There is no single standard pricing in the influencer marketing industry. Each influencer decides on how much they charge for the collaboration on a case-by-case basis. Moreover, this amount is not fixed. For the same post, they may ask for $3,000 today, and $5,000 tomorrow. This is not a made-up example, but a real case from our experience.
Some Instagram influencers want to get an offer from an advertiser first and then agree to the offer or set their own price. But how to calculate the price and avoid overpaying? This question worries both influencer marketing newbies and experienced marketers.
Influencer marketing pricing is one of the main issues in the industry. In this post, we’ll share factors that impact the cost of Instagram influencers’ services, pricing models, and the average rates of some influencers.
What Are Marketers Paying for When Working with Instagram Influencers?
Instagram post. The post includes a photo, video, or carousel (slideshow) and post captions. Keep in mind that posts with a video generally cost 40-50% more and carousel posts 20-30% more.
Instagram Story. Instagram Story is a feature that lets users post photos and videos that vanish after 24 hours. Each Story is a clip that is only 15 seconds long and consists of a picture or a video. At HypeAuditor we prefer Stories over other formats because you can tell your audience an interesting story, interact with an audience using polls, and embed a tracking link with a swipe-up feature. Expect to pay 10-20% more if you want to embed a link to your site.
Instagram Live lets an influencer broadcast a video to their followers in real-time, but you can only watch while the influencer is still streaming. This format does not require expensive filming and video editing, but an influencer must be well-versed in your product to answer user questions in real-time.
IGTV. It’s a standalone vertical video application owned by Instagram. Unlike Instagram Stories, it allows users to upload vertical videos up to 10 minutes in length or up to 60 minutes if it’s verified or popular. The average number of views on IGTV is 3-5 times lower than on Instagram Stories, but they have more time to talk about your product.
Also, there are several add-ons that could make your collaboration more effective; usually, they do cost extra money:
Stories Highlights allows you to group old stories together in a section below the Instagram bio. You can ask a creator to make Highlights with your sponsored Stories and place them on the first screen to make them visible without a swipe. Stories with Highlights will cost you 10-30% more.
A link in bio. Since Instagram doesn’t allow posting links in posts, we recommend that you place a link to your landing page in an influencer’s bio.
Instagram account mention in the bio. In addition to a link, you can ask an influencer to mention your brand account or hashtag in their bio.
Of course, the more you ask an influencer to do, the more expensive the collaboration will be.
Factors That Can Affect the Price of an Instagram Influencer’s Content
Time resources and content production complexity. If you want something more creative than a selfie with your product, be ready to pay more.
Product. If you have a really good product that influencers like and they are proud that you gave them an opportunity to work with it, the cost of collaboration would be at a minimum price or even free.
The number of posts or services in the package. Paying for a Post and 3 Stories in one package is more cost-effective than paying for each piece of content separately. If you take a big package that includes, for instance, a blog post, an Instagram post, and a Youtube video, you can ask to add Stories for free.
The number of followers and their engagement. Influencers who have 10-20K followers usually charge moderate fees. The more followers an influencer has, the more expensive the collaboration will be.
Direct partnership or through an agency. If you are working with a talent agent or a marketing agency, instead of partnering directly with an influencer, you’ll be paying more. They charge a commission for connecting you with the right influencers and managing the collaboration.
Deadlines. The less time an influencer has to create content, the more expensive the campaign will be.
Exclusivity. You can ask an Instagram influencer to sign a non-compete agreement, which will prohibit them from working with your competitors for a certain period of time.
Usage rights. You can ask a creator for permission to repurpose the content for your own use, for example, on a website, ad campaigns, social media, etc.
Celebrity Influencers Pricing
Celebrities’ post price doesn’t depend on follower count or engagement rates. It mostly depends on popularity.
Cara Delevingne has 41 million followers on Instagram and gets ~$150,000 per sponsored post.
On average, the Instagram sponsored post of a celebrity costs $3.5–$4.5 per 1000 followers.
Top model and actress Cara Delevingne @caradelevingne
Collaboration with a celebrity is more about PR and branding than about the generation of leads or sales.
How Much Do Model Influencers Cost?
Another influencer category with exaggerated rates is models. Models also don’t take any metrics into account and set their prices based on the hourly price of a shooting.
For example, if they get $500 per one hour, the price of a sponsored post will be the same.
Model Julia Lescova @julialescova
HypeAuditor’s advice: If an influencer is not a celebrity and charges an incredibly high price we advise you to bargain and calculate the price based on other pricing models.
Price per Post
Price per post is commonly used by professional photographers, filmmakers, and creators with stunning visual content.
Armando Ferreira is a professional filmmaker, he posts quality videos about filmmaking, tech, and gear. His rates for a video or a sponsored post on Instagram are higher than the average.
Filmmaker Armando Ferreira @mondonbytes
Brands that work with Ferreira get high-quality content that can be used on their website or for ads on different platforms.
Micro- and Mid-Tier Influencers Pricing
Now let’s see how much Instagram micro- and mid-tier influencers cost, so you can get a better understanding of what you’re paying for.
Price per follower (CPM)
Cost per mille (CPM) is a cost that an advertiser pays for one thousand views or impressions. Most influencer marketing experts use the number of followers of an influencer when estimating their reach and prices for their campaigns.
The average price for a sponsored post is usually anywhere between $5-$10 per 1000 followers. If an influencer has a good engagement rate the price could be $10 and even higher for 1000 followers.
For instance, if an influencer has 5000 followers, then the price would be $25–$50, and if they have 100 000 followers, it would be $500–$1000.
If an influencer asks for a significantly smaller price, double-check the quality of their followers. They might be using bots to boost their follower count.
Drawbacks: this pricing model doesn’t take into account the fact that not all influencer’s followers are real and not all real followers see the influencer’s posts. This means that up to 90 percent of the money spent may be wasted. To prevent this situation, check all influencers for fraud and pay based on the number of quality followers.
Price per engagement (CPE)
As soon as some influencer experts realized that follower count is not an ideal metric and can be artificially inflated, they started to pay attention to engagement.
Cost Per Engagement (CPE) involves payment per engagement unit (like or comment). The marketer can estimate a price based on the average number of likes under the influencer’s post. Usually, it’s anywhere between $0.05-$0.1 per like.
Drawbacks: this pricing model doesn’t take into account the fact that likes can be inflated artificially.
Another type of Cost Per Engagement that’s more appropriate, as we at HypeAuditor believe, is when an advertiser doesn’t pay influencers upfront. Instead, they are offered a commission based on the number of conversions their Instagram post has. This can be either a lead or an actual sale.
Price per impression
Due to a growing problem with influencer fraud, some marketers have switched to a new pricing model that’s based on the post impressions. Impressions can also be bought, but at the moment it happens only in rare cases.
If you choose this pricing model, ask an influencer to send you a screenshot from their Instagram Insights. But do not mix up Post Impressions and Post Reach.
Post Impressions — the number of times a post appeared in the Instagram feed.
Post Reach — the number of individual users who saw the post.
We recommend that you decide on the pricing based on the Post Reach.
Final thoughts
You can choose any of the pricing models described above to estimate the price of collaboration. We at HypeAuditor believe that it’s a wrong strategy to pay without any calculations. The goal of your influencer marketing campaign is not to spend money but benefit your brand.
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