Pricing your work as a content creator or influencer

How much should you charge as a influencer or creator?

It’s a difficult question to answer, as everyone values their own work differently, as do brands. You need to consider the time it takes to create your content, how you interact or engage with your audience, whether or not your audience aligns with the brand in question…

And when you’re just starting out, you may not even know where to begin. Is a price too low, or too high? Whether your starting out or a veteran, you it's okay to need a little bit of help.

Our mission at Boksi has always been to bring creators and brands together for more personal and profitable relationships. And when we say profitable, we mean both ways. Creative work is real work that deserves compensation. And that starts with us, offering fair and honest pricing to the amazing creators who work with us.

We haven’t been correct when it comes to pricing creative work in the past. But with our vision to become a transparent, easy, fair place for influencers and brands to collaborate, we would like to share what Boksi is doing on this topic. Our hope is to move things in the right direction, and stay on top of the ever-changing trends and shifts in the industry. There will never be one fixed answer in this space, but we are committed to keeping up with the latest practices.

So to help you, we have gathered a list of recommended pricing suggestions based on industry and follower count, so you can have the best possible recommendation for your pricing.

And always remember that no matter what the averages are, on Boksi, you always set your own price. Before we get into the averages, though, we'll cover why we are sharing this information and what you should consider in your own work when setting your price.

Why we are sharing insights for pricing?

We know that some of our creators, maybe including you, don't need help. But we still decided to ask how or our creators feeling about the pricing.
We asked our creators, do they need help or not. Here is what they said: 

Half want some help with pricing and half don’t. 

And who actually needs help? Generally, it’s influencers with a smaller follower range who want some more help and this is one of the reasons why Boksi has implemented a minimum pricing limit.

Larger influencers get much more support from peers and also talent agents and managers who can keep an eye on commercials across the industry, and do sales and negotiations on the influencers behalf. This also means larger influencers have to give a % commission to these agents. 

Smaller influencers often rely on pure numbers as their opportunity to sell themselves is usually lower. When a brand is using smaller influencers, they are usually using them in combination with tens of other influencers of the same size, for limited campaigns.

We wish to serve all our influencers, so that is why we are sharing the insights and wish to keep up to date with the information we offer. 

Factors to consider before setting your price 

• The time it takes to create your content. When you are estimating time, also estimate the time it takes to brainstorm the content, set the scene, editing, and more.
• Props or costs involved in the content creation. If you want a certain setting, does it cost to travel there? (The cost can be in time too.) Do you require other props for the shoot beyond the product? These are all costs that you can factor into your pricing.
• Your relationship with your audience. Brands value influencers for many reasons, and one of the main reasons is the audience you have gathered. So consider how active your audience is, how engaged they are, and how readily they will interact with your posts.
• The relationship between you and the brand. Have you worked with this brand before? If you have, you should have some idea as to how the content performed. Also consider how much your values overlap with the brand's values, as that is a powerful selling point too.
• Your own profile stats. Many social media platforms provide detailed insights for your account, so make sure to stay up to date with your own performance - that will give you more leverage when negotiating. In particular, brands will be very interested in your follower count and engagement rate.
• Your follower demographics. When applying to influencer campaigns, you'll have more success (and therefore can charge a higher price) if your follower base matches the target market of the brand.
• Content exclusivity. If the brand wants only their own products on display or reviewed, you can also factor that exclusivity into your price.
• Platform and usage. Each social media platform has different engagement rates and requirements, so make sure you consider that when offering your price. TikToks typically provide more engagement than Instagram Reels, for example, so make sure you stay on top of the capabilities of each platform.
• Seasonality and timing. Campaigns run for holidays or major events can demand a higher pricing, so make sure you keep that in mind when applying to campaigns.

As you can see, there are a lot of factors to consider! However, time spent evaluating your price based on these will go a long way, and can help you make the most of your collaboration with the brand. And one important note, when you are pitching yourself to the brand, let them know these factors, so they know what they will be paying for. 

Now let's cover the averages for CPMs and CPEs based on follower count.

Averages

Influencer types & definitions

Let's cover how we define different groups of influencers first.

• Nano-influencers: 1,000–10,000 followers
• Micro-influencers: 10,000–50,000 followers
• Mid-tier influencers: 50,000–200,000 followers
• Macro-influencers: 200,000–1,000,000 followers
• Mega-influencers: 1,000,000+ followers

So, before we get started what does CPM and CPE exactly mean?

CPM, or Cost Per Mille (thousand), is a common benchmark that brands use when pricing their marketing. Basically, it's how much they pay per 1,000 views on a piece of content.

CPE, or Cost Per Engagement, is similar, but it's how much a brand pays per click, like, share, comment or more on their content.

Brands would prefer lower CPMs and CPEs, but it's not the most important factor. If they get a high return, a higher than average CPM or CPE doesn't matter.

Generally, the CPM is much better for influencers with large followings. Whereas CPE  is much better for influencers with smaller followings but with the ability to engage themselves more with their communities.

We’ve put together benchmark influencer fees that will both offer transparency to creators and can be used when setting your price requests. The benchmark has been made after we conducted extensive research in order to better support influencers with pricing and fees. 


Where the data came from:

• Paid collaborations in the last 12 months
• Big and small influencers
• Freelancers and those that work with agencies and managers
• Collaborations with Boksi and also non-Boksi collaborations 

Instagram

Average reach per post

As you can see, creators in Boksi typically have higher reach than average, which is good for you, as you can then charge a higher price! 😉

Average reach per story

Stories typically have less reach, but you can still demand a good price for the reach.

Examples on average pricing 

Recently, the number of followers has become less and less important. Making content that is engaging and reaches a greater, relevant audience is what most brands are looking for. An influencer can have a lot of followers, but if they price high based on their followers yet post unengaging content, then they are not bringing the value that most brands are looking for. 

Let's still check stats about pricing in regards to followers, impressions and engagement. 

Followers in comparison to pricing

Usually, the more followers you have the higher price you can get - of course keep in mind that you should be reaching the right audience in the right country just the sole number doesn't tell the full story. Sometimes Nano-influencers may have better audiences and can therefore request higher prices than Micro-influencers for example. 

Impressions in comparison to pricing

It's possible get more impressions than you have followers in multiple social media platforms, if that is the case, keep in mind these price references to help you out. For example if you are a Micro-influencer but have high amount of impressions from relevant followers, maybe it's time to raise your price! 

Engagement in comparison to pricing

Engagement, aka how many likes, comments, shares and saves you get, matters as well. This tells that people are interested in your content.

Packaging and longer term commitments’ impact on pricing

Some creators package together the price for feed posts and story amounts. There’s also a bulk discount for long term commitments. 

For example, if a creator usually charges $500 for a single post, they might agree to a deal for a 12 month collaboration where the price is actually $250 per post, but a post per month earns them a guaranteed $3000. This discount can be given because the creator has to spend less time making a creative plan, or doing sales and admin work for collaborations every time. 

Ready to work and price your creative efforts?

We are committed to making changes that help creators for the better. That is why we have made a commitment to you, read our promises in regards or pricing.

If you feel like you need more help, check out our Help Centre article about pricing. We have also revamped our pricing calculator and added it to every creators Boksi profile to give you an estimate, you can check it out here.

We hope for you to have positive & profitable interactions on Boksi or elsewhere!