Q: An agency reached out to me about working together on a brand campaign and when I gave them my quote, they told me that I'm way overpricing myself based on my reach and engagement. Are they right?
A: I was on TikTok the other day and came across a video from a woman who claims to work at an agency, running influencer campaigns for brands. The caption of the TikTok was: "Having to tell an influencer that their rate is overinflated for their reach or engagement."
I looked down in the comments section, and one commenter rightly asked: Why do you have to say that at all? Shouldn’t you just move forward and say it’s outside of your budget?
Ding ding ding! This commenter was absolutely right.
1. It's unprofessional
Turn the tables for a moment.
I can tell you that as creators, we routinely get wildly inappropriate lowball offers from brands and agencies. If we were unprofessional, we'd reply to 80% of the emails in our inbox with a simple "LOL!"
But we conduct ourselves as a professionals, so we don't feel the need to opine on their meager budgets or "educate" them about how creators need to be properly compensated. We just let them know that this fee is below our campaign minimum of $X. "Thanks for thinking of us, but we'll have to respectfully decline." End of story.
An experienced, professional campaign manager will never opine on whether you are "worth" the fee you're asking for.
Now, they may have their opinions and they will certainly share those opinions with their colleagues on Slack, but they know better than to express these thoughts to your face.
There have only been a handful of times we've heard a campaign manager tell us that we're overcharging.
And every single time, it's come from someone who's a former creator, couldn't make it work as a career, so decided to switch sides and set up a one-person agency to manage campaigns for brands instead.
So their unsolicited opinion says more about them than it does about us.
2. Fees are never determined by reach and engagement alone
Experienced campaign managers know that reach and engagement are just two of many factors that go into determining fees for creators.
What are some of the other factors?
- Quality of visuals
- Renown/respect in their industry
- Editorial environment
- Income/value of audience
- Amount of media coverage about creator
- Buzz or celebrity factor
- Proximity to high end brands
- Scarcity of sponsorship opportunities
- Value of the endorsement
That's just to name a few.
Campaign managers who solely price based on reach and engagement are likely new to the influencer marketing industry, and/or only work on low-budget campaigns.
3. Value is in the eye of the beholder
Not everyone perceives value in the same way.
Let's imagine there's a mom/lifestyle creator with great reach, great engagement and great visuals. Brand A may look at her and think, wow I'd die to work with her! And Brand B may look at her and think, meh.
Who's right?
They both are. It just comes down to priorities and messaging. Maybe Brand A is making a big push this year to position itself as a great option for families, and this creator seems like the perfect spokesperson to help them achieve this goal since she's so down-to-earth and relatable. Whereas Brand B is a high-end fashion brand that primarily targets single, high-earning women. So not only is this creator not in the right demographic, but she doesn't have enough of an "expensive" vibe to be a match.
Value is always in the eye of the beholder, and that goes for the creator side of things too!
There may be campaigns you pass on, that another creator would kill for! Either because it's a brand they've always loved, or because they are looking to gain more experience in creating content in a certain niche, or any number of business or financial reasons.
Timing is a factor too.
In a less busy time of year, you may take on a campaign that you wouldn't bother with during a busy quarter.
Value is never a fixed thing. It's constantly shifting depending on priorities and timing.
So are you overcharging?
If you submit quotes to 20 campaigns in a row and don't land a single one, then sure, maybe come down on those rates a bit. But if you're regularly landing work at these rates, then you're charging appropriately.
There will be always be clients who can't afford you. And there will always be creators who charge less than you. You have to get used to that and be okay with it, if you're going to thrive as a creator.
Don't let people gaslight you into believing that you're not worth what you charge. The right brand partners always see the value in what you do.
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Take care,
Carmen Sognonvi
