How Much To Charge For Instagram Sponsored Posts
One of my most popular blog posts was about making money on Instagram. It really is an intriguing topic even if you aren’t a blogger and you just enjoy my fashion & lifestyle posts. You can find my original blog post about how to make money on Instagram HERE. Now it’s time to dive into how much to charge for a sponsored Instagram post.
Do I make money off of every Instagram photo I post? Ha, ya right. If I did my entire feed would feel forced and I would hate it. I also probably wouldn’t be living in a small apartment or sharing a car with my husband (or maybe I would…. It’s fashionable to be a minimalist and save money right?? Ha!). Either way I love including personal photos on Instagram because that’s what it’s all about. I do believe that if you have spent time and money on building your following then it’s okay to mix in Instagram sponsored posts every now and then.
I’ve received the how much to charge question numerous times so it’s time to chat about it! I’m huge on helping other bloggers, being open about blogging, growing the blogging community, and learning from other bloggers. What’s the point in being secretive? Share the knowledge people! Please if you have any tips for me always leave them in the comments. I’m continuously learning new things and growing as a blogger so I love learning from you as well.
When ti comes to Instagram sponsored posts, this equation works if you are either pitching a brand or if a brand comes to you. I’ve used this equation multiple times. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I receive a response right away and sometimes the brand doesn’t respond at all. It’s all a negotiation just like anything else.
It all comes down to CPM. CPM means the cost to reach one thousand people. A good average CPM for a sponsored post is usually anywhere from $5-$10. I think asking for $7 is a good place to start because it’s right in the middle. If you want to shoot for $10 because you have really high engagement go right ahead, but if the brand doesn’t have a big budget you can always try to justify $5 CPM because $5 per 1,000 people reached is very reasonable!
Here’s an equation to help you determine what you should charge for Instagram sponsored posts. I’ve broken it down for 5,000 followers, 10,000 followers, and 20,000 followers. (All you need to do is take your followers/1,000 and multiply that by $5, $7, or $10.
YOU HAVE 5,000 FOLLOWERS
• $25 per post at a $5/CPM
• $35 per post at $7/CPM
• $50 per post at $10/CPM
YOU HAVE 10,000 FOLLOWERS:
• $50 per post at a $5/CPM
• $70 per post at $7/CPM
• $100 per post at $10/CPM
YOU HAVE 20,000 FOLLOWERS:
• $100 per post at a $5/CPM
• $140 per post at $7/CPM
• $200 per post at $10/CPM
I always get a little nervous before sending over my price to brands. I think to myself, wait am I worth this amount? Then I simply tell myself, “Lee Anne you’ve spent 2 years focusing on your following, spent countless hours working on engaging with followers and finding new ones, and spend a ton of time photographing/curating your feed.” I also tell myself “Give it to me I’m worth it” Ha, sorry I had to include that musical reference because it’s 6:00 am while I type this and I’m kind of sleep deprived. When I’m sleep deprived I get a little random.
A huge takeaway from this post that I haven’t mentioned yet is that you should never work with a brand solely because they pay their Instagram sponsored posts well. Always make sure that the brand fits you, your audience, and your blog. This is a bit of an extreme example, but if you’re a fashion blogger and a fishing company reaches out wanting you to post about their new line of fishing poles and offers you a $10 CPM don’t do it.
SHOP THE POST:
I hope this post was helpful and please leave some tips for me and others in the comments!
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Good to know! Pinning!
Great info!
Great breakdown and post. Its good to look at charging this way instead of just a flat fee.
I always struggle with this, but this makes complete sense! Thank you for sharing this definitely saving it for future reference!
Shannon
Clothes & Quotes
Great tips, thanks for sharing!
Awesome info.. pinning for later.. even though my Instagram is my fun place, I don’t worry about the ‘look’ of it too much!
Is was so curious about this! Great topic!
Pinning this. Thanks for covering this topic. Always interesting to see what others do. 🙂
Great advice! As a newer blogger building her IG feed this is exactly what I needed to know. Any advice on how to build a great feed fast?
xoxo
January
http://www.thebouncyponytail.com/
Interesting read. I’ve always heard 1% of your total followers which would work out to be more than what you’ve mentioned in this post, but I am pretty much just a landscape/nature photographer and I haven’t had the opportunity to work with brands on Instagram.
Thank you for this post! I couldn’t find a Pin button so I’m writing this down for future reference.
Thanks for sharing these tips. Very useful and will save this post for later!
Great tips! I was just talking with a fellow blogger about this the other day so I can’t wait to go and share this with her. I’m still working on getting my Instagram following up and this is a pretty damn good incentive.
Thank you for sharing this info!! I’ve been wondering what I should charge for Instagram pics, but didn’t even know where to start. Thank’s for being so open and honest 🙂
Thank you for sharing this! I agree, I get nervous too when quoting fees, but if a brand really wants to work with you and they have the budget, it’s not an issue. We are often worth more than we tend to give ourselves credit for.
Euriental
Definitely good to know! I’m always unsure of what is a reasonable amount. So thank you!
The formula is perfect.
I need to keep this in mind for future sponsored IG opps.
xoxo, Jenny
I think it all depends based on the brand–thanks for sharing
Thanks for your info! Looks like some of my rates may be off, and it’s good to see others’ thoughts on the subject! Cheers!
Interesting to read! While yes, numbers are important – engagement rate needs to match up with the amount of followers someone has. Brands are starting to look for more engagement, rather than just at numbers. Something for everyone to think about!
Thank you so much for this! Super helpful as I’m just starting to monetize my online business!
Thank you of this! I’m just in the process of starting to monetize and it’s SCARY to try to figure out what I’m worth!
This seems fair! Thanks for the info!
This is easy and so simple!! Thanks for this!
http://www.maggiealamode.com
I was just wondering this as I was mindlessly scrolling through Pintrest! lol Thanks so much for the equation! I started using Hypemarket because of your “How To Make Money On Instagram” post and it has been really good to me but I never know what to ask for. This will help a lot!
Thanks Jessica! I’m glad it was helpful!
These are good tips, Lee Ann! I recently started monetizing my IG now that I’ve hit $10k followers and have always wondered whether I was charging too much or too little. I do charge on the higher end because I have good engagement (average 800 likes per photo) but with the new IG algorithm, I don’t know if I can keep that going. Cheers!
Love that you did a cost breakdown and thanks for sharing bc I always love comparing how everyone does their pricing differently. It really does all boil down to the brands you work with, I have some friends who have 50k followers but they charge at least 4k per photo and one of my friends doesn’t take a deal under 100k (but that’s definitely a rare case). I still have yet to feel comfortable charging for instagrams bc I feel like I’ve kept my account so personal, but I do want to look into it in the future. 🙂 Baby steps, right?
I follow this rule too! It’s so hard to send out those rates but you’re right you put in the work so you should be rewarded for it.
-M
http://www.violetroots.com
I never ever get nervous about sending over my RATES because we are ALL WORTH IT! I HATE when brands (especially big brands that clearly have $$) say they don’t have a budget. Give me a break. A new pair of sneakers is NOT going to pay my bills. SORRY. It’s actually kind of like they’re giving me the finger or something… Well, I give it to them right back (with pure politeness and kindness while I professional decline). ha! EVERYONE needs to start charging so then brands can make sure they have it in their budget to PAYYYYYYY people!
Right on girl. I agree.
I think these rates are too low. From what I understand, if you have 10k+ followers, you can charge $1 per like your posts typically receive. So if you have high engagement, your rate will rise accordingly.
Thank you so much for this post! I have has several sponsored post enquiries for my Instagram recently but haven’t gotten back to any of them as I never knew what to charge! I have just replied to one with a price based on this post! I cannot thank you enough for sharing this information!
Great post – I will be pinning this!!
Great post!
Quick question if you don’t mind. Would you charge the same for videos on Instagram? I have a following of 20,000, but often my videos get many more views than this.
I was clueless you could make money this way and was just approached today.
Thank you!
Hi Tiffany! Great question, I’m honestly not sure how to charge for videos, but I think it would be somewhat the same!
What is CPM?
cost per thousand 🙂
Awesome post, thank you!! I have been undercharging myself!
Hi there! Thank you so much for this information. I stumbled across it today, and it’s something I really needed to know – it’s very timely. Thanks heaps. X
http://www.sheislight.com
Glad it was helpful. Thanks Elise!
this is awesome i need as many tips as possible. follow me @justcarlaann
I still don’t understand these rates… So exactly how much money would you make charging $50 per post at $10/CPM? I understand the $/post, but the $/CPM part is still confusing to me. Could you please clarify?
Hi Helena! Please feel free to email me for more info! lifebyleeblog@gmail.com
Thanks so much for this, so helpful! Currently struggling with this.. I think for me it’s best to start lower and then to go higher with time as I guess my confidence will rise the more I do this and see it works, haha.
I also think it’s true that you need to differ between companies. For a small new-found company, 100$ can be a lot of money but for big companies 100$ are peanuts.
hello, I have a puppy feature page I have about 70 K followers & I have an active base I get about 150 Impressions per post reach 100k. just don’t know how much to charge.if I approach a company they offer me around $35 per post. Confused.
IG (IG_PUPS)
Great info, thanks!
Loved this post! I also love how clean your blog looks, I’m obsessed!
Thank you! This article was really useful. Saving it for the future 🙂
Thanks for these info. They’re very helpful tips and am definitely gonna work around it. Saved this.
Hi quick question on this topic. I just reached 800k followers on IG and want to know how much i should charge per post ?
I think it depends on engagement and whether or not your following is 100% organic. At a top rate of the CPM being £10, the price would be (800,000÷1,000) x £10 = £8,000 per sponsored post. I would charge this as a maximum if all followers are real and you have a 10%+ engagement rate (so you get 80,000 real likes and comments per post, as a minimum). Hope this helps!
-Alicia
http://www.serenitylifeblog.com | Advice & Lifestyle
Thanks for the info, exactly what we needed to get started.
Very useful information! Thank you for sharing! I have one question: minimum how many Instagram followers should a blogger have to be able to pitch a brand? Is it 5.000 or more?
This was so helpful thank you! Just starting out it’s so hard to know what to charge but this made us feel more comfortable in what we were asking brands for!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
This was very helpful. Thank you for this post!
– Myrra (www.myrrazenkate.com)
I find some brands only offer their items for free to be promoted now or at a discounted price. I guess it’s probably due to the fact I have a small following on Ig? Perhaps I need a min of 10k to negotiate a rate? Thank you if you can answer this.
Thanks for the great info, I have been searching for exactly this and I could not find the info on any other post. Have bookmarked the site for future reference.
Awesome blog and info! Thanks for sharing! You answered my question and I find tons of more content here worth reading! 🙂 Kudos! I am bearly starting with the idea of a blog but I have 10k+ followers on my instagram and I was curious about doing some collaboration with a brand in Argentina *where I am.
I wonder what you would charge for an instagram story? Have you done something like that?
Thanks for reading, hope you message back! 🙂
Hi Michelle! I’m not sure on pricing for Argentina, but for Instagram Stories maybe charge 25% of what you would charge for a sponsored Instagram post. I’ve heard that this is what other bloggers have been doing!
Thank you so much Lee Anne! Your blog really ROCKS!!! I have read tons of your posts in 2 days, hehe. Compliments!!!!!
Just to make sure I understood you correctly: by “sponsored instagram post” value, you mean the 5/7/10 dollars per CPM, right? So that would make 6,25/8,75/12,5 , is that correct?
Yep, i think you’re right. Around $7 CPM does sound like a good starting point, and it goes along with similar numbers as seen on other sources like here https://rocketivy.com/instagram-post-pricing/ where they also say 5 to 10 dollar CPM for the cost basis for a sponsored instagram post.
Thanks for this post! I started my Instagram feed (@BeyondBourbonSt) to supplement my podcast about New Orleans. It has evolved into almost exclusively images I make of New Orleans homes. Just this week, a local realtor approached me about posting some of their listings. Your article has given me ideas about how to respond. Thanks again!