7 Influencer Payment Factors to Consider For Your Next Campaign

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Influencer marketing continues to dramatically grow in popularity—helping both small and large businesses reach their marketing goals. The growth of influencer marketing has proven to not only be a successful outreach and engagement strategy for businesses but a lucrative endeavor as well. In 2021 alone, the influencer marketing industry reached a staggering $13.8 billion. This year, it’s projected the market will expand to $16.4 billion.

To run a successful influencer marketing campaign, however, entails dipping into your digital marketing budget. How do you determine how much money to invest in influencer marketing? And, how much are influencer payments determined? Do they vary by platform or followers?

These are just a few questions your business may have when determining your influencer marketing costs.

In this post, we will cover the cost of influencer marketing, the types of influencer payment options available, and how to decide what will be best for your business.

Factors To Consider For Your Influencer Marketing Budget

There are several factors that may impact influencer marketing costs. Businesses that have established long-term partnerships usually save more in the long run. Additionally, working with an influencer marketing agency can also help you negotiate fair rates and work within your campaign budget.

As a general rule of thumb, many marketing experts agree that you can expect the following rates for Instagram posts, depending on the influencer’s reach and other factors:

Nano-influencers: $10–$100 per post or product or travel payment
Micro-influencers: $100–$500 per post
Mid-tier influencers: $500–$5,000 per post
Macro-influencers: $5,000–$10,000 per post
Celebrity or mega-influencers: $10,000+ per post

Here are seven additional cost factors to consider when planning your future campaigns.

1. Influencer Reach

Reach translates to the influencer’s audience size on a social media platform. As a general rule of thumb, the more followers or subscribers the influencer has, the more expensive the influencer post rates will be. For example, an influencer with 10K followers will likely charge less per post than an influencer with 100K followers.

2. Social Media Platform

Influencer post pricing will likely vary by platform, given their follower count will vary by platform. Newer platforms may also have a lower payout than long-standing platforms. For example, an Instagram influencer can charge more per post than they could on TikTok even if they have the same number of followers on both platforms.

According to, Influencer Marketing Hub’s TikTok Money Calculator, mid-tier influencers can charge between $125 – $1,250 per post on TikTok. Mid-tier influencers on Instagram, conversely, can make as much as $5,000 per post.

3. Influencer’s Niche

You’ll want to find an influencer that best represents your brand. For example, if you sell coffee you may want to partner with a lifestyle blogger who shares their everyday routine. A hotel will likely want to partner with a travel blogger to promote their rooms and amenities.

Depending on your niche and how saturated the influencer market is in that niche will likely impact pricing. For example, popular niches such as fashion or lifestyle will have more influencers available and therefore may reduce costs for social media posts.

4. Type of Post

The requirements you have for the content you’re asking an influencer to create will affect your campaign cost. For example, if you ask an influencer to create a simple Instagram post with your product versus taking the time to create a reel, this will likely cost less.

Consider how much time, resources, and effort the influencer has to put in to create a post or a video. The more time-consuming the content type is, the more an influencer will charge.

5. Follower Engagement

Influencers that have a high number of followers don’t always have a high level of influence. Audience engagement for a smaller influencer may be much higher than a larger influencer. As such, influencer rates vary based on how much organic and sponsored engagement an influencer has.

To determine an influencer’s audience engagement, look at their comments to see how people are interacting with their posts. Do the comments seem genuine? Or generated by bots? The more authentic an influencers engagement is, the better the chance your business has of reaching your target audience.

6. Influencer Popularity

Celebrity influencers, such as Kylie Jenner or Kim Kardashian, will command extraordinary rates for a single post. With millions of followers and the potential to reach a much wider audience, businesses must be prepared to spend an ample amount of money to work with celebrity endorsements. In fact, according to Hopper HQ’s Instagram rich list, Kylie Jenner earns nearly $1,500,000 per Instagram post.

7. Seasonality

As with other forms of advertising, seasonality may also impact the cost of influencer marketing. Jasmine Enberg, senior analyst at eMarketer, shares “Influencers are starting to charge premiums for brands that they have never worked with before working with them during high traffic periods.” She recommends developing relationships with influencers prior to peak seasons to avoid surge charges during popular events and holidays.

Types of Influencer Payment Arrangements

Influencer payment arrangements vary and are dependent on both the business and the influencer. Payment type may also vary if you’re working directly with an influencer marketing agency to help your business with influencer partnership management. Influencer marketing agencies typically have built rapport with a network of influencers of all levels, and therefor might be able to negotiate better rates on your behalf.

As with most marketing campaigns, success is often measured by return on investment (ROI). Influencer marketing is no different. Additionally, engagement is another common metric tied to influencer marketing ROI. Many businesses may opt for a paid fix rate with a performance bonus. Others prefer solely performance-based payments to offset risks. Let’s dive deeper into a few of the most common influencer payment options.

Flat Fee

Businesses may want to pay influencers a flat fee for monetary compensation. Pay-per-post is the most common form of payment, with 68% of marketers paying influencers per post. This can also be one of the riskiest forms of payment as you won’t know how exactly the influencer’s audience will engage with the post. That’s why it’s crucial to consider if the risk will be worth the reward for your business.

To determine how much a post with a particular influencer is worth, it’s important to look at their engagement rate and post-effectiveness. Their post-effectiveness entails their success with sponsored posts vs. organic posts.

It’s also important to consider if the influencer aligns with your products and services. For example, a retail clothing brand would likely want to work with a fashion blogger to promote its products.

If you’re interested in working with influencers with larger followings, including celebrity level influencers, keep in mind these influencers typically only accept flat fees for payment.

Performance-based payment

For smaller businesses or if you’re working with a new influencer for the first time, you may want to use a performance-based payment. This ensures you’re only paying for results, such as a certain number of clicks, impressions, or conversions.

Keep in mind, a large influencer with a high follower count may not accept performance-based payment. Typically, only smaller influencers will accept this form of payment.

Revenue-sharing

Revenue-sharing pays influencers a percentage of the total revenue generated from the campaign. This payment model is safer than a pay-per-post model and still provides the influencer an offer. An influencer has the opportunity to earn more money if the post performs well than they would with a flat fee.

Businesses also win as there is less risk involved if the post doesn’t perform well. Revenue-sharing works well with affiliate commissions. Influencers receive their specific affiliate link and share this link with their followers. This helps a business track which sales came directly from that influencer and can then pay the influencer the appropriate affiliate commissions.

Product or Travel Payment

Rather than providing monetary compensation, a business may opt to give an influencer a product or service in exchange for payment. Influencers are then asked to give a genuine review based on their experience. This works well with a high-value product or in the travel industry with travel bloggers.

As with performance-based payments, influencers with larger audiences may not accept this form of payment. Product or travel payment typically works best with influencers with 10K followers or less.

Whether you’re a small business launching your first influencer marketing campaign or a larger brand with a wealth of experience in the influencer marketing space, having a firm understanding of influencer payment types and factors that influence payment is essential. This ensures your business is getting the most out of your influencer marketing initiatives and investing wisely. Additionally, working with an influencer marketing company can help you streamline negotiations and provide more transparency into what different influencers charge.