How to price a brand deal as a creator

Most creators price their first brand deals the same way. They look at their follower count, ask a few peers and pick a number that feels safe. It is a reasonable start, but it often leaves money on the table and, more importantly, it leaves the important questions unasked.

A brand deal is a small commercial agreement. The brand buys something specific, for a specific period, under specific conditions. Once you know exactly what is being bought, the price stops being a guess and becomes something you can explain and defend.

Start from what the brand is buying

A brand is rarely paying for followers alone. It is buying the attention of a particular audience, content it can use, and sometimes the promise that you will not promote its competitors. Each of these has a value, and each should be reflected in the price.

Audience fit matters more than size. A smaller audience that matches the brand's customers is often worth more than a large, scattered one. The arguments that hold up in a negotiation are the ones you can show:

• who your audience is and which countries it lives in;
• how it engages with your content, not only how many people see it;
• what past partnerships produced, if you have tracked them;
• why your tone and format suit this product in particular.

If you cannot yet show these, start collecting them now. A simple record of each campaign, what was published and what happened afterwards, will do more for your next negotiation than any rule of thumb.

Usage rights and exclusivity change the price

Two terms change the value of a deal more than anything else.

Usage rights define what the brand can do with your content once it is published. Repost it on its own accounts, put advertising budget behind it, use it on its website, in a newsletter or in stores. For a few weeks or for years. In one country or everywhere.

Exclusivity defines which competitors you cannot work with, and for how long. A short exclusivity on a narrow product category costs you little. A long one covering a whole sector can close the door on several other partnerships.

Both have a cost for you, so both should be priced on their own rather than included for free. A post the brand can share on its page for a short period is not the same product as a video it can run in paid advertising for a year. A clear way to handle this is to quote a base fee for the content, then add separate lines for extended usage and for exclusivity. The brand sees what each option costs, and you avoid giving away the most valuable part of the deal by accident.

Agree on the deliverables, not just the fee

A clear brief prevents most disagreements. Before you accept, make sure these points are written down:

• the number and format of posts, stories or videos;
• the platforms and the publication dates;
• how many rounds of changes the brand can request;
• who approves the final version, and how quickly;
• what happens if the brand delays or cancels the campaign;
• when and how you get paid.

Payment terms deserve as much attention as the amount. An invoice paid upfront and one paid months after publication are not the same deal, especially when you are running a small business with its own costs. It is reasonable to ask for part of the fee before production starts, in particular on larger campaigns.

Keep the brief and the agreed terms in one place. When a brand comes back for a second campaign, you will know exactly what you agreed last time and can build on it, rather than negotiating from scratch.

Build a rate card, then adapt it

A rate card is a short document listing your formats and their base prices. It does not have to be public, and it does not lock you in. Its value is that it forces you to decide in advance what each format is worth, so you are not improvising under pressure when a brand writes to you.

Update it regularly, as your audience and your results change. Treat it as a starting point: each deal then moves up or down depending on usage rights, exclusivity, deadlines and the amount of work involved. If you work through a manager or an agency, agree with them on how the rate card is set and who has the final word on a discount.

When the deal gets bigger

As deals grow, so does what is at stake: long usage periods, several platforms, agencies in the middle and contracts drafted by the brand's own team. That is when a second pair of eyes pays for itself.

OMAZEO helps creators and agencies review the commercial side of a deal, build a rate card that reflects what they actually bring, and organise their partnerships as a business rather than a series of one-off favours. When a clause needs a lawyer's opinion, we bring one in. You can read more about how we work or tell us about your next deal.

Pricing well is less about finding the right number than about knowing what you are selling. Put the audience, the content, the rights and the timing on the table, price each of them, and write it down. The fee then becomes much easier to defend.

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