How to Effectively Estimate the Cost of a YouTube Influencer Marketing Campaign

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For decades, marketing and advertising departments of different brands have leveraged the faces of famous people to sell their goods and services. When people see the celebrities they admire and even aspire to become using certain products and services, they are often motivated to use such. But unlike old celebrities, influencers are more affordable and accessible and often have closer bonds with their followers and fans. Also, influencers are usually effective in certain niches, focusing on the products they intend to market.

Factors influencing the cost 

of a YouTube influencer marketing campaign

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Several factors determine how much a YouTube influencer will charge. Understanding the core factors affecting these charges will help you properly plan your influencer marketing campaign. Here are some factors that could play a role in the costs of an influencer marketing campaign.

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✔️Content type

Different content types have their unique requirements. Usually, content that takes more time to produce will cost more.

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✔️Engagement rate

An established influencer will easily give you engagement rates for sponsored posts and daily traffic. Influencers who boast of great engagement are likely to charge you more. Also, engagement rates of 2% are regarded as average, while a range between 4 and 6% is very good. Anything beyond a 6% engagement rate can be regarded as a viral campaign.

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✔️Size of the audience

Influencers boasting large audiences and followership will likely command a bigger fee. For instance, if you want a YouTube influencer with 1 million subscribers to his or her channel, you should be ready to pay an amount directly proportional to this.

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✔️Agency in charge

One of the major determinants of how much the influencer marketing campaign will cost is the agency in charge. Some Agencies are only concerned about making as much money as possible from deals, while others seek to give the client the best experience. Influencer marketing agencies such as Vlingare created to help customer maximize their experience.

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✔️Exclusivity

When you find your desired influencer, you should ensure that such an influencer works exclusively with your brand. Ideally, you should ensure that the influencer agrees to a non-compete agreement to protect you and your brand.

What should you budget for a YouTube Influencer marketing campaign?

Although different influencers command different prices, your brand should have a clearly defined budget to work with. Here is a breakdown of some possible costs of running campaigns on YouTube.

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✔️Sponsored posts

Note that YouTube is one of the most expensive platforms to run your marketing campaign.On average, YouTube posts cost up to $4,500, Pinterest influencers charge up to $2,114 and Tik Tok influencers charge an average of $3,500 for each post.

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YouTube is the most expensive social media platform on which to run an influencer marketing campaign. The chart below shows the average cost of paid posts per platform. The average cost of a sponsored YouTube post is $4,491. Twitter and Facebook influencers usually charge the least of the lot, with Twitter charging as little as $280 for each post while Facebook influencers charge $800 and above.

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✔️Posts on other platforms

It is not unusual for businesses to request that YouTube influencers create the content on different channels. Several brands use at least two channels when creating content with their influencer. Instagram ranks as the most popular platform for pairing YouTube with an Instagram Story, and YouTube video can cost up to $13,000.

YouTube posts cost according to the size of the audience

The size of the audience greatly determines the cost of any influencer marketing campaign. The table below indicates the cost per size of a campaign.

YouTube influencer compensation rates

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The amount you end up paying a YouTube influencer for work done will determine the quality of work you will get. For a maximum output from your influencers, you need to compensate them for every work done. Ideally, marketers want the right blend in managing risks, offering reasonable compensation, and getting good returns on investment. Before activating your influencer marketing campaign, there are a few payment models that brands could consider. Here are some of them:

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✔️Performance-based costing: This pricing model empowers the marketers to base their payments on post-campaign information and only pay the influencer based on the rate of measurable conversions. It also means that if the influencer does better than expected, they will be given more compensation. Key performance indicators for measuring performance include cost-per-acquisition, cost-per-engagement, and cost-per-click.

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✔️Revenue sharing: The Affiliate or revenue sharing system pays influencers by giving them a certain percentage of the profits accrued from sales. With the affiliate models, brands can track performance effectively and reduce the tendency of poor Return on Investment.

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✔️Giftings: These days, companies choose to compensate their chosen influencers by offering them subscriptions to certain services or products. Doing this can benefit any brand as the influencers become fans of your brand and its product offerings.

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✔️Payment fee: This approach ranks as one of the most popular because of its straightforward nature, which makes it easy to budget. The biggest drawback with this system is that it makes it difficult to project the influencer's performance accurately.

Should You Go for the Top YouTubers?

Partnering with the best YouTubers out there can seem like a masterstroke marketing move, but the truth is that they may not always be the best option for your brand. Top influencers often effectively reach a large crowd but don’t always give the best result for targeted marketing. More often than not, only a small percentage of their audience may be interested in what you have to offer. This means that an influencer may help your brand reach an audience of 1 million people but may only be able to help you convert 50 leads.

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Also, top influencers usually command a very huge payment, which may not be a smart financial decision for any just expanding firm. Micro-influencers, on the other hand, will give you the freedom to work with multiple influencers simultaneously and increase your chances of marketing success.

Why should you consider YouTube influencer marketing regardless of cost?

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You must have seen the cost implication of engaging in a YouTube influencer marketing campaign. But if you are still wondering if investing in this type of marketing is worth it, here is a breakdown of some outstanding benefits of YouTube:

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✔️Wider user base

One of the main reasons businesses use YouTube influencer marketing is the large audience cutting across different demographics. YouTube is also reputed to have more viewers than most platforms.

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✔️Active audiences

Another benefit of YouTube is that the platform users are always actively engaged and do so for extended periods. This implies that the audience will not only watch YouTube but will also likely act on what they see.

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✔️Better traffic and brand awareness

YouTube is the ideal channel for increasing brand awareness and propagating your message to a broader spectrum of people. Also, collaborating with influencers makes it possible to increase traffic to your website and by extension, get better sales.

Final thoughts

Influencer marketing campaigns are a game-changing strategy that has come to stay. Many brands have seemed reluctant to invest in this marketing method because they lack clarity on the cost implication of such a venture. One way to have clarity in the amount you are to spend is by engaging the services of reputable influencer marketing agencies such as Vling. One thing is however certain and that is the fact that regardless of your budget as a brand, there is an influencer out there for you!

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