How much do influencers get paid? An exec who runs a database of 12,000 creators details the average sponsored post rates for various follower counts.

• The negotiations between influencers and brands for the price of sponsored content - for social platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok - are constantly shifting.
• Marie Mostad, who cofounded the influencer marketplace Inzpire.me with her business partner Mats Lyngstad, manages a database of 12,000 influencers globally.
• Mostad gave Business Insider a snapshot of the current marketplace, breaking down how much influencers earn for a sponsored post depending on their follower count and the quality of their content.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The influencer marketing industry is still relatively opaque when it comes to what creators should charge brands for a sponsored post.

Some creators earn a flat fee for each post, regardless of engagement or view count. Others charge per view or earn a fee when a user takes a specific action like downloading an app.

Finding the right price can depend on a variety of factors, but audience size and content quality are both key determinants, said Marie Mostad, cofounder of the influencer marketing startup Inzpire.me, which operates a database of 12,000 influencers globally.

While companies have different goals for each influencer marketing campaign, whether its brand awareness or actual conversions, Mostad said she usually recommends hiring both "micro" and "macro" influencers.

"In general, I would say that my recommendation is to take a couple stars with large followings and then pick a handful of influencers with fewer followers and really stellar content," she said.

Mostad told Business Insider that an influencer with 41,000 followers, the average follower count in Inzpire.me's database, earns between $500 and $1,000 for a sponsored post.

An influencer with 500,000 followers can earn $5,000 for a sponsored post, assuming their content is high-quality and they have a good engagement rate, she said.

Influencers that have one million or more followers can charge $20,000 for a single post, she said.

Follower count is important, but influencers need to build their audience organically without buying fake fans

While follower count is a key metric for determining the price point of a sponsored post, Mostad said that buying fake followers can destroy an influencer's reputation and hurt their chances of winning future business from brands.

Her company is one of several tech platforms that work with ad agencies and brands to screen influencer accounts for fake followers. Inzpire.me looks at an account's comments-to-likes ratio, its engagement rate, and any sudden spikes in follower count to identify bad behavior.

"The single most important indicator that someone has fake followers is a spike in their follower growth," she said. "But it could also come from a TV appearance or that they've been in the news, so that's why we have to investigate."

Some brands and marketers are asking for more metrics from influencers to measure real engagement, including user comments, likes, and saves.

Content is key, particularly for influencers with fewer followers

For influencers with fewer than 100,000 followers, it's very important to produce high-quality content in order to score brand deals, Mostad said.

"More and more brands are interested in the long tail of influencers," she said. "Micro influencers with less than 100,000 followers have a very engaged and loyal audience. These profiles have picked a niche and their followers are also very into what they're posting about," she said. "For influencer marketing to work, there has to be a very close match between the brand and the influencer."

Mostad recommends that influencers respond to messages and comments from their followers, which boosts user loyalty and will gradually improve an account's average engagement rate.

"It's very important to grow your following over time," she said. "Be patient. I would say there are no shortcuts."

For more information on what influencers are charging for sponsored content, check out these other BI Prime posts:

• A 'twinfluencer' with millions of Instagram and TikTok followers explains how much he charges brands for sponsorship deals: With 15.1 million TikTok followers, Alan Stokes and his twin, Alex, are represented by Amp Studios, a new content studio and talent incubator.
• How much money brands will pay for a TikTok sponsored video compared to YouTube, according to an influencer agency: Brands and creators are still determining the right way to price sponsored content on TikTok. Here's how much one agency charges for sponsored views.
• How much money do TikTok influencers make for a sponsored post? A milkshake brand explains what it pays and how much engagement it's seen: Brands and creators are still trying to land on the right price for sponsored videos on TikTok. Here's how much one brand pays influencers on the app.