect brands to woo them a bit harder.
Brand Ambassador
The partnerships we mentioned above can be used for both short and long-term influencer partnerships. You may even get your chosen influencer to agree to discounted rates for a longer agreement. If you’re looking for a brand ambassador, however, you’re definitely looking for a long-term arrangement.
With these partnerships, influencers have probably been using your products for a while and are already excited about your brand. As a brand ambassador, influencers will consistently share videos, posts, images, and more about your brand and products for a lengthy period of time. Over time, they tend to become the “face” of your brand so choose your brand ambassadors wisely.
Influencer partnerships can range from shoutouts and giveaways to long-term brand ambassadorships, each offering unique benefits and engagement opportunities.
How to Find an Influencer You Can Afford
Finding the right influencer for your brand is a balancing act between what you can afford and their influencer rates. As such, it really helps to think about your budget before you start looking for influencers. If you don’t know how much you can spend, it’s going to be a lot harder to figure out if the influencer you like is going to fit in your budget as long as you need them.
There are a few things to consider as you’re setting up your budget, namely your influencer marketing goals and whether or not you’ll be using influencer marketing tools or an influencer marketing agency.
Influencer Marketing Goals
The amount you should budget for influencer marketing is largely dependent upon the goals you want to achieve with your influencer marketing campaigns and the tactics you’ll be using to get there. Some common goals are improving brand awareness, increasing social engagement, and making more sales. Once you’ve set goals and have a plan of attack you’ll be better equipped to identify influencers who can meet your needs within your budget.
Influencer Marketing Platforms
There are tons of influencer marketing platforms you can use to find influencers for your brand. There are even plenty of free influencer marketing tools that help brands find influencers based on filters and search parameters.
You can be even more specific and look for YouTube influencer platforms or TikTok influencer platforms.
Influencer Agencies
There are also several influencer marketing agencies that exist to connect influencers with brands who want to hire them, but that’s not where their services stop. These agencies will help brands create an influencer marketing strategy, execute that strategy, and manage their influencer marketing campaigns. Since they work so closely with influencers, they have a keen understanding of influencer rates and can help brands find a great influencer who is within the brand’s budget.
Finding an affordable influencer requires setting a clear budget, using marketing platforms or agencies, and understanding the cost implications of different partnership types.
What to Look for When Pricing an Influencer
As we mentioned earlier, influencer rates can vary pretty widely. To make sure that an influencer is requesting a fair rate, brands should look at:
- Influencer marketing ROI
- Previous campaign performance
- Standard influencer rates and rate cards
Influencer Marketing ROI
One of the best ways to determine if you’re paying the right amount for an influencer is by measuring your influencer marketing campaign ROI (return on investment). ROI is the percentage or dollar amount your brand gets back from your investment.
For example, if you invest $1,000 in your influencer marketing campaign and get back $7,000, that’s a good return. If you spend $1,000 and get back $2,000, you may decide that another marketing channel gets you a better return.
Influencer Results and Influencer Rate Cards
While being able to look at ROI is great for deciding whether to continue an influencer relationship, most of the time you’ll need to decide if you’re going to hire an influencer before you know what your ROI will be. In these cases, you’ll need to take a look at what your desired influencers have done for brands similar to yours.
We also encourage you to request influence rate cards from each influencer you contact. These cards will show the rates that each influencer charges. With these cards, you’ll be able to keep an eye out for patterns in influencer rates.
When pricing an influencer, consider their marketing ROI, past campaign performance, and rate cards to ensure fair and justified rates.
Wrapping Up
The average earnings we’ve included here will give you an idea of how much influencer marketing will cost you. But, it’s important to remember that costs vary depending on your industry, content needs, social media platform, reach, engagement, and more.
Ready to jump into influencer marketing? Check out this collection of the best influencer marketing agencies we’ve found to get started today!
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you determine your influencer campaign budget?
You need to decide whether you are comfortable paying on an affiliate basis, fixed payment, hourly rate, licensing deal, or a combination of above. Likewise, you can also do gifting as a form of payment.
What do you need before you contact a prospective influencer?
Before you contact a prospective influencer, you need to understand your business model and discuss what collaboration would best benefit your business.
What do you need before you contact a prospective influencer?
To understand your business model, you need to determine what success looks like. You need to determine the success for a project with a prospective influencer.
How do you determine your influencer campaign budget?
You need to decide whether you are comfortable paying on an affiliate basis, fixed payment, hourly rate, licensing deal, or a combination of above. Likewise, you can also do gifting as a form of payment.
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