Beauty Influencer Fees—How Much Should You Pay?

Is Influencer Marketing Now Worth Its Weight in Gold?

Hello! I'm Luna, a marketer at Spray, delivering insights that help in practical work.

Today I want to discuss 'influencer fees,' probably the topic that influencer marketing practitioners worry about most.

As more brands conduct seeding, influencers receive more collaboration proposals.

However, since quality content creators are limited compared to collaboration demand, acceptance rates and upload rates for unpaid seeding are gradually declining.

Conversely, fees for securing good influencers are steadily rising.

This article will examine efficient influencer fee measurement methods within changing market trends and negotiation strategies to secure initiative during negotiations.

Is There an Appropriate Rate for Each Influencer?

In the past, follower-based pricing charts were often discussed like industry formulas.

This standard was widely used previously, and some agencies still value influencers based on follower count.

However, these standards are gradually losing meaning in today's SNS environment.

Platform algorithms evaluate not simply 'follower count' but how many people actually respond to and engage with content as more important.

Ultimately, an influencer's real influence depends on engagement, not follower size, and high-engagement content spreads more easily through algorithms.

Therefore, influencer collaboration rates are closer to situation-dependent 'market prices' rather than fixed values, and marketing costs can vary depending on the negotiator's skills.

Influencer Negotiation Strategy for Early-Stage Brands

Step 1. Provide Products + Announce Performance-Based Fee Payment

When first sending recruitment messages to creators, it's effective to announce performance-based fee payment rather than immediately proposing specific amounts.

Performance-based differential compensation motivates creators to participate actively for better results.

Simultaneously, brands can spend based on performance, enabling efficient overall marketing budget management.

However, even after sending such proposals, you'll likely receive responses like "My basic fee starts at XX thousand won (dollars)?"

First, proceed with those agreeable to unpaid + performance bonuses to the next step, and separately collect those with fee inquiries for Step 2 judgment.

Step 2. Establish and Communicate Internal Brand Standards

Paying influencers' requested fees as-is would make overall cost management impossible.

From cost and performance management perspectives, brands can internally set fee payment standards based on influencers' recent performance.

For example, establish rules like 100,000 won (approximately $70-80 in the US, about 10,000 yen in Japan) for 10,000 views as standard, with a maximum of 150,000 won, and negotiate with creators based on these standards.

*This considers seeding-based view CPM (cost per thousand reached) as 10,000 won.

*If many explosively high-view content pieces emerge, you can judge advertising CPM as favorable.

What's important in this process is tone and manner during negotiation.

Avoid sounding like "your value is 100,000 won."

Instead, approaching with nuances like "our budget is in this range" reduces unnecessary resistance from creators and enables smoother conversations.

Step 3. Maximize Marketing Efficiency Through Strategic Negotiation

Through such negotiation methods, collaborate with as many creators as possible to secure diverse content.

Particularly, as diverse content is consistently generated, you can expect effects beyond short-term exposure advertising like CPM ads.

Therefore, accumulating brand content assets through collaboration with as many creators as possible is important.

This strategic negotiation ultimately becomes a core strategy for building consumer trust and maximizing long-term advertising efficiency.

What Should We Consider to Gain Negotiation Advantage?

As mentioned earlier, brands securing initiative in influencer negotiations is very important.

This requires creating situations where as many influencers as possible voluntarily want to participate in campaigns.

According to supply and demand principles, as more influencers want to participate in campaigns, brands gain broader choices, and negotiation initiative naturally shifts to the brand side.

Beyond simply recruiting influencers, brands gain significant advantages by directly selecting partners suitable for desired messages and directions.

How to Secure Many Influencers?

So what approach is needed to secure many influencers?

The key is strategically managing the entire process from influencer discovery to communication stages.

First, in the discovery stage, finding as many influencers as possible to broaden the base is important.

As the base itself grows, the number of influencers wanting to participate in campaigns naturally increases, resulting in brands having greater negotiation initiative.

The next stage is managing the communication process.

As brands attempting seeding marketing rapidly increase recently, influential influencers receive dozens of collaboration proposals daily.

If messages are too long or conditions too complex, they're likely to lose interest and reject collaborations easily.

Therefore, persuading influencers requires concise, intuitive recruitment message composition that clearly conveys key points.

Additionally, presenting values influencers can gain—beyond monetary compensation—such as image enhancement, new content opportunities, and long-term partnerships can increase collaboration acceptance rates.