How to Calculate Sponsored Post Rates

When considering how to calculate sponsored post rates, certain major elements should be evaluated. You set your worth as a business owner – be sure you’re not underselling yourself so you can earn the most blog income.

Why Should I Care?

Determining an appropriate sponsored post rate is unique to most everyone. Your engagement might be better than most while your page views are lower than others’. Selling strengths goes a long way, but let’s just face it: you need to be in the ballpark.

Why should I care about long-term relationships with brands?

Pitches with Purpose

Sending pitch letters can be scary: when do you send them, how do you get contact information, what should your rates be?

If you need help with this income stream, I have Pitching Perfection on sale right now for $5 off!! You get pitch letters, instructions on how to determine your “sell,” sponsored post rate calculators, and even help with the entire sponsored post process.

It’s rad. You should get it. #biased

Back to purposeful pitches…

To avoid the back-and-forth emails that can be total time-sucks (and income drainers), your pitches need to have a purpose. Do you want to be paid? Tell them! Many bloggers get stuck here.

Some people tell you there is a formula based on your page views, followers, and social profile numbers, but as a business owner, I’ll tell you each instance isn’t the same.

Determine How Much to Charge for a Sponsored Post

Before you send a generic number off to a brand, consider “SEAT” – supplies, engagement, admin, and time. They are the basics to learning how to calculate sponsored post rates.

[Tweet “To calculate sponsored post rates, consider SEAT – read more.”]

Supplies

• Are they providing you product or will you get it yourself?
• Will you have to pick up anything to stage the final photos? Dish towels to stage a recipe? Felt or foam board for a kid’s craft?

Engagement

How many:

• average comments do you get on posts? Some say comments are worth $3 an $5 each.
• page views do you have on an average post? Estimate value between $0.50 and $1 each.
• social shares do you see on each post? Caveat: if you have to work hard for them (share threads) or you pay a VA, you’ll need to consider that in your rates. There are many variants on this – let’s estimate between $2 and $4 for organic shares.

There is a huge disparity between likes on Facebook versus shares and likes on Instagram or pins on Pinterest. This study, when one digs deeper, shows Facebook shares are much more valuable than likes to brands. If you get a lot of Facebook shares, you might use this source to justify an increase in social engagement rates.

For example, this study found “Facebook shares drove 3.4 times more revenue than a Facebook like and had a conversion rate 5.44 times higher than a like.” WOW!

Administrative Tasks

Consider that you will need to:

• write the post and social shares. Determine your hourly rate – $20-50 an hour.
• drive to/from the store if you’re getting supplies.
• manage the reporting, communications with the brand, invoice, and bookkeeping.

Time Considerations

• Factor in the time spent crafting or creating.
• Photography is one of the most time-consuming parts of a sponsored post.
• Consider the time and skill you’ll spend editing (or hiring) video.

How to Calculate Sponsored Post Rates

Add up all of the points above and you should get a general idea of how to calculate sponsored post rates. Another option is to consider someone else’s rates however, there are many, many differences so do this carefully. You don’t want to price yourself out of the opportunity or undercut so immensely you lose money.

In the past year, Social Blue Book has become a starting point for bloggers. With high and low estimates, there is a lot of discussion to their numbers versus what a brand (or network) is willing to pay, however, it’s a place to begin.

One of the resources most cited by clients is from Secret Blogger Business on how to calculate a sponsored post. She also has one on how to calculate a social media share.

Go through these (and the resources provided in Pitching Perfection) and find “your numbers” for the other SEAT components. Deliver a consistent message that covers the cost and income strategy you want for your blog.

[Tweet “Your sponsored rate should be calculated, not a guess. #contentmarketing”]

Summary

When considering how to calculate sponsored post rates, supplies, engagement, administration, and time are the major elements to include. You set your worth as a business owner – be sure you’re not underselling yourself.