How much do influencers make?

The influencer economy has been getting its speed towards hype for the last few decades. According to Marketing Hub’s 2024 Industry Benchmark Report, the influencer marketing industry will surpass the wholesome figure of $21.1 billion by the end of 2024.

This marks how much social media platforms are gaining importance. Ultimately, being the prime source of entertainment, information, and consumer advice, brands have strength turned up their marketing power. Now, they directly engage with their niche-specific audience through influencers and generate revenue that was never created with traditional advertising.

Influencers are simply those individuals who love to create engaging content. Now, they have become full-time entrepreneurs. By building their $1,000,000 empires from various platforms, they achieve wholesome success. However, their income is different from that of the platform. Still niche, audience size, engagement rate, and how many partnerships they own currently play a key role in defining their overall income.

How do Influencers Make Money?

For influencers, the revenue-generating streams are countless when the world is all about social media. The most common ways to make money include sponsored content, Marketing, product collaborations, and even brand ambassadorships. Every platform pays specific money to these influencers for their services. Let’s have a detailed look at how their income stream works.

1. Sponsored Posts and Brand Partnerships

Sponsor content is one of the most common sources of income for influencers around the world. In this income stream, influencers promote our brand or product. Or, they tell people about some services in exchange for payment. The compensation rate for sponsored posts and brand partnerships depends on the influencers’ follower count, niche, and overall engagement rate.

For example, influencers on Instagram can easily earn between $100 to $10,000 per post. According to the 2024 Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report published by Influencer Marketing Hub, the average payment for any extra influencer is about $1000 per post. If the influencer owns more than 100,000 followers, the price can be much higher. However, for macro-influencers or those with more than millions of followers, The per-post budget can be high, up to $10,000 per post.

Apart from Instagram, brands ask their ambassadors for product or service promotion on other platforms like TikTok. As the audience on this platform is younger, so it is about a shorter format of content. But, the engagement and virality brands enjoy with this setup is beyond imagination. According to the usual follower count, TikTok influencers are paid between $1000 and $10,000 per post.

For YouTube, the average rate of influencers is higher than that of imagination. The reason is that the content is long. Higher production value gives the platform the ability to derive better ROI for any brand. YouTube influencers with more than 100,000 subscribers enjoy money between $2,000 to $5000 per video. If you are onboarding an influencer with more than 1,000,000 subscribers, the service charges per video would be at least $10,000.

2. Affiliate Marketing

Apart from brands and product promotion, another way is to join hands for affiliation. Affiliate marketing is another word that influencers use to earn money. This revenue stream influences the promotion of our product and service, and, ultimately, they are paired with the commission on Sales made with their affiliate link. Influencers use platforms like Amazon Associates, ShareASale, and even Rakuten Marketing to promote any branch products with which they are associated to cash a percentage on every sale they make.

Although the pay rates for affiliate marketing are different, top influencers can still make huge money. For example, Amazon’s affiliate program asks influencers to promote their products so they can earn between 1% and 10% commission per sale. It all depends on your product and category. Niches like tech, beauty, or fashion bring thousands or hundreds of dollars to every influencer within a month with their affiliate lengths.

Many influencers directly partner with brands like Gucci and Rolex and offer affiliate programs on Nordstrom or Sephora. They can smartly earn a commission on every sale of products they promote in their posts.

3. Product Collaboration and Merchandising

Now comes product collaboration or merchandising by sharing limited edition items. Many influencers create their personal brands or products. From clothing lineups to beauty products and fitness materials, it can be any product you own and sell. People also sell eBooks, courses, and even apps.

For example, Kylie Jenner, one of the highest-earning influencers in the world, made $900 million from her beauty brand, Kylie Cosmetics. In contrast, other influences like Jeffrey Starr and Huda Katan have earned lump sum profits from their product collaborations. Now, they are known as one of the best profitable global business owners.

However, not every influencer out there launches a global brand. Still, many small influencers create merchandisers serving mugs, T-shirts, and posters on platforms like Teespring or Printful. They handle production and development so the market can avail of successful merchandise sales. It ultimately boosts their overall income. Usually, influencers can earn anywhere between $500 to $10,000 per post according to the popularity of their brands and products in their audience.

4. Brand Ambassadorships

Brand ambassadorships are actually the long-term partnerships in which any influencer works with a company. Their aim is to promote the products over some months or even years. These deals are usually in demand better than those old sponsored posts. Ambassadors usually create regular content promoting the brand they are engaged with in activities like events or sharing exclusive offers.

For brand ambassadorship, any medium influencer who has $500,000 to 1,000,000 followers can earn between $10,000 to $100,000 per year from a single brand ambassadorship.

5. Platform Payments and Monetization Features

Apart from this, many social media platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch even offer monetization plans for influencers. With this plan, they can directly earn money from the specific platform.

• YouTube: Influencers can make money on YouTube through the AdSense This program brings ads in their videos. Earnings are all about how many views influencers have on their videos. And what kind of ads are being shown to the audience? The average CPM (cost per 1000 views) on YouTube pays $1 to $5, depending upon the content and audience demographic criteria. Normally, popular YouTubers earn huge lump sum amounts ranging from six to seven figures from AdSense alone.
• TikTok: The TikTok Creator Fund pays its creators and influencers according to their engagement over videos. However, compared to YouTube or Instagram, TikTok doesn’t pay as much money to its influencers. Still, you can earn somewhere between $0.01 to $0.02 per view due to high viewership.
• Instagram: On Instagram, there is no direct monetization plan for creators like TikTok or YouTube. Still, through IGTV Ads, Badges in Live Streams, and Shoppable Posts, influencers can make money.
• Twitch: For Twitch, consumers enjoy subscription-based income from subscriptions and donations. Usually, our Twitch streamer can earn hundreds to thousands of dollars within a year by mixing and matching these sources.

How Much Do Influencers Make on Average?

How much money influencers make depends on what platforms they are available on and what specific category or niche they promote. Moreover, how much time they spend in creating their content. Usually, the generic income estimation depending upon the followers count is stated below:

• Nano-influencers (1K to 10K followers): Usually earn money in between $50 and $500 per post.
• Micro-influencers (10K to 100K followers): Can touch the target of $500 to $2,000 per post.
• Mid-tier influencers (100K to 500K followers): refers to their income as somewhere between $2,000 and $10,000 per post.
• Macro-influencers (500K to 1M followers): Normally, they earn between $10,000 and $25,000 per post.
• Mega-influencers (1M+ followers): They can earn $25,000+ per post or even more depending on their brand partnerships and the specific niches they are working on.

Influencer Earnings by Platform

• YouTube: Overall, the average YouTuber gets money between $3 and $5 for 100,000 views. However, the niche and content creation specifications and budget can vary.
• Instagram: Influencers working on Instagram earn about $1000 per post if they have more than 100K followers. However, top influencers with millions of followers can earn more than this amount.
• TikTok: Per post income for TikTok is somewhere between $50 to $2000 per post, with overall mediocre engagement.

Conclusion

Overall, the influencer earned money in countless ways. By boosting their social presence and turning it into a full-time, money-making job. The figures we have stated above are a rough estimate of influences earnings depending upon their followers count, platform type, and engagement rate.

However, whether they are earning with sponsored content, making money through affiliates, or selling their products, the revenue stream can be different. However, the influencer economy is growing. Still, social media is trying to cope with these new generation trends and bringing better yet bigger earning ways for people out there.

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