HOW TO CALCULATE YOUR RATES AS AN INFLUENCER

There’s so much gatekeeping and secrecy in this industry, and there’s not much information out there for new creators looking for insights on how to price their work. Too often I see creators being taken advantage of, working for rates that are unacceptable, so today I want to talk about pricing your work as an influencer.

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As a disclaimer: Rates vary depending on the platform you’re posting on, as each platform has different audiences, retention rates, reach, and even content types. Even on Instagram itself it varies widely depending on factors like the brand, the campaign, the company’s budget, how you negotiate, usage rights, content types, the economy, and even the creator themself. Information shared here is based on the United States currency and current market rates as of August 2021. Information (and my opinion!) may change over time, and this is my current opinion.

What was your first brand collab?

When I first started out I was working for product exchange, and once I had the confidence at 20k I pitched $200 for 5 hours photos- crazy low and also gave them the full image rights (a few of these photos went viral too). Since then I have improved my content skills and creativity and my quality, and my reach has grown 20x, but most importantly I understand the value of my work- i continued to work with this brand and my most recent collaboration was nearly $8k for a single post!

What’s the current industry standard?

the current industry standard on Instagram is 1% of your following: for example, if you have 500K followers, you can charge $500 for a post. However, this is just for a single photo post, and doesn’t account for things like stories, videos, usage rights, etc.

So if I only have 2K followers, I can only charge $20 for a post?

NO! You should absolutely charge more than $20! Here’s why:

For me, the main issue with the 1% theory is that accounts with the same follower count will have different skill sets, audiences, and reach rates (reach rate = total amount of people you are reaching relative to your follower count: someone with 30K followers who reaches 10K of them has a 33% reach rate). Instead, I like to base pricing off of two factors.

The first is CPM: cost per thousand impressions. This can vary based on your account’s niche, how targeted your followers are, your audience age range, etc. For example, if a finance brand wants to partner with you, and you have a super targeted, niche audience of people interested in finance, your CPM for that specific brand will probably be much higher than another influencer with a larger following who posts general lifestyle content.

The second is the cost of content creation, which is often overlooked by both brands and influencers. Brands may say “I need to earn a certain number of sales to justify paying you,” but ACTUALLY your payment should be justified by the time and effort you put into content creation. Think about it: if they were shooting their own products, they’d be paying for at LEAST a photographer, a model, and a makeup artist- you’re doing that all yourself! Consider how long creating a post usually takes you (planning, setup, shooting, editing, writing captions), and make sure you’re getting paid a fair hourly wage for all that time and effort. If you have a distinct style that’s associated with your work, special certifications or skills, or a distinct marketing plan, you can charge extra for that too!

How can I use my CPM to calculate rates?

First, you want to determine your average reach per post (or Reel), and then think about what your rates are per thousand impressions. When we look at traditional media costs, according to topdraw.com, we see that network TV has a CPM of $20-30, direct mail has a CPM of $500-1000, and magazines have a CPM of $140-1300. Digital media rates are similar: Google search ads have an average CPM of $38, Facebook and Instagram ads have a CPM of $8-9, Twitter and LinkedIn ads have a CPM of $6-7, and Pinterest ads have a CPM of $30.

The key difference between paid advertising and influencer marketing is the trust that the influencer has built with their audience: sharing your authentic daily life with your followers every day builds a valuable relationship that brands can tap into. You can use the traditional advertising data numbers as benchmarks to compare your CPM to, because when you understand the costs of traditional media, you can better price yourself and your reach.

How do I know if my rates are reasonable?

This takes time over a few negotiations. If you have someone you’re close with, in the same niche and follower count as you, you can compare reach and engagement with them and see if it’s similar. If you find that your CPM is super low, then you know you are undercharging. I myself try to charge a CPM between $20 to $50, depending on the campaign.

What’s a fair hourly rate for content creation?

I hate to say it, but again, it varies. Factors like experience, camera gear, editing subscriptions, etc. all affect hourly rates. Photographers charge between 100 to 350 per hour, but even these numbers are variable.

What kind of content packages can I offer as a content creator?

The most common types of deliverables are:

1 post + 1 story (set that includes 3-4 frames)
1 video (in-feed or Reel) + 1 story (set that includes 3-4 frames)
1 story set (3+ slides)

Start by figuring out approximate rates for each of these packages, and then adjust from there! Pricing for videos should be higher than pricing for photos, and in general people say it should be at least 50% higher than your rates for images.

What’s a rate sheet?

Some brands will ask you to send over a rate sheet, a menu-style list of prices for different deliverables, but I personally feel that sending a rate sheet is doing yourself a disservice down the line. Even if you make it super clear that these are your current rates, subject to change in the future, brands tend to lock down on these rates and it makes it a lot harder for you to increase your pricing in the future.

What about whitelisting and content usage rights?

Across the board there is no general consensus for how to charge for these, and everyone that I’ve spoken to has come up with a different number, so I don’t feel qualified to speak on this topic just yet.

Should I grow my following before trying to get brand deals?

This is up to you and the strategy you want to use for your online brand! Some people choose to monetize in the very beginning to consistently get income over time, while others grow their accounts first so that they have the follower count to make brands more likely to say yes.

Reminder: don’t use these calculations to limit yourself, but rather as guidelines for determining ballpark rates for content creation. The CPM method is the method that I use to calculate my rates, and isn’t super common among influencers- and that’s okay! As long as you’re able to calculate a rate at which you’re being paid a fair amount for your time, effort, and influence, that’s all that matters.