How Much Money Do Instagram Models Make

Instagram has become an omnipresent means of communicating and connecting with people of different demographics worldwide. However, while many of us seek the informative and entertaining thrills of these social media platforms, others seek to use their profiles as a medium to create a source of living for themselves.

One such group of people is Instagram models. Instagram models have become influential all over the years and have continued to prove that Instagram might be a great medium to earn money after all. While we know that Instagram or IG models, as they are popularly known, make money off the social media app, we sometimes cannot help but wonder how much they genuinely make.

In this article, we will unveil how much an Instagram model makes and if you should consider picking up this exciting career.

Who Exactly Is An Instagram Model?

Instagram models are everywhere on the app, and the many adverts you come across while scrolling through your feed. Who knows, you might also follow one or two of these internet personalities for the great content that they bring to your timeline. But do you truly understand who an Instagram model is?

You are scrolling through your IG feed when you come across one that stops you in your track. It is a picture post of someone advertising what looks like a bracelet from a store. You notice the store doesn’t belong to the girl that posts it as she tags the store’s Instagram in her caption.

To you, it is just another ad. To the girl that uploads the post and adds a sponsored tag, it is just another day of business. What exactly does it mean?

The girl in our make-believe occurrence is what we call an Instagram model. Although what understandably comes to mind when you think about Instagram models is pretty girls with pretty pictures and thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of followers, guys can also be Instagram models.

Instagram moles, also popularly called IG models or IG influencers, are people who have made a name for themselves on Instagram. They are easily recognized as famous people who have managed to amass a large following on Instagram, sometimes in a specific niche.

The great thing- or one of the great things as many perks follow the title- about being an Instagram model is that anyone can become one. There is no set rule regarding who can become a model or at what age. As long as you provide quality and exciting content that pulls people from metal to a magnet, you can become an IG model.

Do Instagram Models Earn Money?

You have undoubtedly once asked yourself if Instagram models have money. The short answer is yes. Instagram models are more than a profile with many followers and a small follower-to-following ratio. They are a brand in their small way as they have keyed into the opportunity to make money by simply having the high number of engagements that the average person cannot boast of.

More than one billion people use Instagram globally. Instagram is undeniably a prevalent social media platform and an excellent medium to connect with a vast audience of people. Although the average person might not see a need to communicate with a large audience, businesses need as many eyes as possible on their brand.

This has driven many businesses to adopt an Instagram marketing strategy that not only aims to increase their brand awareness but also convert as many members of their target audience as possible. While businesses acknowledge that they need as many people to know about their business as possible, there is only so much they can do on their Instagram profiles.

To solve this problem of limited means of connecting to the small percentage of people on their profiles, they resort to employing other people with an astounding number of followers to do the job for them. After all, these people already have a community of active and loyal followers and exert a positive influence in this community that they have created for themselves.

These people are Instagram models.

Think of Instagram models like actual magazine models. Like these models, Instagram models are paid to use a product and post it for their followers to see. This is a not-so-subtle means of marketing that brands adopt to reach these influencers, gain more publicity, increase web traffic, and make more sales.

Businesses use Instagram models to advertise everything from clothes, shoes, and accessories to houses, pet items, and other items. 

Factors That Influence An IG Model’s Earning Potential

Now that we have established that Instagram models make money, we undoubtedly have a prickling need to know how much these personalities made. Instagram modeling doesn’t exactly look like a job. Admittedly, holding a product in a picture for your followers to see looks more like a hobby than an actual job.

However, Instagram modeling is a job, and like every job, it pays. Although we know that it pays to be popular, as Instagram models have created a medium to earn money, it is virtually impossible to know how much an Instagram model makes. While we can offer an estimate, an Instagram model’s earning must depend on various factors. Some of these factors include:

1. Number of Followers

One of the most popular factors that determine how much an Instagram influencer earns is the number of followers that they have. Remember that popular idiom ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’? While we endorse that idiom, businesses looking to hire Instagram models often throw this saying out the window.

The number of an IG model’s followers is often used as a metric to gauge how much a business thinks they are worth. While a small following doesn’t necessarily mean a model is not worth much, more followers increase a model’s likelihood to earn big in their career.

Instagram models are typically split into four groups depending on their follower count. These categories are:

Mega Influencers

As their name implies, mega influences are at the top of the influencer food chain. These influences are the bigshot movers and shakers of the Instagram model community, and their follower count proves it. Mega influencers are Instagram models with more than one million followers.

For them to have gathered this many followers, they have to be doing something right. Businesses believe this too, which is why they pay large sums of money to work with models like this. Because of the high number of followers, mega influencers offer better exposure that promises more brand awareness.

If you want your brand name to be on the lips of millions of people in a short period, working with a mega influencer is the best way to go about it. Mega Instagram models yield a high impact on their followers. These models are usually celebrities from any niche with a high impact on the online and offline community.

Working with mega influencers offer excellent advantages, but all these come at a hefty cost- literally. If you want to work with these models, be prepared to pay big. Another concern with mega models is that they usually do not have an audience from one niche.

Their followers are a mixture of people from different demographics with different interests, with their only common interest being the influence. This diversity is great for brands with generalized products (like a headphone business) and not brands that require a specific niche (like anime book lovers).

Examples of mega influencers are Cara DeLevigne, with more than 42 million followers, and lucky Blue Smith, with 2.8+ million followers.

Macro Influencers

Macro influencers are a step below the Instagram model ladder. They are equally relevant, like all other types of Instagram models, but they have fewer followers than mega Instagram influencers. Although they are not as famous or influential as mega influencers, macro influencers are considered big-game and top-tier personalities.

They have between 500 thousand and one million followers and tons of active engagement on their profile to prove this. Working with macro influencers is expensive but not as expensive as mega influencers. Regardless, working with a macro influencer is an excellent way to increase brand visibility.

Some examples of macro Instagram models are Jenah Yamamoto with 778,000+ followers and Ashley Sky with 535,000+ followers.

Mid-Tier Influencers

Mid-tier Influencers or models have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Although they do not necessarily count as celebrities, these models offer an equally established online community and great engagement on a lower scale. Mid-tier influencers are often more niche-focused and an excellent option for brands looking to work with models in specific niches.

They have a wider reach than micro-influencers, are great at creating content, and are affordable to work with.

Micro-Influencers

Micro-influencers or models may have a significantly small number of followers, but they offer excellent brand boost and engagement benefits for brands that work with them. Because they have a much lower follower count, they share an intimate connection with their audience.

With a follower count of fewer than 10,000, Micro-influencers may pale compared to mega influencers, but they are often viewed as having more authentic opinions. Their followers trust them and are likelier to purchase from brands they post. 

2. Your niche

An Instagram model’s niche plays a significant role in determining how much they earn. Everything from personal interest, skills, personality, style, and network is a critical factor in deciding what part of the payment chart a model ends up on. It is pretty simple.

High-value niches often pay higher than other niches. One great example is the fashion industry versus the pet needs niche. As an Instagram model, if you work with a luxury clothing brand, you will undeniably earn more than you will working for a pet brand. 

However, since high-paying niches are often competitive, it might take a while to find the level of financial success you need in these niches. This will be even worse if you have little to no experience networking with luxury brands.

3. Influence

Unsurprisingly, Instagram models that yield a lot of influence and authority on Instagram earn more than other Instagram models. Apparently, it pays to be popular. If you are an offline and online star like Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Chrissy Teigen, or other household names in any industry, you are expected to earn higher than other models. 

Yielding more influence means working with you will result in better engagement and valuable conversion for the brands you work with. This is primarily because of your loyal followers. This must be why Kendall Jenner is estimated to earn $500,000-$1,000,000 per post on Instagram.

4. Content Quality

Unsurprisingly, content quality is vital to how much an Instagram model earns. As an Instagram model, your IG page or profile is your portfolio. This portfolio is what many businesses and brands will look at before deciding to work with you. As with any portfolio, your IG page should have the best-looking, high-quality content.

Your posts, stories, and highlights should be not only well-curated but also visually appealing, clearly communicating your aesthetics to your followers. The better your picture and video quality and concepts, the more brands will value you and be willing to work with you.

How Much Do Instagram Models Make?

Taking these multiple factors into consideration, it is evident that there is no average Instagram model salary price. All we can do is provide an estimate that might vary wildly as the wealth in the Instagram modeling sector is not evenly distributed. While it is easy for stars like Kendall Jenner to make a million dollars with a few Instagram posts, not all models are that lucky.

For starters, many models have humble beginnings where they earn a few hundred or thousand dollars per post. Although there are many metrics to estimate an Instagram model’s earnings, many brands choose to pay models per follower count. Models with less than 10,000 followers usually earn between $25 and $88 per post on Instagram.

While this is not much, it is still an excellent start for many models. Besides, the more time and energy you dedicate to building your profile, the faster you can scale up the earning ladder. Instagram models with a follower count ranging between 10,000 and 100,000 are higher up on the earning ladder. They offer more engagement, better features and earn an estimated $200 per post.

Unsurprisingly, models with followers ranging between 100,000 and one million (macro influencers) earn even more money. These models can make anything between $10 to $15 per one thousand followers or $650 to $750 per post. Instagram models with millions of followers are the big earners, earning at least $15,000 per IG post.

The more followers they have, the more money they can earn, with big names making hundreds of thousands of dollars per post. Some of the highest-paid Instagram models include:

• Cristiano Ronaldo earning up to 1.6 million per post
• Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson earning up to one million dollars per post

• Kylie Jenner earning up to one million dollars per post

• Kim Kardashian earning an average of $850,000 per post

• Zlatan Ibrahimovic earning about $200,000 per post

• Summer Ray earning at least $30,000 per post

Although the bulk of Instagram models’ earnings come from sponsored posts from brands, there are other ways they earn money with their IG page. Some of these methods include:

• Affiliate marketing

• Personal online store

• Brand ambassadorship

A Promising Online Career

Being an Instagram model isn’t only about posting pretty selfies and amazing portraits. It involves a lot of time and effort dedicated to creating amazing content and growing your online community. Although being an Instagram model looks promising, especially since technology has advanced so much that IG models are a necessity to brand growth, there are lots of things to consider before deciding to go this path.

Admittedly, the pay looks attractive, especially since you can work at your own time and still have a regular job. However, it is essential to remember that before you can earn bog, you need to build a solid online presence.  Regardless, it is undeniable that working as an Instagram model is a great way to make money on the internet.