The rise of influencer marketing resulted in social media and other personalities enjoying high demand as brand marketing partners. These influential content creators span a wide range of audience sizes and types, and marketers quickly took advantage of their promotional worth.
The burning question of the day for many marketers is how much does influencer marketing cost? Determining a fair price for a branded relationship may be challenging.
You must consider many variables, such as follower count, engagement rate, project scope, and production expenses. You must also justify the cost by calculating your ROI (return on investment).
Learn how to calculate influencer pricing and the ballpark costs associated with different types of posts. The knowledge can help you make critical decisions for your next influencer marketing campaign.
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing is a strategy using social media personalities to promote a product. It may involve giving items, sponsoring posts, or arranging ambassador partnerships.
There are four classifications of influencers by follower count:
- Nano influencers (1,000 to 10,000 followers)
- Micro-influencers (10,000–100,000 followers)
- Macro influencers (100,000–1 million followers)
- Mega influencers (over 1 million followers)
Influencer marketing is effective for two key reasons. First, influencers have high interaction and trust with their followers, especially nano and micro-influencers. If a micro-influencer recommends your product to their followers, they are more likely to trust the recommendation than if it were a traditional commercial.
Second, influencers have considerable sway over specific demographics, especially macro and mega influencers. Macro influencers have from 100,000 to one million followers, whereas mega influencers have more than one million. That's a lot of potential clients for your products.
However, when choosing influencers for your brand, you should not consider only follower count or engagement. You must ensure they fit the profile.
For example, it would make sense to team up with a makeup influencer if you sell beauty products. The partnership would seem less honest if you choose a tech blogger. Authenticity is critical in influencer marketing.
Different Types of Influencers
Most people associate influencers with social media personalities, but they also exist outside these platforms. There are millions of influencers worldwide, but most fall into a few broad categories. Below are a few of the most popular categories of influencers today:
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Bloggers and Vloggers
While bloggers and vloggers use different media (text and video), they have one thing in common: authority. Many influencers in these categories are experts in their field, so what they say carries a lot of weight.
Gaming streamers
Gaming streamers are people who play games live on YouTube or other video platforms. Most followers watch these videos quite intently, so it is an excellent opportunity to build brand awareness.
Beauty influencers
As the term implies, these personalities help people become more attractive by sharing beauty tips and tutorials. If you are in the beauty or related industry, these influencers can drive sales and brand awareness.
CGI influencers
To call them influencers is a bit of a stretch since these are not real people but virtual characters. However, they hold much sway over their followers so that brands can use them with the same effect.
Actors
Actors were influencers before there were influencers, so it is natural that their social media accounts get much attention. If you can get an actor to partner with your brand, it would be an excellent way to increase awareness.
Types of Influencer Partnerships
People generally trust suggestions from influencers more than traditional ads because influencers are real people. Their followers admire and want to be like them, so they use the same products. Collaboration with the right influencers may aid in the expansion of your brand and the development of sales.
Brands and opinion leaders have devised many strategies to leverage influencers. Let's dig into some of the most effective ones you can use for your influencer marketing campaign. Since each influencer is different, it might take trial and error to find the right ones for your campaign.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is performance-based marketing that rewards partners for generating traffic to their sites. Affiliates promote products by mentioning them on their site or post and redirecting their audience to a brand's website. Depending on the agreement, the affiliate receives compensation for each sale or referral they produce via this channel.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to use influencers because it motivates them to promote the product actively.
Sponsored Content
Sponsored content is the most common kind of influencer marketing campaign. Even if your content is outstanding, there is a big chance it will not get traction until influencers share it.
Sponsored posts work because marketers pay influencers to create promotional content for them. A brand should offer guidelines, expectations, or themes to influencers so that they understand what you want them to do.
Influencers are active on numerous social media platforms, blogs, and websites. Working with well-known and trustworthy influencers may help you consistently improve your brand image. In most cases, you pay an influencer for each post they create for you. Influencers may be found and approached directly or via influencer marketing agencies.
Brand Ambassador
Using influencers as brand ambassadors is an effective collaboration because they help you significantly extend your reach. As the face of the brand, influencers can help spread the word about your company and products.
An excellent strategy is sharing photos or video content showing their day-to-day experiences using your products. Brand ambassadors may also be asked to participate in company events and to arrange giveaways.
However, you must be careful when choosing your brand ambassador as it can backfire quite badly. Before you jump on the brand ambassador wagon, be sure your values align with your influencers.
Platform Takeovers
A platform takeover happens when you give a market influencer complete control over your company's account. They are most popular on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Essentially, you allow the influencer to publish anything they want whenever they want (within parameters that protect your brand, of course). When you host a platform takeover, you open yourself up to a whole new audience.
However, platform takeovers require a high degree of trust since you provide the influencer with complete access to your account. Fortunately, the Snapchat platform allows platform takeovers without account owners disclosing login credentials.
Product Seeding or Gifts
Gifting, also known as product seeding, is a kind of influencer marketing where the influencer gets free products if they promote them.
You can boost your marketing campaign if you get the right influencers to endorse your products. In most cases, influencers must disclose they have received complimentary products for review. The trick is to get a genuine and enthusiastic reaction from them.
Shoutouts
A shoutout is when someone mentions your brand on Instagram or other platforms to encourage others to visit your page. When an influencer gives a shoutout, the goal is to let their followers know they like the brand, product, or person. It might take the form of tagging or publishing user-generated content such as an image or video.
Giveaways
Giveaway campaigns are popular with influencers and brands because it's a win-win situation. People love freebies, so it is an opportunity for influencers to gain more followers. Brands benefit from increased awareness, reach, and goodwill of those that get free stuff. Those that do not get anything may still get interested enough to purchase the product.
Giveaways are an excellent method to increase your business's followers, shares, retweets, and comments. If an influencer's audience is equal to or bigger than yours, you can potentially get a better return on investment (ROI).
Factors That Impact Influencer Rates
Influencers are increasingly working full-time on brand partnerships. Influencers' power to demand higher fees for their services grows in direct proportion to the effectiveness of influencer marketing initiatives. But, as a marketer looking to optimize your money, how do you decide how much to pay social media influencers?
Although not set in stone, the cost of an influencer collaboration mostly depends on industry trends and the compensation model. We'll look at the most critical factors in determining how much an influencer will cost your campaign.
Social Media Platform
The social media platform selected for the campaign significantly impacts the cost. Each platform has its "market" price structure in social media.
Influencer post costs will vary for each platform and their following count. Newer platforms may also pay out less than established ones. Even if they have the same number of followers on both media, an Instagram influencer might charge more per post than a TikTok influencer. Influencer marketing is generally less common on Facebook and Twitter.
Influencer Reach
When calculating an influencer's reach, it's essential to consider the size of their following on social media platforms. The more followers or subscribers an influencer has, the higher the influencer post rates will be.
The number of individuals who view the content as a consequence of search results or recommendations is multiplied by the size of the influencer's audience (followers). A greater reach implies more possibilities for people to view the content and a higher chance of increasing brand awareness.
Follower Engagement
Engagement is a more significant metric of an influencer's ability to drive sales for your brand than reach. Influencer marketing campaigns are more successful for brands when the influencers' followers engage in the content they share on social media.
In addition, social media algorithms promote engagement as a critical factor in ranking posts. The more positive engagement a post receives, the more people will see it. In other words, a higher engagement rate means more reach.
Industry or Specialization
Your industry or specialization and the saturation of the influencer market in that sector will impact pricing. Look for an influencer who best represents your brand. Popular areas such as fashion and lifestyle will have more influencers available, possibly cutting the cost of social media posts.
Suppose a brand does not neatly fit into a well-known sector, such as beauty, fitness, or food. In such cases, they investigate which industries an influencer's audience favors and determine if it is advantageous to team up with that influencer for their marketing campaign.
Type of Content
When pricing influencer marketing, it is critical to consider the type of content you want an influencer to provide. Brands should be specific about the amount and kind of content they want.
If you expect a long-term commitment or a series of posts, this may increase the cost of an influencer. The more time, effort, and resources required to create your content, the more you will probably pay.
Influencer Demand
Seasonal social media campaigns like Christmas and Black Friday are when digital marketing swings into overdrive and costs a premium. Asking an Instagram influencer to promote your business at these times means paying a premium to compete with other companies.
Usage Rights
In influencer marketing, usage rights determine who owns the content and where you can use it. Location and duration are the two most essential variables in deciding usage rights. A brand or agency's usage rights will dictate which additional channels can use the content.
Usage rights often determine the price an influencer costs a brand. The greater the brand's desire to distribute the content, the higher the price tag. Both parties must agree upon the recommended criteria for creating content usage rights.
Exclusivity
Many brands would prefer to work exclusively with a specific influencer. However, exclusivity may be expensive because you prevent a creator from forming alternative brand relationships. That means they lose the opportunity of making money with other brands. It makes sense that creators will negotiate a higher fee to compensate for the money lost. The level of exclusivity you require will determine the premium you will pay.
Pro Tip: "Collaboration with influencers can help you stand out from other brands and attract audiences. Before hiring someone to represent your brand, ensure they are someone you can trust."
How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost?
Influencer marketing benefits businesses, so the costs continue to rise. However, that does not mean influencer marketing is out of reach for small businesses. The prices have a ridiculously wide range. Nano influencers may charge as little as $10 per post, while $1 M and up is not unheard of for celebrities.
If you're having problems with a budget for influencer marketing, don't fret. We put together some ballpark figures on what to pay an influencer based on the platform.
Influencer marketing is not particularly popular on Facebook. As a result, influencers on the platform tend to charge somewhat less than other platforms. Generally, the following are the price ranges based on the number of followers:
- Nano influencers $20-$250 per post
- Micro-influencers $250-$1,250 per post
- Mid-tier influencers $100-$1,000 per post
- Macro-influencers $12,500-$25,000 per post
- Mega influencers +25,000 per post
The beauty of Facebook influencer marketing is that it seems organic. Sponsored content blends in with the daily feed people see from friends and family. There is an easy transition into your audience feeds because of this.
Influencers disseminate their information and target demographics via many methods. While every digital marketing platform has potential, Instagram is particularly well-suited to influencer marketing.
Prices in this industry vary widely, and no standardized rate card exists. Rates depend on many factors like follower count and engagement rate. However, other criteria like skills or access to a specific audience or format may also have an effect.
A rule of thumb for the average cost for Instagram influencer marketing is $1,000 for 100,000 followers. Another way to put this is you pay $10 per 1,000 followers. The following is a breakdown according to the number of followers:
- Nano influencers $75–$250 per post
- Micro-influencers $250–$1,500 per post
- Mid-tier influencers $1,500–$2,000 per post
- Macro-influencers $2,000–$10,000 per post
- Mega influencers $10,000+ per post
Another approach is to look at the influencer's average post engagement. Engagement refers to a broad range of interactions like comments and likes with a post or content. Most people have more followers than engagement for each post. You'll often pay more for each engagement than for each follower.
The engagement rate on Instagram ranges from $0.25 to $0.75 per average post engagement. That translates to between $250 and $750 for every 1,000 engagements.
YouTube
The Influencer phenomenon first appeared on YouTube and other social media sites like Instagram and Facebook. YouTube influencers typically charge more than Instagram influencers because of the additional costs required to create a full YouTube video.
The medium was and still is an excellent way for people to share information and become well-known in many areas. But what is the cost of YouTube influencer marketing?
Thanks to the metrics given by YouTube, you can examine the influencer's average video views.
- Nano-influencers $50–$200 per video
- Micro-influencers $200–$2,000 per video
- Mid-tier influencers $2,000–$15,000 per video
- Macro-influencers $15,000–$40,000 per video
- Mega-influencers $40,000+ per video
Note that Not every subscriber will necessarily see all of an influencer's videos. Often, there are membership tiers that restrict the videos a subscriber can view.
Snapchat
A solid Snapchat following is difficult to cultivate. As a result, most people believe that Snapchat followers are the most engaged of any social media network.
Because Snapchat is a little trickier than Instagram and YouTube, it involves more influencer marketing cost factors. However, here are some data points that may be useful.
- Nano-influencers $500 per view
- Micro-influencers $1,000-$3,000 per view
- Mid-tier influencers $3,000-$5,000 per view
- Macro-influencers $5,000-$10,000 per view
- Mega-influencers $10,000-$30,000 per view
Snapchat does not divulge its follower count. Consequently, some companies focus on the number of views of a Snapchat story for their marketing goals.
Tiktok
Tiktok is becoming a key player in the Influencer marketing space. It is a significant threat to the dominance of Instagram and YouTube in video content sharing.
However, because TikTok is a relatively young player in the influencer market, determining how much influencers cost is difficult. Estimates have been made based on the TikTok influencers in this category.
- Nano-influencers $5-$25 per post
- Micro-influencers $25-$125 per post
- Mid-tier influencers $125-$1,250 per view
- Macro-influencers $1,250-$1,500per view
- Mega-influencers $2,500+ per view
When comparing TikTok influencer post pricing to YouTube influencer post pricing, we see that the former is far more affordable. Yet TikTok has better engagement, resulting from a competitive environment generating much creativity in the last few years.
Blog
Before social media was a thing, blog sites were the influencer marketing media. Before the coining of the term "influencer," you could buy a blog post from an influencer for $7.39 in 2006. Of course, like with all good things, this one gained popularity.
Facebook launched in 2004, and Instagram in 2010, but both took off for real as marketing platforms in 2012. With the establishment of social media marketing, the average cost of an influencer blog post rose sharply. It grew more than tenfold, from $35.72 in 2012 to $407.46 in 2014. In 2019, a sponsored blog article cost an average of $1,442.27.
Achieve Successful Community Marketing With Archive App
Influencer marketing costs in the age of social media vary based on various factors. These include the industry, social media platform, follower count, etc. The average prices illustrate what you should expect to pay for influencer marketing.
A clear grasp of influencer marketing costs can help you create your first campaign more quickly. However, costs are just one aspect of a marketing campaign.
To implement an effective strategy, you must know the community's pulse on your chosen platform. You can use Archive App to find out what Instagram users say about your business and inform your marketing strategy.
Archive App automatically searches, displays, and stores Instagram posts, Reels, and Stories about your brand. You can use this user-generated content to help you find the right influencer for your brand. Try it for free today!
Remember that you get back your influencer marketing costs if you choose wisely. Visit Archive to learn more about how to grow your business through community marketing!
FAQs on How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost
How much do influencers charge for marketing?
The price per post charged by influencers varies according to the number of followers, kind of post, and social media platform.
For every 1,000 subscribers, YouTube influencers often charge $20, or $2,000 for every 100,000. The going rate for Instagram influencers is $10 for every 1,000 followers, up to a maximum of $1,000 for every 100,000 followers. Influencers on Snapchat often charge between $.10 and $.35 per view, while those on Facebook typically charge $25 per post and 1,000 followers.
What are the benefits of influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing benefits new brands or companies struggling to gain traction on social media. Below are six key advantages of using influencer marketing:
- It builds credibility and trust
- Influencer marketing is focused and relevant
- Increases brand awareness and reach
- Improves engagement
- Cost-effective
- Fosters long-term partnerships
How do brands pay influencers?
The compensation that brands give influencers depends on the campaign or agreement. It can be in kind, such as giveaway campaigns, or referral fees, such as affiliate marketing. In some cases, brands pay influencers a fixed amount plus bonuses if they exceed the campaign's goals.