Influencer marketing has become a real thing now. Brands, affiliates, media buyers, and other large corporate marketing teams have all started to officially incorporate the influencer marketing model into their customer acquisition and brand awareness strategies. Tiktok on the other hand has experienced tremendous growth in the last 2 years taking it to over 1 billion users and allowing influencers to build full-time careers by working with brands on ad campaigns.
The team at Business Insider spoke with 11 influencers about how they price their rates for sponsored content on the app and in this article, we are sharing with you what the influencers said to help evaluate the costs for your next influencer marketing campaign.
As demand for TikTok creators has spiked, rates for sponsored content have also risen. It's important to note that engagement with creators is growing, not slowing down. TikTok continues to expand its audience and engagement levels at a furious rate. That alone pulls significant ad dollars into the creator economy regardless of the wider economic environment.
Creators with all different audience sizes can make money by working with brands. The team at Business Insider spoke with 11 influencers across a variety of content categories about how much money they are charging brands for sponsorships on TikTok. Below is what they said:
1. Jalyn Baiden: 13 000 TikTok followers
Jalyn Baiden is an Instagram and TikTok influencer who started posting videos about skincare in the middle of 2020. As Jayln's audience grew and she began to draw attention from brands, she decided to leave her day job as a digital marketing coordinator to pursue content creation full-time.
Since committing to an influencer career in late 2021, Jayln said she's earned over $26 000 from sponsorships, commissioned content for brand accounts, and affiliate marketing.
Her starting rate for a TikTok video as of May when she had about 8 000 TikTok followers was $1 000 for a 15 to 60-second video. That rate does not include usage rights or exclusivity.
2. Pooja Tripathi: 33 500 TikTok followers
Pooja Tripathi is a New York City-based actress, writer, and comedian of Indian origin. Pooja first started posting on TikTok at the request of her manager, who thought that it would be good for exposure and public speaking practice.
She focused her content on comedic sketches about New York City, which she wrote and acted in herself. Her sense of humor resonated with thousands of viewers, and brands soon started reaching out to her with paid opportunities.
Last year, she earned $9 800 through brand partnerships, and she's already exceeded that in 2022 by making $15 500 so far. She charges a minimum of $1 000 per video, and her manager handles the direct negotiations with brands.
3. Manasi Arya: 40 100 TikTok followers
Manasi Arya is an artist, TikTok, and Instagram micro-influencer who started posting videos about her South Asian-inspired art in March 2020. At first, she posted photos and videos of the end product, but eventually, she started sharing videos of the process behind her creations. The attention she got from social media inspired her to start her own business, ArtWithManasi.
In early 2021, Arya applied for TikTok's creator fund and simultaneously started making money through Instagram's creator incentive program. However, most of her social media-related income comes from brand collaborations. This year, one partnership with DirecTV paid her $9 000, and in 2021, she collaborated with brands like Adobe, Home Depot, and Bed, Bath, and Beyond.
4. Rahan Alemi: 385 000 TikTok followers
Rahan Alemi started wearing the hijab last August. Since January 2022, she's earned five figures through paid partnerships, the TikTok creator fund, and affiliate marketing at only 19 years old. Rahan Alemi had been posting regularly on Instagram since middle school and TikTok since 2019, but she didn't start taking it seriously until she put on the hijab. Alemi, whose content focuses on fashion, started putting together looks with the hijab in August 2021. Her following grew, and brands who wanted more diverse representation started reaching out to her.
Since 2022, she's made $15 300, most of which has been through brand partnerships. With 385 000 followers on TikTok and 200 000 followers on Instagram, she considers herself a part-time content creator since it's only one of her priorities: She's studying to become a realtor at the University of California, Irvine, and also models.
5. Tejas Hullur: 547 000 TikTok followers
Tejas Hullur started filming TikToks in his college bedroom in 2020. The 21-year-old creator has since built an audience of over 500,000 fans by transitioning from short clips filmed in his fraternity bedroom to highly-produced videos breaking down the highs and lows of working in the "creator economy."
When Hullur began working with brands on sponsored content, he said he used trial and error, conversations with peers, and the help of a manager to price his videos.
His starting rate is currently $3 000 for one video, and he then adjusts that rate according to usage rights, exclusivity, audience niche, engagement, and any other tasks (such as keeping something in his link-in-bio).
In the first quarter of 2022, he earned approximately $30 000 from several revenue streams, but most of his income (about 67%) came from brand deals. (These earnings were verified by documentation viewed by Insider).
6. Omika, Rishika, and Aashika Jikaria: 626 000 TikTok followers
Aashika, Omika, and Rishika Jikaria began posting dance videos on TikTok in March 2020. Their account took off, and they've since gained over 600 000 followers on the app.
From left to right: Rishika, Aashika, and Omika
The trio said that they had earned $86 000 since launching the account through a mix of brand deals, TikTok Creator Fund earnings, Instagram Reels, and hosting in-person dance workshops.
For their first brand deal with home-improvement retailer Lowe's in June 2020, they were paid $800 for a 15-second TikTok post.
"The Lowe's partnership was very exciting because it legitimized our business, and it made us feel like we could create content for a living one day," Omika Jikaria says.
As of April 2022 when they had roughly 700 000 followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, they earned about $4 700 a month from brand partnerships, split three ways.
7. Vi Luong: 1 100 000 TikTok followers
Vi Luong is a TikTok creator who films how-to videos and posts about her daily life. Just 10 months after Luong made her first video, she quit her job in social media marketing to become a full-time influencer.
"I created a series on TikTok around how to be photogenic, pose, and how to edit. That's what blew up my account throughout 2020.", Luong says.
Luong said she primarily makes money from brand sponsorships and TikTok's Creator Fund, working with fashion and beauty brands including Revolve and Nivea.
As of August 2022 when she had about 1 100 000 TikTok followers, Luong says she charged between $8 000 and $10 000 for one sponsored TikTok post. When she first started working with brands, she charged about $3 000 to $4 000 per sponsored video, she said.
Here's how much Luong earned from sponsorships during the first half of 2021, which Insider verified with documentation she provided:
- February: about $19 000
- March: about $30 000
- April: about $32 000
- May: about $1 000 (Luong said May was an anomaly because some of her payments were delayed)
- June: about $32 000
- July: about $17 000
8. Harry Raftus: 1 400 000 followers
Harry Raftus built an audience of 1.4 million TikTok followers by filming college-style content on TikTok. The Canadian creator began using the app in May 2020 and grew quickly by filming montages of himself partying with friends. Many of his videos involve Raftus chugging or shotgunning a beer.
"When I started posting more and more of the college drinking, partying videos, I think my followers pivoted from a younger demographic to people in college and in sororities and fraternities," Raftus said.
Raftus said in July 2022 when he had around 1 100 000 million TikTok followers that he charged between $4 000 and $7 500 for a sponsored video campaign depending on the number of posts he's asked to film and how well it fits with his content style. Insider verified Raftus' rates by reviewing five payment receipts he had received for sponsored videos and song promotions.
9. Deanna Giulietti: 1 700 000 followers
Deanna Giulietti is a lifestyle creator with around 1.7 million followers on TikTok. Guiletti rose to fame on TikTok during the pandemic after she lost her job as a performer on a cruise ship.
"Everyone was doing dances on TikTok, and I thought, 'I can dance too, put me on TikTok,'" Giulietti says.
Giuletti now creates content on both TikTok and Instagram Reels, which she uses to make money. The creator told Insider in March (when she had 1.6 million TikTok followers) that she signs an average of 10 to 15 sponsored deals a month, depending on the time of the year, and last year she made $535 000 from brand deals alone, including $126 000 in November thanks to the holiday push.
10. Nate White: 1 800 000 TikTok followers
Nate White has over 2 million followers on Instagram and TikTok. Nate White had been a fashion designer for 14 years by the time he joined TikTok in March 2020. A few months after creating an account, he went viral for the "stank walk" challenge and woke up to thousands of views and new followers. He decided to focus his content on the stank walk and other humorous skits.
From May 2020 onwards, brands like Verizon, Google, and Amazon Prime reached out to collaborate. They paid him to create TikToks, appear at in-person events, and in campaign videos.
He now charges a minimum of $3 000 per post, but he negotiates based on factors like the length of the video if he has to partner with other creators or shoot the video outside of his home.
11. Alex Ojeda: 8 000 000 TikTok followers
Alex Ojeda has become the de facto king of water parks on TikTok. Considered TikTok's water park king, 20-year-old Alex Ojeda hops from cruise ship to water park to cruise ship filming content of himself twisting down water park slides or testing out adventure sports like skydiving. With 8 million followers on TikTok and almost 350 000 followers on Instagram, he earns thousands of dollars a month through brand deals and creator incentive programs.
Now, Ojeda charges a minimum of $20 000 per sponsored TikTok post and $10 000 for a branded video on Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts. So far, he's worked with brands like Royal Caribbean, Insta360, and WhiteWater West. One day, he hopes to have his own water park.
