Content value = R2 000
R7 000 × 3.14 × 0.5 × 0.7 + R2 000 = R9 693
Incidentally, this basically boils down to 10 cents per follower or 10% of my follower total. The American social media analytics company Klear says that micro-influencers across a variety of territories charged about R2 500 per post on Instagram, R1 000 per story on Instagram, and R3 300 per sponsored Facebook post in 2019. This was according to a survey of more than 2 500 influencers across Instagram, YouTube and Facebook. YouTube content’s cost of production and value in the international market is still comparatively high for the same bracket of influencers at R14 000 per video post, while an Instagram video, on average, earns only R3 300.
In its 2019 “Price of Influencer Marketing” study, American analytics provider Klear found that men make up only 23% of the influencer industry but they get paid much better: women earned 77 cents for every dollar a man earned in the influencer industry.
The study also pointed out how comparatively successful nano- and micro-influencers were, particularly on Instagram Stories. Nano-influencers with fewer than 5 000 followers, roughly 10% of the following of the average power-influencer, were earning roughly 20 to 25% of the fees that power-influencers earned on the same platform.
The digital publishing platform Hootsuite, which allows you to auto-schedule posts to go out at a certain time on a certain platform, suggested $100 (R2 000) per 10 000 followers as a pro rata rate in 2019. Rachel Kolisi and Nadia Jaftha, however, both mentioned a 10% approach when I asked them about their formulas.
Katinka die Kat elaborated on her recent experience in the influencer marketplace, which is that for a following similar to hers on Instagram:
Someone the other day made R5 000 for a post and a story, as a package deal – I think it was to promote The Bachelor. Loads of people will also approach me with only R2 000 but then they want eight stories and six Instagram posts. [My audience] ... will hate me if I post six times about the same thing! I can’t do that, so then I’ll just explain what I’m able to provide and leave it up to them to make the call. I need to make sure people will still want to see my content, after all.
Liesl says she relies on influencermarketinghub.com to get an indication about going rates before she adapts them to the local market and the brand.
Your comments, likes, followers, engagement rate, the rate at which you respond, all need to be taken into account. My recommended fee there is much higher than what I charge clients, but I use it as a guideline. You need to keep in mind what’s happening in the market, our economy. With bigger brands I always point out that it’s negotiable if we can build a relationship over a few months, instead of a one-off deal. I also often ask my friends in the industry what they charge.
When asked, Wian was very straightforward about his rates, explaining:
Initially, when brands approached me to do this kind of thing, I was happy with just R2 000 for about three videos, but when a major beer brand approached me, someone suggested I speak to this guy who works in branding. He said the campaign should pay me at least R90 000 and they actually went for it! Another brand approached me and while we were negotiating, they told me that my valuation of my own account was too low, because I was willing to do a video for R25 000 for them. So, basically, I often ask other influencers for advice, or I wait until I can get a brand to make a price first.
What you need to keep in mind, though, is that larger audiences or heavily branded content might yield lower-than-expected engagement rates, so even if your client is willing to pay that fee, your content might not generate the desired engagement or truly gain R25 000 worth of value. That’s why overcharging might be a shortcut that leads you to a dead end: no return business. Always play the long game: under-promise and over-deliver.
Similarly, if you have fewer than 5 000 followers, you might not see offers of R750 per post. Brands might just offer a straight barter deal: R750 worth of product (you can, of course, negotiate this to be R750 cost price as opposed to R750 retail price – which would yield far more product) in return for a post and perhaps a few stories, as well as value-added tagging in a certain number of future posts.
Please note, though, that if you are a niche influencer with a smaller but highly engaged audience, you might be able to charge far more than the R1 500 guide price mentioned earlier. If the product or service has a likelihood of seeing massive value – a serious return on the investment – it could be well worth their money to spend R4 500 per post.
This brings me back to Robyn Donaldson @almost_everything_off_ebay: she shows that one can buy really interesting decor and beautiful interiors without breaking the bank. If eBay wanted to run an influencer campaign, particularly in the United Kingdom, they would be able to bank on her audience being all in on whatever she posted. Her followers wouldn’t even mind because this is what they are there for: gorgeous but affordable interiors.
Of course, as soon as a series of posts – or a longer campaign involving produced video and a mix of content across more than one platform – comes up, you can certainly scale down the cost per post in favour of building long-term relationships and brand association.
Rachel Kolisi also makes an interesting point when it comes to the opportunity you might get to use your platform to help charitable organisations and small businesses.
I allocate posts to charities and posts to small businesses where the rules don’t apply. I really believe in the contribution of small businesses to the economy and I know the struggle of young entrepreneurs.
For her, it’s all about trust:
I have earned the trust of my followers and I can’t keep it if I am promoting things I wouldn’t actually recommend. I like to understand why
