How to Determine Your Rate

How much should you charge for your content as an influencer?

That’s a big question, and an important one.

Createurs are entrepreneurs who live off of their content. Your time is worth something, and your skills have value. Because your work is entitled to remuneration, it’s critical that you negotiate like a pro. We know it can be intimidating, but no worries—we’ve got your back.

Below, we’ve gathered some key advice to help you come up with your rate per post.

The 100 per 10,000 rule

The 100 per 10,000 rule is well known in the creator world. It’s simple: an influencer with 10,000 followers can charge $100 per post, an influencer with 100,000 followers can charge $1000 per post, etc.

But anyone who knows a bit about the job will tell you that rates can vary according to many factors. In fact, many variables come into play, and creating a rate isn’t only about followers. Our recommendation is to tailor your very own rate, one that covers all the specificities that make you unique. Here are some elements to take into account when creating your personalized rate.

1. Know who you are

Are you micro? Are you macro? What’s your niche? What’s your actual influence on your audience? What’s your experience working with brands?

The answers to these questions will help you position yourself when approaching a brand: a true fan who often posts about the brand, an experienced creator who creates stylish and high-impact posts, a creative individual with a very specific audience, etc.

What do you want from the brand? Is this your full-time job or a side-gig? How serious you are about your online work should inform your rate.

2. Engagement, engagement, engagement

Follower count is an important point of reference. You could have below 30k followers and have amazing engagement, or you could have 200k followers but generate less engagement than a creator with 20k. Work on your engagement like it’s a rare, classic car—polish it, make it shine, grow its value, and then capitalize on it. It’s worth sooo much more than your follower count.

Grow your engagement rate by telling your story, sparking conversation, and talking with your followers. Remember—it pays to be human!

3. Charging for influence is tricky

There is no exact way to calculate influence. However, some super helpful metrics have been created, and now rule the social media and digital marketing world (e.g. Tribe Dynamics’ Earned Media Value, or EMV). For creators, being paid means there are more strings and more risks attached. They have to generate a certain amount of followers or sales without really knowing if their estimation will be right, or having a clear way to measure it.

On the creator side, we lack a metric to measure the ‘quality’ of influence. That’s why your rate has to be flexible. It has to fluctuate with your work, your creativity and inspiration for a project, and your past performances. It’s okay to adjust your rate over time, and from one campaign to another.

4. Lower the deliverables, and over-deliver

This advice is especially valid for creators who are not sure what they’re capable of generating in terms of KPIs and results (sales, followers, etc.) in a collaboration. Don’t try to dazzle the brand partner by promising numbers that are too high. Keep a margin and allow yourself to underpromise a little—in the end, over-delivering will yield much better results than the other way around. Plus, if the post is a flop (we know it won’t be), it will make less of a difference to the brand.

5. Always ask for a budget

Over time you’ll collect valuable data on how much brands are willing to pay for influence. That information will help you estimate how these brands value work by online creators, and what makes a fair price. Knowing what your base rate is and asking for a budget will help you refine your position when negotiating a deal.

6. Be generous

Be human and warm in your exchanges with brands. Kindness and generosity do wonders. For instance, you don’t have to charge for everything—create an extra story, add in a personalized, heartfelt review of the product, etc. You can also add your stories in a highlight reel for free, and tell the brand “I loved collaborating with you—it was such a fun experience. I put our stories in a highlight so that they stay on my profile.”

Gestures like that won’t go unnoticed. In fact, they’ll help you become a creator that brands keep coming back to more campaigns and collabs!

7. Anticipate content use

You're providing content brands can reuse. You may have shared a post tagging these brands and giving them permission to repost it. But what if one day you receive a PR gift package from a brand and realize that they’ve used your picture for communications? Technically, you never told them they couldn’t.

That’s why it’s important to make sure that you include in your rate what your assets are for, and charge extra for brands to have unlimited use for an extended period of time. You can even send brands a contract—we have a free template that covers usage, fees, and other important details. Feel free to have a look here.

8. Share a daily rate, not an hourly rate

We recommend that you don’t share an hourly rate with prospects. Instead, come up with a daily rate and bundle in all expenses that might arise during the campaign (food, gas, makeup, clothes). This daily rate should include a tailored speciality rate. Do you have skills that make your content just a little extra special? For instance, editing sound, photos, videos, staging a set, singing, drawing, etc. These skills all present added value that you need to charge for. Your time is worth something, and so are your talents.

Final thoughts

There is no exact science when it comes to answering “how much should I charge?”

Take the 100 per 10,000 rule as a starting point, and then shape your own rate according to your skills and past performances. While you can also ask fellow influencers how much they charge, your rate should depend on your own profile and the specificities of the deal.

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