Every year the world’s leading Instagram scheduling and marketing tool, Hopper HQ, gathers publicly available data to reveal the highest paid celebrities and influencers of the popular visual platform, and this year’s winner shows a surprising turn of events.
Based on their calculations on internal data, average engagement, posting regularity, agency rate cards, public information and, most importantly, the number of followers they have, Hopper HQ can analyse which of Instagram’s users charge the most per post.
For the fourth year running, this list has become somewhat of a barometer of Instagram influence, where the elite can charge up to $1 million for a single post to their feeds. This culture of paying celebrities and influencers substantial amounts of money to promote content to their large following has been notoriously criticised in previous years, as many see this being a careless waste of money.
However, according to Ampfluence (a 100% human-powered Instagram growth service), a large percentage of brands see this as an excellent marketing strategy, typically dedicating a sizeable portion of their social media marketing budgets to influencers and celebrities who can successfully promote their products to their audience through their visual content. Whenever an Instagram post is sponsored, the celebrity or influencer must always ensure that the post is an advert, otherwise, there can be issues that arise due to lack of transparency.
Considered to be a new way of advertising, famed bloggers and celebrities are able to connect with their audience more deeply than the pages of a magazine. Therefore, brands that can afford to part ways with substantial budgets will, in turn, receive a heightened amount of attention from customers old and new. The bigger the budget, the higher the chance of sales.
For the last two years, Kylie Jenner, Kylie Cosmetics mogul and the youngest of the Kardashian clan, has been at the top of the list of highest-paid Instagram influencers. However, her position was officially moved to second place when it was revealed by Hopper HQ that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson had topped the 2020 Instagram rich list.
This is the first time that a Kardashian or Jenner has not been at the top of the list since Hopper HQ began its Instagram rich list four years ago. Many seem to think that Kylie Jenner dropped down to second place due to her controversy earlier this year, regarding Forbes magazine and her billionaire status, which ultimately saw her rankings and earnings drop by 22%.
Whilst this may have had some sort of influence in the finalised list, the Fast and Furious actor had earned approximately $90m before tax last year and was noticed by Forbes, who assigned Johnson the sought-after title of ‘highest-paid actor in the world’. Similarly, the wrestler-turned-actor rose by six places to the top of the list after increasing 15% of what he could earn last year on sponsored content, now earning more than $1 million per post.
Whilst his film work has had an immense influence in his earnings, the renowned action star has had great commercial partnerships with US sports brand, Under Armour, after signing with them in 2016, as well as having successful sponsorships with Apply and Norwegian bottled water brand Voss.
Although he has the power to charge a mouth-dropping amount of money per post, once you scroll through his Instagram account and past his selfies, videos of workouts and family pictures, you won’t come across many sponsored content, aside from an occasional post about his Tequila brand, Teremana.
Most of his promoted content consists of new episodes of the popular NBC TV series, The Titans, which he hosts, or films in which he stars, such as the highly-anticipated DC Comics feature, Black Adam. Suggesting that whilst he can charge an excessive amount, he very often chooses not to.
Understandably, this is also the first time in the last four years that has seen a noticeable drop in fees for celebrities and influencers on the social media platform, this largely due to the pressuring effects that the coronavirus pandemic has had on brands.
Of this year’s top 10, there are four men and six women who have made the list, including Jenner’s sister – Kim Kardashian – who landed a spot on the list, amongst other famous faces.
According to the data gathered by Hopper HQ, here are the 10 highest-paid celebrities on Instagram for 2020:
1. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, @therock — Followers: 187,300,000, Earns: $1,015,000
2. Kylie Jenner, @kyliejenner — Followers: 181,500,000 Earns: $986,000
3. Cristiano Ronaldo, @cristiano — Followers: 224,800,000 Earns: $889,000
4. Kim Kardashian West, @kimkardashian — Followers: 175,700,000 Earns: $858,000
5. Arianna Grande, @arianagrande — Followers: 191,100,000 Earns: $853,000
6. Selena Gomez, @selenagomez — Followers: 180,300,000 Earns: $848,000
7. Beyoncé, @beyonce — Followers: 148,700,000 Earns: $770,000
8. Justin Bieber, @justinbieber — Followers: 139,300,000 Earns: $747,000
9. Taylor Swift, @taylorswift — Followers: 135,000,000 Earns: $722,000
10. Neymar da Silva Santos Junior, @neymarjr — Followers: 139,300,000 Earns: $704,000
Image credit at the very top of the article: Starfrenzy/Bigstock.com
