Breaking Down Influencer Marketing Costs

It’s no secret that influencer marketing is attracting more and more of the share of advertising dollars. Working with influencers and creators can help brands of any size reach highly targeted and engaged audiences.

But despite its popularity, there is often some mystery surrounding influencer marketing costs.

There is a lot of information out there regarding how much influencers are getting paid by brands. Some of it is accurate, while much of it is also wildly inaccurate.

The truth is that influencer marketing costs can vary across a wide spectrum depending on the influencers involved and the campaign type.

To help demystify the cost of influencer marketing, we’ll break down the typical costs for campaigns and what brands should expect as a return when the campaign is successful.

Understanding Influencer Marketing Costs

When it comes to sponsoring influencer posts on various platforms, there is no standardized rate like there is with some other forms of paid advertising.

This means that when investigating prices, there will be a range for influencers from each category.

Marketers segment influencers into five categories so it’s important to understand these first before diving into the costs of sponsoring posts.

• Nano influencers – 1K – 10K followers
• Micro influencers – 10k – 100k followers
• Mid-tier influencers – 100k – 500K followers
• Macro influencers – 500k – 1 million followers
• Mega or VIP influencers –  1 million+ followers

The prices per post can vary within each category due to the following factors.

Is The Influencer Represented By A Management Company?

If an influencer works directly with brands, that may result in lower costs since there is no management company that takes a percentage for their services.

Just be aware that many influencers today work with management companies so you’ll be dealing with them when securing partnerships and negotiating pricing.

Management companies will generally earn 10% to 20% from the influencer’s earnings which may impact what they choose to charge.

Influencers Metrics

The influencer’s engagement and other metrics will often impact how they much charge. Influencers with better metrics will generally charge more than influencers with less stellar metrics.

As a marketer, you should always consider the influencer’s complete metrics instead of just looking at the total follower count. Engagement rates can range from just below 1% to over 8% on social media. Such a wide range can significantly impact your ROI for the campaign.

So even though a certain influencer may seem to be charging a higher price than average, their engagement may be several times higher than other influencers with similar follower counts.

With smaller influencers, this often provides a way to find exceptional value. Smaller influencers will usually have better engagement metrics, so your ROI on these campaigns can be higher despite the lower overall reach.

Type of Content Being Sponsored 

Depending on your campaign type, the cost of sponsoring a post may vary. Most of the rates you see are based on a typical sponsored post where either a product is mentioned or there is a script read by the influencer at some point.

More involved content such as tutorials, reviews, unboxing, or account takeovers will charge higher rates in many cases.

Another aspect to consider is the specific type of content on the platform. With Instagram, Stories and Reels may have different pricing depending on the influencer.

Also, if content is only up for a limited time, that generally reduces the rate charged across all platforms.

Platform

The platform an influencer is on will also play into the rate for sponsored content. Some platforms are just generally higher in price and this is related to metrics specific to that platform.

For example, YouTube will often have higher rates than TikTok due to the engagement and long-form videos that are most common on the platform. Both of those attributes are worth more to marketers for certain messaging, so influencer pricing tends to be higher.

Instagram and TikTok often have comparable rates in most cases due to the similarity of the content and engagement. Although in some cases TikTok can have slightly higher engagement metrics for some niches. But overall, influencers on both TikTok and Instagram can cost 20% or less than a comparable YouTube influencer. 

Rounding out the bottom of the platform pricing tier is Twitter and Snapchat. Snapchat has declined in popularity but it still has a dedicated user base and is often priced lower when it comes to sponsorship opportunities.

Snapchat has far fewer niche opportunities, which makes it less useful overall as a platform for influencer marketing.

A Real World Example

Like many partnerships in business, specifics aren’t readily available as both parties tend to keep these things private. Influencers don’t like to divulge their rates as that can make it difficult to adjust pricing in the future.

But several influencers have recently spoken publicly about their brand partnerships and that helps give you some insight into the real-world costs of influencer marketing.

Former collegiate champion gymnast Gracie Kramer manages successful social media profiles on both Instagram and TikTok. She posts vlog content showing her daily workouts and other fitness/lifestyle content.

In a recent interview with Refinery29 that was published on YouTube, Kramer stated that she earns approximately $3K to $5K per post as a brand influencer.

For reference, her Instagram account has 425K followers and her TikTok account has 750K followers.

Average Influencer Marketing Costs Per Platform

In this section, we’ll break down the average cost per sponsored post on each of the major social media platforms. Just remember that these are the average price ranges and each influencer or their management company sets their own prices. 

Instagram

Instagram is in the middle when it comes to influencer marketing costs. Creators can charge anywhere from $200 to over $45,000 per post. 

Instagram is also becoming more versatile with longer video format options as well as Reel and Story options for different Instagram influencer campaign uses.

Instagram influencer costs:

• Nano influencer: $200 – $1000
• Micro influencer: $1000 – $3000
• Mid-tier influencer: $3000 – $5000
• Macro influencer: $5000 – $15000
• Mega/VIP influencer: $15000 – $45000+

One trend you may notice with the costs shown above is the range increases as the audience size increases. This is because the metrics become much more varied as follower counts and subscribers go up.

An influencer with 1 million followers who makes general content will be far less valuable than an influencer who has 1 million followers and only creates makeup tutorials or some other similar niche.

There is less variance in metrics with smaller influencers as they tend to create a similar level of targeted content with similar metrics.

TikTok

TikTok is similar to Instagram and tends to have slightly higher engagement numbers on average than Instagram. However, there are fewer content options so TikTok works with a more limited set of campaign types.

TikTok influencer costs:

• Nano influencer: $200 – $1000
• Micro influencer: $1000 – $3000
• Mid-tier influencer: $3000 – $5000
• Macro influencer: $5000 – $15000
• Mega/VIP influencer: $15000 – $45000+

YouTube

YouTube is the most expensive of the social media platforms simply because it’s the most similar to traditional television with its long-form programming. 

Television has always been the most expensive marketing channel and YouTube follows in the same way.

YouTube also allows for virtually any campaign type from simple product mentions to hour-long tutorials or reviews. There is also very high engagement on the platform due to the longer format of the content.

YouTube influencer costs:

• Nano influencer: $500 – $2000
• Micro influencer: $2000 – $6000
• Mid-tier influencer: $6000 – $10000
• Macro influencer: $10000 – $25000
• Mega/VIP influencer: $25000 – $45000+

Twitter

Twitter is at the lower end of the price spectrum when it comes to sponsored posts. This is due to the format not being entirely conducive to the most popular campaign types.

However, the platform is strong with financial and investment-related content, so certain niche brands can find success on Twitter at a relative bargain compared to other platforms.

Twitter influencer costs:

• Nano influencer: $100 – $500
• Micro influencer: $500 – $1500
• Mid-tier influencer: $1500 – $3000
• Macro influencer: $3000 – $10000
• Mega/VIP influencer: $10000 – $35000+

Other Payment Arrangements To Manage Influencer Costs

When considering the costs of influencer marketing, some creators are open to different payment arrangements.

For example, affiliate partnerships are common in some niches and the influencer receives a percentage of each sale they send to your brand instead of a flat-rate fee.

For e-commerce brands, this can be a great way to ensure a positive ROI and it also provides a stronger incentive for the influencer to promote your brand.

This arrangement is usually reserved for niche influencers who are promoting brands closely tied to their niche. So nano and micro influencers are often more open to this type of partnership.

Is Influencer Marketing Worth The Cost?

To put it simply, the answer is yes. While some may see the costs of a paid spot and have some degree of sticker shock, experienced marketers understand that the cost per mille (CPM) of a successful influencer marketing campaign is often lower than many other channels.

Besides that, engagement and direct connection to a targeted audience help to reduce wasted resources and improve ROI further.

Overall, influencer marketing is a free market and the rates being charged are based on the returns that brands are experiencing.

Assuming you create the right campaign to fit the influencer and your target audience, partnering with brand influencers is often a smart choice for brands looking to grow.