How Much Do Influencers Earn in 2022?
Paying for social media posts is no laughing matter. But if you want to live a good life, you first need to ask, how much do influencers make?
Do you want to monetize your social media presence? Or integrate influencer marketing into your strategy? Then one of the most important first steps is to figure out how much it will be.
This article sheds some light on how much influencers earn. And he shows you how to make money on platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. At the end, we’ve included influencer related resources for marketing managers or business owners.
How do influencers make money?
Social media influencers make money through sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, brand partnerships, merchandising, and direct donations (tips, subscriptions, etc.).
If you’ve ever dreamed of lying on a sunny yacht, sailing peacefully in the Mediterranean, and paying for it all with a single social media post, here’s how it’s done.
Read on to unravel the mystery of how much social media influencers make and how they do it!
Advertising posts
Sponsored posts are one of the most popular ways for influencers to make money. A sponsored post is when an influencer is paid to post about a product or service on their page. When an influencer vouches for a brand, their followers are more likely to trust that brand.
You’ll see a “Paid Affiliate”tag under the influencer’s name for sponsored Instagram posts.
Oftentimes, influencers with more reach can charge more for sponsored content. What you can get from sponsored posts usually depends on:
- your next size
- industry in which you work
- how well do you sell your services
Here are two general rules for measuring rates:
- Engagement rate per post + additional factors for post type (x number of posts) + additional factors = overall ranking
- The unspoken industry standard is $100/10,000 followers + post type surcharges (x number of posts) + additional factors = total rate.
At Hootsuite, we categorize influencer types as follows:
- 1,000–10,000 followers = nano-influencer
- 10,000–50,000 followers = micro-influencer
- 50,000-500,000 followers = mid-level influencer
- 500,000–1,000,000 followers = Macro influencer
- 1,000,000+ followers = mega influencers
In general, influencers with more followers make more money. But don’t worry if you’re a nano or micro influencer.
In fact, many small brands are looking to partner with nano and micro influencers. Instagram clearly favors micro-influencers.
Here’s how to do it as a new nano-influencer.
Brands that are looking for smaller or newer influencers may be on a smaller budget. But they are unlikely to bother if you are partnering with other brands.
Remember that long-term relationships bring much more profit over time than one-time posts.
If you’re smaller, work on building your niche or specialty. And building relationships with your customers.
Brand Ambassador
A brand ambassador partnership is an agreement between an influencer and a company. The influencer usually agrees to promote the company’s products or services, often exclusively. Or in general, be associated with the brand.
In exchange for their approval, the company provides compensation to the influencer. This could be cash, free products, or other perks.
As an influencer, you can make money from these partnerships. You can charge a posting fee, receive a percentage of sales, or even get paid. The amount of money an influencer can earn varies depending on their number of followers and engagement levels.
affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a type of results-based marketing. The business rewards affiliates for every customer brought in by their marketing efforts. In this case, the partner is you, the influencer.
You can usually expect to earn 5-30% commission on affiliate marketing contracts. Often the larger influencers are in the 8-12% range.
Have you seen influencers promoting a discount on a product or service with a personalized code or URL? These people are probably affiliate marketers.
They want to drive sales and track customers in order to get a certain amount per sale.
You can earn a significant amount of money through affiliate marketing. How much you earn will depend on:
- partnership agreement that you have developed
- the number of your followers
- number of brands you work with
@ashlelnok #greenscreen Fancy meeting you here @knixwear #periodunderwear
External advertising on the site
External advertising on the site is another type of Internet marketing. This includes promoting a brand or product on a website or platform that is not the home page of the product.
For example, let’s say I’m selling buttons and I’m reaching out to you, the influencer, to write a blog post reviewing my product. I pay you a predetermined amount for every lead I get from your post.
Many of these tactics may go by common names. The review above is an example of outbound advertising, affiliate marketing, and a sponsored post.
External advertising on the site is also achieved through:
- advertising banner
- sponsored posts
- blog sidebar links
Influencers can make money from this type of advertising by charging fees for ads that appear on their site. Or by earning a commission on the sales generated from clicks on your ad.
Some influencers also offer consulting services. This can help brands maximize the reach and performance of off-site ads.
Merchandising
Merchandising is a term used in marketing and retail. It refers to a number of activities that promote the sale of products to customers. When we talk about influencer merchandising, we are talking about influencers producing merchandise for their brand.
It could be anything from Kylie Jenner’s lip kits to an influential photographer selling prints.
Merchandising can be a very lucrative source of income. Especially for influencers with loyal fans.
Direct donation, tips, subscription
Let’s face it; free stuff is the best stuff. Subscriptions, tips, and donations are just some of the ways you can earn passive income.
But what exactly are these things? And how can an influencer make money from them?
Subscriptions are perhaps the most famous of the three. By subscribing to someone, you are essentially paying them a monthly fee in exchange for access to their content.
It could be anything. Think exclusive videos and photos with behind-the-scenes looks at their lives and work. Influencers can encourage subscriptions by offering discounts or freebies to those who subscribe. For example, they might offer a month of free content for every six months of a subscription.
Patreon is a popular subscription-based platform. Influencers can offer tiered levels to followers. Each level can have different, exclusive and interesting content.
Source: Patreon
Tipping is similar to a subscription in that it is a way to show support for someone’s work. However, instead of paying a monthly fee, you can simply make a one-time donation.
Many influencers include their PayPal or Venmo tip information when hosting live streams. They can attach it to their bio or website, or even just ask in a message.
Tips are often reserved for content creators who produce high quality work. So it’s more like a bonus than a necessity since you’ll be creating work anyway. However, your followers know that it is always appreciated!
@ashlelnok #greenscreen I DO NOT KNOW WHY I WAITED THIS LONG TO ADD VENMO TO MY ACCOUNT. #venmo #tiktok #bio #wtf #bestdecisionever @papaterence
Finally, we have donations. They are usually for charity or GoFundMe type campaigns. But fans can also pass them directly to an influencer.
Donations are completely voluntary and no one expects anything in return. Many influencers may offer perks such as a greeting or signed merchandise as a thank you.
Last year alone, we paid $110,526 in medical bills for Friday GoFundMe puppies. Please consider getting @Trupanion so you never have to send us a GoFundMe. Click the link below to get a quote. Better be a doll ❤️ #partner https://t.co/vUNBJ3hCxW pic.twitter.com/MZvFdM6NT2
— WeRateDogs® (@dog_rates) August 19, 2022
How much do influencers earn per post?
To determine how much money influencers make per post, you need to consider a few things:
- What type of post or content is being created?
- What is the industry average?
- What is the reach or follower size of the influencer?
- Do they have impressive engagement metrics from a previous campaign that they can use?
- What does your media kit look like?
To try and get a sensor on your own pricing. See how much others in your industry and your size charge for certain pieces of content. If you have engagement metrics and data on successful past campaigns, use them!
All of these can affect the amount you can charge for posting. Because there are so many factors to consider, getting averages can be difficult.
We will refer to the influencer size levels mentioned above in the next section. And we will be discussing the overall averages of potential earnings within these levels. So take them with a grain of salt.
How much do Instagram influencers earn?
According to eMarketer, Instagram marketing accounts for the highest share of influencer marketing revenue. It currently outperforms Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube.
Psst: here’s how to make money from your YouTube channel, your Instagram account and your TikTok strategy!
According to Statista, the average global minimum cost per post for a macro influencer on Instagram was $165. The average high was $1,804.
As they say, there are exceptions to the rule. Celebrities like Cristiano Ronaldo allegedly earn over a million per post. Micro-influencer Obebe demanded $1,000 for a single Instagram carousel post with two photos.
Keep in mind that averages are calculated over a wide range of data. This includes influencers from all walks of life and industries with different abilities.
Overall averages, according to Statista:
- Nano influencer can earn $195 per Instagram post
- An average influencer can earn $1,221 per Instagram post.
- A macro influencer can earn $1,804 per Instagram post.
According to Influence.co, micro-influencers are looking for $208 per post. In contrast, mega-influencers can expect $1,628 per Instagram post.
Instagram influencers typically post sponsored posts to their feed or Stories. They also go live to discuss product approval.
With the advent of Instagram Shopping, you will also see influencers with affiliate links or tagged products in your feed.
The Instagram Reels Bonus program is also a popular way to monetize your Instagram account. It rewards creators based on video views. Alex Ojeda, for example, reported that he made $8,500 in a month.
How Much Do TikTok Influencers Earn?
TikTok influencers will overtake Facebook in 2022 and YouTube in 2024. So maybe it would be a good idea to start collecting followers on TikTok right now. The app is only getting stronger! And that means answering the question “how much do TikTok influencers earn?” will only increase over time.
Source: eMarketer
According to this Statista report and this report:
- Nano-influencers can earn $181 per TikTok video
- Macro Influencers Can Earn $531 Per TikTok Video
- Mega influencers can earn between $1,631 and $4,370 per TikTok video.
Influencers on TikTok often create sponsored video content to promote a brand. Brands can conduct “acquisitions”by giving influencers control of their account for a set period of time. Or they can monetize their account with gifts.
TikTok Sleepfluencer (yes, it’s a thing!) Jakey Boehm gamifies Livestream Gifts. He broadcasts himself sleeping and wrote a script that reads the chat aloud.
Live chat sounds trigger various prompts. The sound of gifts will activate music, turn on cars, or light up his room while he sleeps.
Also, the bigger the gift you buy, the bigger the interruption.
Fans pay big money to wake up Jakey and they love it. He revealed that he made $34,000 from TikTok Live in a month. With 819.9K followers, Jakey is an influencer who earns above average from his videos. So, when we answer the question “how much do influencers make on TikTok”on average, keep creators like Jakey in mind.
How much do influencers make on Twitter?
Twitter seems to be the least profitable platform for influencers. This may have something to do with other apps that have eCommerce integrations. Or it might have something to do with the level of engagement.
But many influencers will offer package deals. A sponsored tweet can be used as a piece of content to sweeten the deal.
Here is the total income of Twitter influencers per post according to Statista:
- Nano Influencer Can Earn $65
- Micro-influencers and above can earn $125.
Influencer content on Twitter is often sponsored posts or uses brand-specific hashtags. Twitter takeovers are also a potential source of income.
In the example below, Chrissy Tiegen might just love Old Dutch Dill Pickle chips. Or she could be a Twitter influencer who is very good at natural brand endorsement.
very good chip alert! pic.twitter.com/vzscG6HYzR
— Chrissy Teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 24, 2022
How Much Do Facebook Influencers Earn?
Facebook may lose popularity among young people. But Facebook is still the social media giant, the largest in many ways. Facebook influencers still make money from things like:
- sponsored posts
- contracts with brand ambassadors
- affiliate marketing
- merchandising
- Live videos promoting products or services
Here is the total Facebook influencer earnings per post according to Statista:
- Nano influencer can earn $170 per post
- A micro-influencer can earn $266 on Facebook
If you are a marketing manager or business owner, influencer marketing is a smart tactic. But there are many moving parts to deal with.
You need to find the right influencer that suits your brand and budget. Also, you need to understand how they set their rates.
Then you need to figure out how they fit into your marketing strategy. And, of course, measure your results after your campaign.
Hootsuite experts have developed a marketing guide for influencers. And, great news, it’s designed specifically for people like you.
It covers everything from influencer etiquette to influencer marketing tools. And it includes a list of potential influencers you can reach out to.
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