"Brands pay per follower" is a pricing model nobody actually uses

"Brands pay per follower" is a pricing model nobody actually uses

The folk rule — roughly "$100 per 10k followers" — persists in creator advice despite weak empirical support.

Context. The per-follower heuristic originated in early influencer-marketing decks circa 2017 and was never validated against settled deal data.

Findings. Rate-card studies from 2024–2025 that compared agreed fees to account size find follower count explains a minority of price variance once you control for engagement rate, niche commercial value, and deliverable scope. Two accounts at 100k followers in the same niche routinely show 3–4x fee spreads. The stronger predictors were median view-per-post and conversion history with prior sponsors.

Caveats. These datasets are self-reported by creators or sourced from agencies with selection bias toward larger deals; small private sponsorships are underrepresented, which likely overstates rates at the low end.

Implication. Pricing off raw follower count leaves money on the table in high-intent niches and overprices in low-conversion ones. Price off delivered views and demonstrated conversion, not vanity reach.

What we still don't know: no public dataset links final negotiated rates to actual campaign ROAS, so causal pricing logic stays opaque.