Being an Instagram influencer is not a get-rich-quick scheme. To make money at it, you need to work hard and be persistent. While it can be a lucrative job, most people who do it full-time seem to have a strong portfolio of brands they collaborate with and might also be working on their own products or building up equity in another company.
In other words, if most influencers want to be paid tens of thousands of dollars per post, they have to build a brand from the ground up — which takes time. What's even harder is to evoke the authenticity most Influencers lack,
Things to ask clients before embarking on paid influencer marketing campaigns
Working out what to quote for an Instagram influencer campaign can be tricky.
But first, here are a few things we recommend asking the client, so you can give them an accurate quote:
- “Do you want content approval before the image & caption goes live?” If they do, just make sure you are factoring into your quote the admin time to make revisions and changes and submit content to be approved
- “Do you want to use my image anywhere else, or repost my image on your channels?” If they do, factor this into your quote. If they are using the image for their website, newsletters, Facebook advertising, social media platform, bloggers, etc, you will need to increase the rate you are quoting.
- “Do you want any Instagram influencer stories or just a static newsfeed post” Again, including stories will increase the quoted amount
How much money should you charge as an influencer?
Now, you would probably want to know what the going rate of an Instagram influencer is. This is a question that's been on your mind from the start, right? No need to worry, we've got you covered.
Influencers charge anywhere from $75 up to $1,200 for each sponsored post published on their page. We'll tell you exactly how it works below.
How much do Instagram influencers get paid?
Let's break down this figure into two parts beginning with the "how much" part first. If you take just an average product and consider only placing it in one photo (with good lighting and all), then it doesn't seem too bad an investment. But as some influencers will know, the devil is in the details.
And let's not forget that some products can be more difficult to work with than others. For instance, you might only have a day or two at most to shoot and publish your post before some other brand engaged in the same Instagram influencer marketing strategy beats you to it.
What types of posts do social media influencers get paid for?
There are different types of sponsored posts you can do on Instagram. Let's explore them now:
Regular content
The first type of post is a regular photo/video that features an advertiser's product or service - similar to what you'd see from a company that does its own marketing. This would usually pay depending on the audience size, from $75 to $1,200 but if anything overcomes this number then so be it!
A 'view' or a 'story'
In this case, you, the influencer, will create a photo, video, or GIF and feature the client's own creative flair with it. And if you don't think this takes a lot of time then think again. It's not easy at all! Before even considering doing this type of post then be prepared to spend about 24 hours on it from start to finish.
Like for like
Now in here, an advertiser might offer, say $500 for each 1,000 likes that the influencer receives when featuring an advertiser's product within their regular posts.
Raise engagement
This is where the influencer likes and comments on the brand's own post (for example) in order to encourage more people to like it. And this could earn them money
Follow/unfollow
This means that a client will pay every time a certain number of the influencer's followers follow them. Though you need to take note it could be detrimental to the quality of the brand and the influencer's audience if you do these types of promotional posts too often.
Engagement posts
This usually involves posting about an advertiser's product but doing it by tagging another user in the comments section. It could be your own follower, or someone that you admire - either way, an advertiser will pay an average cost for all the engagements or interactions on this post.
Full grid posts
This is where you create a full Instagram feed using photos of products from specific influencer partnerships. As influencers are only allowed to do three sponsored posts per week on average, they usually need more time to promote multiple advertisers at once. An advertiser might offer them $400 for each 2-3 posts like this for example!
Factors that play into influencer marketing costs
There are some factors that can influence whether or not an advertiser is willing to pay you the influencer marketing pricing you're asking for. For example:
- Firstly is audience size (which we mentioned above). This usually comes into play according to the influencer's follower count. Even if it's highly tailored towards their target market or target audience, if you only have more followers than their fingers combined, then an advertiser might not be so keen to invest in you.
- Another factor is the influencer rates for engagement on posts. The more likes, comments and shares that your Instagram posts get then the higher the chance an advertiser might pay per post.
- And finally is the amount of time it takes for somebody to create a sponsored post. So if you can provide clients with 3 posts each week then this will obviously be appealing to advertisers who don't want their products hidden in more expensive marketing channels to generate brand awareness within a short period of time.
These are the usual factors brands base their influencer pricing on. Remember that when you're working with a brand, they want to gain the often talked about influencer marketing ROI, so they want to pay influencers who'll take the amount they're willing to spend -- their influencer marketing budget -- to build brand awareness for their product or service with the most bang for the buck.
Guide rates for those using influencer marketing platforms
From there, you can use the below guide to work out your rate per post if you are not sure what to charge.
It’s also handy to give clients some package options, for example:
“I can do 1 x post for $500, or 2 posts for $800”
“I can do 1 x post and 2 Instagram stories for $600”
That way, you can negotiate together to find an outcome that works for you!
Conclusion
So as you can see there are many different styles of promotion on social media platforms which all come at different prices for many influencers. But before you go ahead and try them all out, it's important to know how many followers you have on Instagram.
There are many factors that come into play when deciding how much to charge as macro-influencers or micro-influencers. But to give you a better idea, the price range for an advertiser to sponsor one Instagram post is roughly between $75-$1,200.
This is usually based on your overall audience size and engagement rate when creating your content. Hopefully, this article was helpful in explaining how much influencers like you can earn with sponsored content. If you have any questions then feel free to leave them in the comments below!
Don’t forget, you’re being paid for your content creation ability, your audience, and your authority & trust – so don’t undervalue yourself!
