How much does influencer advertising cost?

An influencer’s price list is remarkably fluid and depends on a great many variables.

It is hard to pin down, systematise and fix the cost of influencer marketing at a specific amount. Everything depends on the influencer’s image and on the package of specific advertising activities they deliver. Price ranges for working with influencers start at a few dozen zloty and end… well, essentially nowhere.

Territory to match the influencer

As a rule of thumb – although reason is a relative concept here – you can assume that the “top” influencers may charge as much as several tens of thousands of zloty for posting a photo on their Instagram account. That naturally depends on the creator’s reputation and on how they are perceived by the online community around them. Influencers gather “fans” constantly, and a growing audience represents something of real value from an advertising point of view – the size of their reach. It is a criterion that largely determines whether they can take on bigger or smaller advertising partnerships and work with particular brands.

Influencers can be divided up in several ways. Above all, the influencer market has enormous potential, and the creators working in it start from the proverbial zero and climb higher with every day – or every post. Those at the beginning of their influencer path usually hold the status of a micro-influencer (from 1,000 to 100,000 followers) or a nano-influencer (under 1,000 followers, but with a significant influence on their community – often a niche subject), because they (still) gather a small audience around them. Of course, they may never reach a higher rank in the influencer hierarchy and may stick to advertising partnerships on a smaller and… (usually) cheaper scale. Everything here depends directly on the creator and on the way they hold a dialogue with the community that follows them.

The influencer – content creator, profit generator

Bear in mind that an influencer is not content in themselves; they create it – and the deliberate production of messages through images and text can ultimately bring them tangible benefits. A smaller audience can also be the result of creating content on niche subjects. These need not be unfashionable or less gripping topics, but, for example, specialist knowledge in a field that does not appeal to a wider audience, or that is understood only by a select few, such as people trained in that profession. One example might be an influencer who is a doctor and talks only about the skeletal system, posting and discussing the latest scientific news while promoting scientific conferences, rehabilitation equipment or prostheses. From the outset, such a person can expect a disproportionately smaller following than a young woman recording make-up tutorials or a food photographer travelling the world.

Knowledge is not the same as reach

It is worth being aware that specialist knowledge is valued. After all, a less obvious subject and a smaller audience have as many upsides as downsides. The community here is more focused and loyal both to the influencer and to the subject – and when a topic’s boundaries are narrow, it is hard to break away and look for other authorities online. Micro-influencers can also set their rates without looking over their shoulder at the competition, which is not as significant or visible when it comes to competing for advertising partnerships. The community gathered around them is genuinely interested in their activity on social media.

Macro-influencers come with macro reach, ranging from 500,000 to 1 million followers. Their activities are not always more effective. The community is more dispersed, and some followers pay little attention to the content being published. They are following a kind of fashion for “peeking” at that particular influencer.

A creator’s measurable value?

To estimate how effective a given influencer’s influence is, you look at ER (Engagement Rate), meaning the rate of follower engagement. It helps determine the advertising effectiveness of a creator’s profile. It is calculated as the ratio of comments and likes to the total number of followers. The higher the value, the more engaged the influencer’s community. Analysing a range of accounts leads to a conclusion confirmed many times over – as the number of followers grows, audience engagement falls.

A specific amount, specific guidelines

Specific rates depend on a range of factors that determine how an advertising campaign runs. At the centre of all this is, of course, the influencer, and we can present and outline the fees they prefer after an initial check of the client’s and the creator’s expectations and, above all, of mutual willingness to take up a potential partnership. Particular influencers do not take on every subject, and not every campaign for a given product would succeed with a particular audience. That is exactly why the requirements of a partnership need careful thought, along with a well-planned strategy. We do not leave anyone to fend for themselves here. We are here to make every partnership bear fruit, and to make sure that both the client and the influencer are happy with the choices made and with how the advertising activities run.