When it comes to allocating your marketing dollars, influencer relations can be both a daunting and exciting place to start, but the question on everyone’s mind is:
“How much should I really invest?”
From our experience, here are the reasons why you should set marketing dollars aside for influencer relations and what the budget should actually be.
Why Influencer Relations Really Does Deserve a Budget
Paid ads may average ~$3 return per $1 spent, where influencer marketing often delivers $5+ in earned media value for the same spend. Additionally, micro-influencers, with smaller but highly engaged audiences, can yield 7× more engagement than influencers with large online followings, and often can cost much less! Think about those results! Lastly, influencer/user-generated content (UGC) can be reused across emails, ads, websites, and more, making the most of your investment.
What General Pricing for Influencers Look Like
While you can always go with a trade, gifting, or seeding route to get your brand in front of influencers, creators are understanding their value and are beginning to charge from $100 upwards $10K+ based on their engagement rate and following.
However, as I like to say, influencer marketing is the wild west, and these rates can fluctuate based on creator and platform (e.g., YouTube can be more expensive than TikTok or Instagram), usage rights, campaign scope, and whether the content includes video, exclusivity clauses, and paid promotions.
How Much of Your Budget Do You Allocate?
Based on your goals (and now your knowledge of how much influencers can and do charge), a common guideline is to allocate 10–20% of your overall marketing budget toward influencer relations.
So…When Do I Start Investing in Influencer Marketing
The short answer is “right away!” At the end of the day, there is no “one-size-fits-all” strategy to influencer marketing, and the exact number can always be adjusted based on your goals, but it is best to make sure you’re investing in the right creators, high-quality content, and long-term relationships.
If you’re ready to take your brand to the next level, at Segal Communications, influencer relations isn’t an afterthought, it’s an integral part of our strategy. From planning, vetting, management, execution, and performance tracking, our goal is to help you build successful partnerships and we’d love to connect to learn how we can better help you.