You may know the favorite dog food brand of your favorite Instagram influencers, the messy details of their last breakup, or what’s in their medicine cabinet. However, there’s one piece of information that they do not often show on their Instagram stories: how to determine influencer rates in 2021.
The worldwide influencer industry worths $13.8 billion global industry. However, how many of that is your average, non-Kylie Jenner influencer getting per post?
Creating branded content includes time, labor, skill, and production costs. And those elements aren’t paid for with products and freebies.
And paying the suitable value pays off. However, what is the right price?
Here are some formulas for calculating rates, the ballpark cost of several types of posts. And you will explore other factors that may affect influencer pricing for your next influencer marketing campaign.
How to calculate fair Instagram influencer rates in 2021
Long story short: Prices in this industry range greatly and there’s no standard rate card.
Allegedly, model Emily Ratajkowski would get $80,700 for one post. Rumors are that Demi Lovato costs at least $668,000, while Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gets even $1.5 million for creating a post for his 187 million followers. Even for the largest celebrities (and even among the Kardashians themselves!), there seems to be no hard-and-fast rule.
However, there are some strategies to help your brand get value from the sponsored post, and influencers are getting the right rate for their work.
Rates must be based around an influencer’s follower count and engagement price, however, less-quantitative elements like star power, talent, or access to niche viewers can affect a rate as well.
Any cost related to a shoot (like renting a studio, hiring a hairstylist, et cetera) will also be a factor.
Most pricing begins with one of these baseline formulas.
- Engagement rate per post + extras for kind of post (x #of posts) + extra elements = total price.
- The unspoken industry standard is $100 per 10,000 followers + extras for kind of post (x # of posts) + additional elements = total price.
In fact, your brand goals will be an element as well in determining which influencer will offer the most value.
If your goal is brand awareness
Would you like quantity or quality with your outreach? If sheer numbers are your target, a macro-influencer who has tons of followers maybe your best companion in the next Instagram campaign.
Conversely, if you want to appear in front of specific viewers, finding the correct micro- or nano- influencer with primo niche viewers could be even more effective for brand awareness. See the next part of this guide about “Types of Instagram influencers” for more information, or read more on how to find Instagram influencers that work effectively for your business.
If your goal is conversions
An influencer’s engagement rate is one of the most useful elements to measure conversions on Instagram.
So if your target is conversions, an influencer’s engagement rate may be more important than the number of followers.
Engagement rates will be calculated by including all engagements on a post (likes, comments, clicks, shares), dividing by follower count, and multiplying by 100.
Price per Instagram post
Typically, influencers may have a press kit explaining their rates and the kinds of partnerships that they want to have. Depending on the campaign, bundled content or special rates may also be worked out to decrease labor and costs.
Instagram post (photo)
A normal sponsored Instagram post typically features a photo and caption. In some cases, the product is featured within the picture. In other instances, like when you want to promote a service, the caption is more crucial.
Using the formulas above, you may roughly expect a photo post to price under $2,000 for influencers with under 100,000 followers. For macro-influencers, you might expect to pay them from $5,000 to $10,000.
A popular formula many influencers use is:
Average price per IG post (CPE) = Current Average Engagements x $.14.
Instagram post (video)
Video stars keep increasing on social, and Instagram is no different, tracking an 80 percent year-over-year increase.
Many content creators consider that video includes higher production costs than a photo. However, the added cost can often translate into more than just more engagement.
Many influencers use this formula when calculating how much cost for Instagram video posts:
Price per IG video (CPE) = Current average engagement x $0.16
Instagram post giveaway/contest
Instagram contests are an effective way to grow followers and brand awareness. Sometimes a contest includes asking your viewers to do something for an opportunity to win a prize, whether it’s tagging a friend, following a new account, or sharing a post.
Because the mix of content required for executing a contest would be unique to each brand and influencer, the easiest way to estimate what it would cost is looking at the individual components and including those up: for example, would you like five photo posts and a Story to advertise your frozen-yogurt-for-life giveaway? Crunch the numbers and you’ve received a ballpark figure, to begin with.
Price per Instagram contest = (# of posts*0.14) + (# of videos*0.16) + (# of Stories*price per Story)
Instagram Story
An Instagram story is a photo or video that disappears after 24 hours. Production quality can range from edited smartphone footage to polished uploaded content. So, the prices will be different accordingly.
One formula you can use to calculate the price of Instagram stories is:
Price per Instagram Story = Current average view x $0.06
