The Power of Social Media: Instagram's Most Lucrative Celebrity Influencers

Instagram does not have quite as many users as Facebook or YouTube, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, it is an especially lucrative place to run marketing campaigns. Save for perhaps LinkedIn, Instagram offers the highest cost per click average of the entire social media industry, or $3.56 per click to be precise. This has allowed some of the most followed accounts on Instagram to earn more than might have been the case otherwise.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that there are over a dozen celebrities who earn over a million dollars for a single Instagram post. At the very top of the list is Cristiano Ronaldo, who has over 597 million followers. He’s also the only celebrity that earns over $2 million per post, averaging out to $2.397 million with all things having been considered and taken into account.

Coming in second is Kylie Jenner, with 397 million followers and average earnings of $1.835 million per post. Lionel Messi is close behind with 48 million followers and $1.777 million per post. Following this we have a list of well known celebrities such as Selena Gomez and Dwayne Johnson who round off the top five list, with Kim and Khloe Kardashian occupying sixth and ninth place respectively, and Kendall Jenner coming in tenth.

Musicians such as Ariana Grande and Beyonce Knowles occupied seventh and eight places respectively, with Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift coming in eleventh and twelfth. Following this, Jennifer Lopez, famous cricketer Virat Kohli and Nicki Minaj also earn more than a million dollars a post.

Generally, earnings coincide with follower counts, but in spite of the fact that this is the case Katy Perry emerged as an outlier. She has fewer followers than Kourtney Kardashian, Miley Cyrus and Neymar, yet she clears a million dollars a post which is slightly beyond the around $950,000 per post that they tend to receive. These celebrities have managed to leverage their fame into massive earnings thanks to Instagram’s high CPC.