HOW TO PRICE INFLUENCER INSTAGRAM CONTENT
Overwhelmingly, brands tend to choose influencers based on their total following, some even creating strict rules around how to work with influencers of certain sizes. For a while the industry had a “bigger the better” approach, which all fell down when the issues around bots and bought followers surfaced. After that it was consider safer to focus on “micro influencers” – a concept which most brands have now realised offers no certain ROI level.
The massive disconnect between creators and the brands employing them to promote their products and services is one that continues to stagnate the potential of the whole industry. If influencers are pricing themselves based on effort rather than anticipated results, and campaigns are planned according to the expected outcomes, how can either side reach an accord, and ideally, long-term relationships?
The discrepancy of pricing across influencer marketing is vast, and we want to help bring equitable, transparent fees to ensure that talent are fairly remunerated for their contributions. As the numbers of content creators continue to grow at an extraordinary rate, brands can effectively pick and choose what talent to work with, but how does that correlate with compensating them?
So, how should influencers be pricing their Instagram content and what should brands expect to pay in return? We’ve presented our thoughts in this article, and our associated pricing guide. Here are some considerations to help you as a content creator, or get you started on pricing brand-side influencer marketing.
Influencers:
Invest in relationships with brands for the long-term. One-off partnerships are tempting (on both sides) but to create connections with clients that your audience will remember, we advise pricing your content based on what you can bring to the brand. This doesn’t mean you should always ask for long term partnerships – but it should mean you should only accept campaigns where you envisage yourself talking about the brand in question beyond one piece of work (be that organically or paid). Always ask about what they campaign is hoping to achieve to be able to understand your part in it, and how your following fits into the brand’s vision.
While it used to be standard to share a media pack with brands reaching out, we recommend a more bespoke response when brands ask for your credentials. Understanding your audience as deeply as possible is key to making brand partnerships successful. The more you can understand and share where your value lies, the better you can justify higher fees and attract more clients to work with on a regular basis. Do not be offended if they ask for screenshots over a beautifully designed PDF.
Understand how different deliverables are suited to different goals and interrogate how your audience interacts with your content. If a brand asks you to produce a certain set of deliverables but you know their messaging would perform better if these were altered, say so. Ultimately if it doesn’t perform they wont work with you again, so it’s sensible to amend deliverables to suit your channels’ strengths. Furthermore, if you know when your followers are most motivated to interact and purchase, you can use this to your advantage when posting branded content. If they suggest a time when your engagement is low, tell them.
Brands:
Always reach out to content creators directly to get their audience demographics, do not simply rely on gut feel or any third-party program. With first-hand access to age, gender and location breakdowns, you will immediately be able to see whether their audience has a cross section with your target demographics. There is no better way to get a feel for a following than from the platform itself as the numbers will update immediately (rather than filtering across slowly like social profiling tools).
After analysing the numbers an influencer has shared with you, you can make a fair offer, but remember there is no reason to compromise on your campaign targets. Remember it is not about working with influencers whose content you ‘like’, but those that appeal to your target demographic, so don’t let personal taste rule talent selection. The UK has a plethora of talent for you to choose from – if one influencer is being particularly difficult to negotiate with, move on and work with somebody else.
Agents will generally add their 20% in addition to an influencer’s standard rates, so be sure to take this into consideration when approaching a talent agency. We personally feel this should be integrated into the fee (otherwise it throws proportional budgeting out of whack, just because someone has an agent) but this isn’t an opinion all managers share…
Nothing beats actual data. Once you’ve worked with an influencer once, you can ascertain their impact compared with other content creators and can suggest revised fees to reflect what they were able to achieve for your campaign. In order to be fair, these revisions should include small influencers who overdeliver (raising their fees).
If you’re looking for specific numbers, we’ve put together our latest digital guide, the Influencer Pricing Chart for Instagram, to demystify pricing influencer marketing and working with content creators. It’s designed to help brands and influencers understand how value is brought to a campaign and what can be done to encourage success.
With our Influencer Pricing Chart for Instagram you will discover:
What fees to pay for Instagram grid posts and Stories
How to calculate true engagement rates, which so many people get wrong
How to calculate relevant followings (not the same as total following)
How much to charge for usage on influencer content
Messaging vs volume of deliverables – how to avoid information overload
Sales conversion rates (the ratio breakdown of followers to expected views to expected sales) so you can truly benchmark campaign expectations
How brands can set their campaigns up for success, including:
Timing of content
Style of content
Price point vs demand
Optimising user experience
If you are looking for help getting started, if you have ever wondered how much to pay for influencer content or whether you’re already paying the wrong fees, then we designed this with your exact needs in mind.
Visit our Shop to purchase the Influencer Pricing Chart for Instagram, or contact the team on hello@oneroofsocial.com for a consultation on your specific influencer marketing needs.