With members of our team who have been talent managers or influencers themselves (and are now negotiating influencer fees for our global campaigns), here are six factors that we find to have an impact on an influencer’s fee.
In busy commercial periods such as Christmas, more brands want to put their products in front of consumers. This has a knock on effect, as a lot of influencers get booked up quickly, have busy schedules and are approached by multiple campaign opportunities. When the demand is great during a busy period, they can therefore afford to increase accordingly!
Similarly, if an influencer has a period of high engagement, good conversion, or a valuable niche demographic, more brands will be approaching them for work and they can therefore set their fees higher. Supply and demand can have a huge impact on how expensive it is to work with an influencer at any given time.
There are varying rates for different content formats - for example an Instagram Story usually costs less than an Instagram Reel from the same influencer. This is due to the time taken to create the post, as well as the creativity and the resources needed. However, if you want to work with influencers with multiple deliverables, you can negotiate a package deal which is often discounted.
Acquiring usage rights from an influencer can be a beneficial way for a brand to advertise on their own brand channels, as it saves production costs and promotes collaboration further. Although every influencer has different standard terms, usually a brand can repost an influencer’s content organically for an agreed time period, with any additional usage requiring an additional fee.
An influencer’s fee for usage of their content across paid advertising channels should depend on where the content will be posted, how long for, and how much money will be put behind it. Even if you would like to post the content organically after the initially agreed usage period, this can add a cost as it could limit other opportunities for the influencer with competitors. For example, if Adidas have usage rights with an influencer for six months and continue to share content featuring them, Nike wouldn't want to work with the influencer during that time. This would result in a large opportunity cost for the influencer, particularly if the majority of their income comes from one specific vertical - e.g. sport/fitness.
Similarly, if you want to work with an influencer on an exclusive basis for a considerable period of time, they will have to factor in potential lost revenue from other potential brand collaborations during that period when negotiating exclusivity fees.
The reason this can have an impact on an influencer's fee is mainly down to how much time is needed to create that piece of content. If a creative concept is particularly intricate and a lot of resources are needed, or it takes time to create and edit - this needs to be reflected in the influencer’s fee.
Still unsure of how to set influencer fees? The advantage of working with an agency such as Digital Voices is that we have great relationships with talent agencies and management, and have the experience of having worked across a huge number of branded campaigns. We understand the industry standards and we can ensure that we’re getting the best rate for a brand when working with influencers.
If you have a project you would like help on please get in touch here!
If you’re an influencer and are looking for further information on this, or any advice - we have a collective called Creator Voices. There we offer free support and advice, answering questions on content, building relationships with brands and how to price brand collaborations.
