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How much do influencers really earn? That depends on gender, among other factors

If you think you are an influencer – and want to earn cash for your efforts - be warned. You might not earn as much as you expect.
Written by Eileen Brown, Contributor

Although Influencer marketing is now mainstream for brands that want to extend their marketing, influencers often do not earn as much for their posts as you might think.

Despite the growth in influencer marketing, there are no official standards for influencer pricing. Often brands have no idea how much to budget for their influencers in their campaigns.

New York-based influencer marketing platform Klear surveyed more than 2,500 influencers, across three leading social networks (Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook) to better understand influencer pricing.

To create its influencer pricing guide, Klear surveyed influencers with a variety of follower numbers across all industries,  

Its 2019 Influencer pricing report includes Instagram influencer rates by post, video and stories, YouTube and Facebook influencer rates, and Influencer pricing trends by geography, industry, and demographics.

Influencers fall into distinct groups based on the number of followers they have: nano (500-5K followers), micro (5-30K followers), power (30-500K followers), and celebrity (500K+ followers).

How much do influencers really earn online zdnet
Klear

 Almost half (46 percent) of all influencer activity occurs in the US. Yet pricing in the US does not differ significantly from the UK and Canada, despite these regions being less popular markets.

The oversaturation of US influencers has probably impacted this level of pricing. Across the world, things are looking up. Areas to watch are Sweden, Estonia, and South Korea  - all are up and coming regions for influencer marketing.

The figures are heavily skewed towards male influencers too. Males comprise under a quarter (23 percent) of the influencer industry, yet they earn around $100 per post more than female influencers across all industries except travel.

In the travel industry, women comprise 61 percent of the influencers and average $615 per post. Males posting for the travel industry earn $570.

On Instagram, rates range from $41 – $3,138. Video posts are the most expensive format and Instagram stories are the most affordable medium for brands. There, celebrity influencers average $721 per post.

Brands using YouTube must be prepared to pay top dollar for their influencer campaigns.

On this platform the average price begins at $315 for nano influencers rising to $3,837 for celebrity influencers. Yet YouTube is the channel with the highest pay gap between male and female influencers, 6 percent greater than Instagram.

How much do influencers really earn online zdnet
Klear

If you consider yourself to be a tech influencer, you are unlikely to earn enough to retire with revenue generated from your online posts.

Average posts for tech influencers generate $490 per post, almost 11 times lower than posts in the travel industry, earning $5,335 on average. The high cost of travel posts  is due to production time and effort, with many posts utilizing video.

Successfully defining a marketing budget requires clear understanding of all relevant channels and costs. 

In influencer marketing, brands certainly get what they pay for – and influencers cannot hope to make a good living out of their posts until they move into the big time in terms of followers. 

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