Social media serves many purposes – for some, it’s a way to connect with friends and family, while for others it’s an avenue of entertainment. Some even use it to stay on top of the happenings of the world. 

But for most content creators, social media is a great way to make money. But which platform pays content creators the most? Let’s explore with a little help from Epidemic Sound’s research. 

But first..

Which Social Media Platform Generates The Most Revenue?

To pay content creators, social media platforms first need to generate revenue. So, which platforms currently lead the way when it comes to generating revenue? 

According to research conducted by Business of Apps, a B2B media and information platform, Facebook is the platform making the most cash, having made nearly $20,170 M in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone! This was followed by Instagram, which generated $18,326 M during the same time period. In short, both of Meta’s most popular social media networks are raking in the most cash. 

YouTube came in third place, followed by LinkedIn and TikTok. Platforms like Snapchat and X (previously Twitter) were among the bottom few platforms with the least revenue. 

But do the platforms with the most revenue pay their content creators the most? Let’s find out!

Which Platform Pays Content Creators The Most?

Epidemic Sound, a global company that provides royalty-free soundtracks, conducted a survey with 1500 content creators who monetize their content on social media. When asked about which social media platform pays content creators the most, the results were pretty surprising! Hint: it’s not the platforms generating the most revenue. 

Surprisingly, TikTok, a platform that generated only 1/5th of Facebook’s revenue in the same time period, was actually found to be the platform that pays content creators the best! In fact, as many as 30% of all survey respondents echoed this. 

Despite being the new kid on the block compared to social media giants like Facebook and Instagram, TikTok has been consistently coming up with new opportunities for its influencers to monetize their content. The median salary for a TikTok influencer falls between the $15,000 to $25,000 range with 11% of content creators earning more than $100k!

Even in the TikTok vs. Instagram monetization debate, TikTok emerged as the winner. Among the content creators who made less than $100k, nearly 28.6% of them said that TikTok was their primary source of income, whereas Instagram was the main source of income for a mere 7.3% of influencers. 

Which Social Media App is Better for Earning a Full-Time Salary?

While it’s possible to monetize your content to some degree through all social media platforms, it’s often not enough to earn a full-time living through creating content alone. So, where are all the full-time content creators earning money from?

YouTube. That’s right. This video platform is where people are earning big bucks. According to the research conducted by Epidemic Sound, the majority of the content creators making more than $200k per year cited YouTube as their primary source of income. And Zip Recruiter’s research says that the average YouTuber actually earns around $68,000 per year, which is pretty decent. 

This makes sense, because unlike other platforms like TikTok and Instagram, where influencers are paid a certain amount per sponsored post, on YouTube content creators make money primarily through the ads shown before, after, and during their videos as well as channel subscriptions. So, the more views a video gets, the more money the creator can make. In other words: there’s no cap to the amount of cash a creator can earn from a single YouTube video. 

Which Platform is Best for Sponsored Posts?

In addition to channel subscriptions, affiliate marketing, and ad revenue, sponsored posts are one of the best ways for social media content creators to make money. Brands contact influencers and pay them a certain amount to create a post (or story) that naturally advertises their products or services. 

Here’s some insight into the average per-post earnings of influencers across different social media platforms:

• Nano influencers on Instagram make $115 per post while micro influencers make $208 
• Nano influencers on TikTok make $181 per video
• Nano influencers on X (formerly Twitter) make $85 per tweet, while micro influencers make around $125
• Nano influencers on Facebook make $170 per post, while micro influencers can make as much as $266

This shows that Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok are the best platforms for sponsored content. 

Which Social Media Platforms Pays The Most Per View?

Previously, only YouTube was used to post video content. Then came TikTok, and soon, all the other major social media platforms introduced videos. Despite other types of payment options cropping up (like sponsorships and subscriptions), video views and engagement are still one of the primary metrics used to pay content creators. 

Here’s a look at how much the major social media platforms pay influencers per 1000 views, according to research conducted by Epidemic Sound:

• TikTok’s payments to influencers come from the TikTok Creator Fund. Current estimates show that this platform pays between 2 to 4 cents per 1000 views, which is the lowest payout of any platform. 
• Since ads are the primary way of creating money on YouTube, an established creator who has monetized their channel receives around $0.018 per ad view. This translates to $18 per 1000 ad views. [Note that an ad view isn’t the same as a video view.] Epidemic Sound estimates that this averages to around $3 to $5 for every 1000 video views. 
• Instagram doesn’t pay its creators per view. However, you do have the option of enabling ads on your videos. This allows you to earn more than half (55%) of all ad revenue. 
• Facebook’s payout per 1000 views range from $1 to $10, depending on several factors such as location, niche, audience size, and whether it’s the holiday season or not. 

This shows that YouTube is the best platform for getting paid per view, followed by Facebook. 

Final Verdict

Making money as a content creator on social media depends on a variety of factors- your audience size, niche, locality, the quality of your content, the type of content you’re posting, the age and preferences of your followers, and so on. For instance, a short-form video you posted on TikTok might not be received the same way on Facebook. 

Moreover, each platform has different monetization rules and ways of paying its creators. So, the question of which social media platform pays content creators the most doesn’t really have an answer. It all depends on the platform and the amount of influence you hold. 

The best advice is to focus on the platform(s) where you can post the type of content you enjoy creating the most. For example, if you like creating trending short-form videos, TikTok might be the place for you. But if you prefer long-form educational videos, youTube might be the better option. If you like creating static posts, then go for Instagram or Facebook. Work on expanding your reach and influence there, which is how you can start charging more for your content.