How much can you really earn by being a social media influencer?

Their names are Emma Chamberlain, Chiara Ferragni and Kim Kardashian. The most famous influencers have built up their businesses on social networks.

This type of business can be very profitable, even for micro-influencers. But what kind of earnings can be expected at various levels? We got the lowdown.

It’s become a business like any other. The influence economy is a big one. The industry of influence marketing is set to be worth 16.4 billion dollars by the end of 2022.

That’s what a Kolsquare study revealed, which looked at the average rates for KOLs, the “Key Opinion Leaders”, i.e., influencers, to produce content on the social networks Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok and Twitch.

Five types of influencers revenues

First of all, revenues are categorized according to five types of influencers: nano-influencers with less than 10 000 followers, micro-influencers between 10 000 and 100 000 followers, macro-influencers and top-influencers with more than 100 000 followers, and those with more than 3 million followers.

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A post shared by emma chamberlain (@emmachamberlain)

Thanks to its range of formats, Instagram is the social network that enables influencers to earn money in several ways. A nano-influencer can get paid up to 165 euros for a single post, while a celebrity followed by millions can make 25 000 euros.

Live streams can also bring in windfalls of 8 000 euros for macro-influencers and up to 35 000 euros for a Reel by a top-influencer. Average rates can even reach several hundred thousand euros for the biggest-name influencers.

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Despite it currently being subject to much criticism, Instagram remains the preferred platform for influencer marketing with an average engagement rate of 5.7%.

A success that has led to a rate increase of about 20% for Reels. This format is one of the most successful, as more than 45% of accounts on Instagram interact with a Reel at least once a week, and it generates 22% more engagement than traditional videos on the platform.

But TikTok should not be ignored. The challenger has seen its content creators increase their prices by 20%. The same goes for Twitch, where streamers have raised their rates by about 15%.

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A post shared by Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian)

The platform has seen a 60% jump in the number of its content creators between 2020 and 2021.

Note that YouTube is still a key contender thanks to its “Shorts” format, which racks up an average of 3.5 billion views per day.

While YouTube bases remuneration for creators on the number of views, it remains the platform with the most lucrative rates regardless of level of influence. A nano-influencer can earn up to 2 500 euros on average for a video and top influencers up to 50 000 euros.

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