INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightTheIndianSubcontinent/ReutersImage caption
Zoe Sugg (Zoella), singer Rita Ora and model Rosie
Huntington-Whiteley are all social-media influencers
The money made by social-media influencers has risen meteorically in
the last few years, according to a new report.Marketing firm Izea found the average price of a sponsored photo on Instagram has jumped from
$134 (£104) in 2014 to $1,642 (£1,276) in 2019.Brands appear willing to pay handsomely to sponsor posts, videos, stories and blogs, too,
says Business Insider.But one expert insists it will not mean the end of traditional advertising."Digital marketing is the equivalent of
word of mouth but there will always be a mix between that and traditional advertising," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief executive of social
media marketing platform Socialbakers.Instagram influencersAverage charge per photo postThe report looked at sponsored content on Facebook,
YouTube, Instagram and blogs, examining negotiated rates from 2014 to 2019
From micro-influencers - people with fewer than 100,000 followers - to celebrities, it found that there was good money to be made
Among the findings were:The average cost for a sponsored Instagram photo has risen 44% from 2018 to 2019 aloneFor a sponsored blog post it
has soared from $7.39 in 2006 to $1,442 in 2019YouTube videos command the highest fees - four times that of the next highest-priced form of
sponsored content - up from $420 in 2014 to $6,700 in 2019A Facebook status update has risen from $8 in 2014 to $395 in 2019A Twitter post
has risen from $29 in 2014 to $422 in 2019Blog posts have risen from $407 to $1,442Consumer law warningAs more and more people join the rush
to become social-media influencers, the industry has gained more scrutiny from regulators.Last month, three influencers had Instagram posts
touting diet products banned by the Advertising Standards Authority, which dubbed them "irresponsible".And at the beginning of the year, the
Competition and Markets Authority warned that some influencer posts could break consumer law if they did not make clear when posts endorsing
products were ads.Zoe Sugg (Zoella), singer Rita Ora and model Rosie Huntingon-Whiteley were among 16 influencers who agreed to change the
way they posted content.Brands will continue to pour money into social-media advertising, according to data from Socialbakers.Influencer
articlesAverage charge per blog postIts research suggests that influencer-sponsored posts grew by 150% in the last year, with the use of the
hashtag #ad more than doubling.It predicts that brands will up their spend on influencer marketing in 2020, making it a $10bn
industry.Instagram is currently experimenting with hiding "likes" on posts but Mr Ben-Itzhak does not think this will have an impact on the
influencer industry."Influencers will still be able to see what engagement they have and it is common practice to grant permission to brands
so that they can see that too," he said
"The bigger question will be whether consumers will continue to engage when they can't see 'likes'."
