Nano vs Micro-Influencers in 2025: Which Should Your Brand Choose?

Choosing between nano vs micro-influencers is one of the biggest questions brands face in 2025. Both offer real engagement, strong communities, and affordable pricing. But they’re not the same.

One brings scale. The other brings intimacy. And depending on your goals, one may work better for your brand than the other.

So how do you decide?

Let’s break down the differences between nano vs micro-influencers, from pros and cons to ideal use cases—so you can make the right call. 

What is a Nano Influencer?

A nano influencer is someone who has less than 10,000 followers on social media. Their feeds tend to be a little less polished, and they are often highly engaged with their audience. They might not have a singular focus for their social media account (theme-wise, that is) and instead, simply share their day-to-day lives.

For example, take a look at nano influencer Carla Jian. She’s a mother of two, a yoga coach, and a health and wellness blogger. Through her social media, Jian shares her pregnancy journey, conversations about racism with her children, and even the process of moving her family across the country, creating a feed that feels intimate. Using her daily life as the backdrop, she’s featured brands like Vital Proteins and Lesser Evil Snacks on her Instagram stories.

Pros and Cons of Nano Influencers

PRO: Nano-influencers feel relatable. Their content is raw, real, and personal—more like a friend than a brand. That honesty builds trust. They’re also affordable, making them perfect for smaller budgets.

Most nano-influencers charge between $10 and $100 per Instagram post, depending on their niche and audience size. That’s a big win for brands that want to test influencer marketing without overspending.

CON: Their reach is limited. To get broader exposure, you’ll likely need to work with several nano influencers. That means more coordination—and more time. 

What is a Micro-Influencer?

A micro-influencer has a slightly larger following on social media, usually somewhere in the range of 10,000 and 100,000 followers.

Micro-influencers also tend to have their own niche, and most of the content on their social media accounts will stick to a specific area of interest. This in turn will make them a sort of expert or authority on that interest for their followers.

Karla Cristina is a great example of a micro-influencer leaning into her niche to promote brands and products. Cristina is a TikTok influencer with a little over 50,000 followers. Her TikTok account is all about offering fashion advice, and on her feed she shares fashion hacks, tips on how to style pieces in your wardrobe, and outfit ideas. Cristina has used her TikTok account to pair with fashion brands like La Fiorentina and Aiori.

Pros and Cons of Micro-Influencers

PRO: Micro-influencers usually stick to a niche. That makes them a trusted source in their space—whether it’s beauty, parenting, fitness, or finance. Their content also tends to be more polished and professional, which helps with brand perception.

You get a wider reach than with nano-influencers, while still keeping strong engagement.

CON: Some micro-influencers may have fake followers or low-quality engagement. Always check their audience quality before committing to a Collab. Afluencer’s profile insights can help with this. 

Nano vs Micro-Influencers: Quick Comparison

Not sure which to choose? Here’s a side-by-side look at nano vs micro-influencers across key categories:

Both types offer strong value—just in different ways. The best choice depends on your goals, budget, and timeline. 

Nano vs Micro-Influencers: How Do They Compare?

Other than follower count, nano and micro-influencers have other differences that you should consider when deciding which one is right for your business. Let’s take a closer look to see how these two types of influencers can impact your ecommerce brand.

Micro vs Nano-Influencers: Content Creation

Nano Influencer Content

Nano influencers tend to have more unpolished and raw content. This brings more authenticity to their accounts and allows their followers to feel more invested in their content. This makes brand collaborations with nano influencers feel more like user-generated content and followers can trust that nano influencers actually use the products they promote.

For example, @plainpretzel is a fashion nano influencer. She regularly posts outfits featuring different brands like Puma, Charles & Keith, and Peripera. But her posts aren’t polished or business oriented.

Just look at this post featuring her in a backless dress with the brand tagged. If you swipe to the next picture in the same post, it’s a photo of a grumpy cat she found on the street, which makes the content feel less promotional and more genuine, like she’s just posting for fun.

Her bio on Instagram is not very descriptive and full of tongue and cheek. Under occupation, she’s put down ‘Pet Cemetery’. It might seem bizarre, but this allows her followers to feel as though she won’t try to sell anything to them. Instead, she’s just sharing what she loves. And by doing so, she’s amassed over 3,000 very engaged followers.

However, sometimes raw unpolished content can be a drawback. Nano influencers can be inexperienced and therefore still learning how to caption and compose posts, as well as how to work with the algorithms of social media platforms.

Micro-Influencer Content

On the flip side, micro-influencers tend to have more professional and polished posts. They are usually more experienced and therefore know the ins and outs of how to be an effective influencer.

Micro-influencers also tend to focus on one or two niches or fields of interest on their social media accounts. This turns them into a source of information for their followers. Many times they use their platforms to bring awareness or share their expertise.

Take 2Dadswithbaggage. Jon Bailey is a micro-influencer that focuses on travel and being a parent as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. His profile is descriptive and professional looking, while still maintaining his personality and authenticity.

His posts are well composed, beautifully shot, and have fun and descriptive captions with all the necessary hashtags. He also always makes sure to mention the tourism board associated with the area he is posting about. Like in this one, he makes sure to mention @visitcarlsbad during his family’s visit to Carlsbad, CA while also including a fun fact about the Flower Fields attraction.

Bottom Line: Nano influencers will give you authenticity, but micro-influencers will give you more professionalism.

Nano vs Micro-influencers: Audience Engagement

Nano Influencers Engagement Rates

Smaller audiences can mean deeper connections. That’s why nano-influencers often outperform larger creators when it comes to engagement. On Instagram, they see average rates between 1.70% and 4.84%. By comparison, macro-influencers average just 1.06%. That extra attention makes a big difference, especially for trust-driven purchases.

Small brands looking to create loyal followings are more likely to find success by using nano influencers on Instagram. Just take a look at Sperry and its collaboration with Michaela Bushkin.

Most of Sperry’s posts averaged around 200 likes or less, and even though Bushkin only has 1,300 followers, her collaboration with Sperry garnered almost 900 likes.

Micro-Influencers Engagement Rates

Micro-influencers also hold their own, especially across multiple platforms. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, on Instagram, they average around 1.22% engagement—still above larger creators. But they really shine on YouTube. There, micro-influencers regularly see engagement rates above 3.5%, while nano creators tend to land between 2% and 2.7%. For video-focused campaigns, that extra boost can be worth the higher cost. 

For example, Targetstyle uses a vast array of micro-influencers to promote different products available at Target. One example: Geena Hunt promoted a variety of Ulta Beauty products at Target products in preparation for spring.

Nano vs Micro-Influencers Costs: What You Get for What You Pay

A big variable that will help you decide which tier influencer you want to use will be cost.

Nano-influencers are usually the more affordable option. Most charge between $10 and $100 per Instagram post, depending on their niche. Micro-influencers typically charge more—$100 to $500 per post, with rates rising based on platform, content type, and experience.

But price isn’t everything. What matters is return. A low-cost post that drives real action beats an expensive one that flops.

An important thing to keep in mind is that cost is only one aspect of the equation. How much an influencer charges needs to be leveraged with their ROI. According to Neal Shaffer, for every $1 in marketing that you invest in nano or micro-influencers, you can expect at least $6.50 back in sales. If you’re not finding this to be true, it may be time to re-evaluate your approach.

Nano vs Micro-Influencers: Scalability

With nano influencers, your brand has the opportunity to grow your marketing strategies with them. That means you’re more likely to create long-term relationships with these marketing partners.

Nano influencers also tend to care more about their partnerships. They’re usually not full-time influencers and have more time and energy to devote to a partnership. They are also more eager to experiment as well as to follow directions.

However, that also means your nano influencers may not have much experience working with brands. In other words, they may not know the legal aspects of what they can and cannot post, and they may not understand their contracts, the process of negotiations, or even simple administrative things like how and when they’ll be paid. Translation: you may have to walk them through all of these steps.

Example:

A good example of a nano influencer relationship growing with a brand is Burpee Dad and Reebok. In October of 2022, Craig Peters attempted to break the record for most burpees done in 24 hours. He did it to raise awareness and earn money for families who have children experiencing twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), something his twin boys had.

When Reebok found out about this, they pledged to provide Peters with gear for his training and for the day of his record-breaking attempt. Since then, they’ve continued their relationship with Peters and have used his obsession with the Guinness World Record to promote their products.

They’ve invited Peters to compete in Guinness World Record attempts internationally, and used him to help launch a new shoe, the Reebok Nano 7. Craig is also now a part of Reebok’s #bemorehuman campaign.

You can also have long-term marketing relationships with micro-influencers. Micro-influencers are partners who know exactly who their audiences are, what their brand is, and how best to communicate that to their audiences. This may make them a little less flexible, but with their help, brands can even find new niches and target audiences.

Bottom Line: Your brand can grow with nano influencers, but you may have to hold their hand during the process.

Nano vs Micro-Influencers: When to Choose Each 

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Choosing between nano vs micro-influencers depends on your goals, timeline, and budget.

Go with nano-influencers if you want to:

• Build trust through authentic content
  
• Promote user-generated content
  
• Test influencer marketing without spending much
  
• Reach tight-knit, highly engaged communities
  

They’re great for early-stage brands, local promotions, or campaigns that rely on word-of-mouth.

Choose micro-influencers when you need to:

• Reach a niche audience at scale
  
• Launch a new product or collection
  
• Run a multi-platform campaign
  
• Work with creators who already know how to deliver for brands
  

They’re ideal for growing visibility while still keeping engagement strong.

Still unsure? Many brands use both to get the best of both worlds—trust and reach. 

Our Influencer Campaign Management tips can help you map out your next move.

Where Can You Find Nano and Micro-Influencers?

Now that you know the differences when it comes to nano vs micro-influencers, it’s time to find those influencers. Below are a couple of methods to get you started as you search.

Your Followers

The first place to look would be in the group of followers of your brand’s social media pages. Your followers are already customers and fans, so why not take advantage of their love for your products? You can reshare UGC and even offer incentives like free shipping or coupons for the buyers’ next purchases if they mention your brand in their posts.

The only drawback of this method is you’ll have to research these influencers on your own. You’ll have to vet them and make sure they’re right for your brand’s image.

Find the Right Influencer with Afluencer

Once you’ve weighed nano vs micro-influencers, the next step is finding the right fit. That’s where Afluencer makes things easy.

We’ve got tens of thousands of verified creators across several platforms, niches, and audience sizes. You can filter by follower count, interests, platform, location, and pricing. You’ll also see each influencer’s engagement rate, response time, and Collab history up front.

Not sure where to start? Our AI + human Concierge service can help. Just tell us what you’re looking for, and we’ll send handpicked recommendations based on your campaign goals.

No more cold DMs. No more guessing who’s worth the invite.

You can:

• Set up campaigns in minutes
  
• Invite influencers directly from their profiles
  
• Manage applications and chats in one dashboard
  
• Run gifted or paid Collabs—your choice
  

You can even start on the free plan and test small campaigns with nano-influencers to build confidence. Want to scale? Layer in micro creators to boost reach. Plus, our affordable premium plans unlock even more features—like bulk invites and so much more.

With Afluencer, influencer marketing is no longer a mystery. It’s a process with tools and support that actually work.

Examples of Nano and Micro-Influencers on Afluencer

Raya York

Raya York is a nano influencer with a little over 3,000 followers on Instagram. Her focus is helping people afford and enjoy a vegan lifestyle.

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Lina Mayorga

Micro-influencer, Lina is a vegan fashion designer and advocate. She uses her TikTok platform to raise awareness about sustainable and cruelty-free fashion and beauty products and practices.

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Jorden J.

Jorden is a health and wellness blogger. She also has a YouTube channel that focuses on helping others take care of their mental health and general well-being. Some titles of the videos are “Self Reflection: Being Honest with Yourself & Others” and “Ways to Self-Care”.

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Laci Aboud

Laci is a fitness buff and bodybuilder. She’s also a two-time participant in Ironman and Ms. Mexico Physique 2022. With almost 70,000 followers, Aboud uses her Instagram platform to share her workouts and inspirations as well as cute pics of her pups.

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Ruth Rieckehoff

Ruth is a nano influencer on Instagram with over 3,500 followers. She’s based in Southern California and uses her social media presence to explore not just new places, but new cuisine in those places.

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Francislaine Santos

Francislaine is a travel enthusiast who goes around the world with her husband, Bruno. Their travels take them to exotic and far-flung places, both in luxury and on a budget, taking her 15,400 Instagram followers with her.

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Ready to Choose Between Nano vs Micro-Influencers?

Whether you’re after reach, authenticity, or both—there’s an influencer out there who fits your brand.

Use Afluencer to find them faster. Browse, filter, invite, and start collaborating—all in one place. 

Start your search today and connect with influencers who drive real results.