Social media influencers are quickly rising in numbers as more and more people discover how to get paid on Instagram.
Incomes vary for these influencers, but there are some baseline numbers that apply across the industry. For example, many large-scale influencers will make around $100 per 10,000 followers for each post. The exact cost can change depending on engagement rates and other factors.
Micro-influencers, who have less followers than macro-influencers, often charge around $300 per post.
Many influencers also create media kits to serve as pricing guides for their services. These will include the influencer’s rates for posts, participating in giveaways, story posts, brand takeover, caption mentions, and videos. This is helpful to brands who are considering working with you, as it gives them an idea of the cost that such a partnership would entail.
Aside from the cash they rake in through their social media presences, influencers also enjoy other benefits from various companies. Oftentimes, brands will send free products to influencers in exchange for online promotion. Additionally, influencers are sometimes invited on free trips in groups or individually.
Is all of this sounding pretty good so far? Keep reading to find out how to get paid on Instagram as a social media influencer. Here are five ideas to get you started.
1. Host A Takeover For A Brand
In an Instagram takeover, an influencer logs into a brand’s Instagram account for a day and typically runs the Instagram stories feature or posts to the account’s feed.
Each takeover is different, as they are all geared to the specific niche of both the business and the influencer. However, in most takeovers, the influencer will post on the story throughout the day in such a way that demonstrates their support of the brand.
In any given takeover, the influencer may post updates throughout their day, highlighting how they use the brand’s products, or they might post periodically about positive experiences they have had with different products available from the company.
How Do I Do It?
Once a brand asks you to collaborate with them via a takeover, you will want to address the goals they have in mind for the takeover; what results is the business hoping to achieve?
Next, you will need to work with the brand with which you’re collaborating, and set some parameters. What do they expect from you? What do you expect from them? What sort of rules do you need to keep in mind as you run the campaign?
Once you’re on the same page with the business whose account you’re taking over, it’s time to start promoting the takeover to your own followers on your own social media accounts. This is an important step in the process.
Making sure that your followers know about the takeover is critical in drawing attention to the brand’s account, which is one of the primary goals of any takeover. So, the more you hype up the takeover to your followers, the more successful it will be.
How Can I Make Money From This?
Brands will be more than happy to have you promoting their products on their own account – your credibility and popularity will likely boost engagement for the brand and increase its social media reach. For this reason, brands will pay you to takeover their accounts for a day.
The amount you get paid will depend on your own follower counts and the prices you have set. Generally, the more followers you have, the more you will make from hosting a takeover.
2. Collaborate On A Giveaway
Collaborating on a giveaway is a terrific way to get paid on Instagram. Holding giveaways is a popular tactic employed by brands with strong social media presence, as giveaways naturally create a lot of posts about the brand’s products, which generates activity for their accounts.
In an Instagram giveaway, a brand will choose a set amount of products to give away to followers who complete a set of designated steps; these steps typically involve promoting the brand and its products on one’s own social media.
Then, users will be randomly selected from those who completed the steps, and the winners will receive free products. The role that influencers play in this process is largely promotional – brands employ influencers to get the word out about their giveaways to a large audience of users.
How Do I Do It?
Being an influencer involved in a giveaway is a great opportunity. This usually involves posting about the products being given away and encouraging users, who view your Instagram account, to participate in the giveaway.
Through posts to your story, your feed, and/or your reels, you will be tasked with generating as much participation in the giveaway as possible. Sometimes, you will work with other influencers to do this, or you may be working individually.
You might be creating general posts, encouraging followers to check out the giveaway. Or, you may be in charge of directly promoting specific products and then informing users that they could have the chance to win one of their own by entering the giveaway.
How Can I Make Money From This?
Once again, brands will pay for the value of having an influencer inform the masses about their giveaway and make their products seem desirable. Therefore, it’s a good idea to have a set amount that you typically charge for such posts; amounts will be different for story posts versus posts to your feed, etc. Additionally, brands may send you free products to use as you promote the giveaway.
3. Become A Brand Ambassador
Being a brand ambassador implies having a specific, ongoing partnership with a company and promoting their products consistently on your Instagram.
Aside from promoting products on your own Instagram, however, you will be representing the partner brand at events, as well as serving as a face of the brand on that company’s Instagram and other accounts.
Being a brand ambassador is a multi-faceted job which does include posting about the brand on your own Instagram account. However, you will likely also be expected to represent the brand in promotional materials that the company creates and publishes. Additionally, you may be asked to attend events on behalf of the brand to provide demonstrations and/or samples to potential customers.
How Do I Do It?
In order to become a brand ambassador, you will first need to establish your online presence. Then, you will want to ensure that your engagement rates reflect positively enough on you that brands will want you to represent them as an ambassador.
Once you feel as though your social media is capable of presenting you as a brand ambassador, you will want to start networking with potential clients. Sometimes, brands will reach out to you and ask you to work as an ambassador for them. Other times, the ball will be in your court to start conversations.
Don’t be afraid to find reputable brands in your niche and invite them to collaborate. You may create an incredible opportunity for yourself! Additionally, it’s important to always keep an eye out for potential partnerships in your field by staying up to date with posts from relevant brands.
Companies are often looking for new ambassadors or starting new campaigns, so it’s important to take action as soon as you see a post about this. To stay up to date, make sure your Instagram feed is filled with posts from brands in your niche.
How Can I Make Money From This?
Being hired as a brand ambassador typically entails a salary from the hiring company, since this is an ongoing partnership. You will receive payments for the various jobs you complete for the company, and your rates will be established at the beginning of your working relationship with them.
Additionally, being a brand ambassador almost always includes receiving free products.
4. Create A Challenge
Just like TikTok challenges are sweeping the internet at the moment, a very similar phenomenon is occurring on Instagram through reels.
People are creating videos to match a certain format or audio, while putting their own individual spin on the challenge. Such videos are accompanied by a hashtag that makes them easy to find and recreate.
How Do I Do It?
Creating a challenge in collaboration with another brand is another unique example of how to get paid on Instagram. You’ll need to work with the brand in designing a challenge in which many people can participate. It’s important to make the challenge as accessible as possible in order to optimize the number of users who are involved.
Then, you’ll need to develop a hashtag to accompany videos that are posted as part of your challenge. This makes videos easily recognizable as part of your campaign, and it helps users to find videos from the challenge by searching.
Lastly, create your video. The challenge can be a dance, a transformation-style video, or a script that participants altar for their own videos, among other varieties. Decide what style of video best suits you and your partner brand, and get the challenge out there. After establishing the challenge, you will want to promote it as much as possible in order to generate the maximum number of participants.
How Can I Make Money From This?
In your media kit, be sure to include prices for reels, since this is where Instagram challenges take place. You will be able to use the reel pricing from your media kit as a baseline of establishing rates for creating a challenge with a brand.
5. Do A Paid Partnership Post
Sometimes, brands will pay for individual posts from influencers, which is another way to get paid on Instagram. These posts will typically show the influencer using a specific product from the company, and the caption will promote the brand as well.
These posts will often be devoted entirely to the product being promoted, and the influencer will include the information that the post is a paid partnership. This typically is located at the end of the caption, or above the photo in the “location” section of the post.
How Do I Do It?
Once again, you will need to establish your Instagram presence before creating paid partnership posts. Once you have a significant following as an influencer, you will be able to begin reaching out to brands about collaborating.
As with becoming a brand ambassador, it’s important to know and highlight your niche when looking to partner with brands for posts. As you build your following, you should establish a specific field to which you usually play. Then, ensure that your account is visible within that industry on Instagram.
Once you have successfully developed a notable following and identity as an influencer, brands may come to you, asking you to create paid partnership posts for them. Or, you may need to get the ball rolling and reach out to some brands, especially for your first paid partnership posts.
How Can I Make Money From This?
As you can likely tell by the name, paid partnership posts are an ideal example of how to get paid on Instagram. Brands will be interested to know your typical “per post” rates, and you can also develop rates for sets of posts (such as $300 per post or $500 for two posts).
You will be expected to promote a product, which you will likely receive for free in the mail, and the partnering brand will pay you for your post(s) as well.
Influencer x Brand Collaborations
Collaborations between brands and influencers are a modern method of advertising and marketing that’s only growing in popularity. These collaborations take on many forms, including, but not limited to, the five that are explained in this article.
Now that you know how to get paid on Instagram as an influencer, and you have five ideas of how to get started, don’t wait any longer! Get started today, and feel free to come back and let us know how these ideas work for you.
Marie Barnes is a writer for gearyoda. She is an enthusiastic blogger interested in writing about technology, social media, work, travel, lifestyle, and current affairs.