The Most Expensive Influence on Instagram

When Cristiano Ronaldo moved two bottles of Coca Cola out of shot during a pre-game press conference last year, before encouraging people to rather drink water, $4 billion was wiped off the soft drink giant's market value - perfectly demonstrating the massive power he and celebrities like him have over public opinion. The megastar footballer is of course not ignorant to the weight of his influence, and indeed profits from it in many ways, including sponsored posts to his over 400 million Instagram followers.

According to analysis by social media marketing platform Hopper HQ, Ronaldo earns the most of any other Instagram influencer per sponsored post, raking in an average of $2.40 million every time. Although that puts the Portuguese star well ahead of the pack, this is still far from a freak situation. As our infographic shows, many celebrities are able to pull in sums north of a million when selling their influence. Celebrity and heavyweight influencer Kylie Jenner can expect to earn $1.84 million for such posts, while another footballer, Lionel Messi, makes up the top three with an average fee of $1.78 million.