Deciding how much to pay an influencer can be really tough. There are no set rules that everyone follows. However, there are some key things to look at that can guide you. We’ll go over 5 metrics that can help you feel more confident when working out payment for your next influencer partnerships.
Influencer Audience Quality
Looking at the quality of an influencer’s audience is very important. The total number of followers doesn’t tell you everything. You need to see if their audience is a good fit for your brand. Are they getting new real followers over time? Or does their audience have fake or bot accounts? You’ll want to make sure their audience matches your ideal customers in terms of age, gender, location, and interests. Even a huge following is not useful if it’s the wrong type of people. Making sure an influencer has an authentic, growing, and relevant audience is key.
Engagement Rates
Engagement rates show how much an influencer’s content impacts their audience. High numbers of likes, comments, shares, and views demonstrate that their content connects with people. Look at these rates across different platforms, as they can be different. Also, look at if rates are different for regular posts versus sponsored/paid posts – regular posts tend to get more engagement. The best influencer marketing software estimates the cost-per-engagement based on an influencer’s past data. Spending money on partners who drive high engagement is crucial to get value.
Follower Count
While follower count isn’t everything, it’s still an important factor along with other metrics. Different follower levels give a sense of their reach: VIPs over 5 million, Top over 1 million, Macro over 250K, Mid over 50K, Micro over 10K, and Nano over 1K. Larger influencers can create widespread awareness through views and impressions. But their huge follower numbers don’t always equal high engagement or sales. Smaller influencers may have less total reach, but their dedicated niche audiences can sometimes drive more purchases. Matching the right follower level to your specific goals is important.
Past Performance
Look closely at an influencer’s past performance data from other brand partnerships and sponsored content. Look at stats like engagement rates, sales numbers, cost-per-purchase, etc. Their prior results predict their value for your brand. See if their regular unpaid content performed differently than paid/sponsored posts. If they’ve underperformed for other brands in your industry before, that’s a warning sign. But if their sponsored content consistently delivered great results, that’s very promising. Letting their prior hard data heavily influence your decision is wise.
Aligning with Budget Goals
Once you’ve evaluated an influencer’s abilities based on the metrics, you need to see if their expected performance is worth the costs you can afford. Set internal targets for the cost-per-engagement (CPE) and cost-per-view (CPV) you want based on your budget. Then estimate if a specific influencer partnership is likely to hit those CPE/CPV goals with your projected spend. Having these target numbers as guidelines removes the guesswork. If the data suggests they won’t meet your CPE/CPV targets cost-effectively, you may want to reconsider. But if they convincingly seem able to exceed your engagement/view goals, you can negotiate rates confidently. If you are collaborating with an influencer through a platform make sure to check the influencer marketing platform pricing beforehand.
