The recent surge in the popularity of social media influencer marketing has left many online promoters slightly perplexed. While influencers offer an apparently very simple and easy way to tap into new target audiences, knowing how much to pay them for their marketing power is another story.
Luckily, UK Blogger just published the findings from a recent survey that was carried out by the software specialist Vuelio. The findings from the survey offer some much needed insight into the evolving world of social media influencer pricing.
The Vuelio survey was sent to 7,500 people in a blogger database, and 787 usable responses were received back. Seventy-eight percent of respondents informed Vuelio that on average, they are compensated for up to half of their online work. Bloggers specialising in fashion & beauty, parenting, gardens/nature, and lifestyle fields were the most likely to receive some type of payment for over 50% of their work.
Now for the key question – how much money do bloggers get? The trend pointed towards bloggers being most likely to be compensated with £100-£250 for paid-for collabs and posts.
Just over 25% said they charge under £100 for a post, while 30% of blogger said they charge £101-£250 per post. Only 8% of bloggers said they didn’t receive any form of payment for blog posts. When it comes to more sustainable payments, the survey findings showed that super-sector bloggers and niche bloggers can command the highest sums. Just 2% and 4% of respondents reported that they get over £1001 per blog post and paid-for collaboration, respectively. Some of the most lucrative blogs for influencers were those specialising in fashion & beauty, politics, business, travel, media & marketing and combination fields (e.g., travel and food).
Value for Money?
So far, everything seems clear, right? But what’s harder to figure out is which influencer bloggers can provide you with the most value for your marketing investment. The reality is that the influencer sphere is a saturated market, which makes it difficult to get your brand’s message noticed. A brand design company such as Muze Creative may have more effect. Note that having tens of thousands of followers does not necessarily indicate a powerful influence. What’s more, online followers are becoming savvier about selling techniques.
If you start a partnership with a market influencer that’s hard to believe, the partnership is probably not going to be worth the investment. Keep in mind that it’s easy to buy fake followers and ‘likes’ and call yourself an influencer – and that is what many scam artists in the influencer marketing field do.
How To Spot The Fakes
Good research is, of course, the key to avoiding falling victim to fake influencers. So, ask any potential influencer for a breakdown of their audience demographic – whether it’s by gender, sex, location, political views, or whatever metric is important to your brand.
Find out how prospective influencer partners track their success. If a prospective influencer can’t provide you with solid metrics for monitoring their success, be prepared to take your brand’s marketing money elsewhere.
Better yet, make sure of tools that use AI-powered technology to identify influencer fraud. One example of such a tool is LikeWise. During one trial, the tool uncovered an influencer who was charging brands nearly £800 for blog posts despite having a fake engagement rate of more than 95%.
The real secret to successful influencer marketing is to build long-term, strong, mutually beneficial relationships with influencers in your brand’s niche. Paying for one or two odd sponsored blog posts every so often is unlikely to be fruitful.