How to Price Creators With Confidence (Even When ROI Feels Unclear)

One of the hardest questions in influencer marketing is: how much should we pay?

There’s no universal answer. A YouTuber with 50,000 subscribers might charge anywhere from £500 to £50,000+. Some campaigns will deliver outsized returns, others won’t. And if you’re just starting out, you might not have any benchmarks to lean on.

The truth is you can’t predict the return on investment for YouTube campaigns with 100% certainty. Why?

Every company values outcomes differently

Creators vary hugely in the results they deliver

Early campaigns are as much about testing as proving ROI

That means the goal isn’t to find a “perfect” price. It’s to create a framework that makes you comfortable with the investment, based on two things:

The attention the campaign will drive

The value of that attention to your business

Once you have that starting framework, you can test, refine, and get sharper over time. Here’s how to build it.

Step 1: Value the impression (the attention side)

If you’ve never priced YouTube creator impressions before, start by anchoring them against what you already know: the cost of attention in your paid channels.

The process looks like this:

Check your paid benchmarks Look at the CPMs (cost per 1,000 impressions) you’re paying on platforms like Google, Meta, or LinkedIn. If your Facebook ads average £8 CPM, that’s your baseline.

Adjust for quality of attention People scroll past ads, but influencer views usually come from audiences choosing to watch. A good guide is to value influencer impressions at 2–5x your paid CPM.

Example: Paid CPM = £8 → Influencer CPM = £16–£40

Factor in relevance If the creator’s audience is tightly aligned with your product, lean towards the higher end of that CPM range. If it’s broader, stay closer to your baseline.

Apply retention and placement Not every view is equal. If your brand is integrated at the start of a YouTube video with 70% retention, most impressions count. If it’s buried at the end with 30% retention, discount it.

Example: 100,000 views × 50% retention = 50,000 valid impressions

Consider content format The value of a view changes if it’s part of a dedicated video vs. an integration. In a dedicated video, your brand is the focus — every view is intentional. In an integration, you’re part of wider content, so impressions may carry less weight.

Set your CPM comfort range Multiply valid impressions by your adjusted CPM to calculate a rational campaign value.

Example: 50,000 impressions × £20 CPM = £1,000

This step gives you a grounded comfort zone for valuing attention, based on your own benchmarks and the quality of the creator’s audience.

Step 2: Tie pricing to sales or leads (the value side)

If your main goal is conversions, pricing should be anchored to sales or leads, not just impressions.

B2C example: If your product generates £40 in margin and the campaign delivers 80 sales, that’s £3,200 in value.

B2B example: If your average deal is £20,000 and you close 10% of qualified leads, each lead is worth £2,000. A creator who drives 30 leads has generated £60,000 in likely sales, but £200,000 in pipeline.

Even if you can’t measure perfectly on day one, the principle is simple: know what a sale or lead is worth to you, and compare creator pricing against that.

Step 3: Factor in secondary value

Beyond direct ROI, campaigns often create value in other ways:

Brand growth: More followers on your own channels = more organic reach in the future

Social proof: Bigger follower counts make your brand look more credible

Content reuse: Influencer posts can be repurposed into ads, newsletters, or product pages, saving production costs

Another layer here is engagement quality. Comments are often a stronger signal than likes. But don’t just count the number — look at their depth. Thoughtful questions and excited discussion show a community that is highly engaged and more likely to convert. Generic “love this” comments suggest shallow interaction.

Similarly, creators with active communities on Skool, Discord, or other platforms can often drive higher conversion rates. This doesn’t change how you calculate click-throughs and sales, but it gives confidence that campaigns with them are more likely to overdeliver.

If you want to advertise direct to the community, you can safely assume that will cost extra.

Step 4: Set your range and test

When you combine attention (impressions, retention, engagement, format) with value (sales, leads, secondary benefits), you end up with a range you feel comfortable with.

One company might decide £1,500–£2,000 is fair for a certain creator. Another might go up to £3,000 because their leads are worth more. Neither is wrong. What matters is that you’ve defined the framework, chosen a comfort range, and are prepared to test it.

With each campaign, your numbers get sharper. You’ll learn which creators consistently deliver, where ROI is strongest, and how your comfortable pricing range should evolve.

Step 4B: Choose the payment structure

How you structure the payment is just as important as the price itself. Three common models:

Affiliate-only: Creator is paid only on sales. Reduces your risk but rarely motivates top-tier creators.

Paid-only: Flat fee for content creation and distribution. Simple, but creator has no incentive if sales are possible.

Hybrid (recommended in 90% of cases): Base payment plus affiliate commission. Recognises the creator’s work upfront while giving them upside if the campaign drives sales.

The mix should depend on your goals:

Awareness-driven campaigns lean more on base pay

Sales-driven campaigns can push commission higher

The most successful affiliate programs are generous — 40–50% commission rates aren’t uncommon. But remember: consider margins and hidden costs (production, overhead, customer service). A hybrid model usually gives you the best of both worlds: fair compensation for the creator and scalable ROI for the brand.

Example quick calculation

Creator charges: £2,000

Views: 120,000 with 60% retention → 72,000 valid impressions

CPM benchmark: £8 → Adjusted influencer CPM = £20

Exposure value = (72,000 ÷ 1,000) × £20 = £1,440

Click-throughs: 800

Conversion rate: 10% → 80 sales

Margin per sale: £40 → £3,200 margin

Social growth: +1,000 new followers

Total measurable value: ~£4,640 plus secondary benefits You paid: £2,000

Example calculation (hybrid model)

Base fee (dedicated video): £1,000

Views: 120,000 with 60% retention → 72,000 valid impressions

CPM benchmark: £8 → Adjusted influencer CPM = £20

Now layer in sales performance:

Click-throughs: 800

Conversion rate: 10% → 80 sales

Margin per sale: £40 → £3,200 margin

Affiliate commission to creator: 40% of margin → £1,280

Totals:

Creator receives: £1,000 base + £1,280 commission = £2,280

Brand value generated: £1,440 exposure + £3,200 margin = £4,640

Net brand gain: £4,640 – £2,280 = £2,360 (plus secondary benefits like followers and content reuse)

ChannelCrawler’s role

To make this process work, you need solid data. ChannelCrawler lets you filter creators by niche, check engagement levels, and export contact details so you can plan campaigns with realistic expectations. You’re not guessing what £500, £2,000, or £4,000+ is worth — you’re making decisions with data.

It also complements guides on best filters to find YouTube channels and avoiding spammy outreach, helping you target the right creators efficiently and ethically