31 Aug Influencer Marketing in 2018 From the Eyes of 100 Influencers

With influencer marketing constantly evolving, how you work with influencers should evolve too.  We surveyed 100 micro influencers to better understand what they are seeing in the industry, what they are charging and to learn what we can do to make influencer marketing go a little smoother.  

Who We Surveyed

The influencers we surveyed ranged from having 500 to 150,000 Instagram followers, with a average of 24,000 and a median of 13,000. Pageviews on their blogs went up to 150,000, while some did not even have a blog and only focused on social media. The average blog received 120,000 visits with a median of 22,000. Everyone we included in the results regularly posts sponsored content as part of influencer marketing campaigns.

Our Key Findings

What Influencers Are Charging

While the price of influencer marketing varies widely depending on the niche, quality of content created, follower counts and engagement rates, on average influencers, charged $348 for an Instagram post. The median Instagram post cost $200. We looked at the cost per 1000 followers and it varied with an average of $19 and a median of $12.8. For a blog post with social promotion, influencers charge on average of $1090 and a median of $700.

Overall, there was a huge range of prices.  Regardless of budget, brands should be able to afford some level of influencer marketing. When deciding who to work with, look at engagement rates and the quality of content to see if the influencer is worth a premium.

Influencers find their campaigns in various ways

Influencers are finding partnerships directly from brands 45% of the time, 28% of campaigns came through an agency and 27% come through influencer marketing platforms. Brands prefer to work directly with brands because of higher pay, quicker pay and the creative freedom that is allotted.  They still work with networks and agencies because they bring regular work from a variety of different companies.

It’s not all about the money

Influencers are willing to negotiate price and how they are treated matters.  The aspects of a campaign that can effect the rate influencers charge are the affinity to the brand, how well the campaign matches the expertise of the influencer and how relevant the opportunity is.

While compensation has the most sway on an influencers likelihood of working with a brand again, professionalism and aligned values were also very influential.

There is still room for improvement

Influencers still feel like brands do not understand the effort they put into creating content or the cost. To improve the relationship with influencers make sure to give them feedback after campaigns are complete, improve communication and allow creative freedom.