How to price a brand deal

Start with a base rate for the content itself

Your base rate pays for making and posting the content: the idea, the filming, the editing, and the post to your audience. Set one base rate per format before any brand knocks. One Reel, one TikTok, one set of Stories, one photo post. Write these down as your rate card. When an offer arrives, you are no longer inventing a number under pressure. You are reading one off your own list, and you can share the list with the brand.

Add usage rights, every time

Usage rights mean the brand can reuse your content: on their page, their website, or in their ads. That is separate value from the post itself, and brands often ask for it in the same breath as the content, as if it were free. It is not. Price it per time period, for example 30, 90, or 180 days, and say the period out loud in your reply. If a brand wants usage forever, that costs the most, and most creators should not sell forever.

Charge for exclusivity

Exclusivity means you cannot work with the brand's competitors for a set time. That time has a price, because it closes doors. If a skincare brand wants 60 days with no rival skincare posts, add a fee for those 60 days. The longer and wider the block, the higher the fee.

Price the bundle on purpose

Brands love bundles: a Reel plus Stories plus a link in bio. Bundling is fine, and a small discount for a bigger package is normal. The mistake is stacking discounts without noticing: a bundle discount, a friendly discount, and free usage, all in one reply. Decide your bundle price on your rate card, as one number. Then the discount is chosen by you, once, on purpose.

Whitelisting is its own line

Whitelisting means the brand runs ads through your account, so the ad looks like your post. It uses your name and your audience's trust, and the ads can run long after your post is buried. Price whitelisting separately from ordinary usage rights, usually per month the ads run. Never let it ride along inside a usage fee that was priced for a brand's own page.

A worked example

Meet Priya, a skincare creator. A brand offers her $800 for 1 Reel and 3 Stories, and mentions they would love to run the Reel in their ads for 90 days. Here is her rate card math:

The $800 offer quietly gave away the bundle discount and charged nothing for 90 days of ads. At $1,450, nothing is hidden: the brand sees each piece, and Priya is paid for each piece. She can still choose to negotiate. The point is the choice is hers, with the math in front of her.

Common mistakes

• Saying yes to the first number because it sounds big. Big compared to what? Check it against your rate card before you answer.
• Giving usage rights away inside the content price. If the brand can run your face in ads, that is a separate line with its own price and its own end date.
• Forgetting the payment date. Agree on when the invoice is due, not just the amount. Late payment is the top pain in brand deals: a 2025 creator survey reported 41% of creators named payment delays as the biggest problem in brand work. A polite reminder schedule, agreed up front, prevents most of it.
• Negotiating in DMs with no record. Move the final terms to email or one written summary before you film, so both sides can point at the same words later.