Guide
Brand deal words, in plain English
Brand emails are written in a dialect. Collaboration, usage, whitelisting, net 30: every word sounds harmless, and several of them quietly decide how much you earn and when. Creators lose money because nobody translated the words first. Every term gets the same three parts: what the brand means, what it means for your money, and the watch-out where there is one.
Words that should make you pause
Short on time? These five carry the most money.
- Collaboration — Ask one question: is it paid, and what is the budget?
- In perpetuity — Forever is a price, not a detail.
- Barter and gifted — Products are not money; fine as a bonus, not a salary.
- Exclusivity with no end date — Blocked from rivals longer than the deal lasts.
- Net 60 and beyond — A two-month wait is a loan to the brand.
How the deal gets described
Collaboration (collab)
What the brand means: The umbrella word for working with a brand, paid or not.
For your money: It pays only what you pin down, so name the fee out loud.
Watch out: No budget named means no budget.
Barter
What the brand means: Their product or service offered as the whole payment, no cash.
For your money: Value it at what you would actually have paid, not the sticker price.
Watch out: Barter never pays rent; too much leaves you cash-poor.
Gifted
What the brand means: A free product: no contract, no deliverables, no duty to post.
For your money: Zero, by design. Any post is your favour, and a door into paid work.
Watch out: A brief and deadlines make a gift unpaid work.
Seeding
What the brand means: Product shipped to dozens of creators, counting on a fraction posting.
For your money: Nothing is promised, so any post is your choice, never a duty.
Watch out: A deadline makes it deliverables, and deliverables mean a fee.
Affiliate deal
What the brand means: A personal link or code; you earn a cut of each sale.
For your money: You carry the risk: no sales, no pay. Best on top of a fee.
Watch out: Ask percentage, click window, pay date.
Paid partnership
What the brand means: The label required on sponsored posts: 'Paid partnership with' the brand.
For your money: Free itself, but boost rights and your numbers travel with it; price them.
Watch out: An unlabelled paid post is your problem alone.
The work itself
Deliverables
What the brand means: The list of what you will make, and by when.
For your money: What you are selling. Extras later are new lines, new prices.
Watch out: Vague counts grow in the edit. Count in writing first.
Scope
What the brand means: The job's full shape: content, usage, timeline, revisions.
For your money: Your fence: inside is the fee, outside is a new price.
Watch out: Scope creep: extras until two deals pay as one.
Revision rounds
What the brand means: One full pass of the brand's feedback on your draft, answered once.
For your money: Unlimited revisions turn a day into a week. Two included, then fees, is normal.
Watch out: Dripped comments are not a round. Define it.
UGC
What the brand means: Short for user-generated content: you film it, the brand publishes it.
For your money: No audience included: price production, usually under your posting rate, plus usage.
Watch out: Posting added later: two products, one price. A separate line.
Who can use your content, and how
Usage rights
What the brand means: Licensing your content, like a song, for a set period.
For your money: Its own priced line; longer costs more, as a percentage of the content.
Watch out: 'Just for our socials' ends up in ads. Unwritten periods do not exist.
In perpetuity
What the brand means: The longest usage term there is: no end date, ever.
For your money: Price it like forever: the calculator charges three times the content price.
Watch out: Cannot be taken back. Offer 12 or 24 months instead.
Whitelisting (and Spark ads)
What the brand means: Your post becomes their ad, beyond your followers. TikTok calls it a Spark ad.
For your money: It prices above usage alone: your name persuades. The calculator multiplies it by 1.25.
Watch out: Ask where ads run, how long, who answers comments.
Boosting
What the brand means: The platform promotes your post beyond your followers, paid by the brand.
For your money: It rides on your content and usage; price it inside the usage line.
Watch out: Briefs mix them up. Ask which; control differs.
Exclusivity
What the brand means: For a set period and category, rivals are off limits.
For your money: Refused rival deals are lost income; it adds a percentage to the deal.
Watch out: Category and end date in writing, or they stretch.
Money and timing
Net 15, net 30, net 60
What the brand means: Payment counted from invoice day: net 15, two weeks; net 60, two months.
For your money: The wait is real money. Chosen terms beat default ones.
Watch out: Net 90: walk away. The clock starts at the invoice.
Late fee
What the brand means: An agreed line, say 5%, added when payment misses the due date.
For your money: Mostly deterrence: brands pay the invoices that cost more to ignore.
Watch out: Enforceability varies: a nudge with teeth, not a guarantee.
Kill fee
What the brand means: When a campaign is cancelled, it pays for work already done.
For your money: Without one, cancellation pays zero. Half after filming is a common ask.
Watch out: Written before work starts, or it does not exist.
Rate card
What the brand means: One page: your formats, your prices, your terms.
For your money: Turns a guess into defensible lines. The calculator builds one free.
Watch out: A starting position, not a promise. You can choose less, on purpose.
CPM
What the brand means: Cost per mille, per thousand: price divided by views in thousands.
For your money: A sanity check, not a price. Small loyal audiences can be worth more.
Watch out: Next to giant accounts yours looks high. Trust is the point.
Put the words to work
You have the words. How to price a brand deal shows them in a full worked example. What should you charge? turns them into your own numbers. When payment slips, When a brand does not pay walks the polite chase.
Questions, answered plainly
A brand asked for a 'collaboration.' Does that mean it is paid?
Not necessarily. Collaboration is the umbrella word for any work together, paid or not, and brands use it for both. Ask one question before anything else: 'Is this a paid collaboration, and what is the budget?' A real budget gets named quickly. Silence, or the word 'exposure', is also an answer.
What is the difference between a gifted deal and a paid one?
A gifted deal is product only: the brand sends something free, and nobody owes anybody a post. A paid deal has a fee, agreed deliverables, and usually usage terms. The moment a gift arrives with a brief, deadlines, and required talking points, it has become a paid deal's work and should be priced like one.
A brand wants usage in perpetuity. What should I do?
Treat it as what it is: forever. Either price it like forever (the calculator charges three times the content price for perpetual usage) or offer a long fixed period instead, such as 12 or 24 months, renewable at a new price. Forever given away free inside a normal fee is the most expensive sentence in brand deals.
What does net 30 actually mean for my bank account?
You are paid 30 days after the brand receives your invoice, when everything goes well. The clock starts at the invoice, so send it the day you deliver. Agree the terms before the work, too: net 14 that you chose beats net 60 you discovered afterwards. When the date still slips, the chasing guide walks the ladder.
Where can I see what all of this should add up to?
The free calculator, 'What should you charge?', prices deliverables, usage, exclusivity, and whitelisting line by line with your own numbers, and prints every assumption it uses. Start there, then set your rate card from the result.
These words, handled the plain way
BravoDM runs on the same rule as this page: plain words, numbers shown, nothing sent without your approval. The deal desk keeps your prices, your terms, and your payment dates in one place, in language you would use yourself. Join the waitlist and we will reach out as spots open.
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