Australian influencers are being paid significantly less than their international peers, according to a new report about the international creator industry.

Influencer marketing platform Klear released its 2020 Influencer Pricing Report, which surveyed more than 4,800 influencers from around the world between January and August this year.

The report looks at how much influencers are paid based on their location, the size of their following, demographic and gender.

And what the report found is that Australia is in the bottom half of countries for influencer rates.

The average Australian rate is US$341 per ‘collaboration’ — generally an Instagram post, but can also include a Instagram story or video post.

This was less than the U.K. ($507 per collaboration), Canada ($491), the U.S. ($463) and Germany ($371), but more than Italy ($263), Spain ($204) and France ($173).

There are a number of factors that influenced these prices including the types of influencers popular in the country, the audience, and even the conversion of rates to U.S. dollars.

And despite the pandemic and its impact on marketing budgets, rates for influencers remained fairly consistent year-on-year. Across the industry, the rate for an Instagram post remained $370.

But on the premium end of the industry, rates for celebrity influencers — influencers with more than 500,000 followers — saw their pay for a post jump from $2,738 from just $2,080 the year before.

And there remains a gender gap in the influencer industry, both in terms of participation and pay.

Women still make up the majority of influencers, and that number increased over the year. In 2020, 84% of influencers were women, up from 77% the year before.

Women dominated DIY, parenting and beauty influencing, whereas men were better represented in photograph, travel and fitness.

But that flips when it comes to pay. A male influencer’s average rate was $476 compared with $348 for a female influencer, a gap of $128.

This was up from $108 the year before (with men earning $459 versus $351 for women in 2019).

And while the biggest influencers command the highest rates, data from Klear’s own platform suggests they remain the best bang-for-your-buck for businesses.

Celebrity influencers (with 500,000+ followers) generate $9.30 for every dollar spent, compared with brands earning $1.6 for every dollar spent on nano-influencers, who have somewhere between 500 and 5,000 followers.

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