Brands have always leveraged famous faces to sell their products and services, but with the advent of social media, a new kind of marketing star has emerged: the influencer.
More than just a passing trend, influencer marketing has become one of the fastest-growing marketing strategies today. So, if you're looking to tap into new audiences online, working with influencers can be one of the most powerful tools in your belt.
Types of Influencers
Influencers fall into different categories based on their audience size. Think about advertising on a network vs. a local cable tv station. Influencer tiers have different rates based on several factors.
Breakdown by Number of Followers
Nano-influencers: 1,000–10,000 followers
Micro-influencers: 10,000–50,000 followers
Mid-tier influencers: 50,000–500,000 followers
Macro-influencers: 500,000–1,000,000 followers
Mega-influencers: 1,000,000+ followers per post
Stats to Consider
In 2022, the influencer market in the U.S. was valued at 16.4 billion.
1 in 4 marketers leverage influencer marketing.
72% of Gen Z and Millennials follow influencers on social media.
89% of marketers who currently engage with influencer marketing will increase or maintain their investment in 2023.
74% of brands invested more with TikTok in 2022, a jump from 47% from the prior year.
70% of brands are working with nano and micro-influencers.
Nano-influencers achieve more than double the engagement rate of macro-influencers, with an average of 3.69%.
49% of brands work with affiliates.
43% join forces with brand ambassadors.
75% of influencers are willing to work with a brand for just free products.
91% of brands plan to invest more into video content.
Factors That Impact Influencer Rates
Influencer rates vary widely depending on reach, number of followers, social media platforms used, posting frequency, exclusivity and usage rights, type of content, and more.
Influencer Reach
Like the term says, reach is the number of people the influencer will reach. Rates are generally based on each influencer's number of followers or subscribers, and the more they have, the higher their rates will be.
Social Media Platform
While some influencers charge the same rate for every social media platform, it’s much more likely that rates will vary because each platform has a different audience type and creator resources.
The top social media platforms for influencer marketing are Instagram (93%), TikTok (68%), Facebook (68%), YouTube (48%), and Twitter/X (32%).
Estimated Cost Breakdown by Platform
Nano-influencers: $10-$100 per post
Micro-influencers: $100-$500 per post
Mid-tier influencers: $500-$5,000 per post
Macro-influencers: $5,000-$10,000 per post
Mega-influencers: $10,000+ per post
Celebrities: $1+ million
YouTube
Nano-influencers: $20-$200 per video
Micro-influencers: $200-$1,000 per video
Mid-tier influencers: $1,000-$10,000 per video
Macro-influencers: $10,000-$20,000 per post
Mega-influencers: $20,000+ per post
TikTok
Nano-influencers: $5-$25 per post
Micro-influencers: $25-$125 per post
Mid-tier influencers: $125-$1,250 per post
Macro-influencers: $1,250-$2,500 per post
Mega-influencers: $2,500+
Nano-influencers: $2-$20 per post
Micro-influencers: $20-$100 per post
Mid-tier influencers: $100-$1,000 per post
Macro-influencers: $1,000-$2,000 per post
Mega-influencers: $2,000+ per post
Nano-influencers: $25-$250 per post
Micro-influencers: $250-$1,250 per post
Mid-tier influencers: $1,250-$12,500 per post
Macro-influencers: $12,500-$25,000 per post
Mega-influencers: $25,000+ per post
Industry or Niche
It’s important to take a look at the industries favored by an influencer’s audience to make sure that it makes sense to hire them for your brand. That being said, there are influencers that specialize in umbrella niches like “things to do in NYC” or “the top things to experience when visiting Los Angeles ” that could also make sense for a restaurant partnership.
Type of Content
The type of content will also have an impact on the pricing because influencers will need to spend time, energy, and resources to create the content. Video will generally be more costly than still photography, for example. Considerations like how much content the influencer will need to create and who will be providing the necessary resources come into play.
Usage Rights
If you want to repurpose an influencer’s content, be sure to discuss that with them ahead of time and outline the terms in the influencer contract. Some influencers will charge more for content that’s going to be reused. Think of each use as an individual product—once you’ve used the product up by having the influencer post a video about your brand to their Instagram account, you have no product left to use in your Facebook ads.
Exclusivity
Influencers make their money by promoting different businesses and it is possible that you might choose an influencer that your competitor wants to use, too. To prevent this from happening, ask the influencer to sign a non-compete agreement or exclusivity clause with their influencer contract that will prohibit them from promoting a competitor for a certain period of time. But, you’d better be prepared to pay quite a bit more, since you’re essentially asking them to give up other potential income.
Follower Engagement
Influencer rates will also fluctuate based on the influencers number of followers. Here is a general cost breakdown.
Nano Influencers (under 10k followers) – Under $100 per post
Micro Influencers (10k to 100k followers) – Under $500 per post
Mid (100k to 500k followers) – Under $5,000
Macro (500k to 1m followers) – Under $10,000
Mega (More than 1m followers) Rates are bespoke and can often involve significant contracts
Nano- Influencers for Restaurant Marketing
The newest breed of influencers, nano-influencers have less than 10,000 social media followers. While nano-influencers have the smallest reach, other factors like whether the influencer is known, recognized by the target audience, and trusted to be honest and forthcoming come into play.
For restaurants, partnering with local nano-influencers that mesh well with the vibe of your business, are trusted by the local community, and are engaged with the local food scene is key. As they become hungrier for authenticity and honesty over hype and catchy jingles, consumers are quickly turning their attention toward the local influencers.
Considered more authentic because most of their initial following is made up of friends, family, and acquaintances, a nano-influencer’s influence is highly impactful due to the personal nature of their interactions.
Benefits of Working With Nano-Influencers
Personal connections. Nano-influencers generally have a network of close friends, family, and acquaintances, which keeps their interactions more personal, authentic, and impactful. As a result, brands have an excellent chance of building trust.
Higher engagement. Nano-influencers garner significant engagement on social media. In fact, a recent study found that nano-influencers have an average engagement rate of 3.69%, more than twice the engagement of macro-influencers.
Lower costs. Another major benefit of working with nano-influencers is cost. With the lower reach that they command, nano-influencers charge less than their "star status" peers with larger followings.
Influencer Marketing Partnerships
Influencer partnerships, another way to leverage influencer marketing, can involve anything from shoutouts to brand ambassadorship.
Shoutouts. Paid shoutouts are a classic influencer marketing tactic. A shoutout happens when you pay a user to promote your business on social media. They can be with or without a visual like video, images, or GIFs and can be used for any call to action.
Giveaways. Another popular influencer marketing tactic, giveaways occur when a brand provides the influencer something of value that the influencer can then offer to their followers through a giveaway or contest.
Platform Takeovers. Takeovers are when brands give an influencer access to their social media channel so they can offer their own followers “exclusive” content.
Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate marketing is when an influencer promotes a brand’s product and gets a commission based on sales through the influencer’s platform.
Sponsored Content. Sponsored content is an influencer partnership you can leverage whether or not your brand has a lot of content ready to share. You can either create content for influencers to share or pay them to create and post content for your brand.
Product Seeding. Product seeding happens when brands send influencers products and hope that the influencer will share something positive about it. For restaurants, this could mean offering the influencer a free meal.
Brand Ambassador. The “face” of your brand, ambassadors have likely been dining at your restaurant for a while and are already excited about your brand. As a brand ambassador, influencers will consistently share videos, posts, images, and more about your brand.
For more information about influencer marketing, see our blog post, Influencer Marketing for Restaurants.
By Eileen Strauss
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