Creators: Cost per Engagement (CPE) – #paid

In this lesson, you will learn:

What is cost per engagement?
How is it calculated?
Why is cost of engagement important?
How to improve your cost per engagement

When a brand reviews a creator's profile, there are a number of different metrics they will evaluate. Including, but not limited to:

Follower count
Engagement rate
Audience demographics
Deliverable prices
Cost per engagement

What does cost per engagement mean?

Cost per engagement (CPE) is a metric used to determine how much (on average) a brand would have to spend per engagement (like or comment).

How is CPE calculated on #paid?

CPE is calculated on #paid by dividing a brand's spend by the number of engagements. For example, if a creator charges $200 for an Instagram Post deliverable and the post receives 1,000 points of engagement (likes and comments) then the CPE is $0.20. On #paid, we take the average Instagram CPE of the last 12 posts to generate the CPE that gets surfaced to a brand.

Why is CPE important to a brand?

Analyzing CPE prior to investing in content can help brands ensure that they are maximizing their marketing dollars.
For example, Brand A is about to launch an organic creator marketing collaboration on #paid. Brand A has two creators with similar aesthetics, prices, and follower account but their CPE metrics was quite different:

Creator #1: $2.0 CPE
Creator #2: $0.2 CPE

Which creator do you think will yield a higher return on investment for the brand? Likely, Creator #2 because the CPE is substantially less than creator #1.

What is the average CPE on #paid?

Great question! Every creator niche and category is going to vary. With that said, our team did an analysis on all the creators contracted in 2021 and found that the average CPE across all creator niches and categories was $1.40 on #paid.

Where can I view my CPE on #paid?

Once you have logged into your #paid account, click on the drop-down in the upper right-hand corner and select profile. Once you are on your profile page in #paid, you will be able to view important account metrics including your CPE.

How to Improve your CPE

Improving your CPE comes down to two main areas: Increase your engagement or reducing your deliverable cost.

Increase your Engagement

Below are a few ways to help you improve your engagement

Understand your Audience
Post Regularly
Engage with your Followers
Engaging Captions
Create Mixed Content

For more details on the above tactics, check out this article on Engagement Ratings.

Reducing Deliverable Prices

Increasing your engagement will always be our #1 recommendation for improving your CPE but another option is to decrease your cost per deliverable. By decreasing your cost per deliverable, you will naturally decrease your CPE which could help you in securing more brand collaboration. Before switching up your pricing, we highly recommend checking out this free online CPE calculator tool.

Maintaining a competitive CPE is just one piece in the creator assessment process. But by understanding where you currently sit in terms of your CPE and the tactics you are working on to keep your CPE competitive, you are setting yourself up for success!

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: Are the situations where brands don't look at CPE?

Answer: If a brand is running a Just Content campaign, they may not focus as much on CPE because the content will not be posted to your personal social media pages.

Additional Resources

Average Cost Per Engagement for Instagram Ads

Instagram Influencer Pricing: How to Determine Influencer Rates in 2022

9 Tips To Improve Your Instagram Engagement Rate

22 Simple Ways to Increase Instagram Engagement