How to budget an influencer program (with real cost per creator)

What creators cost, by size

Base fee for one video (TikTok or Reel), at average engagement for the tier. Add-ons come after.

• Nano (5k to 25k): $150 to $300 a post. Views per post around 60% of followers. Highest engagement, most volume of work to manage.
• Micro (25k to 100k): $300 to $1,200. Views around 45% of followers. The best cost per view for most consumer brands.
• Mid (100k to 500k): $1,200 to $6,000. Views around 30% of followers.
• Macro (500k+): $6,000 and up. Views around 20% of followers. Reach, but the CPM climbs.

The add-ons that double the bill

• Paid usage (running the post as an ad from your account): about 20% of the base fee per asset per three months. Six months on two assets is 80% of the fee again.
• Whitelisting (ads from the creator's handle): about 30% of the base fee per asset per three months. Worth it; whitelisted ads usually outperform brand-account ads on the same creative.
• Category exclusivity: about 20% of the creator's video rate per month. Rarely worth it below 6 months; skip it unless a competitor is actively recruiting your creators.
• Seeding: product plus shipping, $30 to $150 per creator. Budget it; it comes out of the same line.
• Agency fee: 15 to 25% on top if an agency runs it. Zero if it runs in-house on a tool.

A worked $25,000 quarter

Twenty micro creators at one TikTok and one Reel each, 3 months of paid usage, no exclusivity, $60 seeding, in-house. Fees around $19,000, usage around $4,000, seeding $1,200. Total about $24,000 for roughly 40 posts and 1.1 million organic views, before any paid amplification, which is a CPM near $22 with the content rights included. The same $25,000 on two macro creators buys about 4 posts and 700,000 views with less content to reuse.

What to track so the next budget is easier

• Cost per creator, fully loaded (fee, usage, seeding), so you know the real average.
• Views and clicks per post, by tier, so the mix is a decision and not a habit.
• Attributed revenue per creator over 90 days, so renewals are earned.
• Usage end dates, so paid media stops running rights you no longer have.

Keep reading

• Creator tiers and commission structures that do not fall apart
• Creator whitelisting for brands: setup, pricing, and the expiry problem
• The influencer agreement: clauses a brand actually needs (and the ones that scare creators off)