How to Determine the Cost of Working with Influencers: A Guide for Brands
By Katy Coffield, Foodie Tribe Co-Founder + CEO
What does it cost to work with an influencer? What should my budget be for an influencer campaign? How many influencers should I collaborate with? These are just a few of the questions we hear from brand partners every time we chat through an influencer marketing campaign strategy.
While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all when it comes to influencer marketing budgets and the cost per influencer, there are a few factors you can consider to help you through the process.
Analyze the Influencer’s Tier, Follower Count, and Engagement Rate
Macro Influencers
First, you have to look at the follower count per influencer, and most importantly, the engagement rate. Many brands decide to collaborate with macro influencers who have over 100,000 followers. A macro influencer can charge anywhere between $2,000 and $10,000+ for a combined Instagram post and Story, depending on their follower count. But what brands don’t normally realize is that macro influencers typically have an engagement rate below 1%. At Foodie Tribe, we take engagement rate seriously to ensure we’re being cost-effective with our clients’ budgets.
To calculate an influencer’s engagement rate, use this formula: Total likes + total comments per post ÷ follower count x 100.
Power Influencers
As you move down the follower count line to the power influencer level (an influencer with 25,000-100,000 followers), the cost per post begins to drop and the engagement rate tends to increase. Instead of paying $2,000 for a combined Instagram post and Story, you may be paying anywhere between $500 and $1,000. Again, the cost depends on the influencer’s engagement rate. The higher the engagement rate, the more the influencer can charge for the collaboration.
Micro Influencers
When you drop to the micro influencer level (an influencer with 5,000-25,000 followers), you’ll hit a sweet spot when it comes to engaged audiences that will take action on a post. The cost per post and Story together may now range from $100-$750. The average engagement rate for an influencer in this tier usually falls between 3% and 8%+.
Nano Influencers
Nano influencers (an influencer with 1,000-5,000 followers) may have a small audience, but their followers tend to be ultra-engaged. In other words, their followers are more likely to interact with their content, usually giving them higher engagement rates than those of influencers in the other tiers. Working with a larger group of nano influencers can sometimes yield greater results with a smaller budget than working with larger influencers. The cost per post and story can range from $50 - $500, depending on their following and engagement rate. Additionally, some nano influencers may be receptive to creating content in exchange for product or a commission based on final sales they help drive.
Keep Your KPIs in Mind
Another factor to keep in mind when looking through your marketing budget and deciding who you want to collaborate with is your key performance indicators (KPIs), or your campaign goals. If you’re looking to reach the maximum number of people through reach and impressions, then partnering with macro influencers is probably your best bet. But, if you’re looking for an audience that is going to share, like, comment, save, or click a website link, then you’ll likely want to collaborate with micro influencers who garner higher engagement rates.
Reach Out to Us for Guidance
Here at Foodie Tribe, we’ve worked with budgets as low as $10,000, all the way upwards of $500,000+. The most important task when putting together an influencer marketing strategy and plan is to really understand what your campaign or program goals are. From there, you can work backward to figure out which platform you should post content on, how often you should post, and with which influencers you should collaborate.
Head over to our case studies page on our website to take a look at some of the campaigns we’ve previously strategized. If you aren’t sure where to start, we’d love to help you put together the right influencer marketing roadmap for your brand!
Please Note: The price ranges we’ve provided here are estimates for one Instagram post and one story based on the rates we received from our Foodie Tribe influencers daily for our campaigns. At Foodie Tribe, influencers and creators set their own rates when they apply to a campaign. It is possible that some influencers’ rates will vary from these estimates shared here, but these are the rates we most often see.