When it comes to setting prices for sponsored posts, many influencers are navigating establishing rates blindly. Either you talk to other creators who share what they are charging, you Google some old formula that tells you how to calculate the rate, or you just accept what the brand offers you and go from there. In many cases, I’ve found that influencers are actually undervaluing their work and not setting their rates where there should be because they have no clue how much to charge per Instagram post or other social media posts.
Many creators that I have worked with in my influencer coaching program have told me that they spent hours reading posts after Googling “Instagram influencer rates” or “how much to charge for an Instagram post” and they often can’t get a clear answer to set their rates and begin fairly negotiating with brands.
If you’ve searched that term and you’ve landed here, I’m here to tell you that this blog post is going to dive right into how much you should be charging for your social media posts whether it be for an Instagram post, TikTok video, Pinterest pin, and other platforms that you may have content requested on.
But before we begin digging in, it’s essential that you first know the basics of getting yourself to the point where you’ll be sharing your rates with brands. You’ll first need to make sure that you have an influencer media kit, and that you know the ins-and-outs of pitching for paid partnerships. If you’re already familiar, then scroll down and begin diving into this blog post on how to set your rate for sponsored partnerships.
HOW MUCH TO CHARGE FOR AN INSTAGRAM POST
Let’s first start by breaking down how much to charge per Instagram posts since Instagram is one of the primary platforms that brands typically ask for sponsored content. After you understand the basis for setting rates for Instagram posts, setting rates on other platforms will come a whole lot easier.
Keep in mind that marketing and the influencer space is an ever fluctuating space – especially with the consistent fight to understand the Instagram algorithm. But I will say that the methods I’ll be sharing with you in this post are methods that I use today and have tested with my influencer coaching students as well as students who are in my influencer course.
The overall thing that you have to understand as you go into setting your rates is that you have to stay consistent and also put value to the work that you do. If you’re someone who is constantly just accepting the rates that brands offer you because you think that you won’t get any other offers anywhere else, or you are always accepting gifts in exchange for content, then you aren’t putting true value to your work. Just because one brand doesn’t value the work that you do and the content that you create, doesn’t mean that there isn’t another brand out there that will.
The Base Formula of HOW MUCH TO CHARGE FOR A SPONSORED POST
You’ve probably seen this formula somewhere in the amounts of searching that you’ve done, and if you haven’t this wont’ be the last time that you’ll see it. I even share it as a part of my influencer course as a place to start so that you understand the background of what sets a standard and what many brands may also be using to set their rates.
$100 FOR EVERY 10,000
Again, this is a base formula and it’s becoming more and more ancient as the time passes by. The issue with this formula is that there is a lot that goes into making a post as well as other factors that play into the effort that is taken to create content.
Put it this way – when you go to build a house, there is not a standard price for every house. There is no builder standard that says for ever 10 square feet that they are going to charge you $100. Instead, they explain aspects such as the time that you’re building, how soon you want the house done, what upgrades you want, where you’re putting the house, and what you really want it to look like when it’s finished. Some houses take longer to build than others depending on what you’re asking for, and that’s the same concept when it comes to create sponsored content.
So though I’ve shared with you this formula, I’m also going to share that you should NEVER set your rate simply based on this formula. Instead, keep it in the back of your mind to use as a base and to understand a starting place.
Factors That Go Into HOW MUCH TO CHARGE FOR AN INSTAGRAM POST
There are a number of different aspects that go into setting your rates for a sponsored post and knowing how much to charge per Instagram posts. Similar to the analogy with house, the contract, brief, or deliverable asks that a brand sends should be the blueprint to outline how much you should be charging for a paid partnership. Let’s break down each of these factors and talk about how they affect the price and how much you should be adding on to your rate.
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DELIVERABLE TYPE
In no world should you be charging the same rate for different types of deliverables. An Instagram Reel should have a higher rate than an Instagram static post, and an IGTV video should be a higher rate than a Reel. Each type of deliverable takes a different amount of time, and time is money. Also consider what types of content are performing well on certain platforms. You may be in the situation where your Instagram stories do better than your Reels, so you may consider charging more for that type of content because the brand will get a better return for that type of content. -
TIME
Time plays into how you should calculate a rate for a sponsored Instagram post. When considering costs for timing, there are two aspects of time that come into play. First, if a brand is asking for a quick turnaround versus what your typical turnaround time is, then you should be charging more. For example, two weeks from product receipt or end of event/experience is a standard time to submit drafts for review, but if a brand is looking for shorter than that, you should be charging more. Another aspect when it comes to time is the time of year they are asking for a partnership. During busier times and times when the brand will get more ROI from the marketing efforts, you should be charging more. This usually aligns with the holiday time. The holidays are very demanding for influencers because there are so many partnership opportunities and they are looking for quicker turnaround times. The holiday season is a time where you increase your standard rates to about 5-10% due to demand and higher ROI from your content. -
USAGE/LICENSING
In partnership contracts, you’ll typically see information on usage or licensing. This is a section that you should be paying a lot of attention to when it comes to setting your rates. We’ll talk about pricing this as we dive deeper, but keep in mind that usage is an additional charge on top of your standard rates. -
BOOSTING/WHITELISTING
If a brand is looking to boost your content, then this is an additional charge. You may think that if a brand is boosting your content and putting money behind it then it fully benefits you and that you shouldn’t be charging for it. Although there may be cases that it may benefit you, in many cases, you can also be put as risk of it harming your account. The brand will be boosting or whitelisting your account with demographics based on who they are looking to target and it can hurt your demographics. -
EXCLUSIVITY
In about 100% of brand partnerships, there will be an exclusivity term within the contract. This is basically the brand telling you that they would not like you to work with or post about other competing brands within a certain time period of you posting about them. Standard timing for exclusivity, which you can include in your standard rates, are three days before and after. This should also just be a general rule of posting sponsored posts for your channels either way as you don’t want to consistently post branded content every day to keep your community seeing that you are an authentic person to follow and take opinions from. If a brand is asking for longer terms of exclusivity, then you should negotiate a higher rate, because the brand is limiting you from accepting any additional partnerships that may come about.
What to Charge FOR DIFFERENT INSTAGRAM POST TYPES
Considering the above base calculation, you also want to take into account your engagement as engagement is more valuable than follower count – especially when considering how much to charge per Instagram post. I’ve seen a number of accounts over 300k that have below 1% engagement rate. A brand may look at the follower account and see the potential, but what they aren’t seeing is that when that influencer posts content, they aren’t going to get much ROI and many people may not even engage with the content to see what is being promoted.
INSTAGRAM STATIC POST
Just because Instagram is working towards being a video focused platform doesn’t mean that Instagram static posts aren’t still valuable and that brands aren’t looking for them for sponsored posts. When calculating your static post, take into account your follower account and your engagement percentage.
I typically like to follow a calculation of Follower Count x [1% + (engagement percentage / 2)] = Rate
For example: 50,000 x [1% + (2%/2)] = $1,000 for a Instagram Static Post
Now keep in mind that there may be factors that will up this price, such as the factors listed above, but you can start here. Also note that if you have a super high engagement rate, you may want to put a maximum on your pricing which wouldn’t cause a brand to gawk at the rate or, as I have shared with many of my influencer course students, you show your engagement and prove the worth of a high rate.
INSTAGRAM CAROUSEL POST
For a carousel post, you are taking more photos which could bring along more engagement, but you still want to maintain the pricing for the static post and add on additional pricing for each additional photo in the carousel. Typically, for these type of posts, you add on $100 per each additional photo on top of the pricing you would charge for a static post.
INSAGRAM REEL
Instagram Reels are getting pushed by Instagram which means that there is high potential or reach and impressions, which means that’s a higher rate of return on investment for the brand. For pricing an Instagram Reel you want to consider your follower count, the average amount of views that you typically get, and the length of video that the brand is looking for. Depending on you content, you may charge more for a shorter Reel if those are doing better than the longer Reels or vice versa.
When charging for Reels, I use the static post calculation and then add a per hour rate for how long it would take the video to create and edit.
If your Reels are consistently doing phenomenal, also consider simply pricing just by 2% of your average views. So, if you’re someone that typically gets 100k views, instead of using the static post + per hour rate, you would charge $2,000 as the base rate.
INSTAGRAM STORIES
For Instagram Stories, you’ll typically want to create a package price that connects with any another Instagram post, but in some cases, you’ll have brands who only want Instagram Stories.
Instagram Stories don’t take much time to create, so you want to base your price on your average amount of views and a standard price for 3-5 story frames. Here are some standard tiered amounts for Instagram Stories packaged with a post and on a standalone pricing:
- 0 – 10,000 Followers: $100 / $175
- 10,000 – 50,000 Followers: $350 / $ 500
- 50,000 – 100,000 Followers: $500 / $700
- 100,000 – 300,000 Followers: $750 / $1,000
- 300,000+ Followers: : $1,500 / $2,000
Now, these are very general and are base prices. If you have exceptional views, make sure that you are upping these rates.
INSTAGRAM LIVES
A brand may ask you to host an Instagram Live as those are also getting great engagement and typically bring you and the brand new followers. With Instagram launching different additions to Instagram Lives, you’ll definitely see a benefit of taking on a partnership such as this and look for the benefits that you’ll receive with them such as getting paid subscribers for those who have the subscription options and the different ways that viewers and send you starts or accolades while on the view.
When pricing on an Instagram Live, you’ll want to price this per hour as if you were being pulled into a modeling job, but in this case, they wouldn’t be covering food costs, travel, or the link since you can host the Live from your home.
Adding on Additional Charges TO INSTAGRAM SPONSORED POSTS
LICENSING
For usage and licensing, the brand is asking to purchase the right to use the content that you have created for a period of time with the granted permission that they may change it to make it fit their marketing efforts. They are basically taking control from you.
I always tell my students that for brand partnerships, you’ll always want to maintain ownership of your content and limit usage to social media posting with credit back to your account. If a brand agrees to that, I wouldn’t say to charge an additional rate, but if they are looking for more usage or to remove the credit from you, then it’s time to add on some additional money.
For licensing, brands are typically looking to purchase a photo from you just like they would purchase a photo from a photographer to use. In this case, I typically lean on Getty Image Calculator to give myself a place to start pricing for the image.
Know that usage and licensing of an image isn’t based at all on your follower account, engagement, or anything to do with your social media, because you aren’t posting. You are creating content that they may have asked you to post previously, but now they are buying it from you.
WHITELISTING / BOOSTING
Whitelisting and boosting is also another additional charge that you add onto your rate, and this rate, similar to licensing is based on length of time, so make sure that you are always considering timing when it comes to determining how much to charge per Instagram posts. By general rule of thumb, I typically aim to charge 50% of the rate for ever 30 days of whitelisting and/or boosting.
So if you have a static post that you have charged $1,000 and the brand is boosting for 60 days, you’ll receive an extra $1,000 to bring your partnership total to $2,000.
PRICING ON OTHER PLATFORMS FOR SPONSORED POSTS
Now that you have a general understanding on how much to charge per Instagram posts, you can now use the same type of thinking and formulas for other social media posts. With many of the platforms having the same type of post types and looking at the same analytics, brands will maintain the same type of structure on pricing in their own internal guides as well.
