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Brand deal rates for microinfluencers

I always take traditional media coverage of influencer pricing with a grain of salt because The writers often don’t actually spend much time in the space. In this case, the writer is a Creator modernization coach so has more credibility and the data she collects is interesting. The variety of fees for these creators, who are all in the 10k to 40k follower range, indicates three things to me:

1. Fees vary dramatically, but there are Creators with <20,000 followers making $10k+ per deal. A smaller follower count doesn’t mean you can’t make real money!

2. Offer more to make more. The highest paid Creator on this list is the 2nd smallest by follower count, but she offers 2-3x more deliverables than the other Creators. She’s a travel Creator doing deals for 3 reels, multiple daily stories for an entire trip, and 1-2 blog posts - that’s a lot of content for a single deal! And she gets paid accordingly - $10k+.

3. The brand and its goals matter - brands looking to drive performance / conversions at a certain ROI pay less than brands looking to build awareness, engagement, and overall demand. The aforementioned highest paid Creator is doing deals with Tourism Boards who are looking to build awareness and demand for tourists, not drive immediate sales. The lowest paid Creator seems to be working with brands looking to drive immediate conversions (e.g. credit score, online courses). That’s not a coincidence.

Noice offers Creators a piece of company upside

Noice is a niche Twitch competitor with an interactive twist. They’re a well-funded early stage startup, having around $25M in venture capital money. 

Usually, Creator Economy companies that do well get the founders, investors, and maaaaybe some of the employees rich - but leave the Creators who built them high and dry. Noice is taking a different approach, offering incentives that would pay the Creators who earn them a piece of the upside in the event of a sale or IPO. It’s not perfect - the offering isn’t actual equity, but instead some sort of security they call Partner Reward Units, the value of which isn’t really transparent…but it’s a start.

I have long believed that the next great opportunity in Creator monetization is financial participation in the upside of companies that derive value from the work of Creators. Legacy social media companies may never grant Creators stock, but it’s heartening to see new platforms starting to incentivize Creators the way they incentivize employees: by paying them in the event the founders and investors get rich. 

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