In short
- Usable published benchmarks: Instagram engagement by follower tier and city tier, creator asking prices, one agency's fee range and surveys of brand behaviour. All come from vendors or press, and none is audited.
- In the sources we reviewed, no reliable India benchmark exists for CPM, cost per view, CPA, CAC, ROAS, click-through, conversion or repeat rate on creator campaigns.
- Before using any benchmark, check its definition, sample, date and independence. Several rate guides share identical bands, so nine sources behave like about seven.
- Build your own: set targets from wave-one medians, use bands rather than single points, and do not rank any cell with fewer than about 25 conversions.
India has published benchmarks for a handful of influencer metrics and none for the ones a finance team asks about. You can cite engagement rate by follower tier and city tier, creator asking prices, one agency's fee range and surveys of how brands behave. You cannot cite a CPM, CPA, ROAS or conversion rate for creator campaigns, because we found no reliable source for any of them. This page lists what exists, says plainly what does not, and shows how to build benchmarks from your own campaigns.
It supports our guide to how to measure influencer marketing ROI and the complete guide to influencer marketing in India. For market-size figures, see our influencer marketing statistics for India, which we do not repeat here. Every number below is a vendor or press-reported figure with its confidence stated, and none is audited data.
The benchmark register: performance and price
| Metric | What is published | Source type | Confidence | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram engagement, by followers | Nano 5 to 10%, micro 3 to 6%, mid-tier 1.5 to 4%, macro 1 to 2.5%; mega 0.5 to 2% is extrapolated | Rate guides and an analytics vendor, combined in our synthesis | Low | Screening creators, not setting targets |
| Engagement by city tier | Metro 3 to 4%, tier-2 3.5 to 4.5%, tier-3 and tier-4 4.5 to 5.5% | 2026 vendor survey, via Campaign India | Medium, vendor estimate | Direction for regional plans |
| Cost per campaign by city tier | Metro ₹3.8 to 4.5 lakh, tier-2 ₹1.3 to 1.6 lakh, tier-3 and tier-4 ₹35,000 to ₹90,000; "campaign" is not defined | Same survey | Medium, vendor estimate | Rough scale only |
| Instagram Reel asking price | Nano ₹2,000 to ₹10,000; micro ₹8,000 to ₹80,000; mid-tier ₹50,000 to ₹3.5 lakh; macro ₹2 to ₹8 lakh; mega ₹5 to ₹25 lakh and above | Medians of nine published rate cards | Low | Sanity-checking quotes; see the rates guide |
| Usage and exclusivity uplifts | Brand repost +25 to 40%; separate rights line +30 to 50%; perpetual +80 to 150%; 30-day exclusivity +30 to 50% | Rate guides | Low | Opening a negotiation |
| Agency management fee | About 15 to 25% of creator spend | One agency's published benchmark | Low | Questioning a proposal |
| Cost-efficiency rule | A creator is competitive if cost per engaged view is within 1.5 times your paid-media equivalent, and overpriced at 3 times or more | One rate guide | Low | Starting a conversation |
The benchmark register: behaviour and compliance
| Metric | What is published | Source type | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brands with formal revenue targets | 13.3% tie influencer work to them; 46.4% judge performance campaign by campaign | 2026 vendor survey | Medium |
| Partnership ads | 76.6% of surveyed brands have run them; 23.3% regularly | Same survey | Medium, vendor estimate |
| Long-term deals | 62.1% agree they give better ROI, which is a view and not a measured result | Same survey | Medium |
| Consumer behaviour | 69% use influencers for product information, 63% for discovery, 60% to act | 2025 Kantar-backed study, via Campaign India | Medium |
| Marketers' preferred indicators | 39% say engagement rate and 36% say content quality are better indicators than reach | Same study, via MediaNews4u | Medium |
| Compliance | 1,609 influencer ads processed in 2025-26, 97.3% needing modification | ASCI | High, regulator data |
The compliance row is a baseline for expectations, not a performance benchmark: assume first drafts need a label or claim fix and budget the approval time. The engagement detail, with formulas and worked creators, is in our guide to Instagram engagement rate benchmarks in India.
Where no benchmark exists
Silence is useful information. If a number is quoted to you in these categories, ask for the source.
| Metric | What we found | Why people quote one anyway | What to use instead |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPM or cost per 1,000 views for sponsored creator content | No reliable India figure. YouTube CPM numbers in circulation usually describe what creators earn from platform ads, not what brands pay | Borrowed from paid media | Your own paid-media cost, then your wave-one median |
| Cost per view | A method exists, no benchmark | Rate guides publish illustrative sums | Fee ÷ forecast views, checked against delivered views |
| CPA, CAC | None | Agency pitches show single wins | Break-even from your margin; see influencer cost per acquisition |
| ROAS | None. Single-campaign claims, such as one brand's reported 53% ROAS rise after amplifying creator posts, are brand-reported | Case studies | Break-even ROAS, which is 1 ÷ contribution margin |
| Click-through, landing-page conversion, repeat rate | None | Generic e-commerce figures | Your own funnel |
| Influencer share of marketing budget | No 2025 to 2026 India-wide figure; an older 2024 EY-led study found 56% of brands spent more than 2% of budget on influencers | Deck folklore | Your goals and your test results |
| Retention or LTV by acquisition source | None | Borrowed from other channels | Your cohorts; see LTV and CAC |
The same goes for single results. A brand-reported or agency-reported sales rise, such as the 44% rise reported for one 2025 comedian-led personal-care campaign, says what happened once, in one category, with one budget. It is a story, not a baseline.
How to read a benchmark: five questions
| Question | Why it matters | Example from the register |
|---|---|---|
| Who published it, and do they sell the thing measured? | Vendors have a reason to show big markets and strong results | The city-tier survey was run by a firm that sells creator-marketing services |
| What does the term mean? | "Engagement" can be by followers, reach or views; "campaign" can be one post or fifty | The city-tier cost figures do not define a campaign |
| What are the sample and the date? | Small, old or undisclosed samples mislead | One analytics page was first published in 2020 and updated in May 2026, so its data vintage is unclear |
| Are the sources independent? | Repeated figures look like agreement | Several rate guides share identical bands, so nine sources behave like about seven views |
| Is it a range, and how wide? | A wide range cannot set a target | The same follower band is often quoted at 2 times or more apart |
Build your own benchmarks
Your own data is the only benchmark that matches your product, price and audience. Build it in six steps.
- Fix the definitions. Use one formula for each metric, as in our KPI guide, and write the denominator beside it.
- Tag every post. Record tier, platform, format, language, city cluster, goal and whether it ran as an ad.
- Run a first wave of 10 to 15 creators across two tiers and take medians, not averages. Outliers drag the mean.
- Set the target at the median and an alert at the upper quartile. Revisit after each wave.
- Respect small numbers. A cell with fewer than about 25 conversions is noise; pool creators by tier, format or language until it is not.
- Keep a dated archive so you can show trend, not a snapshot. The post-campaign analysis checklist includes the archive step.
Here is a worked example with made-up numbers: cost per 1,000 views for 12 creators in a first wave, in rupees.
| Creator | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per 1,000 views | 420 | 455 | 480 | 510 | 530 | 560 | 590 | 640 | 700 | 780 | 950 | 1,250 |
| Statistic | Value | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Mean | ₹655 | Pulled up by two expensive creators; do not set a target on it |
| Median | ₹575 | Wave-two target |
| Upper quartile | ₹720 | Alert level: review any creator above it before rebooking |
| Cheapest and dearest | ₹420 and ₹1,250 | Check audience fit and views per follower before judging either |
The median is ₹80 below the mean, which is the whole argument for medians. Compare this figure with your own paid-media cost on the same audience, which is the yardstick the cost-efficiency rule in the register uses.
A starter benchmark sheet needs only a few columns, one row per metric and cell.
| Metric | Definition | Cell | Posts | Median | Upper quartile | Wave |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per 1,000 views | Fee ÷ day-30 views × 1,000 | Micro, Instagram Reel, Hindi | 12 | ₹575 | ₹720 | Wave 1 |
Add a row for every metric you report, and a new cell whenever tier, platform or language changes. The row is your benchmark, with its sample size visible.
What to say when you cite a benchmark
In a deck, name the source type and the confidence beside the number.
| Source type | Wording |
|---|---|
| Published rate guides | "Indicative asking prices from published rate guides, not audited deal data" |
| Vendor survey | "Reported in a 2026 vendor survey; sample details inconsistent" |
| Single campaign result | "Reported by the brand or agency; not independently verified" |
| Your own history | "Median of our last [n] campaigns, [window]" |
Mistakes to avoid
- Treating a range as a promise. The top and bottom of a published band are about 10 times apart for micro creators.
- Quoting a benchmark you cannot source. If it is not in the register, it is probably folklore.
- Setting targets on averages. Medians resist outliers.
- Mixing tiers or languages in one benchmark. Pool only like with like.
- Benchmarking against another category's channel. Use your own paid media, not a generic figure.
If you want your first-wave medians turned into targets, with tracking built in from the first post, send us a brief. Our influencer marketing strategy service includes audits of past campaigns, and the leadership reporting guide shows how to present the result. The influencer cost calculator sizes the fee side.
Sources
- Coverage of a 2026 India creator-economy report: engagement and cost per campaign by city tier, brand survey on revenue targets and long-term deals, Campaign India (21 May 2026)
- India creator-economy research report page: brand behaviour survey, Q1 2026 (vendor estimate, page internally inconsistent), Influencer-platform vendor research page (accessed 31 Oct 2026)
- Indian consumers and influencers: coverage of a 2025 Kantar-backed study of consumers and brands, Campaign India (12 Jun 2025)
- India's influencer marketing industry set to grow 25% in 2025 (marketers on engagement rate and content quality as indicators), MediaNews4u (11 Jun 2025)
- Influencer marketing pricing in India 2026 (engagement by tier, usage and exclusivity uplifts, agency fee benchmark, cost-per-engaged-view rule), Indian digital agency rate guide (20 Apr 2026, updated 16 Sep 2026)
- State of Instagram influencer marketing in India (nano engagement; page first published 2020, updated 7 May 2026), HypeAuditor (7 May 2026)
- ASCI annual complaints report 2025-26: influencer ads processed and share needing modification, Advertising Standards Council of India (28 May 2026)
- The State of Influencer Marketing in India: share of brands spending more than 2 percent of budget on influencers (older, 2024), Social Samosa (EY report) (2 Apr 2024)
Frequently asked questions
What is a good engagement rate for influencers in India?
Measured against followers, indicative ranges are about 5 to 10% for nano creators, 3 to 6% for micro, 1.5 to 4% for mid-tier and 1 to 2.5% for macro. These come from published rate guides and vendor data, not audited samples. See our engagement rate benchmarks for formulas and caveats.
Is there a benchmark CPM for influencer marketing in India?
We found no reliable published India CPM or cost-per-view benchmark for sponsored creator content. YouTube CPM figures you may see usually describe what creators earn from platform ads, not what brands pay for sponsorships. Use your own paid-media cost and your first wave as the yardstick.
What is a good ROAS or CAC for influencer campaigns in India?
No reliable published benchmark exists. Single-campaign results quoted by brands or agencies are self-reported and not comparable. Work out break-even from your contribution margin instead: break-even ROAS is 1 divided by margin, and break-even CAC is contribution per first order. Our cost per acquisition guide shows how.
How reliable are influencer marketing benchmarks?
Treat all of them as indicative. They come from vendors, rate guides and surveys with undisclosed or inconsistent samples, and the same follower band is often quoted at two times or more apart. Several guides repeat each other. Use them to sanity-check a quote, never to promise a result.
How do I create my own influencer marketing benchmarks?
Standardise your definitions, tag every post by tier, platform, format and language, and run a first wave of 10 to 15 creators. Take medians, not averages, as wave-two targets, and track an upper-quartile alert level. Update after every wave and keep a dated archive.
What share of marketing budget should go to influencers?
We found no 2025 to 2026 India-wide figure. The closest is an older 2024 EY-led study in which 56% of surveyed brands spent more than 2% of their budget on influencers. Set the share from your goals and test results, as in our budget planning guide.