Instagram is a popular home for influencers. The visual nature of the platform lends itself to product endorsements. The endorsements feel organic to followers, so some brands look specifically for Instagram influencers.
But how much do you pay an Instagram influencer? Compensation for influencer marketing campaigns is a hot topic. Since it’s a fairly new way to advertise, there aren’t set benchmarks. However, IZEA releases an annual study that provides helpful insight into influencer payments.
Can you trade products for posts?
If you’re new to influencer marketing, you might wonder if you can trade a product for a post. In other words, your brand sends an influencer a free product, and in return, the influencer shares a post about it.
Most influencers — 70% — prefer a combination of payment and a free product, according to Business of Apps.
Research shows just 5.7% of influencers are willing to work for product-only pay. These influencers are usually new to the industry with small audience sizes.
Factors that influence compensation
Influencer payments can vary widely. If you team up with a celebrity, you could pay hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you team up with a B2B influencer with a modest audience, you could pay a few thousand dollars. There are a handful of factors that can impact compensation, such as:
Audience size
Influencers with mega audiences charge more. Kim Kardashian, for example, who has 306 million followers on Instagram, charges $300,000-$500,000 for one endorsement. While her pay scale is certainly on the high end, it does show a direct correlation between compensation and audience size.
Type of content
Different types of content require different time commitments. An Instagram image is cheaper than a video. A product review is cheaper than an e-book. The more work it takes to create the content, the higher the cost.
Engagement rates
A seasoned influencer will provide engagement rates for everyday traffic and sponsored posts. Influencers with great engagement can charge more. Engagement rates between 2-3% are average, 4-6% are excellent, and anything in the teens is considered viral.
Exclusivity
If you find an influencer that really connects with your audience, you may want the influencer to work with your brand exclusively. If that’s the case, an influencer must sign a non-compete agreement and receive compensation that makes up for potential lost income.
How much do Instagram influencers charge?
Let’s talk specifics. Whether you’re a brand wondering about influencer payments or an influencer trying to set a price for your services, it helps to have some reference points. Fortunately, IZEA has studied Instagram influencer compensation and can offer insights.
The average cost for a sponsored post on Instagram
The chart below shows the average cost of a post by platform.
As you can see, the average cost for an Instagram Photo is $1,311, and an Instagram Story is $2,784.
An Instagram Story is an image or video that disappears in 24 hours, whereas an Instagram Photo lives on the influencer’s “wall” and remains there.
The new rates represent a shift in the preferred content type too. In 2021, brands paid more for an Instagram Photo ($1,170) than an Instagram Story ($906), but both rates increased in the past year. Interestingly, the cost of an Instagram Story tripled from $906 in 2021 to $2,784 in 2022.
Instagram photos are fairly affordable in comparison to other platforms. Twitch, as you can see on the chart, is the most expensive, coming in at $4,373 per post.
The average cost of an Instagram post and another platform
A brand might ask an influencer to create multiple pieces of content, like an Instagram Story and a TikTok video. While getting more leverage from an influencer marketing campaign makes sense, doubling the content means increasing the price.
New research from our 2023 report shows video is a favored content type. As you might suspect, since creating videos is more time-consuming, the price inches up.
On average, creators can charge up to 3.9 times more when they produce multiplatform video content.
Here’s a breakdown of platform combos:
- Blog and Facebook: $1,735
- Instagram Story and an Instagram photo: $2,784
- Facebook and an Instagram Photo: $3,101
- Facebook and Instagram Story and an Instagram Photo: $3,737
- Instagram Story and TikTok: $6,444
- Instagram Story and YouTube: $12,007
You’ll notice that most platform combinations include Instagram, be it a story or a photo.
The average cost of a sponsored Instagram post by audience size
The size of an influencer’s audience impacts pay, too. To access audience sizes, influencers are broken into groups. The groups are as follows:
Nano-influencer: 1,000-9,999 followers
Micro-influencer: 10,000-49,999 followers
Mid-tier influencer: 50,000-199,999 followers
Macro-influencer: 200,000-499,999 followers
Mega-influencers: 500,000-999,999 followers
Web celebrities: 1 million-plus followers
The State of the Influencer Earnings 2023 shows payment across all platforms based on an influencer’s audience tier. Compensation increased for nano-influencers, micro-influencers, and mid-tier influencers but decreased for macro-influencers, mega-influencers, and web celebrities.
Our data support a shift we’ve seen in influencer marketing. More brands want to work with smaller, more engaged influencers over celebrities.
In 2022, a nano-influencer charged right around $1,105. The next tier up, a micro-influencer, charged around $1,600, while mid-tier influencers charged about $3,500. All of them charged more per post in 2022 than they did the previous year.
Macro-influencers lost a little ground in 2022, charging about $5,000.
Mega-influencers saw the biggest drop, from about $7,000 in 2021 to about $5,500 in 2022.
Web celebrities dropped from $6,500 in 2021 to $5,800 in 2022.
Compensation for Instagram influencers can be tough to calculate, but these figures should give you an idea of what to expect when you speak with an influencer. Remember, every influencer is different, and most are open to negotiation in a professional setting.
To learn more about the compensation of Instagram influencers, get The State of Influencer Earnings 2023 from IZEA today.
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