How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost?

 

Influencer Campaign Variables & How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost?

One of the questions I get asked a lot is “How much does influencer marketing cost to do an influencer marketing campaign?” As you can imagine, based on the variety of influencers that are out there, my answer is well that can vary greatly.

I understand as a business owner myself why that can be a frustrating answer. But it is true especially with influencer marketing. You have got different types of influencers and you have got different niches. The more specific niches– the more an influencer can usually charge. A few factors can drive how much does influencer marketing cost – audience size, high engagement rates, and the overall quality of their audience.

Product Exchange

So, what do we look for on behalf of our clients?  Most of our clients are small businesses so most of our clients have a limited budget. We must take that into account anytime we are doing influencer campaigns on their behalf.  Usually, we try at first to find influencers who will work for product exchange. Product exchange means no out of pocket cash out of our clients pockets.  Most e-commerce companies set aside product that they gift, or they look for opportunities to give away samples. Product exchange can be worked into a budget easily.

Fee-Based Influencers

If product exchange is not an option for the types of influencers you’re looking to work with you should budget for product plus an additional influencer fee.  We find most influencers are somewhere between $100- $1,000 depending on the influencer. The fee depends on a lot of variables but that is usually the range we are seeing in today’s market. We try to keep it as low as possible and sometimes we can negotiate, but in certain instances it is worth paying a thousand dollars to an influencer. This depends on the influencer audience size and your product.

Influencer Campaign Management & How Much Does Influencer Marketing Cost

You may be asking yourself, “Can’t I just handle this on my own?” Of course, the answer is yes with almost any type of marketing today you can learn how to do it.  There are all kinds of tutorials out there are all kind of freebie videos. That’s a question you have to ask for yourself – do you want to ramp up quickly and pay for a company like our ours and our experience? Or do you want to learn how to do it yourself?  I don’t judge and I’m happy to help either way and happy to help you make that decision.

One of the benefits of working with a company like ours is we are experienced. We have existing relationships with influencers and we know what you should pay. We also know what’s a fair price for whatever it is you’re getting and we will also negotiate on behalf of our clients. For example, if you know an influencer is charging let’s say $500 and we feel like you should get more than what they’re charging $500 for we will either negotiate to get you more out of that deal or negotiate to help you pay a little less on that deal.

Here at BeeSmart Social Media, we also keep track of everything. We track communication touch points, product shipments and campaign results so that we can make sure that our client is getting what they need.  In addition, we also cultivate relationships with key influencers. When we take on new clients we may have an influencer that we’ve worked with in the past for one client that makes sense for another client.

Key Takeaways

To recap, if you are a small business looking to dip your toe into influencer marketing here are a few things to remember when figuring out how much does influencer marketing cost.

  1. You are definitely going to give away some product for an influencer marketing campaign.
  2. Plan to budget somewhere between a hundred dollars and a thousand dollars for it for a campaign.
  3. It’s a good idea to speak to an expert like us to help guide. We can make sure you’re not getting ripped off and that you’re working with legit influencers. (Not those ones that float around in influencer pods and build up fake build up fake followers and fake influence.)

I hope this information was helpful. If you have any questions about influencer marketing for your e-commerce brand or any other questions don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m happy to help you even if you never become a client-  I’m just passionate about helping small businesses.