How much should an influencer marketing campaign cost? A marketer’s guide

What if your brand could tap into the audience of an online superstar? Getting your message across to a relevant audience can be priceless. 

In the past, only big brands could afford celebrity endorsements. Now, with the power and reach of social media, influencer marketing is far more accessible. For just $700, you could get a reach of over 15,000 impressions – and if your client is a big spender, they could partner with a TV celebrity like Emilia Clarke for around $130,000. 

Let’s dive into influencer marketing campaign costs, so you can start planning your very own influencer marketing campaign. 

What exactly is an influencer marketing campaign?

Influencers have reach and credibility. They use their talents, knowledge or personality to connect with people on social media, and the clue is in the name – they can influence their followers choices and purchases. So, influencer marketing is a tactic where businesses and brands collaborate with people who have a significant following or influence in a certain target market. The influencers create content which promotes a product or service, and shares that promotional content with their followers. 

What kinds of influencers are we talking about?

Influencers come in all shapes and sizes – and on any online channel you can think of. At the top, of course we see huge-names like Kim Kardashian and the most popular YouTuber of all time, MrBeast. But there are plenty of influencers with niche audiences, whose help won’t necessarily break the bank.

As a rule of thumb, you can work out how much an influencer will charge per post based on how many followers they have. Here’s a rundown of the different types of influencers, based on audience size, data provided by BuzzGuru and our experience working with thousands of professionals.

Nano influencers 

Nano influencers typically have between 1,000 and 5,000 followers. While these are small, posts shared by nano influencers benefit from a close knit community where the influencer is often an expert in a specialist field. Some of them are happy to collaborate with brands in exchange for products or just because they **** it.

Approximate cost per post (all channels): from $0 < $1.000

Micro influencers

Micro influencers have between 5,000 and 30,000 followers on social media platforms. This is a popular segment, with 77% of brands preferring to work with micro-influencers.

Approximate average cost per post (all channels): $1,674

Mid-sized

Mid-sized influencers can count on between 30,000 and 200,000 followers. They are more well-known than micro influencers and have a wider reach. It’s worth investigating how much engagement they get per post before you sign up to a campaign with them.

Approximate average cost per post (all channels): $3,396

Macro influencers

These giants of social media can boast between 200,000 and 500,00 followers, which means they can charge a lot more money per post.

Approximate average cost per post (all channels): $4,992

Mega influencers

Also referred to as celebrities, these rarified influencers have more than 500,000 followers. They are the most expensive and can command millions of dollars per post. 

Approximate average cost per post (all channels): $5,497

Estimating your influencer marketing campaign cost by channel

From these figures, it’s clear that the influencer marketing industry is worth a lot of money – $17.4B in 2023, according to industry insiders. So, it’s understandable that you might be worried that a campaign like this will leave a serious dent in your finances. 

But there’s some good news! With over 50 million influencers hanging out on your favorite channels, working with them can be much more affordable than you’d imagine, depending on which social media platform you choose. 

Here’s list of average global prices per platform:

Social media channel	Price range
Instagram	Posts average $10 per publication, per 1,000 followers. In 2021, the average cost of an Instagram post was $1,170 and the average cost of an Instagram story was $906.
TikTok	Influencers on TikTok charge from $5 to $2,500 per video, depending on how many followers they have.
YouTube	A pricier option, YouTube creators can charge around $20 per video, per 1,000 subscribers. The average YouTube post can set you back close to $4,500 per video.
Twitter	The cheapest option, where influencers charge $2 per post, per 1,000 followers.

What types of collaborations are available?

There are a great many marketing campaigns that businesses can develop by teaming up with an influencer. It’s important to remember that different types of collaborations are suitable for different budgets, and costs can vary depending on the industry. 

For example, within the tourism industry it is common to offer accommodation, spa visits or other travel experiences in return for promotion by an influencer, which keeps costs down. Howere, in the fashion industry, brands pay for exclusivity as they don’t want to work with an influencer who promotes the new Gucci bag one week, and then the new Prada bag the following week. So, the cost of partnering with an influencer can be considerably higher for luxury fashion brands. 

Very often influencers will offer post “bundles” where they charge less overall for a longer-lasting collaboration. BuzzGuru and other platforms can help broker these deals and help you get the most bang for your buck.
Here’s a look at some of the most popular options and some explanation on pricing.

Influencer tactic	Description	Pricing considerations
Guest posting	Guest posting is where influencers create and publish blog posts on a brand’s website or blog. The influencer creates a post on a topic related to the company’s industry and includes links to the website. At the same time, the brand gains high-quality content and boosts its visibility among a new audience.	Bear in mind that you’ll have to pay both the influencer and website in this type of campaign. Influencer writing costs start from approximately $400. Website publishing from $60 – $15,000, depending on audience size and domain authority.
Sponsored content	Sponsored content involves brands paying influencers to promote their products or services on social media platforms or other channels.  Influencers create text posts, videos, or stories, including a tag that discloses the content is sponsored. Sponsored content can include product reviews, unboxing videos, tutorials, and others.	Costs range from $10 to more than $4000, depending on the audience size and content type.
Co-creation	The brand and the influencer work together to develop ideas and create content.  Co-creation can take many forms, including product launches, limited edition collections, and exclusive content.  The aim is to create a unique experience for the influencer’s audience, while also growing awareness and driving sales for the brand.	Costs vary vastly, depending on the type and volume of content required as well as audience size.
Competitions	Influencer competitions, contests or giveaways see influencers collaborate with companies to promote the brand’s products or services.  The influencer creates content which contains information about potential prizes, entry requirements, and deadlines, which might require entrants to follow the brand, influencer or both, as well as tag friends in comments.	A single post can range from $25 to over $1000. Costs will depend on how much the influencer is involved.  Generally, longer term engagements can be negotiated, so the cost per post is more economical.
Mentions	Influencer mentions are one of the most straightforward influencer marketing campaigns available. The influencer “mentions” the brand in a comment and charges for it. When done well, this can drive traffic to the brand’s website, increase sales, and build a loyal following of customers.	Cost from $25, depending on audience size.
Discount codes	Influencer discount codes help push audiences towards becoming customers!  Your company can provide an influencer with a unique discount code to share with their followers, which is promoted by posts on social media.	Cost from $25, depending on audience size.

How to estimate your campaign cost

Now you know what options you have, you need to work out how much your influencer marketing campaign is going to cost. 

Platforms like BuzzGuru serve as a one-stop shop for running influencer marketing campaigns. They can help your business work out how much certain influencers and campaigns will cost. 

Here’s a quick guide to using the platform. In the following use case, we’ll imagine we are a small, UK-based gaming company with a limited budget:

1. Starting with the influencer discovery tab, choose the channel you are interested in. There are more than 27 million influencers to choose from! The gaming company already has a good presence on Twitch, so they want to expand into YouTube marketing. 

2. Use the filters to elect your industry, number of views, subscribers, language and country. In the example below we are showing the free plan, in the gaming niche. 

3. You’ll be presented with a huge list of relevant influencers, filtered as you like. You can click on any to expand their details. Below we have two examples: A mega influencer and a micro influencer. You’ll see their stats and how much it will cost, on average, to engage their services. 

With an integration cost of over $250,000 the first influencer is out of budget. A further look reveals Deep Silver, a UK-based influencer with a more manageable price range.

4. You can also see how well each influencer does in terms of channel quality. This will help you determine whether it is worth spending your budget on any particular influencer. Below, you can see an example of a poor quality influencer and one that is categorized as Good. 

It’s important to bear in mind that audience size is not the most important metric. Number of likes, engagements and comments are better indicators of a successful campaign. 

It’s also worth noting that influencer fees don’t always tally with the channel quality rating. So make sure you pay attention to these metrics.

5. Once the gaming company has established that an influencer has good potential, they can add them to a shortlist. You can do this with the integrated list building tool, and then choose the most relevant and cost-effective influencers for your brand.

Later, you’ll be able to create and manage your influencer campaigns and even invite colleagues and clients to stay up to ****. The platform also offers data-driven performance forecasts and automated reports.

Final thoughts

When you first start working with influencers, you’ll need to know how much it’s going to cost and whether or not it’s going to be effective. Then, there’s the time associated with reaching out to influencers, the negotiations, and business-influencer relationships. 
With a platform like BuzzGuru, you can far more easily manage campaigns, communication and even forecast costs and report on your successes.