Rs 5 lakh for a post: Finance influencers aka Finfluencers' purses swell as content demand rises

Chartered accountants, investment bankers and even stock market brokers are taking to Instagram and YouTube to fast track their careers in finance. Thanks to the millennial and Gen Z audiences who are turning to these platforms for quick tips and tricks on taxes, savings and growing money, 'financial influencers' are making more money than ever before from content on money matters.

Depending on their follower count, engagements and, of course, quality of content these financial influencers, popularly called 'finfluencers' earn anywhere between Rs 50,000 and upwards of Rs 5 lakh for one post. A popular influencer does a minimum of two branded posts a month.

Experts say that influencers in the category with followers between 50,000 and 60,000 get Rs 1 lakh per post, followed by those with half a million follower count who charge about Rs 2 lakh a post. Influencers that have crossed the 1 million mark get Rs5 lakh and upwards for a single post.

The rate is more or less the same for Instagram and Youtube. Some popular faces however have their own pay scales.

In a chat with Storyboard18 in the past, Rachana Ranade whose YouTube channel has 3.39 million subscribers shared how she charged brands for content creation. She mentioned working on two popular formats which are integrated videos and dedicated videos. The charges for the same are Rs 6 lakh and Rs 12 lakh, respectively.

Ranade is not the only one. Sharan Hegde, Pranjal Kamra, Anushka Rathod, Neha Nagar and Shreyaa Kapoor are some of the popular names in the category.

The popularity of these influencers have made twenty-somethings financially sound, says Ayush Shukla, founder of talent management agency Finnet Media that also handles popular finance content creator Sharan Hegde. “They are teaching the younger lot how to make their money grow and financial education has gone beyond stock tips. Be it planning for a holiday or buying your first car, finfluencers have solutions to everything. This in turn is making them popular amongst brands who operate in the sector,” he said.

Stock broking platforms, BNPL (buy now pay later) brands, banks, NBFCs, wealth management companies and mutual fund apps are increasingly turning to these finfluencers for marketing their products and services. Brands like Motilal Oswal, Cleartax, ICICI Bank, Uni Cards, Navi Group, PolicyBazaar, Groww, CoinSwitch Kuber and many other brands are using finfluencers for top of funnel campaigns.

Mihir Surana, CEO and Partner at talent management agency NOFILTR Group says that the digital finance world is growing with the buzz around NFTs, crypto or even new tax saving regime and Gen Z's have quickly jumped on to it.

At one point, consumers read detailed articles with complex financial terms, today they are relying on financial influencers who break it down in a format that is understandable to the many.

“This trend started in the pandemic and this will move in the upward direction as many finance influencers look at this medium of making profits with their knowledge. This is also helping them attract many fintech brands to work with them to upsell their products and services. Financial Influencers have a very bright future ahead of them," says Surana.

He leaves us with an interesting thought: "I believe someday they will come up with their own financial product where managing money would be easier."