5 factors to keep in mind for determining Influencer Marketing Budget

There are certain factors which can help you determine the right influencer marketing budget for your brand.

According to a recent Nielsen research, word-of-mouth recommendations continue to outperform all other advertising types. It therefore, makes sense for brands to approach Influencer Marketing with the right strategy and plan in place.

One of the biggest issues faced by marketers is determining an Influencer Marketing budget - either they end up over-spending or not allocating enough monies. The industry has no uniform pricing for an influencer. Influencer marketing still lacks data, standardization and proper technological infrastructure to understand the market dynamics.

Reportedly, the cost per piece of content varies with the type of influencer you’re working with – micro-influencers may charge as little as $50 per piece of content while celebrity influencers can charge as much as $250,000.

There are two kind of pricing modules for Influencers. One is the ala-carte pricing, which is the pricing by post. Even though it is an expensive option, it makes sense for brands, who have limited budget and don’t want to run a full-fledged influencer marketing campaign. In most cases, brands don't have the option but to re-purpose the content in other marketing initiatives. So, it is best to check with them and have clarity from before hand. The second kind of pricing is the bundle-pricing. It includes paying for a group of posts across social media platforms. It is like a package. This is a more cost-effective option as compared to the ala-carte pricing.

However, there are certain factors which can help you determine the right influencer marketing budget for your brand.

1. Understand the Goal of the Influencer campaign Brands first need to understand the goal of the influencer marketing campaign. Like whether the intension is to increase brand awareness, engagement or product sales. This will help in determining, whether to make the campaign run for a short term or long term. Based on which, the budget can be allocated to the influencers.
2. Study the audience of the influencer It is very important to understand, who the audience of the influencer is. According to reports, the more niche and relevant the influencer's audience is to the brand, the more premium a fee an influencer can command.
3. Give importance to influencer’s growth pattern Just don’t go by the numbers, try to understand the content influencers post and see how they engage with their audience. For e.g. Both X& Y can have 20,000 followers, but X has seen a jump of 10 percent in the follower base as compared to Y in the last two months. This will mean, that X in the last two months has been posting more engaging content than Y. The higher the engagement of the influencer with their audience, they can demand a higher fee.
4. Quality of the content The quality of the content, determines the pricing of an influencer. For example, was the post shot with an iPhone or a DSLR, does it look professional or amateurish.
5. Exclusive tie-ups with your brand If you don’t want your influencer to work with any other brands from the competition, then you need to have exclusive tie-ups. This influencer in this case, will command a higher fee.

Setting up an influencer marketing budget involves a number of factors, basis your objective determine the most cost effective ways, one that works for the brand and the influencers.