Home » Misc » How to instagram influencers make money

How to instagram influencers make money


How Much Do Influencers Make in 2022?

Getting paid to post on social media is nothing to scoff at. But if you want to live the good life, you first have to ask, how much do influencers make?

Are you looking to monetize your social media presence? Or integrate influencer marketing into your strategy? Then one of the most important first steps is to find out how much it’s going to be.

This article sheds light on how much influencers make. And it shows you how to make money on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. At the end, we’ve included influencer-related resources for marketing managers or business owners.

How do Influencers make money?

How much do influencers make per post?

How to hire a social media influencer

Bonus: Get the influencer marketing strategy template to easily plan your next campaign and choose the best social media influencer to work with.

How do Influencers make money?

Social media influencers make money with sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, brand partnerships, merchandising, and direct donation (tipping, subscriptions, etc.).

If you have ever daydreamed about lying on a sunny yacht, peacefully floating over the Mediterranean, and paying for it all with a single social media post, that is how it’s done.

Read on to solve the mystery of how much social media influencers make and how they do it!

Sponsored posts

Sponsored posts are one of the most popular ways for influencers to make money. A sponsored post is when an influencer gets paid to post about a product or service on their page. When an influencer vouches for a brand, their followers are more inclined to trust that brand.

You’ll see the ‘Paid Partnership’ tag below the influencer’s name for sponsored posts on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kylie Sonique Love (@xosonique)

Often, influencers with a larger reach can charge more for sponsored content. What you can make off of sponsored posts typically depends on:

  • your following size
  • the industry you’re in
  • how well you market your services

Here are two general rules to measure your rates:

  • Engagement rate per post + extras for type of post (x #of posts) + extra factors = total rate
  • The unspoken industry standard is $100 per 10,000 followers + extras for type of post (x # of posts) + additional factors = total rate

At Hootsuite, we organize influencer types by the following sizes:

  • 1,000–10,000 followers = Nano-influencer
  • 10,000–50,000 followers = Micro-influencer
  • 50,000–500,000 followers = Mid-tier influencer
  • 500,000–1,000,000 followers = Macro-influencer
  • 1,000,000+ followers = Mega-influencers

It’s generally true that influencers with larger followings make more money. But don’t stress if you’re in the nano- or micro-influencer categories.

In fact, many smaller brands are looking to partner with nano- and micro-influencers. On Instagram, there is a clear preference for micro-influencers.

Here’s how to make it as a new nano-influencer.

Brands looking for smaller or newer influencers might have a smaller budget. But they’re less likely to worry if you’re partnering with other brands too.

Remember, long-term relationships are often lucrative over time, much more than one-off posts.

If you’re smaller, work on building your niche or specialty. And fostering relationships with your clients.

Brand Ambassador

A brand ambassador partnership is an agreement between an influencer and a company. The influencer typically agrees to promote the company’s products or services, often exclusively. Or generally, be affiliated with the brand.

In exchange for their endorsement, the company provides the influencer with compensation. This can take the form of cash, free products, or other perks.

As an influencer, you can make money off these partnerships. You can charge a per-post fee, receive a percentage of sales, or even have a salary. The amount of money an influencer can make varies depending on their following and engagement rates.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by colin kaepernick (@kaepernick7)

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing. A business rewards affiliates for each customer brought by the affiliate’s marketing efforts. In this case, the affiliate is you, the influencer.

You can expect to generally make 5-30% commission in affiliate marketing contracts. Often, bigger influencers are at the 8-12% range.

Have you seen influencers who promote a discount on a product or service with a personalized code or URL? Those people are likely affiliate marketers.

They want to incentivize sales and track customers, so they can get paid a certain amount per sale.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by 𝐉𝐞𝐧𝐧 𝐈𝐦 임도희 (@imjennim)

You can make a significant amount of money through affiliate marketing. How much you make will depend on:

  • the affiliate contract you’ve worked out
  • the number of followers you have
  • the number of brands you’re working with
@ashlelnok

#greenscreen Fancy meeting you here @knixwear #periodunderwear

♬ Pennies from Heaven – Louis Prima

Off-site website advertising

Off-site website advertising is another type of online marketing. It involves promoting a brand or product on a website or platform that is not the product’s home page.

For example, let’s say I sell buttons and reach out to you, an influencer, to write a blog post reviewing my product. I pay you a predetermined amount for every lead I get from your post.

Many of these tactics can share titles. The above review is an example of off-site advertising, affiliate marketing, and a sponsored post.

Off-site website advertising is also achieved through:

  • banner ads
  • sponsored posts
  • links in the sidebar of a blog

Influencers can make money off of this type of advertising by charging for ads placed on their site. Or by earning a commission on sales generated from clicks on the ad.

Some influencers also offer consulting services. These can help brands maximize their reach and effectiveness with off-site website advertising.

Merchandising

Merchandising is a term used in marketing and retail. It refers to the range of activities that promote the sale of products to customers. When we talk about influencers merchandising, we’re talking about influencers producing merchandise for their brand.

This can be anything from Kylie Jenner’s lip kits to a photography influencer selling prints.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Callum Snape (@calsnape)

Merchandising can be a very lucrative revenue stream. Especially for influencers with a dedicated following.

 

Direct donation, tipping, subscriptions

Let’s face it; free stuff is the best stuff. Subscriptions, tips, and donations are just a few of the ways that you can make a passive income.

But what exactly are these things? And how can an influencer make money off of them?

Subscriptions are probably the most well-known of the three. By subscribing to someone, you’re essentially paying them a monthly fee in exchange for access to their content.

This can be anything. Think, exclusive videos and photos to behind-the-scenes looks at their life and work. Influencers can incentivize subscriptions by offering discounts or freebies to those who sign up. For example, they may offer a free month of content for every six months that you subscribe.

Patreon is a popular subscription-based platform. Influencers can offer tiered levels to subscribers. Each tier can have different, exclusive, and interesting content.

Source: Patreon

Tipping is similar to a subscription in that it’s a way of showing support for someone’s work. However, instead of paying a monthly fee, one simply makes a one-time donation.

Many influencers include their PayPal or Venmo tipping information when doing Live Streams. They might attach it to their bios or websites or even just ask in a post.

Tipping is often reserved for content creators who produce high-quality work. So it’s more like a bonus than a necessity, as you’ll be creating the work regardless. Nonetheless, your followers know it’s always appreciated!

@ashlelnok

#greenscreen I DO NOT KNOW WHY I WAITED THIS LONG TO ADD VENMO TO MY ACCOUNT. #venmo #tiktok #bio #wtf #bestdecisionever @papaterence

♬ original sound – Ashley

Finally, we have donations. These are usually made to a charity or GoFundMe-type campaigns. But fans can also give them directly to an influencer.

Donations are completely voluntary, and there is no expectation of anything in return. Many influencers may offer perks like shoutouts or signed merchandise as a thank you.

In the past year alone, we have paid $110,526 in medical bills for Friday GoFundMe pups. Please consider getting @Trupanion so you never have to send us a GoFundMe. Click the link below to get a quote. It’s best to be puppared ❤️ #partner https://t.co/vUNBJ3hCxW pic.twitter.com/MZvFdM6NT2

— WeRateDogs® (@dog_rates) August 19, 2022

How much do influencers make per post?

To determine how much money influencers make per post, you’ve got to consider a few things:

  • What kind of post or content is being created?
  • What’s the industry average?
  • What kind of reach or follower size does the influencer have?
  • Do they have impressive engagement rates from a previous campaign they can leverage?
  • What does your media kit look like?

To try to get a gauge on your own pricing. Look at what others in your industry and of your size are charging for particular pieces of content. If you have engagement rates and data from successful past campaigns, use them!

All of this can influence the amount you can charge per post. Because there are so many factors to consider, it can make getting averages difficult.

We will be referencing the influencer size tiers mentioned above in the next section. And we will be discussing general averages for potential earnings within these tiers. So take ’em with a grain of salt.

Bonus: Get the influencer marketing strategy template to easily plan your next campaign and choose the best social media influencer to work with.

Get the free template now!

How much do Instagram influencers make?

Instagram marketing has the highest share of influencer marketing dollars, according to eMarketer. It’s currently beating out Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube.

Psst: Here’s how to make money off your YouTube channel, your Instagram account, and your TikTok strategy!

According to Statista, the global average minimum price per post for an Instagram macro-influencer was $165. The average maximum was $1,804.

That being said, there are exceptions to the rule. Celebrities like Cristiano Ronaldo allegedly make a million plus per post. Micro-influencer Obebe claimed $1,000 for one Instagram carousel post with two photos.

Keep in mind that averages are calculated with a wide range of data. This includes influencers from all walks of life and industries and with varying capabilities.

General averages, according to Statista:

  • A nano-influencer can make $195 per post on Instagram
  • A mid-tier influencer can make $1,221 per post on Instagram
  • A macro-influencer can make $1,804 per post on Instagram

According to Influence. co, micro-influencers are looking at $208 per post. In contrast, mega-influencers can expect $1,628 per post on Instagram.

Instagram influencers are typically posting sponsored feed posts or Stories. They also go Live to discuss product endorsements.

With the rise of Instagram Shopping, you’ll also see influencers with affiliate links or tagged products in their feed.

Instagram’s Reels Bonus program is also a popular way to monetize your Instagram account. It compensates creators based on video views. Alex Ojeda, for example, reported earning $8,500 in a single month.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Alex Ojeda 🇲🇽 (@alexojeda)

How much do TikTok influencers make?

TikTok influencers will overtake Facebook in 2022 and YouTube in 2024 in popularity. So, it might be a good idea to start building your following on TikTok now. The app’s only growing stronger! And that means the answer to ‘how much do TikTok influencers make?’ is only going to get larger with time.

Source: eMarketer

According to this Statista report and this report:

  • Nano-influencers can make $181 per TikTok video
  • Macro-influencers can make $531 per TikTok video
  • Mega-influencers can make between $1,631 and $4,370 per TikTok video

Influencers on TikTok will often create sponsored video content to promote a brand. Brands can host ‘Takeovers’, giving an influencer control of their account for a set amount of time. Or, they can monetize their own account with Gifts.

TikTok Sleepfluencer (yes, that’s a thing!) Jakey Boehm has gamified Livestream Gifts. He livestreams himself sleeping and has coded a script that reads the chat out loud.

The live chat sounds trigger different prompts. The sound of gifts will activate music, turn on machines, or light up his room as he sleeps.

Plus, the larger the gift you buy, the greater the interruption.

Fans pay big money to wake Jakey up, and they love it. He reported making $34,000 in one month from TikTok Live. At 819.9K Followers, Jakey’s a macro-influencer making above-average for his videos. So, when we answer ‘how much do influencers make on TikTok’ with averages, keep creators like Jakey in mind.

@jakeyboehm

Join the live everyone is talking about! The ORIGINAL TikTok Interactive Sleep Stream. Control my room

♬ original sound – jakeyboehm – Interactive Sleep

How much do influencers make on Twitter?

Twitter appears to be the least lucrative platform for influencers. It could have something to do with other apps having eCommerce integration. Or it might have something to do with engagement levels.

But, many influencers will offer package deals. A sponsored Tweet can be used as a piece of content that sweetens the deal.

Here are Twitter influencers’ general earnings per post according to Statista:

  • Nano-influencer can make $65
  • Micro-influencers and above can make $125

Influencer content on Twitter will often be sponsored posts or use brand-specific hashtags. Twitter Takeovers are also a potential revenue stream.

In the example below, Chrissy Tiegen might just really like Old Dutch Dill Pickle chips. Or, she could be a Twitter chip influencer who is very good at natural brand endorsements.

extremely good chip alert! pic.twitter.com/vzscG6HYzR

— chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) August 24, 2022

How much do Facebook influencers make?

Facebook might be trending out of favor with a younger demographic. But Facebook is still a social media giant, the largest by many metrics. Facebook influencers are still pulling in money from things like:

  • sponsored posts
  • brand ambassador contracts
  • affiliate marketing
  • merchandising
  • Live videos promoting products or services

Here are Facebook influencers’ general earnings per post according to Statista:

  • Nano-influencer can make $170 per post
  • Micro-influencer can make $266 on Facebook

How to hire a social media influencer

If you’re a marketing manager or business owner, influencer marketing is a smart tactic. But, there are a lot of moving parts to deal with.

You need to find the right influencer that fits your brand and budget. Plus, you should understand how they set their rates.

Then, you need to work out how they fit into your marketing strategy. And, of course, measure your results following your campaign.

Hootsuite’s experts have come up with an Influencer marketing guide. And, great news, it’s designed specifically for folks like you.

It covers everything, from influencer etiquette to influencer marketing tools. And it includes a list of potential influencers you can reach out to.

Make influencer marketing easier with Hootsuite. Schedule posts, research and engage with influencers in your industry, and measure the success of your campaigns. Try it free today.

Get Started

Do it better with Hootsuite, the all-in-one social media toolkit. Stay on top of things, grow, and beat the competition.

Free 30-Day Trial

How To Make Money on Instagram in 2022 (7 Best Ways)

This guide will explore 7 quick and easy methods for how to make money on Instagram.

You’ve probably heard stories of Instagrammers cashing in on the pictures they snap and share every day. You might’ve even looked at your own sizable following and thought, “Maybe I can do that full time too.”

Together, social media reach and influence offer the opportunity for Instagram creators to explore multiple streams of potential revenue, whether they want to build an empire or just earn some extra cash and free stuff.

Shortcuts ✂️

  • How to make money on Instagram
  • How much do Instagram influencers make?
  • How many Instagram followers do you need to make money?
  • Getting paid on Instagram and beyond
  • Make money on Instagram FAQ

Free Webinar: How to Grow and Monetize Your Instagram Account

A free workshop with field-tested Instagram marketing tips. Learn how to grow your Instagram audience and monetize it with an online store.

Reserve your seat now

How to make money on Instagram

  1. Collaborate with brands on sponsored posts
  2. Become an affiliate
  3. Open your own ecommerce store
  4. Create an Instagram shop
  5. Sell your photos online
  6. Monetize your content
  7. Sell old stuff

The methods that may work the best for you will depend on your unique brand of Instagram content, your target audience, and your level of commitment.

The beauty here is that chasing one revenue stream doesn’t necessarily rule out another.

So let’s start with the most common approach to Instagram monetization: partnering with brands as an influencer.

1. Collaborate with brands on sponsored content

The term “Instagram influencer” gets thrown around a lot these days.

An influencer is basically anyone who’s built themselves an online reputation by doing and sharing awesome things online. To their audiences, influencers are tastemakers, trendsetters, and trusted experts whose opinions about certain subjects are respected.

Many brands just can’t compete with that, so they partner with influencers on sponsored content like posts, Reels, and Stories that help get the word out about their products.

But it’s not just the follower count and reach of your Instagram account that brands want—it’s your audience’s trust and engagement with high-quality content.

It can be hard to balance your revenue as an influencer and your integrity as a creator, but if you’re not relying on your Instagram marketing income to stay afloat, you always have the freedom to be selective about the brands you work with, just as brands will be selective about the Instagrammers they work with.

How to decide what to charge as an influencer

Typically these influencer deals involve the creation of content—Instagram ads, a post, a video, or a Story—and will sometimes include permission for the brand to use this content on their own site or in an ad.

Most of these deals are negotiable and can involve a single post or an entire campaign in exchange for a fee, a free product, a service, a gift, the promise of exposure, or some combination of these.

Keep in mind when negotiating that you’re not just offering content but access to your audience—a potentially large reach on one of the most popular social media platforms around—and usage rights.

The average influencer who has upward of 100,000 followers charges up to $500 per post, just to give you an idea of what some brands are willing to pay and how to negotiate based on the cards you’re holding.

Finally, it's important as an influencer to also know your own audience.

What is the makeup of your audience, and what is your engagement rate (total engagement divided by your number of followers)? You can dig up numbers to back this up in your Instagram analytics report, if you’ve switched to a business account. This will help you be prepared when it comes time to negotiate.

How to find brands to work with

If you’re big enough, chances are brands will find you. But you can also look for brands to work with that are on a similar level in terms of personality and values, so your audience won’t feel like you’re “selling out.”

You can reach out to them directly to try to work out a deal, but you can also list yourself on one of the many influencer marketplaces out there to increase your chances of being discovered, including:

  • Fohr. Connect your Instagram, blog, YouTube channel, and other social platforms to create an influencer “card” that shows your different profiles and total reach to brands shopping for a partnership. You can also access a list of brands and their wants, so you can take the initiative to reach out too.
  • Crowdtap. Do small content creation tasks to earn rewards. This is great if you’ve got a smaller audience. Available in the US only. 
  • indaHash. Brands post campaigns you can participate in. Post a picture with the specified hashtags on Instagram and get paid. You need at least 700 engaged followers to be eligible.

The rules vary when it comes to sponsored content, but to be on the safe side and respect your audience’s trust, consider adding a #sponsored hashtag to indicate sponsored posts.

You can find examples of sponsored posts and how Instagrammers integrate brands into their story or caption by searching #sponsored on Instagram, like this one from How They Asked, an account that shares wedding proposal stories and partners with a jewelry business:

Instagram also has a “Paid Partnership with” tag that prominently identifies sponsored posts, which some brands might require you to use to disclose your relationship with them.

2. Become an affiliate

Unlike an influencer, an affiliate is more invested in making sales for the partner brand—not just generating awareness—in exchange for a commission.

This is typically done with a trackable link or unique promo code to ensure clicks actually translate into sales. Use a mix of clickable links in your Instagram bio and Instagram Stories or through stickers. Since you can’t put links in Instagram posts, you can create promo codes so you can make money from different angles. 

Consider reaching out to one of the many online merchants offering affiliate programs. Or you can explore popular marketplaces like:

  • ClickBank. An affiliate platform with a tier-based commission that’s open to everyone.
  • LTK. An invitation-only fashion and lifestyle influencer network that offers 20% commissions.
  • Amazon Associates. A popular option that pays out a 10% commission.

Though it sounds like a numbers game, affiliate marketing is also an art, and you’ll have a better chance at success if you have a plan going into it and expand your online presence to include a website and other marketing channels.

Tip: Affiliate links can be long and ugly, so I recommend a URL shortener like Bitly, especially if the links are going in your Instagram bio.

3. Open your own ecommerce store

By now it might sound like the only way for an Instagrammer to make money is to sell out and work with other brands.

But creators of all kinds are in a good position to “sell out” with their own products: physical goods, services, or digital items that can be an extension of their brand, building a business with an audience at its center.

The ability for [content creators] to sell products is just so natural because their abundance of content allows them to have those moments of plugging their products.

Chris Vaccarino, founder of Fanjoy

You need to invest some time upfront, but in today’s world, it’s almost natural for creators to make the leap to entrepreneurship. That’s becoming easier with the growing list of Instagram tools available to build an audience. 

Just look at Loki the Wolfdog, one of the biggest Instagram dog-preneurs of his time.

By selling your own stuff, you don’t need to worry about integrating messages from other brands into your posting strategy. Better yet, you can get your own brand out there on the products you sell.

Fans can show their love and support your work by buying from you—a purchase they can feel good about.

There are a few ways to sell your own merch:

  • You can use a print-on-demand service to print and ship your own t-shirts, pillows, coffee mugs, wall art, and more.
  • You can sell services such as photography or consulting using your bio to direct interested people to a contact email or a link to your professional website.
  • You can sell digital products such as online courses, ebooks, or design templates.
  • You can use your Instagram business account to launch a startup selling your own original products. You can use dropshipping fulfillment so you don’t have to deal with holding inventory or returns.

Superpowered social links

Linkpop is a tool that lets you create a customized landing page for all your brand links. It’s free, customizable, and best of all: shoppable.

Get Linkpop 

4. Create an Instagram Shop

The past few years have been huge for ecommerce brands and creators who want to sell on social media. Instagram has released a ton of features under the Instagram Shopping umbrella, which allows people to easily shop your business’ videos and images on the platform. 

Instagram shopping tags are so effective—and over 130 million people are tapping on shopping tags every month—because they allow people to go from product inspiration to product information in just a few taps."

Taylor Loren, in an edited excerpt from the course How to Make Money on Instagram

It all starts with an Instagram shop, a.k.a. your storefront. There, you can share your story and sell products. Instagram provides a sleek experience for shoppers to browse and buy your collections. All you need to set up Instagram Shopping is a Business or Creator account. 

You can customize your shop by creating collections or curated products presented in themes. Common themes include new arrivals, gifts, or seasonal trends. 

Just like your online store, you can also create product description pages in your shop. Here you can include all relevant product information, like pricing and descriptions. You can send people to your website to complete a purchase or let them buy through the app using Instagram checkout. 

It doesn’t stop there. People can also buy your products throughout Instagram via features like:

  • Shoppable posts and Stories. You can use product tags to showcase items from your catalog in videos and images. People simply need to tap to learn more about an item.
  • Shoppable ads. You can also add product tags to ads and extend the reach of your shoppable posts. Setup is simple inside Ads Manager, or you can boost existing Instagram posts in your feed.
  • Instagram Shop tab. Instagram’s shopping tab is a destination for people looking to discover new brands that are relevant to them. This helps you more easily reach new customers on the app.
  • Live shopping. Do you love livestreaming content? Then you’ll find Instagram live shopping helpful for making money. Just go live and tag products from your catalog (or Facebook shop) to feature in your broadcast. The product will show up at the bottom of the screen, where people can tap to purchase instantly.

The best part? Setting up an Instagram shop is free. You’ll only pay a commission if someone purchases through Instagram checkout.

5. Sell your photos online

Someone might get famous on Twitter by telling 140-character jokes, but Instagram is a photo-sharing app at its core. And photos are assets that can be licensed, printed, and sold in a variety of ways.

If photography is what got you into the Instagram game in the first place, you can list your photos in marketplaces like 500px or Twenty20, where brands and publishers might license them.

However, you can also sell your photos as prints and on other physical products using a similar method described in the last section. Services like Printful and Teelaunch let you put your photos on posters, phone cases, pillows, and more, taking care of fulfilling orders and customer service, so all you really need to worry about is making sales.

Take the story of Daniel Arnold, who, according to an interview in Forbes, went from “eating toast three meals a day” to making $15,000 in 24 hours by offering to sell prints of his popular-but-controversial photos. If you've already got the demand, all you need to do is take the initiative and offer your audience the opportunity to buy your photography from you.

6. Monetize your content 

Monetize your videos with ads

Another way for entrepreneurs to make money on Instagram is through in-stream video ads. With these ads, brands can promote themselves within the videos you produce. 

How much you earn depends on the amount of views your video gets, or “Monetizeable Plays,” according to Instagram. You’ll get 55% of ad revenue generated from each view, paid monthly to your bank account.  

Turn on In-stream Video Ads and start earning in three steps:

  1. Go to Account Settings. Tap Creator, then In-Stream Video Ads.
  2. Tap Get Started. Read and agree to the terms and conditions. 
  3. Toggle Allow Monetization on your existing Instagram videos, then tap Continue to finish. 

To earn through In-Stream Video Ads, your content must be original and you need to own the rights to any music. Your video needs to be two minutes or more to monetize. Images, polls, looping videos, slideshows, or text montages don’t qualify.

Live badges

Live badges are a newer feature, helping creators and influencers make money on Instagram. A popular concept taken from Twitch and TikTok, think of Instagram Live badges as tips you can receive during a live broadcast. 

With this feature, viewers can purchase a badge during the livestream that shows in the comments and unlocks features, including a place on the creators’ badge list and access to a special heart.  

People can buy:

  • One heart for $0.99
  • Two hearts for $1.99
  • Three hearts for $4.99

7. Sell old stuff

If you’re not an influencer and just want to make some extra cash, Instagram is a great place to sell old stuff. Whether it’s furniture, clothing, collectors items or even Mason jars, you can make side income selling it on Instagram. Plus, you can declutter your home and help save the environment.

Take Lavender Loveseat, for example. Based in Chicago, the team finds older pieces of furniture, refinishes them, and sells them through Instagram. The brand shares fun, entertaining content on its page to attract buyers and earn sales. 

Read More: From Likes to Dollars: Here's How to Sell Your Products on Instagram

How much do Instagram influencers make?

There are a number of factors that determine how much an Instagram influencer makes. They can earn anywhere from a few dollars to a million dollars per post.  

The amount you make depends on a few factors: 

  1. Number of followers
  2. Engagement rates
  3. Affiliate marketing tactics

The good news? There is room for any size account to make money on Instagram. There are generally five tiers of influencer marketing, broken down by follower count. 

  • Nano-influencer: 1,000–10,000 followers ($10–$100 per post)
  • Micro-influencer: 10,000–50,000 followers ($100–$500 per post)
  • Mid-tier influencer: 50,000–500,000 followers ($500–$5,000 per post)
  • Macro-influencer: 500,000–1 million followers ($5,000–$10,000 per post)
  • Mega-influencer: 1 million+ followers ($10,000–$1 million+ per post)

If you don’t have a lot of followers, don’t get discouraged. Earning your followers’ trust and engaging with them will help your account grow. More than the number of followers, brands look for influencers to work with that have an active following.

So even if you only have 1,000 followers, you can still make some real money. To give you a little inspiration, here are some examples of the top non-celebrity influencers who have made the most of Instagram with their accounts:

  • Lele Pons: 46 million followers
  • Charli D'Amelio: 44.4 million followers
  • Addison Rae: 40.1 million followers
  • Sommer Ray: 26.8 million followers

Related Article: It’s Your Time to Shine: How to Find and Work With Instagram Influencers

How many Instagram followers do you need to make money?

If by now you’re wondering how many followers you need to start bringing in real revenue, the short answer is: not as many as you think.

The long answer depends on factors that range from:

  • What niche you’re in and how easily you can directly tie it to a product category (fashion, food, beauty, and fitness are popular niches, based on top Instagram hashtags)
  • How engaged your followers are (100,000 fake followers won’t amount to much)
  • Which revenue channels you explore

Naturally, the more engaged followers you have, the better. Check out our tips on how to get more followers on Instagram.

While top Instagrammers make thousands of dollars per post, even those with small but engaged followings of 1,000 have the potential to start making money.

Getting paid on Instagram and beyond

What started as a hobby—making people laugh, doing silly photoshoots with your dog, or sharing pictures of food—can snowball into the chance to turn your Instagram page into a source of income fueled by your engaged following. But why stop there? 

There’s a world of possibilities for creators to make money on the web. If you want to open up more revenue streams online, be sure to check out our tips on how to make money on YouTube. Your Instagram followers are bound to join you on other channels. You just have to open the doors for them to walk through.

Ready to create your business? Start your free trial of Shopify—no credit card required.

Make money on Instagram FAQ

Can you get paid on Instagram?

Yes. You can get paid on Instagram in the following ways:

  • Create sponsored posts for brands that want to get in front of your audience
  • Become an affiliate and making a commission selling other brands’ products
  • Create and selling a physical or digital product or offering a paid service
  • Set up an Instagram Shop
  • Sell licenses for your photography or videos
  • Monetize your content

How many followers do you need to make money on Instagram?

The more followers you have on Instagram, the more money you can make. Rates are also determined by engagement, quality of content, name recognition, audience demographic, and skill set. The standard is $10 per 1,000 followers, but can vary depending on your contract and sponsor.

How much money does 10K Instagram followers bring in?

Micro-influencers, or accounts with 10,000 followers or less, can make around $88 per post on Instagram.

How Much Do Instagram Influencers Earn

According to the Influencer Marketing Outlook 2020 report, Instagram ranks #1 on the list of top influencer marketing platforms. The purpose of such marketing is to influence the behavior and choices of consumers, and working with influencers is one way to do this. Influencers are bloggers who advertise the products of well-known brands, thereby monetizing their impact on the audience. So how much income do influencers still receive for promoting products on a top social network?

Showing the cards: how much influencers earn on Instagram

Influencer marketing occupies a leading position among popular digital promotion channels. But getting the honorary title of an opinion leader and starting to earn round sums in dollar terms is not so easy - you need to meet certain criteria. First of all, to have a significant audience coverage and a high level of subscriber involvement in the life of the blog, that is, to be on the list of the most visited thematic channels.

Nano-influencers with between 1,000 and 10,000 followers earn an average of $10-100 per post. Micro-influencers with an audience of 10-50 thousand cost $100-500, average bloggers with 50-500 thousand followers - $500-5000. may ask for $5,000-10,000 for their services, and established millionaire bloggers (mega-influencers) - from $10,000 per post.

Thus, one can trace a pattern: 10,000 followers account for $100, but it is difficult to standardize the calculations, because many factors affect the amount of income: from the duration of the advertising campaign and the cost of the blogger himself for promotion to the level of competition in the influence market. And if a blogger has an active audience of millions in all top social networks, his income grows at an insane rate. By comparison, a mega-influencer on YouTube can earn $20,000 per post, on TikTok $2,500, on Twitter $2,000, and on FB over $25,000!

If you go deeper, you can see that the prices vary depending on the format of the publication. In 2020, influencers received $180 for Stories ads, $370 for Feed post creation, and $670 for video ads, according to Klear's annual research. These are average influencer rates for the period January-August 2020 and are skyrocketing as audience reach expands: a blogger who has crossed the line of 500,000 followers can expect to pay $2,738 for a standard post for a feed, $4,678 for a video!

Although influencers with 30K to 500K fans make pretty good money: $535 per post, $960 per video. only $65, publishing a video - $111. However, do not underestimate the "nano" and "micro" level Insta bloggers - if you have the potential and desire to develop in an honest way (without cheating activity), the chances of quickly breaking into the top in the niche are very high .

Who are the highly paid people of Instagram

According to the Klear report, the most successful Instagram bloggers are Generation Z, born in the digital world (early 2000s) and interested in technology since childhood. Their average earnings outperform older Gen Y across all post formats: Stories $245 vs. $229, Feed Posts $520 vs. $448, Videos $807 vs. $796.

X: $283 vs. $241. Still, in other respects, “older” teens win by earning an average of $45 more (for comparison: $122 vs. $73 for Stories and 211 vs. $170 per post).

There are also gender differences in the influencer industry, with about 85% of the market being female bloggers. However, men earn 18% more from collaboration with brands, which is $ 128 in monetary terms. This division is observed not only in salaries, but also in blogging categories. Female influencers dominate in DIY (94%), relationships, family and parenting (93%), beauty (92%) and fashion (80%) areas. Men pay more attention to sports and fitness (65%), photography (51%) and travel (63%).

It is likely that differences in activity across categories determine the wage gap. One of the reasons can also be considered a pandemic, due to which the payment of influencers working in the beauty industry in 2020 (compared to 2019) decreased by 18%, and in fashion by 15%.

Where do the richest bloggers live? Being an influencer in the UK is the most rewarding, as they earn, on average, $500 for an Insta-collaboration. In second place are opinion leaders from Germany, whose services are estimated at $377. Next on the list are Australia ($341), Italy ($263) and Spain ($204), and France completes it ($173).

It's worth noting that Klear's statistics on influencer salaries, demographics and geography are based on a sample of 4,850 Instagram influencers for 8 months of 2020, starting in January. If you are looking for influencers to collaborate on Instagram, be prepared for the fact that the prices for the services of most of them will be far from statistical. Course conversion, specialization, audience coverage, engagement, content format also play a role here. If you dream of becoming famous and in demand on the influence market, review the cost of your advertising services in terms of the factors described above, without overestimating your abilities and opportunities as a blogger, and “play” by fair rules.

Pandemic-era influencers: how to make over $100,000 on Instagram baking bread

Making your own bread has become one of the favorite activities of locked-in Americans, along with video games, TV shows and drinking alcohol. Unexpectedly for themselves, amateur bakers on Instagram have become the new influencers of the pandemic era. They can use their freshly baked popularity to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Kristen Dennis is ready to show off her latest masterpiece, a 25 cm round bread she baked to a flawless golden crust in her Chicago kitchen. She bakes bread for taste—her sourdough starter is slightly sweeter and less spicy than others—and for looks. Therefore, it is important for her that the bread has a ribbed surface with a large cut made with a special curved blade. Kristen's ability to bake bread with an incredible porous texture drew her to her Instagram page 179000 subscribers.

After cutting the bread across, Kristen presses one half to her face like a pillow. “Smells good,” she says. Although her Instagram followers can hardly draw the same conclusion from the picture on the screen, they definitely like what they see. And now even more than ever before. Dennis's following has increased by almost 30% over the past month, and she is about to join the ranks of those bloggers who earn between $100,000 and $200,000 a year. In addition, she receives at least 200 direct messages from fans daily, which is four times more than before. Kristen used to do her best to answer everyone, but recently she has started making money with her account, earning $70 an hour for private online bread baking lessons.

“We feed doctors, and orders for them feed us”: how food for doctors in Kommunarka saves a bakery from ruin somehow engage the brain. They don’t want to go crazy with boredom,” says Dennis, 36, who runs the FullProofBaking blog. “So they got carried away with this topic. People are trying to distract themselves."

Along with video games, Netflix series, and drinking alcohol, making bread has become one of the favorite activities of locked-in Americans. The labor-intensive process requires patience and precision - most people rarely need these qualities in a normal life. But there is nothing normal in the current situation. Recently, the hashtag #bread was used on Instagram 30,000 times in 36 hours, or about 833 times every 60 minutes.

Another source of motivation? Getting bread the usual way, that is, buying ready-made, packaged and sliced ​​​​bread at the grocery store, has become more difficult. Many Americans avoid supermarkets altogether, where they have to endure long lines and wear face masks.

“I wanted to give Russians access to the best French quality”: the story of the life and business of the founder of Volkonsky bakeries

However, the growing interest in making homemade bread has created a ripple effect. Yeast and flour shortages have emerged in some traditional and online stores. “It’s hard to find any yeast these days,” admits Thomas Benner, CEO of the company that makes Red Star branded yeast. Last month, sales of Red Star and its competitors increased 6.5 times to over $100 million, according to market research firm Nielsen. Flour sales also rose sharply, by 150%, to about $2.4 billion. “This is an unprecedented surge in demand. I don’t think any of us have ever experienced this,” says Benner. “We work around the clock to fulfill all orders.”

The frequency of mentions of bread on Twitter has more than doubled since mid-March and exceeded 80,000 per day, according to Sprinklr, which analyzes social media posts. One day, March 30, bread was mentioned 180,000 times.

“The typical amateur baker is a 55- to 60-year-old woman,” explains Wes Fesenfeld, 34, who is the fourth generation of the family that owns the Kansas City-based flour manufacturer Uhlmann Company. “Today I don’t have women aged 55-60 on Instagram. I see a lot of millennials and other people making bread who wouldn’t normally do it,” he says. He estimates that demand for his family's flour, which comes under two iconic brands Heckers and Ceresota, has doubled in six weeks, and their waiting list is scheduled two weeks in advance. “Our customers have been very understanding,” says Fesenfeld. “In a normal situation, if you were caught by surprise and you couldn’t complete an order in a week and a half, it would be a nightmare.”

The explosion in baking has led to the rapid rise of a new type of social media star: the baking influencer. Gourmet restaurants and trendy bakeries have long been popular on Instagram. But these bloggers are from another test. They either work part-time, like Dennis from Chicago, or they own small local establishments. Martin Fjeld is one of the latter: his blog IlleBrod already has 41,000 subscribers and he is one of four owners of the Ille Brød bakery in Oslo, Norway. “It’s amazing,” he comments on the appetite with which subscribers consume baking-related content. “Now you can see that people have always wanted to do just that.”

“We have a few weeks left”: how the coronavirus is killing small businesses in Russia

Fjeld has already managed to use his Instagram creatively for advertising. He promoted his cookbook Artisan Sourdough (Artisan Sourdough Bread), published in 2019 by HarperCollins and, of course, Ille Brød. “It's not uncommon for tourists to come in and say that this was the first place they wanted to visit in Oslo,” says Fjeld. He's doing well: Ille Brød made a total of about $350,000 last year.

Certainly, Fjeld is more enterprising than many other bloggers who are just now beginning to wonder if their freshly baked popularity could be more than bread baked at 250ºC. They are crossing important milestones in terms of income: 50,000 and 100,000 Instagram followers. An influencer with 50,000 followers (roughly the milestone after which brands start paying attention to an account) usually charges at least $100 per sponsored post. This amount rises to $500-1000 per post at 100,000 followers and increases proportionally after that. As a general rule, influencer income is correlated with the total number of subscribers: a blogger with 100,000 subscribers can earn $100,000 a year, either partially or entirely through sponsored posts. Few baking bloggers make money from their accounts in this way. Glory came to them quite recently, just a few days ago.

“My husband thinks that you won’t make money on this,” Natalya Syanova, creator of the Natashas_baking account, sighs. It now has 61,700 subscribers, with several thousand more arriving every day. She intends to prove that her husband is wrong. Syanova, a 38-year-old mother of two in Chicago who works part-time as a baker at a local convenience store chain, now sells instructional videos online for just $9. 99 to explain why your sourdough won't rise and your crust isn't as crispy and pretty. , as in other people's photos on Instagram.

Her most popular Instagram post is a video of her stretching the dough for panettone, a sweet cake made from flour, eggs, sourdough, raisins and candied fruits. It's the carbohydrate equivalent of a two-minute workout: a complex routine that often has to be done in a stressful environment during the holidays, when relatives come to visit and evaluate other people's skills. Syanova, an Orthodox Christian, emigrated to the United States from Ukraine in 2010. All last week she worked on baking for Easter. Her kids love panettone. “They love croissants, too,” she says. “But when we go to the store, they ask: “Will you buy me a muffin or a cupcake?” With green or, there, purple glaze. This is strange".

Meanwhile, Hannah Page is practicing a genre called brainscaping. On her blog BlondieandRye (147,000 followers), she intricately garnishes focaccia with vegetables like striped zucchini, asparagus, green onions, coriander and bell peppers. “I've always been interested in the aesthetic side of bread: how you can make it beautiful in different ways,” explains 36-year-old Paige. - As soon as all this began, it became especially pleasant to make beautiful things - bright and life-affirming. People wrote in the comments: "God, I rarely get out of the house, but these photos make me so happy."

Despite her online popularity, Paige, a North Carolina history teacher, can't decide if she wants to monetize her blog through ads. “I’ve been tempted a lot lately, but I’m a little embarrassed that I have to agree to post something.”

Noah Bedard, author of the NoahBakesBread blog (45,300 followers), has no such doubts. Like many baker bloggers, Bedard, 30, has noticed a steady increase in subscriber activity of late. “I get a lot more private messages now. Many people ask questions because they bake bread at home,” says Bedard, who became famous on Instagram for his challah, a yeast-raised bread with eggs traditionally baked by Jewish families.

Learn more