Q1 2026

South African Influencer Marketing Index

The Most Comprehensive Structured Benchmark of South Africa’s Creator Economy

Analysing:

20,000+ registered South African creators
64.65% structured demographic coverage
Multi-format pricing benchmarks
Engagement performance across tiers
Cost-per-engagement efficiency
Geographic and category distribution

All performance metrics calculated using a 35% trimmed mean methodology to ensure statistical stability and remove extreme outliers.

The South African Influencer Marketing Index will be released quarterly to track engagement trends, pricing shifts, format performance, and structural changes within the national creator economy.

Key Findings

84.46% of active creators are female
57.01% are aged between 18 and 24
45.38% of creators are based in Gauteng
Nano creators deliver engagement rates of 3%, while Micro creators reach 4%
Cost per engagement drops dramatically at scale, from R7.01 (Nano) to R0.16 (Mega)

Entertainment creators deliver the most cost-efficient engagements at about R1.52 CPE, while Wellness & Self-Care sits at the premium end around R2.21.

Our findings highlight a sharp efficiency curve in the market, with cost per engagement declining from R6.88 (Nano) to just R0.16 (Mega), demonstrating that large-scale creators deliver engagement at dramatically lower unit cost.

20,000+

Registered Creators

Largest structured creator dataset in South Africa.

45.4%

Creators based in Gauteng

Strong planning implication for geo targeting and creator supply

R0.16

Cost Per Engagement at Scale

Engagement costs drop significantly for mega creators.

84.46%

Female-Led Creator Market

South Africa’s influencer ecosystem is predominantly female.

South African Influencer Marketing Index

The Most Comprehensive Structured Benchmark of South Africa’s Creator Economy

Key Findings

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