Data & Method
How much does an influencer marketing campaign cost?
The cost of an influencer marketing campaign doesn’t come from a fixed rate card but from three levers: the creator’s follower tier, their market, and the advertising usage rights for the content. Understanding how much each lever weighs explains why two creators of the same size can cost very differently.
Key takeaways
- Follower tier moves cost by up to ×7.5, from the Mid tier (10-40k) to Macro (100-300k), all else equal (Instagram rate card, Italian market).
- The creator’s market moves cost by up to ×3.3 on Instagram; on TikTok the gap is ×1.7.
- Advertising rights add between +27% and +88% on top of the base package depending on the tier — and weigh proportionally more on the smaller tiers.
Asking “how much does a campaign cost” is like asking “how much does a car cost”: the useful answer is knowing what moves the price. On Instagram and TikTok, three levers explain almost all of the difference.
Follower tier. On the Instagram rate card for the Italian market, cost grows by ×5 to ×7.5 moving from the Mid tier (10-40k) to Macro (100-300k), all else equal. There are 6 reference tiers, from Junior (2-10k) to Celebrity (1M+), but only Mid, Pro and Macro carry a rate-card price: below 10,000 followers and above 300,000 the price is quoted, not read off a table.
The creator’s market. The same creator costs differently depending on the market: on Instagram the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive band reaches ×3.3, while on TikTok it’s ×1.7. There are 4 market bands.
Advertising rights. If the content will run in paid media it needs a license, which on the Italian Instagram rate card adds between +27% and +88% to the base package. It isn’t a single percentage because the license fee is fixed per tier while the base changes: on the Mid tier it weighs +87.5%, on Pro +71.4%, on Macro between +27% and +60%. On this market, then, it weighs proportionally more on the smaller tiers.
The base package per creator is 1 reel + 1 story set on Instagram or 1 video on TikTok: reposts, extra content and licensing add on top of this base. That’s why a quote breaks out the lines instead of giving a single number.
Frequently asked questions
What does an influencer campaign cost on average?
There’s no useful average, because three levers move cost more than size does: on the Instagram rate card for the Italian market, tier weighs up to ×7.5 from Mid to Macro, market up to ×3.3, and advertising rights from +27% to +88%. Cost is built from those, not from a single price list.
What makes a creator’s price go up?
Moving up a follower tier, a more expensive market, and requesting advertising rights. Of these, on the Italian rate card licensing is the one that weighs proportionally most on the smaller tiers: +87.5% on a Mid against +27%-60% on a Macro, because its fee is fixed per tier while the base grows.
Why do two creators with the same followers cost differently?
Because followers are only one of the levers: at the same size, market and the rights requested change the price. On TikTok, on top of that, the gap between markets is smaller (about ×1.7), while on Instagram it stays marked (up to ×3.3).