How Much Do Social Media Influencers Make?

Anyone with a social media account, time, and focus can become a successful influencer. There are critical steps to take to become profitable, and you may be curious about what those successful influencers in your news feed bring in every month.

Are you curious about influencer rates and how much you could earn if you follow the career path of a social media influencer? We’re covering it all in this post!

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How Influencers Make Money

Before we get into how much influencers make, it’s essential to understand how they earn money online. Here are the most common ways influencers earn money through their social platforms and online presence.

Sponsored posts

Most influencers earn money through sponsored posts, promoting a product or service to their followers for a fee. This could be a one-time post on your feed, a series of Instagram stories, a Reel, or a TikTok video.

Influencers are required to inform their followers when the content they are posting is an ad and typically do so in the caption or with a hashtag like #sponsored or #ad.

Brand partnerships

A brand partnership is when an influencer partners with a company to promote their products or services for a fee. Influencers often receive compensation in exchange for regular posts on social media or their blog, advertising the company’s offerings to their followers.

Affiliate marketing

In affiliate marketing, an influencer promotes products sold by a merchant or vendor and receives a portion of each sale that is associated with them. Affiliates usually have a unique link or URL to promote so the purchases can be easily tracked.

Merchandise

Many influencers opt to create and sell their merchandise, which can be highly profitable with a loyal audience. From t-shirts to posters, home decor, stickers, and more, merchandise can bring in substantial money. Using a print-on-demand or dropshipping model, selling merch can be hands-off when handled by a third-party vendor.

Subscriptions or exclusive content

Influencers can offer exclusive content to their most loyal followers using services like Patreon. Some offer extended versions of their content, videos, one-on-one collaborations, and more to offer bonus material and incentives for subscribers.

Exclusive content can be released in tiers based on how much followers will pay monthly. Some influencers charge small fees, starting at $5 per month, to share behind-the-scenes content that keeps their followers engaged. More prominent influencers offer tiered pricing up to $200 per month!

How Much Do Social Media Influencers Make?

Now that we know how influencers make money, let’s break it down by social media platform and content type.

How much do Instagram influencers make?

With 2 billion monthly users, Instagram is a massively popular space for influencers to earn a living. People come to Instagram for inspiration in their lives, and influencers who provide that can be widely successful.

How much influencers earn on Instagram depends mainly on the industry they’re in and their follower count. On average, influencers with less than 100,000 followers can earn between $200 and $1,000 per post.

Accounts with a follower count of over 500,000 earn anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 per post. Similar to sponsored posts, brand partnerships vary primarily by how many followers the influencer has and the industry they’re in.

How much do Amazon influencers make?

Amazon influencers belong to Amazon’s affiliate program, earning a portion of each sale completed through their storefront or unique shopping link. Amazon influencers earn a commission of anywhere from 1% to 20%, depending on the products purchased.

Amazon influencers with larger followings are recruited to join the ecommerce’s paid program, where they livestream, review products, talk to their followers, and get paid to do so. Some Amazon influencers make upwards of $9,000 per livestream.

How much do TikTok influencers make?

Boasting over 116 million users in the US alone, TikTok is rising in the ranks of the best place to create content for a substantial income.

If you’re just starting on TikTok, you can expect to charge between $5 and $25 for sponsored posts and up to $200 as your following grows. In 2023, brand partnerships seem to be the highest-paying form of content on TikTok.

FAQ: Influencer Rates

There’s a lot to know about how much influencers get paid, and knowing what you can expect to make can be confusing. Here are some commonly asked questions about influencer rates to give you a better idea of their income.

How much do influencers make per post?

Influencer rates vary by the size of the account, the social media platform, and the type of content. Single images or a carousel typically earn less than a video, Instagram stories, or a TikTok video.

As a general rule, here are some average earnings based on account size:

How much do micro-influencers make?

Micro-influencers are those with follower counts ranging from 1,000 to 100,000. While they may be smaller than others, micro-influencers can still earn a significant income from social media.

On average, micro-influencers can make about $1,400 per month from sponsored posts, partnerships, and affiliate marketing.

About The Author
Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.

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