It’s no secret that celebrities can make a lot of money simply by shilling products on social media.
But when barely-in-the-spotlight stars like Audrina Patridge, Lindsay Lohan, Snooki, JWoww, and even the least well known women on Bravo are making bank on sponsored posts, it begs the question: How much are the biggest names in entertainment raking in?
Social media analytics company D’Marie Analytics did some math to find out, ranking stars with the hottest social media presence and determining what each of their posts would be worth to advertisers.
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Money-maker! A data analysis by D’Marie Analytics found that of every celebrity, Selena Gomez stands to make the most money from a social media post
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Big deals: The 23-year-old usually only promotes brands that she works with directly, and is more likely paid for an overall promotional contract than a single post
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Impressive! If she were to promote a brand online though — like, say Cheetos — she could make $550,000 for one post
According to AdWeek, the company found that of every single star and brand on social media, singer Selena Gomez has the most influence.
With her 90.5 million followers, that’s not exactly a surprise. The 23-year-old also has 61 million followers on Facebook, and 44 million on Twitter.
And with those followers comes power — the power to make lots and lots of money. The experts at D’Marie Analystics found that if Selena were to share a single post sponsored content across all three of those platforms, it would be worth a whopping $550,000.
They based that number off of not just how many followers she has, but also how much they engage with her on social media and how likely they are to buy something she promotes.
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She could be making bank, too! Kendall Jenner, according to the analytics company, has the second highest earning potential for sponsored posts
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Getting paid to eat ice cream: She doesn’t often shill for brands, but did promote Magnum ice cream earlier this year
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Choice brands: She also promoted the SecretCloset.net app on her Instagram page
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Make-up mogul: Usually, though, she just promotes brands that she works with, like Estée Lauder
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ring on the bling!She also often gives shout-outs to the brands that lend her clothing and jewelry for events, like Lorraine Schwartz
‘The rate-per-post is her “ad equivalent” value per post across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram,’ the company’s CEO, Frank Spadafora, told AdWeek.
‘This may be different than how much she is actually getting paid when participating in social media campaigns. That is up to negotiations between her agents and the brands.
‘This valuation is based on D’Marie’s algorithm, which measures 56 metrics including followers, post frequency, engagement, quality of post, click-thru, and potential to create sales conversions from her social content.’
Despite this high-price potential, though, it doesn’t seem that Selena actually takes advantage of the sponsored post market. She rarely shares posts with visible brands, and when she does, they’re often those she already has a promotional deal with, like Pantene and Coca-Cola.
In that case, she may be getting paid for the individual post — though it’s just as likely that she’s just promoting herself when she shares behind-the-scenes images from a Pantene photoshoot, or she’s getting a paycheck for generally promoting the brand across the board, in print ads, in commercials, and online.
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Kylie Jenner also has high earning potential — and takes advantage by regularly plugging stuff online
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Drinking it up: This post, for which she may have been paid over $100,000, shilled for FitTea
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Keep it convincing! She’s also hocked these Sugar Bear Hair vitamins on more than one occasion
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For the fans: While sneakily promoting this Daniel Wellington watch, she even offered a discount code
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Just a gift? Sometimes, she gives shutouts to brands that send her things, though it’s unclear whether she was paid to post
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Shill, shill, shill! She also promotes her own brands, including Kylie Cosmetics and her nail polish line
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Surprise! She even offered her support to Burger King when the fast food chain wanted to promote its chicken fries rings
‘It’s interesting that the statistically most influential person on social media is engaged in noticeably less campaigns than other celebrities,’ Spadafora added. ‘Personally, I think it’s because she’s being smart and she’s aware that over-saturating her social feeds with sponsored content could negatively impact the relationship she has with her audience.’
The star with the second-highest earning potential, Kendall Jenner, also seems to mostly shy away from sponsored content. In December, the analytics company estimated she could make between $125,000 and $300,000 per post.
In the past, she posted campaigns for Estée Lauder, for which she is a brand ambassador, as well as her Kendall + Kyle collection and line for PacSun.
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Rihanna mostly likes to pluf her own collaborations. She added a #rihannadior hashtag to this post
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On brand: If she’s sharing sponsored posts, she’s doing it more subtly, wearing the brand but not talking it up in the caption
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She also promoted her Manolo Blahnik collaboration (pictured) with a #rihannaxmanolo hashtag
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Puma, which she does a line for, also gets plenty of love on her account
On Instagram, where she has 61.7 million followers, she also likes to show off her work for major designers like Fendi and Calvin Klein, and happily gives shout-outs to designers she wears on the red carpet.
The 20-year-old did, however, promote the SecretCloset.net mobile app on Instagram, as well as Magnum ice cream.
Little sister Kylie Jenner, though, is much more willing to take on sponsored posts — and stands to make the third-most money on them of every star on social media.
With her 68 million Instagram followers, she has a lot of sway, and likely raked in major cash for recent sponsored posts for FitTea, Burger King, and Daniel Wellington.
According to a WWD article from January, brands pay Kylie, 18, between $100,000 to $300,000 for a single one of these sponsored Instagram posts.
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She’d never! Beyoncé doesn’t seem to ever promote brands on her account, though she could make hundreds of thousands of dollars doing so
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Is it or isn’t it? Bey shared a picture of herself drinking a Slurpee from 7-11 — though the post likely wasn’t sponsored, since the brand name is barely visible
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Bey also rarely even names the brands she’s wearing in photos — with only a few exceptions, like this time she wore Lorraine Schwartz jewelry
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Her own best billboard: She does, however, promote her own brands, like Ivy Park
In forth and fifth place are Rihanna, 28, and Beyoncé, 34, respectively.
Rihanna, with her 82 million followers on Facebook, 63 million on Twitter, and 42 million on Instagram, sticks to shilling her own brands, like Puma.
Beyoncé also promotes only her own projects, like clothing line Ivy Park, and her husband’s, like Tidal, when posting for her 65 million followers on Facebook, 15 million on Twitter, and 79 million on Instagram.
Other stars with major online ad earning potential include Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Cara Delevingne, Kourtney Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, and Katy Perry.
