Influencer 101: How to Set Your Rates as a Micro-Influencer
As the influencer marketing industry continues to grow and become recognized as a legitimate form of employment, there are more exciting paid opportunities than ever for content creators who want to pursue this profession both part-time or full-time. While social media trend reports for 2022 (such as this one from Hootsuite) state that many brands will be increasing their budget for social media campaigns, many influencers are still underpaid when they sign contracts for paid partnerships.
Why is this the case? Unfortunately, negotiating a paid partnership brand contract requires some business skills and savvy— something that many newer (and younger) content creators don’t have much experience with. Consequently, many don’t know how to properly set their rates for content or push back in negotiations when necessary. As well, since “business is business,” brands will try to offer as little compensation as possible unless the creator knows how to stand up for themselves and their work.
After many conversations with fellow creators through my Instagram direct messages, it’s come to my attention that many of them greatly undervalue their work. As a result, I thought I would share some basic standards for rates that I’ve learned from more experienced creators than myself. After using these, there was a substantial increase in my brand partnership earnings. As an example, I went from earning a meagre $3,300 for Quarter 1 of 2021 (January - February) to $27,500 for Quarter 4 of 2022 (October - December)!
The following sections will briefly go over the most significant factors I consider when pricing my work. However, I will not say that this post is fully comprehensive— I’m still learning in this area from my own experiences with brands and from what other creators have been willing to share. Let’s get into it!
Factors to Consider When Setting Rates
1. FOLLOWING SIZE:
Rates are usually based to some extent on your following size. In the past, it was advised that rates should be set solely based on the number of followers you have. However, given that too many accounts have bought their followers through bot services or loop giveaways, I personally don’t believe that this is a valid way to value your content services. There are many other factors that should be examined when setting your rates and I will be going into more detail about them in the sections below!
2. PERCENTAGE:
At this time, I set my rates to ~5% of my current following size. However, I’ve heard some creators charge as much as 10% if they feel confident enough about their work and engagement rate! Since many of you have asked me how to do this, I will put it into very basic math terms here— I take my following count (which is currently just over 23,000) and multiply it by 0.05. As a result, I will usually price a carousel feed post at the base rate of $1150. However, I will share more below about how I differentiate this base rate depending on the type of content being priced.
3. BUDGET:
Whenever I have an offer from a large, well-known brand, I make sure to increase my rates by another percent or two. In the recent past, this has been a very lucrative for me as big corporate brands often have a much larger budget than they initially would like to reveal. Two of my biggest campaigns from 2021 resulted from when I set prices higher than ever before— and two well-established brands decided that I was worth paying my asking price!
Note: For smaller businesses, I try to be more reasonable with my expectations and I usually don’t push them as hard when it comes to negotiations. However, I wouldn’t undervalue my work either as some small to mid-sized businesses still have a decent marketing budget to offer creators.
4. TIME:
If the brand requests “content-only” or a photoshoot (where the content won’t be posted on your page), you should charge based on a hourly rate. For instance, think of how long it would take to shoot, create the content, or even the travel time involved. Admittedly, I’ve done this type of work only a few times; however, I would recommend setting your hourly rate to at least $200 or higher as your time is valuable and deserves proper compensation!
5. VALUE:
If you create VALUABLE content, you can confidently charge more! Since I put a lot of effort into my captions and have worked on improving my content creation techniques, I feel justified in charging brands higher rates for my hard work. For instance, it takes me a lot of time to write well-worded promotional captions that are genuine and educational. Brands and my online community regularly tell me that they appreciate the depth of detail I provide in my captions— which further convinces me that I should be charging more for my writing skills.
If you’re a creator who has invested a lot of time into your photography, videography, or editing techniques, you should definitely factor those skillsets into your prices. While beautiful work can indeed be accomplished on a smartphone, I personally believe that high-grade product shots from a DSLR camera (taken with a practiced eye) deserve higher payment from brands.
6. USAGE RIGHTS:
When charging for your content services, be sure you are aware of your basic usage rights, such as digital usage rights, whitelisting, and exclusivity. Prior to learning more about these rights, I was signing contracts that asked me for 6 months exclusivity and other rights without any compensation. After working with a very large brand that used my content for a month on bus stop ads and street billboards (and whitelisted my content for a month), I realized that I needed to learn more about usage rights.
Firstly, I learned how to charge for the following basic rights:
Content Usage Rights: The right to use your content on the brand’s social media platforms, print media, and other advertising platforms (ex. billboards) for a certain period of time.
According to other creators, the industry average for these usage rights is 15% per month for digital usage.
However, you should ask HOW your content will be used— if the brand has a large enough budget to use your content in print media and billboards, you should be charging much more for your usage rights.
Whitelisting: This usage right grants the brand access to your social media accounts so that they can boost your content as a sponsored ad.
It’s been suggested to charge about 25% per month for this particular right.
Do NOT be fooled by brands telling you that whitelisting will give you extra “exposure” or engagement on your post. When your post is whitelisted, it means that it will become a separate post from the one you posted on your profile (you will not benefit from the engagement received on the whitelisted post). As well, when I had a post whitelisted for a month, it brought no noticeable amount of new followers to my page.
Perpetuity: When brands ask to own your content in perpetuity, it means FOREVER.
It is not recommended that you allow any brand to own your content in perpetuity as it means that you forfeit the right to that content in the future.
Be sure to look out for perpetuity clauses in any contracts you’re signing and ask for it to be removed.
Exclusivity: This right means that a brand is asking you not to work with any of its competitors for a certain period of time. For instance, if you sign a six month exclusivity clause with a skincare company, it means that you will be cutting yourself off from any future skincare opportunities within that specific time period.
While many brands will try to obtain exclusivity without compensating you, do NOT let them! I would have missed out on four figure brand partnerships if I had not ensured that 1) I was either being paid well for exclusivity or 2) they took the exclusivity clause out of the contract.
When pricing your exclusivity, I would think about how much money you could lose if you weren’t able to work with a competitor for the space of a month. For example, I currently charge about $1000/month for exclusivity.
7. EFFORT LEVEL:
When pricing specific types of content, think about how potentially difficult it is for you to create that content. For instance, since video content is harder to create in terms of time and editing efforts, I charge more for reels and IG videos. On the flip side, static (single image) feed posts or carousel (multiple images) feed posts require less time to shoot and are less difficult to edit.
8. LONGEVITY:
Since I charge higher for content that stays permanently on my feed, I usually charge less for story content as it typically only lasts for 24 hours. However, there is a way around this— if I tell the brand that I’m willing to save my stories permanently to a profile story highlight, I can justify charging more for stories. This is ideal as I actually spend a lot of time and energy shooting and editing Instagram story sets. In fact, I would argue that stories can be even more difficult to create than a reel or feed post as you have to ensure that you are creating something interesting, include engagement features (I.e. polls, quizzes, links), and ensure that tags, hashtags and links are working properly.
Based on my reasoning from the above two sections, this is how I typically price my content for Instagram:
Story Set (3-5 Frames): a few hundred dollars less than a static image feed post
Static Image Feed Post: a hundred or so dollars less than a carousel feed post
Carousel Feed Post: about 5% of my following size
Reel: a few hundred dollars more than a carousel feed post
IG Video: a few hundred dollars more than a reel
9. RELEVANT PLATFORMS:
When negotiating a potential brand partnership, make sure to share your most relevant social media accounts with the brand— you could potentially earn much more if a brand decides that it wants more content deliverables from you. As I am active on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and my blog, I’ve had brands pay me a significantly higher amount because I was able to create IG content and content for other platforms. Consequently, I would suggest: 1) adding these services into your media kit rate card and 2) sharing the links to these platforms in your business email signature.
Note: Brands will typically let you know which social media platforms they are most interested in during the initial inquiries.
10. SERVICES:
When creating your media kit and rate, make sure that you list all of the services that you’re willing to provide. For instance, I provide services for:
Instagram: Stories, Feed Posts, Reels, IG Videos
TikTok videos
Pinterest: Idea Pins and Regular Pins
Blog Posts
11. CROSS PROMOTIONAL PRICING:
Sometimes a brand will request that you repost original content onto different platforms— for example, you might be asked to post an Instagram reel you made onto your TikTok and Pinterest accounts. If this is the case, be sure to charge an extra fee as they are accessing your audience on those different platforms. Recently, I charged an extra $500 to repost a TikTok video to my Instagram account (on top of what I charged the brand for the original TikTok content).
12. EXTRA CONSIDERATIONS:
Whether you are working as a content creator part-time or full-time, don’t forget that your time is very valuable! Therefore, if a brand partnership inconveniences you in terms of time and effort, be sure to charge extra for those extra difficulties. The factors listed below are particularly important to consider during busy times such as the holiday season (when time is literally money).
Specifically, I try to charge brands for:
Rush Fees: When a brand asks me to create content within a timeline of less than two weeks, I asked to be paid a “rush fee” of an additional 10%.
Reshoot Fees: If the brand asks for me to reshoot content more than once (some creators don’t even allow for one reshoot session without an extra fee), I charge an additional 15% for the extra effort and stress involved (especially if the brand has already approved the content concept given).
Travel Costs: If I have to travel for more than an hour in order to create the content for the campaign, I ask for the brand to cover my transportation costs.
Late Payment Fees: If possible, you should try to keep brands accountable for paying you on time. In one of my current long-term partnerships, the PR agency has agreed to pay an additional 2% fee if my payment is late by a period of more than one business week.
Now That You Know, Here’s How To Make It Happen
Other than knowing your rates, you need CONFIDENCE to stand behind them! In order to successfully negotiate brand deals, you need to know when to push back on an offer and when to compromise. For example, if a brand is offering you only 50% of what you asked for in return for five pieces of content, you probably shouldn’t accept that offer. However, if they are asking for two pieces of content at a slight discount, it’s probably okay to accept a small pay cut (especially if you think the content will be relatively easy to create).
If a brand isn’t willing to arrive at a compromise that is comfortable to both parties, it’s time to walk away and save your time and energy for better partnerships. On a related note, I personally don’t believe in accepting gifted partnerships on the off chance that the brand MIGHT eventually pay you one day IF the content does well. As a full-time content creator, that is way too much uncertainty as someone who depends upon paid collaborations for my livelihood!
At long last, we have reached the end of this blog post on setting your rates as a microinfluencer! Did you learn anything from this post or want to learn anything further? If so, be sure to leave a comment below or DM me on Instagram.
In the meantime, thank you all so very much for taking the time to read this blog post— I appreciate you all so much for supporting me in all of my efforts as a content creator!
Cheers,
Debbie (a.k.a. The Stylish Wordsmith)