The Top Earning Celebrities on Instagram in 2020

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If you follow basically any celebrity on Instagram in 2020 you’ll be familiar with them using their platform to promote products that they’re associated with. Many of the top celebrities these days like Dwayne Johnson and Kylie Jenner use it as a way of promoting their own business ventures, but for the vast majority of famous public figures, the “#ad phenomenon” is still running wild. And with the amount that they are estimated to be making in a year for doing so, it’s easy to see why.

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There’s plenty of data out there about how much celebrities COULD be earning on Instagram. But how much are they actually earning? We wanted to know which celebrities were actually cashing in the most on Instagram throughout 2020 to find out how just profitable of a platform Instagram can be for celebrities. And it turns out the answer is - extremely profitable!

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In order to produce these estimated earnings, we tracked Instagram posts of nearly a thousand celebrities throughout the year and made note of how many posts they partnered with brands on. Any brands that they themselves, or family members, owned were ignored, as were any #gifted posts not also listed as ads. Then we adjusted each person’s estimated Earnings per Post every 4 months to account for adjusted earning rates rather than assuming everyone earned at the same rate they would for a post today.

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These Celebrities Cashed In HUGE on Instagram in 2020

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How much does Cristiano Ronaldo make on Instagram?

According to our findings, Ronaldo’s 38 sponsored posts throughout the year are estimated to have earned him just shy of £18m ($24.4m) in 2020. Not bad if you can find a way to get it.

Now that he has surpassed 250 million followers, it’s likely that Ronaldo would be able to charge brands nearly £500k (around $666k) for a sponsored post. And given that he acquired over 50 million new followers in the last 12 months, that number will continue to rise.

Which Celebrities are making millions on Instagram?

Ronaldo may be by far the highest earner on Instagram, but he isn’t the only one who has found a way to monetise their massive followings on the platform. Kevin Hart, Ellen DeGeneres and Lionel Messi are all predicted to have cracked the £10m mark in earnings.

From our research, 38 celebrities surpassed the million pound mark in earnings. Some such as Beyonce and Ariana Grande didn’t need to do much promotion to hit that mark, others such as Christina Milian and even Reality TV stars, Olivia Bowen and Vicky Pattison have to work a bit harder for it with ads multiple times a week. Interestingly, of the top 20 earners from our study, the split between males and females was exactly even.

The Highest Earning Athletes on Instagram in 2020

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Due to their global fame, athletes are often highly sought after by brands to partner with on sponsorship deals. So we wanted to break our list down further to discover which sportsmen and women were using Insta ads to top up their earnings.

Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo and Messi top the chart with an estimated £17.9m ($24.4m) and £10.4m ($14.2m) made from their paid partnership posts respectively.

Next up is Indian Batsman, Virat Kohli, whose follower count has nearly doubled in the last 12 months, now sitting at over 87 million. Throughout 2020, he earned an estimated £7.5m ($10.2m) from paid ads on Instagram.

The list of top earners is predominantly made up of Footballers, with 8 of the top 10, and 21 of the top 30 being current or ex players. Other sports represented are Cricket by Virat Kohli and his Indian teammates Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, Basketball by Shaq and D Wade, F1 by Lewis Hamilton, Boxing by Anthony Joshua, MMA by Conor McGregor and Jon Jones, and finally Tennis by the only female athlete in the top 30 earners, Serena Williams.

It’s not just athletes in the prime of their careers that are finding ways to cash in on Instagram. Becks, Shaq and Ronaldinho have all been long retired, but that hasn’t stopped them from likely earning millions from sponsored posts throughout 2020.

The Most Profitable Reality TV Stars on Instagram in 2020

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When you think of Instagram ads, the list of things that come to mind likely isn’t that long before you get to celebrities that found fame through Reality TV (possibly just after you thought of retargeting ads on Instagram). Instagram has become a massive platform for them to extend the longevity of their stardom, long after their run on the shows that shot them into the limelight come to an end. These are the British Reality TV stars that are making an eye watering amount as Instagram influencers.

Topping the list is Love Island’s Olivia Bowen. She may not have won the second season of Love Island but she’s definitely winning on Instagram with her earnings for 2020 adding up to nearly £1.4m from clocking up almost daily ads. Olivia’s husband Alex is also one of the most frequent promoters with £600k in earnings thanks to his 1.6 million followers, meaning as a couple they weren’t far off £2m earned from Instagram posts as a couple.

Also estimated to have cracked the million mark is Geordie Shore star Vicky Pattison, who is followed by Molly Mae Hague, Chloe Ferry & Charlotte Crosby as the top earning Reality TV stars on Instagram. And while Jacqueline Jossa may had achieved celebrity status before appearing on “I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!”, there’s no doubt that her fame has sky rocketed since becoming Queen of the Jungle in 2019, much like her status as a notorious Instagram influencer has also done, helping her make an estimated £887k in 2020.

And it’s not just British Reality TV celebrities that know how to monetise their Instagram following. While most of the Kardashian-Jenner clan are now almost exclusively promoting their own brands, Kendall is still using sponsored posts to rack up an estimated extra $5.5m. Khloe Kardashian is also estimated to have made over $2.2m from just 7 sponsored posts throughout the year. Also amongst the Instagram elite earners are JWOWW ($1.63m), Toya Johnson ($1.56m), Malika Haqq ($822k) and Snooki ($607k).

The Top 100 Highest Earning Celebrities on Instagram in 2020

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RANKNAMESPONSORED POSTSEARNINGS (£)EARNINGS ($)1Cristiano Ronaldo38£17,924,538$24,377,3722Kevin Hart70£13,462,091$18,308,4433Ellen DeGeneres60£11,347,732$15,432,9164Lionel Messi33£10,427,321$14,181,1575Virat Kohli53£7,489,103$10,185,1806Neymar21£6,046,337$8,223,0187Jennifer Lopez19£4,954,353$6,737,9208David Beckham34£4,443,321$6,042,9179Kendall Jenner16£4,048,969$5,506,59810Mark Wahlberg105£3,337,333$4,538,77311Beyonce10£3,168,881$4,309,67812Shaquille O'Neal81£2,867,178$3,899,36313Bruna Marquezine30£2,431,596$3,306,97114Ariana Grande5£2,006,431$2,728,74615Zlatan Ibrahimovic22£2,000,108$2,720,14616Megan Thee Stallion63£1,811,392$2,463,49317Wiz Khalifa28£1,785,247$2,427,93618Khloe Kardashian7£1,654,251$2,249,78219Priyanka Chopra15£1,586,624$2,157,80920Christina Milian115£1,502,500$2,043,40021Antoine Griezmann22£1,401,063$1,905,44522Becky G27£1,378,373$1,874,58723Olivia Bowen274£1,375,162$1,870,22024DJ Khaled28£1,285,924$1,748,85625Paul Pogba15£1,277,866$1,737,89826Paulo Dybala15£1,200,305$1,632,41527JWOWW79£1,196,964$1,627,87128Vicky Pattison124£1,183,991$1,610,22829Ronaldinho11£1,173,191$1,595,53930Chris Hemsworth13£1,170,030$1,591,24031Rosie Huntington-Whiteley50£1,168,655$1,589,37132Toya Johnson70£1,147,248$1,560,25833Shay Mitchell19£1,108,361$1,507,37234Selena Gomez3£1,088,433$1,480,26935Lady Gaga12£1,077,008$1,464,73136Conor McGregor14£1,040,859$1,415,56837Millie Bobby Brown14£1,037,005$1,410,32738Anthony Joshua43£1,006,161$1,368,37939Rita Ora29£968,377$1,316,99340Arianny Celeste139£942,298$1,281,52541Robert Lewandowski25£929,344$1,263,90842Lucy Hale18£921,338$1,253,01943Drake6£887,599$1,207,13544Jacqueline Jossa151£886,931$1,206,22645Luis Suarez11£859,081$1,168,35046Diddy25£856,601$1,164,97747Dua Lipa9£845,412$1,149,76048Gal Gadot10£844,028$1,147,87949Molly Mae Hague92£839,611$1,141,87150Marcelo9£828,416$1,126,64651Rohit Sharma26£811,093$1,103,08652Hilary Duff25£804,361$1,093,93153Katy Perry4£791,672$1,076,67454Gabrielle Union23£768,102$1,044,61955Hardik Pandya27£761,169$1,035,19056Lewis Hamilton23£735,118$999,76057Cara Delevigne8£718,342$976,94558Kylian Mbappe8£695,020$945,22759Hailey Bieber12£679,567$924,21160Teyana Taylor29£647,428$880,50261Liam Payne16£646,468$879,19762Maluma6£645,287$877,59063Chloe Ferry90£642,814$874,22764Quavo18£637,585$867,11565Charlotte Crosby42£625,441$850,60066Chrissy Teigen10£620,797$844,28467Serena Williams24£617,029$839,16068Malika Haqq53£604,763$822,47869Alex Bowen176£599,495$815,31470Post Malone13£579,595$788,24971Madelaine Petsch14£568,012$772,49672Dwyane Wade16£560,275$761,97473Marnie Simpson71£555,689$755,73774Jon Jones52£549,814$747,74775Akshay Kumar6£545,550$741,94776Amber Rose13£544,204$740,11777Chantel Jeffries55£534,128$726,41478Demi Lovato3£521,503$709,24579Dani Alves8£512,753$697,34480Rick Ross21£485,177$659,84181Ivan Rakitic13£471,851$641,71782Maura Higgins77£467,086$635,23783Lana59£460,237$625,92284Francesca Farago47£454,093$617,56785Billie Faiers98£453,431$616,66686Snooki16£446,065$606,64887Emily Ratajkowski8£429,642$584,31388Kady McDermott153£420,197$571,46889Debby Ryan13£417,676$568,03990Holly Willoughby29£405,152$551,00691Raheem Sterling28£404,816$550,55092Harry Jowsey50£399,910$543,87793Kaka11£391,747$532,77694Bebe Rexha18£389,784$530,10695Scott Timlin67£388,712$528,64896Holly Hagan47£376,106$511,50497Ciara7£374,087$508,75898Gigi Hadid3£368,928$501,74299Lucie Rose Donlan106£360,555$490,354100Mandy Rose71£360,371$490,104

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Dataset & Methodology

The full dataset for the top 100 can be accessed here. You are free to use any of the infographics we use (that can be downloaded from here) as long as you give accreditation to this post as the source. Credits for images used in infographics go to the person’s Instagram posts.

We counted a sponsored post as anything displayed as a Paid Partnership, #ad or as part of an acknowledged brand partnership.
Sponsored posts for a celebrity’s own or family’s brand, posts promoting charity work, and posts listed as #gifted but not as an ad were not counted.
Earnings per Post were calculated using Influencer Marketing Hub’s Instagram Earnings Calculator and updated in May and September to adjust for increased followings/earnings.
All figures are obviously estimates rather than factual earnings data.

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