Who are Australia’s Instagram influencers, and how much are they paid?

Australian Instagram influencers are bringing in anywhere between $13 and $20,000 per post for their marketing efforts, a report has found. And it’s often those with the smallest followings that generate the most conversation.

HypeAuditor’s State of Instagram Influencer Marketing in Australia report dissected Instagram activity and engagement Down Under, in a bid to demystify the world of influencer marketing and get a sense of who’s engaging with whom, and exactly how much cash they’re raking in.

The majority of Aussie influencers — 46.1% — are micro-influencers, with followings of between 5,000 and 20,000 people.

Nano-influencers, with between 1,000 and 5,000 followers, account for 25.9%.

Mega influencers and celebrities, with more than 1 million followers, account for just 0.28%.

How much are influencers paid?

Influencers’ payments can vary wildly, depending on things such as their particular niche, their engagement rate and the cost of production of any content, the report notes.

Those at the absolute top of their game could bag close to $20,000 for one little post. Others could bring in just $13.25.

On average, Australian influencers with more than 1 million followers earn anywhere between $92 and $19,880 per Insta post.

Those with between 100,000 and 1 million followers are looking at a payment of anywhere between $80 and $1,590 per post. Those with between 20,000 and 100,000 could be paid anywhere between $33 and $330.

Micro-influencers — the majority of Aussie Insta-stars — are earning between $20 and $200 per post.

Despite their higher engagement rates, Aussie nano-influencers don’t rake in much cash per post. According to the report, their compensation ranges from $13.25 per post to $66.

Who’s engaged?

Predictably, the more followers an influencer has, the more likes and comments their posts tend to generate.

However, the report points to the ‘likes-to-comments’ ratio on posts, which indicates “how strongly influencer’s followers are involved in a dialogue”.

On average, this number is smaller the more followers an influencer has. For those with more than 1 million followers, the average likes-to-comments rate is 0.74.

This increases to 2.97 for micro-influencers and 3.66 for nano-influencers.

The report also calculates engagement rates, calculated by adding the number of likes and comments, divided by the number of followers. That figure is multiplied by 100, to get the engagement rate.

Aussie influencers have higher engagement rates than the global average. And, because of their strong connection with a small audience, it’s nano-influencers that lead the way here.

Those with followers of between 1,000 and 5,000 have an average engagement rate of 4.51%.

Among micro-influencers, with followers of between 5,000 and 20,000, that drops to an average of 2.01%, and for those with a following of between 20,000 and 1 million, it’s at 1.53%.

Mega influencers, with 1 million followers or more, have slightly better engagement. For them, this figure is up to 2.22% in Australia — considerably higher than the 1.36% global average.

The top Aussie influencer, in terms of followers, is actor Chris Hemsworth, who has a massive 45.5 million followers, and an engagement rate of 2.56%.

Hugh Jackman, Margot Robbie and Miranda Kerr also make an appearance in the top 10, along with SWEAT co-founder Kayla Itsines.