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This is How Much Instagram Influencers Really Cost

In the world of social media and branded partnerships, how much does influencer marketing cost?

For businesses looking to grow on social media, particularly Instagram, knowing how much budget to allocate to influencer partnerships can be difficult.

With so many varying factors to take into account– like an influencer’s follower count, engagement rate, project scope, and production costs — it’s no wonder it can be challenging to put together a fair price for a branded partnership.

To help demystify the topic, we spoke to Instagram influencers, talent managers and social agencies to find out the real influencer marketing costs and going rates for branded partnerships in 2019.

Why Brands Are Investing in Influencer Marketing Costs and Projects

Instagram influencers continue to be a hot topic in social media, and by the looks of it, you can expect to keep seeing more of these social stars flooding your feeds.

These collaborations and sponsorships have nearly replaced traditional ads and are a huge part of social media strategies today.

According to Influencer Marketing Hub, it has grown from a $1.7 billion industry in 2016, and is expected to continue its upward movement this year to potentially become a $5.6 billion industry.

In fact, influencer marketing is on pace to become an $8 billion dollar industry by 2020! So if you haven’t started collaborating with influencers to market your business on Instagram, now is the time.

Plus, Instagram influencer partnerships are by far the best performing platform for brands to reach new audiences quickly, with an average 3.21% engagement rate compared to 1.5% across all social networks.

More than ever before, we’re seeing brands and businesses investing a high portion of their budgets to influencer marketing — simply because, when done right, it works!

According to influencer marketing company Linqia reports in 2019:

39% of marketers surveyed with a digital marketing budget above $500,000 plan to increase their influencer marketing budget
54% are planning to spend more than $250,000 annually on influencer marketing
And 17% are going to spend more than $1 million

So what exactly is a fair asking rate? How do you present your value to potential partners? What are important things to consider when agreeing on a collaboration?

In this post, we’ll be covering exactly how much influencers are charging and exactly what they’re charging for.

Let’s Talk Money: Calculating the Cost of Instagram Influencers

In the earliest days of influencer marketing, rising social stars would take on brand partnerships in exchange for free product.

Those days are long gone — while there are many micro-influencers still willing to exchange free product for promotion, today’s biggest Instagram influencers are charging major bucks to create posts for brands as their accounts have become their main source of income.

There’s no question that social media influencers have become indispensable for brand campaigns, especially on Instagram.

But if you were to ask an influencer how much money they charge, you may be surprised to see the scope of answers across the board:

So how do you come up with a fair price when there’s so many factors to consider?

The Current Market Challenge: Setting Fair Influencer Marketing Costs

While there is no one-size-fits all pricing, many digital marketers adhere to the one cent per follower (or $100 per 10K followers) rule, but only as a starting point for their calculation.

From there, you can adjust and take other factors into consideration, such as engagement rate, client budget, campaign length, and other partnership specifics.

However, influencer rates can still vary quite a bit. Collectively’s latest influencer marketing report states: “The guiding principle for influencer-brand collaborations is simple: influencers and brands are in a position to mutually benefit each other. There’s more than one way brands can provide value, but cash is king.”

Instagram influencer, Matt Crump (@mattcrump) shared his fee guide with Later, including the his rates per post:

He added, “Creative mandates, timeline, production costs and rights affect the fee. Instagram Stories are usually part of a package deal, or included to sweeten the deal for the brand.”

For Shane McCloskey, Director of Sales at influencer platform, Influence.Co, how much influencer marketing costs is a question he regularly gets asked:

“Is this a fair rate?, How much should we be paying a particular influencer for their posts, Stories, YouTube videos, etc. ? –the answer is fairly simple and always the same: it depends.” shared Shane.

He also adds, “In my experience of chatting with agency and brand partners, there is absolutely no standardization in how influencers charge for partnership collaborations.”

So with no fence lines in place, influencer marketing is still the wild west for many businesses and influencers alike. Some may be underpaid for influencer services, while others will have over charged for their services compared to others in their field.

“An influencer with a million followers on Instagram may charge $100 for a post, while an influencer with ten thousand followers on Instagram also charges $100 for the exact same post on their feed,”Shane noted.

The current challenge for both influencers and brands is to be both fair and competitive in the market.

Misty Gant, Senior Vice President of IMA Agency shares “We calculate this [rates] based on the reach, impressions, engagement and industry of the influencer. This allows us to be competitive and ensure we are getting the most value for clients.”

As Misty points out, an Influencer follower count isn’t the only thing to determine cost, or a suitable partnership. But to help break down the budget, we’re taking a closer look at how macro- and micro-influencers determine their rates.

Want to learn more about how your business can benefit from Instagram influencers? Download our free Instagram Influencer Marketing Guide here:

Partnering with Big Instagram Influencers (100K+ Followers)

A partnership with a big influencer often comes with a big price tag, but the investment can really pay off!

Considering advertisers spend upwards of $5 million (excluding production costs) for a 30-second Super Bowl commercial to reach more than 100 million viewers — who may or may not be the brand’s target audience — a influencer partnership with a niche audience doesn’t seem like a bad business idea.

A series of Instagram posts by a fashion blogger with 500,000 followers and a cult-following could sell out an entire product line within 24 hours.

Travel and lifestyle blogger, Christina Galbato (@christinagalbato) (223k followers) shared with Later that she charges a rate of $2.2K per post and $700 per story.

She also adheres to the rule of $100 per 10,000 followers to calculate her rate.

One lifestyle blogger, with 118K followers and a 2.5% engagement rate, shared her rates with Later including different package options:

Another lifestyle blogger with 170K followers and a 4.5% engagement rate disclosed similar rates listed as:

Wishing to remain anonymous, the lifestyle blogger noted that: “This rate includes endorsement of service/product on Facebook, Instagram (along with a story mention), Twitter, or Pinterest.“

Similarly, a popular travel blogger and photographer with 100K followers and a 9.2% engagement rate listed their content creation at a similar rate, priced at:

$1000 per Instagram Post
$1200 per Instagram Post + Blog Post
$200 per Instagram Story
$2000-$5000 for a 60-Second Product Video

A rate of $1000 seemed to be the average price per single Instagram post among larger influencers with ~100k followers, offering varying rates for additional services depending on the business’s needs.

Partnering With Micro-Influencers (10K – 100K Followers)

Influencer marketing is poised to become a key strategy for promoting your business and products on Instagram, with micro-influencers (those with less than 100k followers) yielding great results for businesses in 2018.

In fact, last year micro-influencers posted 84% of sponsored posts worldwide!

As engagement rates on Instagram continue to decline, more and more businesses are seeing the value in partnering with Instagram influencers who have a small (or “micro”) but highly-engaged following.

One of the biggest benefits of working with micro-influencers is that they tend to retain higher levels of engagement than top-tier influencers.

Micro-influencers also have the added benefit of reaching a smaller, targeted niche. For example, travel bloggers Taylor Loren (aka “Taylor from Later”) and Elaine Rystead of Local Wanderer (64.8k followers) have a loyal following of people who love to travel and stay cool places. That’s why it’s no surprise their picture-perfect post led to 4 bookings in only 20 minutes:

Since the traveling duo typically charges around $500 per post, the hotel was able to make back their investment in minutes.

In a recent influencer marketing study, Neoreach concludes “the larger the influencer, the lower the ROI”.

Yep, you read that right!

It’s reported that influencers with 50K to 250K followers deliver a 30% better ROI per dollar spent than macro-influencers, and 20% better than influencers with 1+ million followers.

They also tend to come with a smaller price tag than larger influencers. After reaching out to a fashion blogger in Los Angeles with 80K followers and a 7.1% engagement rate, Later received her media kit, listing her pricing as:

Single Instagram Post: 1 for $300, or 2 for $500
Post across all platforms (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Blog): $400
Per look, or two looks for $600

She also notes, “Rates vary based on services. Services offered include modeling, blogging, LOOKBOOK art direction and social media consultation.”

Later also received rates from a health and nutrition blogger, with 30K followers and a 7.3% engagement rate. While she had similar pricing, it included a wider variety of pricing options in her media kit:

Dedicated Instagram Post: $325
IG Giveaway: $350
Brand IG Takeover (min 2 photos + Stories): $250 per day
IG Caption Mention (No visible product): $75
Series of 5 IG Stories: $85
Series of 3 Dedicated Posts: $825
Series of 5 Dedicated Posts: $1400

If you’re a small business, working with micro-influencers could be an effective and affordable way to grow your business in 2018. You can learn more about if micro-influencer marketing is right for you here!

In-Kind Influencer Partnerships

While cash is the most desired form of payment, in-kind campaigns can still be a meaningful exchange. Collectively reported “54% of influencers say they would be more likely to post in-kind, or in exchange for free product, if they’re a true fan of the product or brand.”

Many influencer with a smaller following are happy to do in-kind partnerships, especially when they are already a brand advocate.

If you’re a larger brand reaching out to a follower looking to grow, the chance to repost an influencer’s photo to your larger audience may even be an added incentive!

When asked how she calculates her influencer marketing costs, blogger and micro-influencer Nicole Sadozai (@nicolesadozai) answered, “The best advice I received was at the Create & Cultivate event in Atlanta in 2016. My mentor for the day, blogger @nany spoke about how important it is to know your worth and how valuable your time is.

“Regardless of how large or small your following is if a brand is asking you to create content for them you really need to consider if this is something you are willing to do for free. ”

Marketers have become familiar with paying teams of photographers, creative directors, and producers to build out their digital campaigns in the past, and should look at influencer marketing in the same light.

Influencer Travel Partnerships

Much like press tours, brands are putting together Instagram influencer getaways, sending influencers on vacations across the globe — inviting them to relax, hang out with their friends, and, of course, post all about it.

It’s no surprise that these luxury getaways come at a steep price tag, as brands tend to spare no expense when it comes to the extravagant accommodations.

Revelist looked at one beauty brand, Tarte’s Instagram influencer getaway and estimated the cost of the trip. The list of expenses includes travel on private jets, food and drink, swag, and activities.

The trip’s grand total is a whopping $338,640, but Revelist notes this is only a modest estimate. These trips can easily exceed half a million dollars, since Revelist’s estimate doesn’t including the cost of paying the influencers, trip staff, and other expenses.

While these numbers may seem high, consider this: the average 30-second national ad costs $342K, while a one-page magazine ads runs approximately $250K — and these ads may or may not even reach the brand’s target audience. However, a series of Instagram posts by a fashion blogger with 500,000 followers and a cult-following could sell out an entire product line within 24 hours.

Check out our blog post, Here’s Why Brands are Taking Instagram Influencers on Vacation, to learn more about how these brand getaways work.

Brand Affiliates

The link in your bio is prime real estate –and influencers are teaming up with brands to use it for affiliate marketing.

In most cases, influencers are set up with a unique URL that offers their followers a special discount. Once followers click through to the site and makes a purchase, affiliates will receive a percentage of the sale!

While some influencers may prefer cash upfront, affiliate programs can be a real win-win for both businesses and affiliates (and followers receiving the discount!). Your influencer partner will be much more likely to continue sharing about your product with a continued incentive than they otherwise would for a one-off partnership.

The Cost of Creating the Perfect Post: Calculating the “Extras”

As you probably know, there’s a lot of work that goes into creating an Instagram post or story! That’s why it’s important to consider all the extras that go into getting “the perfect shot”.

Matt Crump (@mattcrump) advises influencers to: “always know the costs of production before you sign a contract.”

“If there’s not a separate production budget in addition to the fee, make sure you’re incorporating those costs into your fee before accepting the offer,” warns Matt.

Here are a few potential costs that should be included in a project’s rate:

Production

It’s important to have an idea of what it will take to execute the creative for your partnership while negotiating with partners. For example, many influencers hire photographers and photo editors so they can spend their time in front of the lens.

If you know you’ll need some extra help getting the shot, you’ll need to get price quotes ahead of time so they can be factoring into the rate.

Travel blogger Monica Stott (@thetravelhack) advises, “Influencers may also need to pay for a photographer and props and capturing just one image can be a full days work. Most influencers aren’t just taking selfies in their bedroom anymore so the costs soon add up!”

And now with Instagram video taking over the platform, influencers are pressed to seek out a whole new set of skills.

Viral Nation says increased pricing for video should be no surprise, and estimates, “Production time and costs can ultimately cost you an additional 40–50%, if not more depending on the scope and production value of the content”.

Travel Costs

Whether you’re shooting across town or in another country, you’ll want to make sure you’ve calculated your travel cost prior to discussing your partnership terms.

For example, many LA influencers hit the desert to capture the perfect mood for the products they are shooting. This means they need to calculate the cost of gas, along with the time spent on the road.

Monica (@thetravelhack) also notes, “For me, it’s whether I’ll need to travel to a location to shoot the photo. I can usually tag new campaigns onto press trips but sometimes I’ll need to arrange a whole new trip. This can be pricey!”

It’s important to not only consider the price of travel, but to also calculate the value of your time spent to get there.

Agency Fees

Many large influencers are now represented by agencies to coordinate their brand partnerships. Since most of these agencies are equipped with seasoned negotiators, they often come with a handling fee.

Christina (@christinagalbato) shares, ‘I am fortunate to now be at a place where I work with a manager, who handles all brand negotiations for me.”

Hiring a manager can be crucial for influencers who are making a living on the platform, or are being reached out to by brands frequently. “To sum it up, when a brand reaches out to me, my manager and I speak with the company to establish the scope of the collaboration,” Christina explains.

An agency or manager can also help take some of the negotiation pressures off their clients.

“We then put together a package rate and go back & forth negotiating something that works for both the brand and I. The goal of this negotiation process is to make sure that I am getting compensated fairly for my time and for access to my audience, and to also (whenever possible) increase the number of deliverables on my end, which in turn increases the size of the campaign and my rate.”

“For example, if a brand initially just wants 2 Instagram posts, we will work to push that to 4 with a competitive package rate.” Christina also notes.

And that’s not even the half of it. Misty at IMA Agency shares, in addition to influencers rates and cost of production, “brands can also expect to pay an incremental cost for additional usage rights outside of standard social reposting, exclusivity requirements, additional images for brand use, paid media (boosting) requests, and white labelling content. ”

Again, it’s important to remember you’re not only paying Instagram influencers for their following or engagement rate but often times for their ideas and content creation. Today’s influencers have become pros at concepting, shooting, and executing mini-campaigns for brands and should be compensated accordingly.

Nailing Down the Details

When discussing costs and campaign specifics, Nicole (@nicolesadozai) advises Instagram influencers to “get your media kit ready and start planning for the long term instead of right now. I started my blog by viewing it as a business from the beginning and it paid off in a big way. Hobbies are fun but a business will pay the bills!”

Nicole comments, “I almost always present my rates to potential partners via my media kit. It’s always the most straightforward approach when it comes to brand partnerships. This way, we both know what we are getting as well the services I offer and the type of content I like to create.”

Monica (@thetravelhack) also presents her costs with an influencer media kit she created with Canva, and notes, “…there are so many variables for each campaign that I always let them know it’s a rough guide. I always try to arrange a phone call with the brand to talk about deliverables and fees. ”

Monica says her approach is beneficial for both herself and potential partners, adding, “This helps me understand exactly what they’re looking for so I can create a bespoke package for them but it also reassures them that I’m professional and I know what I’m doing!”

Media kits and contracts are an important part of scoping out your campaign expectations and requirements and should be included in all influencer marketing agreements, like any other business partnership.

Again, there is no “one size fits all” rate when it comes to influencer marketing costs, especially when it comes to content creation. Often times, there’s a lot of “extras” that go unaccounted for in collaborations.

Setting clear guidelines and objectives from the get-go can help you better prioritize your budget and help avoid unexpected expenses.

Setting Clear Goals For Your Partnership with Instagram Influencers

With so many varying rates, content offerings and different types of Instagram influencers, how do you know which type of partnership is right for you?

Toni Daly, influencer marketing specialist at Hypertly says, “Businesses looking to get into the influencer space should make sure to do their research and choose influencers who align well with their brand.

Although the ROI in influencer marketing isn’t instant, having familiar faces back your product or brand helps establish trust among potential customers, which is invaluable in the long run.”

It’s important to spend more time thinking about your strategy and campaign goals than the dollar amount associated with your campaign.

Misty at IMA Agency advises influencers “really focus on their niche and create high quality content.” She also shared, “At IMA we strive to create authentic connections between brands and influencers — which is paramount to being a credible voice and authority within their community. They should also continue to focus on their engagement rate – this is a key measurement we look at when vetting potential partners for our clients.

Setting up crystal clear Instagram marketing goals will drive initial planning decisions on whether to execute campaigns based on short-term partnerships (for example, three Instagram posts about a new product release) or longer-term contracts that specify ongoing deliverables over an extended period of time.

“I don’t often do one-off posts with brands, so most of my collaborations involve multiple Instagram posts,Instagram Stories, YouTube and/or blog content.” shared Christina (@christinagalbato).

“When negotiating these larger collaborations, I offer package pricing. For example, if a brand wants 3 posts on my page, the total rate at $2,200/post would be $6,600, but I’d offer them a package deal of 3 posts for $6,000. This gives the brand a bit of a deal and helps to lock the campaign in more quickly.”

Toni Daly also notes, “Using influencers to generate brand awareness can be beneficial for almost any business, as long as the goals of the partnership are established early on. What are you trying to achieve when collaborating with an influencer? Are you looking to build brand awareness, gain social followers, or are you looking for direct sales?”

Influencer Marketing Hub predicted a trend towards brands cultivating more long-term relationships with influencers in 2019.

Monica (@thetravelhack) shared, “I don’t do one-off posts on social media and only work on bigger packages which will usually include a blog post, a video, a newsletter feature and a small package of tweets, Facebook updates, Instagram grid posts and Instagram Stories.”

Monica also commented she prefers long-term partnerships as opposed to one-offs:“I find this is most beneficial for everyone – the brand gets more exposure, my readers get more information about a product and I get to focus on one big job at a time and avoid all the admin of little jobs.”

Without first determining exactly what you will gain from your Instagram influencer partnership, you can’t appropriately value the influencer’s effort or set your budget.

Once your company has a clear set of objectives in mind, it will become much easier to determine whether an Instagram influencer’s fees are aligned with the value they offer and the outcome you’re looking for.

Think about what you’re looking for in the Instagram influencer’s audience to do as a result of your partnership. Are you looking to gain followers? To increase sales? Build brand awareness?

These are all great things to consider when determining the value of a potential Instagram influencer marketing partnership.

Setting a Budget and Calculating Your Rates

While your budget may heavily depend on the details, it’s a good idea to have a baseline price, or starting point to work from.

Shane McCloskey (@influenceco) comments, “It’s particularly frustrating for agency partners who are new to the game, because they have no idea if they are getting a good deal or not for their clients. While we do not provide guidance on negotiations (self-service model), we do request that creators shed some light on their “starting rate” for posts when setting up (or editing) their profiles on influence.co.”

He adds, “This data is very valuable for brands and agencies to understand if they are in the same ballpark on the cost of a collaboration as a particular creator – all before reaching out or engaging with that particular creator. ”

If you’re just getting started in the influencer space, don’t be afraid to ask around! In an industry based around making connections, more often than not, your community will be happy to share their advice.

Monica (@thetravelhack) also suggests utilizing your network, and comments, “I highly recommend making friends with other influencers within your niche so you can chat to each other about the campaigns you’re being asked to work on.”

She also shared, “I worked on a campaign once with six other travel bloggers and one blogger wasn’t being paid while the rest of us were paid a substantial fee. He had no idea he could have asked for payment and had been working for free. Businesses will always try and pay as little as possible so connect with a trustworthy circle of friends so you can double check what everyone else is being paid.”

At the end of the day, your rates may look quite a bit different than an influencer in the same position. While it’s important to do the research, at the end of the day make sure you set your rate a number you can confidently stand behind.

Matt (@mattcrump) advises influencers simply charge what they think they’re worth — especially with so many factors that will be personal to their brand and unique partnerships.

He also reminds influencers, “Over time, your audience will grow and you’ll make more of a name for yourself, so you’ll be able to charge more every year, hopefully!”

Calculating the ROI of Instagram Influencers

Influencer marketing gives brands a unique opportunity to reach a niche and engaged audience.

Although it may initially seem like a risk to invest large amounts of money into influencer marketing, it’s important to consider exactly what you are paying for and, most importantly, measure the results.

After analyzing more than 2,000 influencer campaigns, Neoreach calculated a total earned media value (EMV) averaging 5.2x per $1 spent. This means that every dollar spent on influencer marketing results in five times as many interactions compared to the same marketing dollars spent on paid advertising.

Jordan Haugan, director of business development at August United says, “The marketing leaders we work with are under immense pressure to prove to their executive teams not only the typical engagement metrics you’d expect in any campaign (impressions, engagements, etc.) but business metrics (sales lifts, purchases, etc.).

Some of the most common performance metrics you can use for measuring the impact of your influencer marketing are:

Engagement rate: likes, comments, shares
Brand sentiment: how people are talking about your brand
Traffic: customers visiting your website
Sales: conversions and revenues generated

Jordan also notes, “We urge the brand leaders we partner with to put conversion tracking systems in place to attribute all the deeper, meaningful metrics we can show (beyond eyeballs and engagement) while looking at campaigns holistically — after all, for an audience to take action, you need an audience!

As with everything, use campaign performance data to see which influencers drove the best results (and why), and use this data to inform how you construct future campaigns. ”

There’s no doubt Instagram influencers will continue to dominate in 2019! Have any other tips or tricks for calculating your influencer marketing costs? Let us know in the comments!

How Much Does it Cost to Advertise on Instagram?

In many ways advertising on Instagram is the same as advertising on Facebook. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, with Instagram being part of the Facebook network. We recently covered how to work out the cost of your Facebook ads. This article shifts the focus to Facebook's very visual, rapidly increasingly popular sibling, Instagram. Just how much does it cost to advertise on Instagram?

As with Facebook, there is no set price for advertising on Instagram. You create a bid for your ad’s placement. In theory, Instagram will place the ad of the company that makes the highest bid for any particular advertising slot. In reality, it is much more complicated than this, and you can not guarantee that Instagram will accept any ad you provide and serve it on the Instagram accounts you bid for. There is more to obtaining a spot for your ad than just making the highest bid.

You can expect that you will have to pay somewhere between 20 cents and $2 per click (CPC) on an Instagram campaign. According to Revealbot data, the average Instagram CPC in July 2021 in the United States was $1.28 per click, as opposed to 2022 CPC which is $1.33 per click. However, if you prefer to run your ads on a cost per mille (CPM) basis, focusing on impressions, the average Instagram CPM in July 2021 in the United States was $8.51, compared to 2022 CPM which is $10.39. In comparison, the average Facebook CPC in July 2021 was $1.01 per click, and the average Facebook CPM was $12.91.

Smart Insights has collated statistics comparing clickthrough rates (CTRs) for display ads, paid social ads, and Google Ads. Unfortunately, the CTRs have generally dropped across most types of online advertising over recent years. They found that the ad clickthrough rate in the Instagram feed was 0.22% in Q1 2020. This was significantly lower than in the previous year when it was 0.60% in Q1 2019. However, the CTR for Instagram Stories was higher at 0.33%. As a comparison, the average Facebook CTR in the newsfeed is 1.11%, also a downwards trend from 2019.

Instagram advertising has increased markedly over the last few years. In March 2017 they enjoyed their 1 millionth advertiser.

How Much Does it Cost to Advertise on Instagram?

Instagram is Part of the Facebook Ads Platform
How do Instagram Ads Compare with Facebook Ads?
Advantages of Instagram Advertising
Key Factors Contributing to Advertising Cost
Creating Your Instagram Ads in the Most Cost-Effective Way
Native Ads Work Best on Instagram
Frequently Asked Questions

Instagram is Part of the Facebook Ads Platform

If you read our earlier article on the cost of Facebook ads, you will have seen that Facebook offers Instagram as one of the locations you can bid to place your Facebook ads. When you bid for your Facebook (group) ads, they encourage you to position your ads at the following locations:

Feeds:

Facebook News Feed (desktop or mobile, depending on how people access Facebook)
Instagram feed (mobile feed when using the app only)
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Video feeds (on Facebook Watch and Facebook News Feed)
Facebook right column (on computers only)
Instagram Explore
Messenger Inbox

Stories:

Facebook Stories
Instagram Stories
Messenger stories

In-Stream:

Facebook in-stream videos
IGTV videos
Instagram Reels

Search:

Facebook search results

Messages:

Messenger sponsored messages

In-article:

Facebook Instant Articles

Apps:

Audience Network native, banner, and interstitial
Audience Network rewarded videos

Oculus:

Oculus Mobile App Feed
Oculus Mobile App Search Results

Every Facebook advertiser is encouraged to add Instagram to their advertising preferences – they are given discounts for doing so.

How do Instagram Ads Compare with Facebook Ads?

While some companies might choose a mix of both Instagram and Facebook ads, it will very much depend on your target market. It makes the most sense to advertise where your customers (and potential new clients) spend their time.

Facebook has the advantage of its vast user base. It reported a colossal 2.89 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2021. Sure, your target audience may not regularly use Facebook, but most do. Also, as you can see from the above list of advertising types, Facebook has more advertising options than Instagram does.

On the other hand, if your target audience matches Instagram's main demographic, you will benefit from advertising there.

According to data reported by Statista, about 60% of Instagram's users are aged between 18 and 34. Although the balance between the genders is relatively even overall (51% females, 49% males), it is less so in the 18-34 range. Overall, 32.1% of Instagram users are males aged 18-34, while 29.9% are females of the same age. Instagram is also the third most popular social network for teenagers in the United States. In Fall 2020, 25% of US teenagers ranked Instagram their favorite social app, after only Snapchat (34%) and TikTok (29%). Facebook was preferred by only 2% of the teenage respondents.

Clearly, if you sell to people under 34, you should seriously consider including Instagram ads in your marketing mix. You might well consider some Facebook advertising, too, although less so if Generation Z is your target market.

Advantages of Instagram Advertising

Assuming that your target audience spends time on their Instagram apps, there are excellent reasons for adding Instagram to your marketing mix.

Traditionally, Instagram has a higher clickthrough rate than Facebook. While not true currently, as SmartInsights has shown, that has been the exception rather than the norm. At most times, Instagram's CTR has been much higher than that of its older sibling.

Like Facebook, Instagram provides advanced targeting opportunities with its ads. You can home in on your target audience and not waste funds advertising to the wrong people. You can target your ads based on location, demographics, interests, behavior, and lookalike audiences, as well as letting Instagram/Facebook target automatically. You can also create custom audiences and retarget those people who have already interacted with your business.

Instagram can also drive higher average order values (AOV) than other social networks, depending on your industry. For example, research by eCommerce personalization platform Nosto found that Instagram achieved an AOV for paid posts of $103 on mobile for fashion retailers. In comparison, Facebook's paid AOV was $69, and Snapchat's paid AOV was $57.

Instagram has far higher engagement rates compared to Facebook. According to data in We Are Social's Digital 2021 July Global Statshot Report, the average engagement rate for all post types on Instagram is 0. 83%. Engagement for photo posts is 0.81%, video posts 0.61%, and carousel posts 1.01%. In comparison, Facebook’s average engagement rates are 0.11% (all posts), 0.16% (photo posts), 0.13% (video posts), 0.05% (link posts), and 0.17% (status posts).

Key Factors Contributing to Advertising Cost

As with Facebook advertising, three main factors affect what you will have to pay for your Instagram ads:

The amount you are willing to bid for your campaign
Your ad quality, taking into account such factors as feedback from people viewing or hiding the ad and assessments of low-quality attributes in the ad, such as withholding information, sensationalized language, and engagement bait
Your Estimated Action Rates – how likely that Facebook / Instagram believes that people will take the action for which you target your ads, e.g., how likely are people are to convert when they see your ad

Estimated action rates combined with ad quality measure ad relevance. Instagram subsidizes those ads they consider relevant to the people who will view your ads. A lower bid could succeed over a higher bid from somebody else because of better relevance.

Instagram now uses ad relevance diagnostics in place of their previous ad relevance score. You can use ad relevance diagnostics to diagnose underperforming ads. Ad relevance diagnostics look at your quality ranking, engagement rate ranking, and conversion rate ranking. Ideally, you want all three factors to be average or above.

Facebook explains these factors in more detail in their Help section.

A crucial factor from this is that your Instagram advertising price is not affected by your bid alone. You can reduce your advertising costs by creating quality ads that people will value and focusing your ad content on the most suitable people.

Obviously, competition will also play an essential role in determining your Instagram advertising cost. For example, if you have multiple people bidding for the same target audience as you, you may have a bidding war, increasing the overall cost. Some of the many factors affecting competition include:

Holidays and events – competition is higher for holidays and special events. The CPC rises dramatically in the days leading up to Christmas, for instance.
Day of the week – Instagram users engage more on weekdays than at weekends. This makes it more likely that you will pay more mid-week than on a Saturday or Sunday.
Your market – some industries have higher advertising rates than others, to a large degree due to the level of competition. Also, firms targeting females tend to pay more than those targeting males as females engage more on Instagram typically.

Creating Your Instagram Ads in the Most Cost-Effective Way

Too many people place ads on Instagram (and often Facebook) without knowing what they are doing. It should be no surprise, therefore, that these people often lose money. You need to think carefully about the people you are targeting and create the perfect ad for these people.

Ads Manager is the starting point for running ads on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Audience Network. It's an all-in-one tool for creating ads, managing when and where they'll run, and tracking how well your campaigns perform.

Facebook / Instagram splits its Ads Manager into three sections:

Campaign
Ad Set
Ad

They allow you to build your ads up following these three parts:

1. Set Campaign Details

You begin by selecting your objective for your entire Instagram Marketing Campaign

There is no value going into this process without knowing what you wish to gain out of it. You need to begin your campaign by setting campaign goals and objectives.

The Facebook / Instagram Ads Manager offers you 11 different marketing objectives in three categories:

Awareness

Brand Awareness
Reach

Consideration

Traffic
Engagement
App Installs
Video Views
Lead Generation
Messages

Conversion

Conversions
Catalogue Sales
Store Traffic

Make sure you don’t select an irrelevant objective for Instagram – for instance focusing on Messages (which is designed for those wanting to get more people to send messages to your business in Messenger).

If you are just beginning your advertising on Instagram, it is a good idea to optimize for conversions. Instagram will target your campaigns to give you your best results at a lower price.

2. Set Details for Your Ad Set

You may have various settings to choose from, depending on your preferred objective. For instance, if you opt to focus on increasing traffic you are asked whether you want to target a website, app, or Messenger.

You are then asked whether you want to create an offer to help encourage people to convert, depending on your objective.

You are then given the opportunity to define your audience. If you want the best price for your ads and the best ROI on them, you want to be smart and create a selected audience.

You are given quite a few options for targeting your ads, and you can save your audiences so that they can be reused in future campaigns.

Don’t waste money by broad targeting. You might think that you will have a higher chance of converting if 10 million people see your ad – but the majority of these people have no wish to buy anything from you.

You can target based on:

Location
Age
Gender
Languages
Demographics
Interests
Behaviors
Connections

Facebook / Instagram will give you an indication of your estimated daily reach and expected post engagement. They will indicate whether you have targeted your audience specifically or broadly.

You then choose your placements. This is where you select to focus your advertising on Instagram, rather than Facebook. You will need to deselect Automatic Placements and instead opt for Edit Placements. Amongst the options you encounter are Instagram Feed and Instagram Stories. The device type doesn’t matter as you can’t select Instagram for Desktop.

It is a good idea to do this even if you want to do a combined campaign involving Facebook, too. By selecting your placements yourself, you have more control over your campaign optimization.

You have a few other options here, for instance, you can choose to target all mobile devices, or just iOS or Android.

Finally, in the Ad Set section, you provide your budget. You can either pick a daily budget limit or give a total Lifetime Budget amount for your entire ad set.

When you set a daily budget, you create an average, rather than an absolute limit. This is particularly important if you choose to set a budget based on an action. Instagram may be able to control the number of times they serve ads (thus limiting the impressions you have to pay for). But it is harder for them to manage how many times people click on a particular day. There are days where many people may click. If you have CPC pricing, you will go over your budget that day, but Instagram will try and compensate tomorrow.

You also have the chance to state the timeframe in which you want your ads to run.

You also have a few options to optimize your ad delivery. For instance, you can choose whether you want your Instagram ad to run multiple times per day to a person, or just the once. You can select what kind of optimizations you wish for ad delivery. For instance, you can ask Instagram to concentrate on delivering your ads to people most likely to click on a link or view a landing page. You may ask them to show your ads to as many people (within your defined audience) as possible, and focus on impressions.

You also define the method by which Facebook / Instagram charges you, e.g., are you paying cost per click (CPC), or by impressions (CPM), or by another metric?

You also have the option to select Manual or Automatic Bidding. Many people recommend that newcomers go with Automatic Bidding, but you may prefer to bid manually once you are experienced with advertising on Instagram.

If you opt for Manual Bidding you have a further choice to make: should you set Maximum or Average bids?

If you select Maximum bid, then Instagram won’t run your ads if the cost per result would be higher than your bid. You would choose this if your goal is to maximize profit.

If you select Average bid, Instagram optimizes your ad delivery to maximize your ROI – they call this the Pacing method. The Pacing method ensures that you don’t use up all of your budget early in the day, and miss out on profitable opportunities later in the day. You would select the Average bid if you want to maximize delivery, i.e., you would get more conversions, but some may cost more than what would otherwise have been your maximum bid.

You should probably begin with automatic bidding until you can build up data showing your cost per result.

One common suggestion the experts make is that if you opt for Manual bidding, select a figure towards the bottom end of Facebook’s suggested bid range.

3. Set Details Relating to Your Specific Ads

This section focuses on your actual Instagram ads.

Your first option is to select an ad format. You can choose from:

Carousel
Single Image
Single Video
Slideshow

Note that the option of Collection is currently only available for the Mobile Facebook feed – not Instagram.

If you aim to advertise using Instagram Stories you can select from:

Instagram Stories Single Image
Instagram Stories Single Video

If you want to keep your ad costs down, carousel ads are typically seen as providing the best value for your money.

Once you select the format for your ad, you provide all of the other details necessary to create the ad. These include any links, images, and videos – as well as the all-important Call to Action text.

Native Ads Work Best on Instagram

Instagram users expect to receive relevant, interesting posts. They can spot a traditional ad, and these perform poorly. If you want your ad to work on Instagram, it needs to look like a typical post.

This means that may not receive the best results from the ads with the lowest CPM. Your ad may not cost you much to deliver. But that is of little value to you if everybody bypasses it.

It is essential that you create content that your target audience appreciates. Don’ try and push sales with your first ads. It is better to begin by creating top-of-funnel posts, to introduce your brand to the people who you are targeting.

Instagram recognizes this too. Take a close look at your relevance diagnostics when targeting your content. You need to ensure your ads:

are perceived as being high quality
produce conversions
spur interest
aren't perceived as clickbait or controversial

Instagram recognizes this too. Your Relevance Score is an excellent guide as to how well you target your content.

Instagram is one of the fastest-growing social networks. A few years ago, few people included Instagram in their top echelon of social networks. Now it is considered one of the leading players.

Most firms who advertise online, or work with influencers who assist them in their marketing, should give serious consideration to including Instagram in their marketing mix.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to promote on Instagram?

How much does it cost to promote on Instagram? To promote on Instagram, expect to pay somewhere between 20 cents and $2 per click (CPC) on an Instagram campaign. The cost will depend on the industry and the competition.

How much does it cost to advertise on Instagram 2021?

To advertise on Instagram in 2021, expect to pay somewhere between 20 cents and $2 per click (CPC). According to Revealbot data, the average Instagram CPC in July 2021 in the United States was $1.28 per click.

Is it worth paying for advertising on Instagram?

Paying for advertising on Instagram is worth it, according to statistics. Instagram’s ad revenues may reach over $18 billion by 2021, and many big brands pay big bucks to advertise on the platform. No matter the size of your business, Instagram ads are a powerful way to reach a new audience.

How much does Instagram and Facebook ads cost?

To advertise on the social media platforms Instagram and Facebook, expect to spend big bucks. You can pay around $7.19 per 1000 impressions on Facebook and $7.91 per 1000 impressions on Instagram.

How much do Instagram ads cost 2020?

On average. expect to pay somewhere between 20 cents and $2 per click (CPC) on an Instagram campaign. Instagram ads are only going up in cost.

analysis of more than 130 thousand paid posts - Marketing on vc.ru

We have prepared a translation of a large-scale study from Socialinsider. This article presents statistics that show the strengths and weaknesses of advertising on Facebook and Instagram. The experts analyzed 137 228 posts and found out what works more efficiently.

3748 views

#resume

1. Instagram Stories is the highest click-through ad placement; average CTR 0.76%

2. Instagram ads are more expensive than Facebook ads

3. Instagram focuses on feed ads - this placement has the highest CPC ($1.86) and CPM ($7.27)

4. The most expensive placement on Facebook is stories with a CPC of $0.55

5. The Facebook feed is the king of ad placement. Brands invest the most in it; Facebook feed has the highest CPM (5.18%) and the highest CTR (4.70%)

Colleagues, we were also surprised that in South America they spend more on advertising than in North America, but we will trust our friends from Socialinsider

______

Average CPC: $0.49 on Facebook ads and $1.09 on Instagram on average

Instagram ad prices tend to increase gradually, in mid-2021, the average cost per click on Instagram is $1.09.

Instagram Stories is an ad placement where people interact with content more often; average CTR 0.76%

And the Instagram feed, which many brands invest in the most, comes in second with a lower average CTR of 0.69%.

Facebook posting cost

The graph above shows that brands prefer the Facebook feed for ad placement and invest the most money in this placement.

Speaking of average CPC, some interesting discoveries can be made:

Facebook Stories is the ad slot with the highest CPC of $0.55.
In the right column of Facebook, CPC averages $0.38.
Facebook Feed reaches an average CPC of $0.26.
Facebook videos have an average CPC of $0.13.

When your primary goal is to increase brand awareness, an important metric you should look at is average CPM . Let's take a look at the numbers:

Facebook Feed: Average CPM is $5.18.
Facebook Video: Average CPM is $2.48.
Facebook Right Column: Average CPM $0.38.

Cost of posting on Instagram

The most used ad placement on Instagram is the feed. Although it has both the highest average CPC of $1.86 and CPM of $7.27.

The Instagram feed has both the highest average CPC of $1.86 and CPM of $7.27. Other placements are almost half the price.

Facebook Feed has the highest average CTR of 4.70%, followed by Facebook Video with an average CTR of 2.05%

The ultimate goal of brands is to convert the audience into customers. Conversions make up almost a quarter of the main goals of an advertising campaign.

And if you look at the average CTR on Facebook, it's pretty clear why marketing budgets are divided the way they are.

The top two positions for the best ad placement on Facebook are placements where brands spend the majority of their social media ad budgets:

Facebook Feed with an average CTR of 4.70%.
Facebook video with an average CTR of 2.06%.

In terms of performance, these two types of Facebook ads are followed by:

Facebook Right Column: with an average CTR of 0. 15%.
Facebook stories: with an average CTR of 0.09%

Text reference:

How much to charge for advertising on Instagram

Today, in the accounts of Instagram bloggers, you can find ads from both start-ups and large corporations. The price tag for one advertising post can vary from several hundred to several million dollars. Such a huge price range challenges all influencers in assessing the fair value of their services. We offer you to figure out how much to charge for advertising on Instagram, and on what factors the cost depends.

What you can get money for on Instagram

Influencer marketing continues to gain momentum. About 7 out of 10 users rely on the opinion of bloggers when making a decision. Influencers allow you to establish closer contact with the audience, drive huge streams of payback Internet traffic and improve sales.

Using these market trends and having an active audience on Instagram, you can earn money by promoting brands and their products. There are several options for earning:

sponsored publications;
affiliate marketing.

Let's consider each of them in more detail.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing involves earning a certain commission on the sale of partner products, attracting new customers. The task of the influencer in this case is to conduct a review, talk about the benefits of the product and add a referral link or a promo code for the purchase to the description. If users like the recommendation, they go to the partner's website and make a purchase, the blogger will receive a certain commission from the funds they spend.

Affiliate marketing has more flexibility than sponsored publications. A blogger can decide for himself what format of publications to choose, what, how, and when to write, but earnings also depend solely on the actions of the influencer himself. Working according to this scheme, it is important to choose the right products on offer so that they are ideally suited to your target audience.

Assess the quality of the audience

When a brand pays you to post, it is actually buying views, likes, clicks from your target audience. And you have to be honest with the advertiser about what response you can offer. Selling your influence without actually having it is a recipe for disaster.

Therefore, before setting a price tag, you should definitely evaluate the quality of your audience. Detailed account audience analytics can be done with trendHERO .

The service allows:

to find out the demographics of subscribers;
compare the interests of your audience with the values of the brand;
see how the number of subscribers grows;
calculate the audience engagement indicator;
Check your account for bots.

Advertisers now value quality over quantity. Nobody wants to overpay for bots in subscribers and “dead” souls, so before cooperation, you should definitely check the quality of your account. So, if necessary, you can increase the level of audience engagement, clean your account from bots, and avoid being blacklisted by unscrupulous bloggers.

Please note that advertisers can get detailed profile statistics without you. Therefore, it makes no sense to hide cheated activity and subscribers.

How to calculate how much to charge for advertising?

The price of advertising depends on many factors:

format;
the quality and quantity of the audience;
brand budget;
influencer requests.

There is no single magic calculation formula suitable for everyone. Therefore, below we suggest that you familiarize yourself with several different ways to determine the cost of advertising on Instagram.

Pay by the hour

Pay by the hour is a good option for aspiring influencers who don't yet have a huge following but already know they can create quality content.

This is also a good option for those who post content that requires a lot more skill than just taking photos or videos. For example, if you conduct a full product review for your publications, apply technical editing skills, use special effects, drones, then it is logical that you should receive monetary compensation for your efforts and time spent.

How much a blogger will charge for advertising in this case can be calculated using the following formula:

Hourly rate * number of hours spent on content production + any additional costs.

Calculation example for creating a sponsored post at an hourly rate of $50:

30 minutes to research the brand and competitors;
60 minutes to generate a publication idea and determine creative direction;
45 minutes for product photography;
60 minutes for photo editing and retouching;
15 minutes to publish the material and write a signature to the post.

Total: 3.5 hours to create a publication is $175 to pay.

Additional expenses may include the cost of the necessary props, the cost of paying for the work of an assistant, travel and other expenses incurred by the blogger to create high-quality content.

When invoicing, be sure to include all hours spent, starting with the time required to generate an idea. As for the additional costs, then everything is individual. For example, some even include in the price the travel time and the money spent on gasoline and the purchase of props. Others are frivolous about such calculations and perform minor duties just like that.

It's worth mentioning right off the bat that not all brands may like the idea of paying an hourly rate. In some cases, you will have to calculate in advance how long it will take you to produce in order to quote a fixed fee. Of course, it may take you longer to create content than you planned, or you may be able to complete it much earlier. But knowing the estimated cost, companies can plan costs.

Engagement payment calculation

The brand wants to get views, new loyal customers, likes and comments from cooperation. Logically, it makes sense to charge for the actual engagement of users under a post. This option will be attractive for those who do not want to keep track of every second spent on the project, and are confident in the quality of their audience and their influence.

But it is important to understand that there is a certain relationship between the number of subscribers and engagement. As a rule, the more followers, the less engagement on the account. This is due to many factors, including the fact that subscribers believe that if there are more than 30K+ likes on a post, then you don’t need them anymore.

To calculate how much a blogger should charge for advertising, taking into account engagement, follow the following scheme:

Calculate the average number of likes per post. For calculation it is recommended to take into account the last 12 posts. Output the total number of likes and divide by 12.
Determine the average number of likes by counting all the comments under the last 12 posts and dividing by the number of posts.
Calculate the average number of activities per post by adding the average number of likes and comments.

Next, you can determine for yourself the optimal cost for one user activity and calculate how much it will cost to place a post with you.

For example:

the average number of likes under posts is 3000;
average number of comments 75;
total activity of users under post 3075,
the selected price for one activity is $0.1.

Total: posting will cost $307.5 (3075 x 0.1).

You can automatically calculate engagement and get a lot of other useful statistical information about your profile through trendHERO.

Because comments require more effort from users, you can set separate fees for likes and comments if you wish. Remember also that brands always like to get more than they planned. Offer a discount, several posts instead of one, additional content with a product as a courtesy.

Payment by CPM

The third option is to calculate the cost of advertising by CPM. CPM (abbr. from Cost per mille) is a marketing term that shows the cost per thousand impressions or subscribers, taking into account their engagement.

To calculate your CPM payment, follow a few simple steps.

Step 1: Calculate Engagement

First of all, you need to calculate the level of engagement on your account. For this you need:

Add up the average number of likes and comments per post.
Divide the resulting value by the number of followers on the account and multiply by 100%.

Average cost of payment for 1000 impressions difference depending on the level of engagement of subscribers:

1.5-3% participation - 5 USD;
3-5% - 7 USD;
5-8% - 10 USD;
> 8% - 15 USD.

Step 2: Followers Count

Next, divide the number of followers by 1000. For example, if you have 250K followers in your account, then the CPM value of the formula would be 250.

Step 3: Calculate CPM

Now all that's left is to plug in the obtained values into the formula and make the calculations:

Advertising price = CPM value by engagement level x per subscriber rate.

For example, let's take an account with 25K followers and engagement of 3-5%. The calculations for it will look like this:

7 USD x 25 = 175 USD per post.

Brands also often use pay per 1000 impressions. To calculate the CPM in this case, you should:

Take the average number of impressions a post gets and divide by 1000.
Multiply the resulting value by the cost per impression. The average cost is 20 USD, which formally means 2 cents per impression.

Calculation example for an account where 20000 is the average number of impressions: (20000/1000) x 20 = 20 x 20 = 400 USD.

As a rule, the engagement and impressions for Stories and regular posts are different. Therefore, for each specific ad format, you should display its own cost. Sometimes the cost of placement may be intentionally increased compared to the base rate. For example, if it takes many times more time and skills to create an advertising publication for all brand requirements than for a regular one.

Other methods

There are several other ways to determine the optimal cost of advertising in your account. The methods below do not require special calculations, but make it easy to navigate the market situation.

Use the calculator

You can use online calculators to calculate the cost of a sponsored post. It is convenient, simple and does not require much time. But you have to trust the average formula derived by professionals.

For example, the mafluence.com service allows you to calculate the cost of advertising, taking into account the number of subscribers, their activity, engagement level, and many other factors. To make a calculation, you only need to specify a nickname.

The influencermarketinghub.com calculator works in much the same way. With it, you can also calculate the approximate cost of advertising based on the number of subscribers, their involvement, and some other statistics by entering only the account name in the appropriate line.

Monitor competitors

You can determine the approximate cost per post by analyzing competitors. You can find out the cost of placing an advertising post directly, for example, by asking the owner of another account, or by searching for prices in chats and customer groups, on advertising exchanges.

Knowing the cost of advertising in accounts like yours, you can also create competitive offers for advertisers by offering discounts or slightly more material for the same cost.

Specify the budget of the brand

Any negotiations on cooperation should begin with the clarification of the client's budget. Of course, you should already have your own minimum bar calculated, below which you would not cooperate. But it’s still worth considering the brand’s budget.

Knowing the brand's budget, you can act in several scenarios:

Develop an offer based on the brand's needs and budget.
Reduce the time spent on creating content and thereby reduce the cost of advertising for the brand.
Get more than originally planned if the customer's budget is more than the standard cost of placement in your account.

It may also happen that the applied brand does not have an advertising budget. Of course, unpaid work does not pay bills, but sometimes it is worth accepting such offers. Especially if you need experience and feedback.

Some brands offer barter cooperation, interesting collaborations, and are ready to provide free copies of their products in exchange for publication. And although such cooperation will be less profitable from a financial point of view, it can still be useful both for gaining experience and for establishing connections.