It might seem like everyone is becoming an influencer these days, posting photos and videos about their lives on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, while gaining thousands of followers from viral content.
In fact, 26% of US-based consumers identify as influencers, according to data published earlier this month by influencer marketing and technology platform IZEA, which surveyed 1,200 social-media users at the beginning of 2024.
Making money from social media is a different story, though. A survey of over 2,000 content creators conducted by the influencer marketing agency NeoReach last year found that 48% of creators earned less than $15,000 a year.
Since the money that influencers make sometimes isn’t enough to sustain their lifestyles, they balance content creation with other jobs. For example, Colin Rocker has a demanding job as a consultant for Deloitte and makes career-related TikTok videos for his audience of 116,000 followers. The 28-year-old made $30,000 in brand partnerships over six months last year, according to documentation verified by BI, but declined to share his salary at Deloitte.
However, this isn’t the case for every influencer. Thirty-six percent of creators have household incomes over $100,000, IZEA found.
Some of these influencers quit their jobs when their earnings surpassed their 9-to-5 incomes, like travel creator Jessica Ufuoma. She quit her role at Johnson & Johnson in November 2022, when her income from posting sponsored videos of her travels exceeded her six-figure salary from her corporate job.
Still, most US-based creators are making under six figures, and part of the reason is that there’s more competition now: there’s a growing number of influencers against a limited number of brands to work for, Jasmine Enberg, an analyst at Emarketer said.
“With more creators than ever before, marketers also have the luxury of choice when deciding who to work with and the upper hand during deal negotiations,” she said.
The typical US–based influencer is likely to be making less than six figures and creating content part-time, according to research, surveys, and influencer interviews.
Most influencers make less than $100,000 a year
There’s a lot more money pouring into the creator economy this year: Emarketer reported that spending on sponsored content for social media is expected to rise 16% this year to $8.14 billion.
That doesn’t directly translate to high earnings for influencers, though. A survey of 689 content creators conducted in 2023 by the influencer-marketing platform Mavrck found that 51% earned less than $500 a month — with only 4% earning more than $10,000 a month.
One of the most lucrative ways creators earn money is through brand partnerships, where they post about using a company’s product or service, typically in exchange for a lump sum. However, brand partnerships are not a consistent source of income since earnings can fluctuate from month to month depending on how many companies a creator works with.
Other popular revenue streams include affiliate marketing, where a creator earns commissions when a follower purchases an item or service through a unique link, and direct income through a social media platform, like TikTok’s creator rewards program and Snapchat’s ad-revenue sharing program. Creators often combine these different income streams.
The financial instability is why some creators, like Anushka Purohit, have chosen to rejoin the traditional workforce and revert to part-time content creation.
Anushka Purohit works full-time in Hong Kong while posting content on Instagram and LinkedIn.
cleinzphotography
Most creators work part-time
With millions of creators around the world, it can be hard to categorize them into different groups.
To make it easier for brands to advertise what type of talent they’re looking for, influencers are usually defined based on follower count. Nano influencers are those with 0 to 10,000 followers, micro influencers are those with 10,000 to 100,000 followers, and mid-size or mid-tier creators are classified as those with 100,000 to 200,000 followers. Meanwhile, macro influencers have 200,000 to 400,000 followers and mega influencers have over half a million followers.
Even though brands have increased their budgets in 2024, some companies are choosing to prioritize long-term partnerships with a select few creators. Most of these creators have smaller audiences, according to former influencer marketer Emmy Petit, who is now a full-time influencer.
Creators with millions of followers, meanwhile, can have other sources of income aside from brand deals, such as starting their own businesses. TikTok creator Nadya Okamoto used her strong engagement on the platform to advertise her period care company August, bringing in $1 million in revenue two years after its launch. Meanwhile, YouTube superstar MrBeast, who has over 300 million subscribers, made $223 million in revenue last year through his various businesses, including the chocolate and snack brand Feastables.
Despite having large online audiences, most creators have other careers to sustain themselves financially or creatively. The same NeoReach survey found that about 55% of respondents were part-time content creators, earning money in ways besides social media.
“The idea of full-time content creation is often more glamorous than reality,” Mitchie Nguyen, a content creator based in New York, previously told BI. “As a full-time job, it can get incredibly lonely.”
Part-time creators can tend to have smaller followings because they invest less time in social media, but that can work in their favor, Enberg explained.
“Spending on nano- and micro influencers will increase the fastest this year,” she said. “The dynamics of the deal market favor the biggest and smallest creators, while the wide middle class is feeling the squeeze.”
eMarketer data on influencer marketing spending by follower count
eMarketer
Influencers vary across age and gender
Influencers come from all different backgrounds, but some demographics are more common than others in the creator economy.
An analysis of 80,000 influencers published this year by the influencer marketing platform Collabstr found that 70% of influencers were women.
Additionally, the NeoReach survey found that an “overwhelming majority” of creators were between the ages of 25 and 34.
While influencers produce content on various social media platforms, the NeoReach survey found that Instagram is the most commonly used platform among creators, followed by TikTok and YouTube, respectively.
Income also varies based on gender and ethnicity. The NeoReach survey found that male creators made $22,000 on average annually, compared to $12,000 for female creators. Creators of color also tend to make less money than their white counterparts: a 2021 study by the Influencer League and MSL Group found an overall racial pay gap of 29%, which widens to 35% when specifically comparing Black and white creators.
To address this income disparity, several female-led and BIPOC-led talent management agencies have popped up in recent years to help creators negotiate higher rates, land brand campaigns, and branch out into other revenue streams.
Are you a social media influencer? Are you willing to share your story and details about your income? If so, reach out to these reporters at sbhattacharya@businessinsider.com and jzinkula@businessinsider.com.
