Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2018. All follower counts, fees per post, net worths and the KKW Beauty revenue figure are mid-2018 estimates and have changed a lot since; KKW Beauty was later rebranded and restructured.
We recently learned that Kim Kardashian was paid $500,000 for an Instagram post promoting a morning sickness pill. Put more simply, for uploading a single photo to Instagram this woman was paid more than the President of the United States earns in a whole year. So we took a look at other celebrities, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Selena Gomez, to get an idea of how much money they make on Instagram thanks to brands.
How much do Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Cristiano Ronaldo and other celebrities charge to post a photo on Instagram?
First of all, making money on Instagram isn’t just for celebrities. These days, anyone who has built up their social media accounts properly can make some money. Remember that we’ve already talked about a couple who earn a six-figure income thanks to Instagram.
How much does Kim Kardashian take in from her Instagram posts?
With more than 114 million followers on Instagram, more than 60 million followers on Twitter and more than 42 million views on her Snapchat, according to TMZ, Kim’s fee would be $500,000 per sponsored post.
In fact, several vitamin brands, Calvin Klein, Olay and SugarBearHair have worked with Kim on more than one occasion, so for her, Instagram is a very profitable social network.
Indeed, Kim Kardashian’s net worth is put at more than $300 million. Not to mention how cheaply she can promote her own cosmetics company, KKW Beauty, which has taken off thanks to the promotion the Kardashians give it on social media. The company is estimated to have brought in more than $100 million in revenue.
How much does Cristiano Ronaldo earn per sponsored Instagram post?
Although CR7 has more followers than Kim Kardashian (more than 136 million), his fee is $100,000 lower. Cristiano Ronaldo is estimated to charge $400,000 for each sponsored Instagram post, which isn’t bad at all.
How much does Selena Gomez make per Instagram post?
With 139 million followers, Selena Gomez earns around $550,000 per sponsored post. That makes her the person who charges the most per post in 2018.
Other names should be added to this list. They come in below the top-earning trio of sponsored posts, but they’re not doing badly at all:
Kylie Jenner charges practically the same as Cristiano Ronaldo, up to $400,000 per post.
Kendall Jenner makes up to $380,000 per sponsored post. Kendall Jenner’s net worth is estimated at $900 million, and she is about to become the world’s youngest female billionaire.
Khloé Kardashian makes up to $250,000 per Instagram post, the same amount as her sister Kourtney.
Cara Delevingne makes up to $150,000 per post, while Gigi Hadid earns around $120,000 per photo.
And finally, to round off the list, there’s another athlete, LeBron James, who makes around $120,000 per sponsored post.
The closeness that celebrities show on social media means brands prefer to bet on a direct recommendation from these “idols” to their legions of followers rather than on other kinds of advertising. The growth of this approach suggests that it pays off better than other forms of advertising.
See also: 6 things the middle class still doesn’t understand about the rich
In fact, as we said at the start, you don’t need to be famous to make money on Instagram. Depending on how many followers you have and how your fans interact with your posts, you’ll be able to command a higher or lower fee. In other words, you’ll be able to ask for more or less money for each sponsored post.
This has given rise to another business on Instagram: buying followers to look like an influencer and charging brands for sponsored posts, so that the brands end up investing in a fake influencer whose followers are bots.
Featured image: Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
