How Much Do Influencers Make?
Influencer marketing is all the rage these days, with a growing market size and most brands spending at least $10,000 on their influencer campaigns.
But to better understand the influencer marketing sector, we must also look at the other end of the spectrum. More specifically, the question we must ask is: How much do influencers make and how are they paid?
How much money do influencers make: influencer income in 2023
According to a recent report on influencer salary, one-quarter of influencers earned between $50,000 and $100,000 in 2023. This makes it the income range earned by the largest number of influencers.
The second-largest influencer income range is $100,000 to $500,000. Just under one in four (24%) influencers earned this amount in 2023 from their content creation work for brands. This also means that around half (49%) of all influencers achieved an income range of between $50,000 and $500,000 in 2023.
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This is followed by the $20,000 to $50,000 range, which 20% of influencers fall into, and the $20,000 or less range, earned by 19% of influencers. In other words, 88% of influencers brought in annual incomes of up to $500,000 in 2023.
Notably fewer influencers earned more than $500,000 in 2023. Eleven percent made between $500,000 and $1,000,000, while just 2% earned more than $1,000,000.
How much do influencers make: most lucrative platforms
The same study shows that in 2023, TikTok and YouTube were the two most lucrative platforms on which influencers earned money. Currently ranked among the top influencer marketing platforms, 26% of influencers named each of these as the platform where they made the most money.
Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram rank next, with 17% each. Despite its falling user growth rate, Twitter, now known as X, is in fifth place, with 9%.
Influencer salary: how they are paid
A separate survey shows that two-fifths of businesses engaging the services of influencers pay them monetarily (i.e., with cash), making it the most popular way social media influencers are paid. This is followed by giving free products and offering discounts on their products, which are compensation methods used by 29.5% and 17.7% of brands, respectively.
The fourth most popular way influencers get paid is via giveaways. More than one in 10 (11.2%) businesses compensate influencers by entering them in giveaways.