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.
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.
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.
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.
Let's cover how we define different groups of influencers first.
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:
| Nano | Micro | Mid-tier | Macro | |
| Industry avg | 20% | 17% | 14% | 9% |
| Boksi avg | 62% | 59% | 40% | 26% |
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! 😉
| Nano | Micro | Mid-tier | Macro | |
| Industry avg | 5.4% | 3.3% | 2.4% | 1.2% |
| Boksi avg | 17.3% | 13.2% | 7.3% | 2.3% |
Stories typically have less reach, but you can still demand a good price for the reach.
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.
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.
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!