How Much An Influencer Earns - What Nobody Tells You

Instagram was born as a simple platform to share photos and, since its birth in 2010, it has become a success now. Out of 17 popular social media platforms, Instagram ranks 5th in January 2021 with many active users worldwide. Nowadays, Millennials and Gen Zs are actively using it as their main platform to connect and join like-minded communities to get inspiration from or become the inspiration.

Whether one just wants to share their everyday life or intentionally gain followers to be an influencer, being popular on Instagram can mean success to many. Every ‘like’, ‘follow’, and a click-through equates to a conversion value so many companies and brands aren’t hesitant at all in taking advantage of using one’s publicity and fame in order to be connected to a bigger market.

Who knew that after many generations, we’ll all be given an equal opportunity to earn money outside cramped offices without discrimination about our age, race, or beliefs?

If you are an Instagram influencer, you can now make a living easily in the palm of your hands and create a brand out of you, your interests, and your passion.

How Much Do Instagram Influencers Make?

Influencer marketing has become the most effective sector to reach consumers and brands have understood this well: according to the study conducted by KolSsquare, the market should represent $15 billion in 2022 and the R.O.I. (Return on Investment) is $ 6.5 for every dollar invested.

The economic benefits for influencers obviously follow this growth. The number of followers is not the only criterion on which advertisers rely to pay influencers, even if the rest of the study classifies the accounts of influencers according to this number.

Another criterion that is of great interest to brands is the engagement rate of the influencer community because it is an indicator of success, virality, and interactions (it is calculated by dividing the number of interactions, likes, and comments, by the number of people reached).

The last criterion for remunerating influencers is the content requested by the brand (simple post, videos, stories, etc): the more it is, the more the salary increases. We’ll let you imagine the fees of bigger Youtube or Instagram accounts.

The platform is the most prominent among advertisers, in particular, because it has the highest average on engagement rates, all sizes of accounts combined (even if it faces strong competition from Tik Tok). 90% of influencer campaigns include Instagram in their strategy. This popularity explains why the amounts of remuneration are the highest on this platform.

For a nano-account (less than 10,000 subscribers), count between 0 and 120 dollars per post and 0 to 60 dollars per story. For a macro-account (more than 100,000 subscribers), the remuneration varies between 1,500 dollars and 4,000 dollars per post and 1,200 dollars to 3,500 dollars per story.

Do You Have What it Takes to Be an Influencer? Here’s how you can earn Money…

With 600 million monthly active users, Instagram is the most influential social network. Its use has become widespread among young people (84% of 15-24-year-olds use it daily) but also among seniors who represent 8% of network users. These users have one thing in common: they are all very active, 46% of them follow at least one brand. But they are also very easily influenced since 58% of them want to buy products after a friend’s post.

All of these elements represent a real boon for influencers, who have been able to create unprecedented proximity to the consumer. After seeing an influencer post, 75% of followers buy the product or brand. Their ability to impact the purchase decision with their subscribers is therefore far superior to any other means of communication.

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to monetize your presence on Instagram. This strategy consists of acting as a "brand ambassador" for products you use and believe in. By talking about them, you can share a link to their page and/or a discount code, so that you incentivize your audience to click. Every time a person buys a product through your personalized link, you take a percentage of the generated income. Another widely used tactic in affiliate marketing is giveaways in which users must comment and like a page, thus encouraging interactions

2. Monetize Instagram Organically

To make money with Instagram, the first thing is to get a prominent presence on the network, which allows you to attract the visibility you are looking for for your products or for those of other brands.

The first step, therefore, is to grow your Instagram account organically by generating quality content that is relevant to your potential audience. At the very least, you need to reach several thousand followers before you can come up with a monetization strategy. To help you in this task, the tool HashtagsForLikes is recommended which allows you to identify the content and hashtags that work best in your niche.

In addition to having a certain number of followers, it is essential that your audience is involved and interacts often with your content. To do this, focus on meeting the needs of your target audience and encouraging conversations and reactions.

3. Instagram Advertising

Over time, competition in Instagram is growing and it has become more challenging to differentiate yourself from other Influencers that also monetize their own Instagram account. Sometimes to make money you have to invest money. Instagram Ads are a great opportunity for brands and accounts that want to become known or generate conversions through this social network.

We should not be scared by the idea of ​​advertising, since there is no mandatory minimum budget. If you want, you can start with as low as 2 dollars a day. It will depend on your decision and your possibilities. Campaigns can be stopped and modified at any time.

Stories format is especially recommended since it is a type of content that is widely accepted by users. Stories ads are displayed in the same vertical format as user ephemeral content. Although it is indicated that it is advertising content, they are integrated in a very natural way. Typically, a photo or video ad appears for every 4-5 Stories accounts. To make the most of this format, try to offer value to the user, take advantage of interactive possibilities and offer content in line with the aesthetics of your brand.

4. Sponsored Posts

Once you have achieved "influencer" status, either at the macro or niche level, you can take advantage of this influence to promote brands for a commission. Brands often partner with influencers to publish sponsored posts that help them increase the visibility of their products. These posts typically include an image of the product and a short review written by the influencer.

For these types of campaigns to work, it is important that the sponsored posts fit in with the rest of your content, both in terms of tone and aesthetics, and that they are correctly labeled as advertising content. It is also essential that the brand is aligned with the content and values ​​of the influencer. When the relationship is not genuine, users perceive it and it can end up generating rejection towards the influencer and the brand.

5. Teach what you know

Your Instagram followers are for a reason: they like your content and they are interested in what you can contribute to them. Why not take advantage of this influence to add more value to them through courses and training?

You can teach something related to the main theme of your account, from styling tips to baking workshops, or you can take advantage of your knowledge of Instagram itself to offer marketing courses on social network

6. Turn Instagram into your store

In recent years, more and more options have appeared to make money with Instagram by selling products directly through this network. For this, we have two great options:

Shoppable Post. If you have an eCommerce shop, you can use this functionality to make a "shoppable post", that is, a post that shows products that users can buy directly. Shoppable posts are identified by a white shopping bag icon in one corner. You can also add this functionality to your Stories.

Instagram Shop. This commerce functionality offers a new way to discover and buy products directly from the Instagram application. Instagram stores will allow you to see a selection of products from your favorite brands and creators, filter the results by categories such as beauty or home, and much more.

If you decide to go down this route, it would be best to give your images a transparent background or white background. You can use free tools like Removal.AI to process your images. This tool uses Artificial Intelligence to process your images to give them the professional look that your images should have, and only done in a few seconds!

If you sell products on Instagram, don't forget that Instagram for companies allows you to put your contact information and turn your bio section into your professional showcase.

7. Instagram TV and Instagram Reels

Video has become the king of content, so Instagram has not hesitated to add it to its platform. In addition to offering possibilities to monetize your Instagram account, it is a very important resource to grow your presence organically.

This year, Instagram announced that it will allow creators to monetize their Instagram directly through Instagram TV, through ads in IGTV videos, badges that users can buy during a live broadcast to support creators, and an expansion of Brand Collabs. Manager, Instagram's influencer marketing platform.

On the other hand, the company has already announced plans to include both advertisements and purchase functionalities to Reels in the near future.

8. Sell ​​your photos in image banks

If you are really good at taking pictures and want to earn money with Instagram in a direct way, you can upload part of your images that you have prepared for this network to an image bank and put a price on it. Depositphotos, Shutterstock, and Istockphoto are some of which will pay you by submitting your own photography work. It is not any type of photography discipline, but the way in which your photographs are sold to third parties.

9. Sell ​​your presets or default filters that you have created

Presets are default effects that are normally generated by Lightroom, and which help you improve the effects of your Instagram images. They are something like very good filters, designed by expert Instagram or photography professionals, that the owners put up for sale.

How to Market Your Products Effectively on Instagram?

1. Choose a profitable product or niche

Instagram is a social media platform that emphasizes all things visual. According to the social network, people come to the platform to be inspired and to find things that are important to them. It will therefore be easier to sell products on Instagram that have a strong visual or aesthetic appeal.

The more specific your niche, the easier it will be for you to build your audience and sell your product. So instead of thinking "Toys", think "Soft toys for cats". But the most important thing is to continue to create compelling content and a compelling story to get subscribers to buy your product.

2. Create an Instagram business account

If you already have a personal Instagram account with branded content and an established following, you might just want to convert it to a business account. This gives you access to all of the business features but makes the transition seamless for your existing subscribers. You can also choose to create a brand new business account to represent your business.

3. Create engaging content

With nearly a billion people worldwide browsing the endless amount of content on Instagram, how do you get them to notice your product? The key to getting noticed is consistency and quality of content. Quality content builds the identity and professional image of your brand. The more consistently your content stands out, the more likely you are to build a loyal following that will bring you sales.

This can range from choosing different themes and charters, creating quality photos and videos, enhancing your content using creative tools, offering tutorials and quizzes, etc...

4. Get in the habit of posting about your products

Create posts about your products at a regular pace, such as a certain day of the week, so that members of your community get into the habit of checking your products regularly.

It should be noted that 79% of Instagram users who see a product on Instagram will seek more information about it. You can increase the chances of making a sale if you keep this practical information about your product close at hand! Instagram Stories and Post Captions are a great place to start.

5. Reveal the production process of your products

Take your community behind the scenes using Instagram Stories to see the hard work that goes into making your products. Stories can disappear after 24 hours, but you can highlight specific stories that feature certain products on your profile.

Start Marketing through Instagram

You have spectacular ideas to monetize and earn money with your Instagram account. Of course, you should remember that today it costs more effort and money than a few years ago. Although if you want to invest to win, the initial investment does not have to be very high and the results can multiply the profits you will have later.

You can always start now. Train yourself, continue learning, and always listen to your audience about what they want, don't look for shortcuts by buying followers or false likes, adapt to the tastes of your audience, work very hard and become a true influencer, capable of making money with Instagram.