How to Price a Brand Deal: Deliverables, Usage Rights and Exclusivity

To price a brand deal, start with a creation fee based on your average views, then add a separate price for each right the brand wants beyond the post: usage rights, whitelisting, exclusivity, extra platforms and rush timing. Give every right a time limit, and write the payment terms into the same quote.

Most first offers arrive as 1 number with all of that folded in. This guide splits the number into lines, shows the published ranges that held up when we checked them at the source, and turns them into a price you can explain to a brand.

What goes into the price of a brand deal?

A brand deal's price is the creation fee plus every right the brand buys on top of it. Each right needs its scope, window and price spelled out, and a clear quote shows all 3.

The creation fee pays for the content and its place on your feed. Usage rights let the brand use that content on its own channels or in its ads, whitelisting puts ads behind your handle, and exclusivity keeps you away from competitors for a set time.

Extras cover anything past the agreed scope, like raw footage or another round of edits. Payment terms decide when the money arrives, and they belong on the same page as the price.

Here's a quote sheet you can fill in for any deal:

The terms in a brand's brief

Briefs and contracts use these terms loosely, so pin each one down before you price it:

• Usage rights: the brand's license to use your content outside your own post, for set channels and a set time.
• Paid usage: usage in ads, usually run from the brand's own account.
• Whitelisting: ads that run from your handle, so they appear under your name.
• Spark Ads: TikTok's ad format that runs organic TikTok posts as ads, authorized with a code the creator generates.
• Partnership ads: Meta's ads that show the brand's account and the creator's together, which Meta used to call branded content ads.
• Exclusivity: your promise to stay away from competitors for a set time.
• Perpetuity: usage with no end date.
• Kill fee: what the brand pays if it cancels after the work has started.
• Net 30: payment due 30 days after the invoice or delivery date.

How do you set your base rate?

Multiply your average views by a CPM range for your platform and format, then compare the result with what the content costs you to make. Quote whichever number is higher.

Average views times CPM

CPM is the price per 1,000 views. Karat's pricing guide carries no date (we checked it in November 2026), and it says to average your last 10 to 15 posts and leave your best performers out of the math.

These are the CPM ranges it lists for each format:

Say your Reels average 40,000 views. Karat's Reel range puts 1 Reel at $600 to $1,400, which is 40 times $15 at the low end and 40 times $35 at the top.

Engagement, niche and audience location decide where you sit inside that range. Karat treats 2% to 3% engagement as average and 5% or higher as strong, and it says finance, software, B2B and real estate audiences command higher CPMs.

The per-follower floor

mysocial.io's guide (updated February 2026) uses $100 per 10,000 followers for 1 piece of content as its baseline. It calls that number a floor and says to adjust upward for high engagement, premium niches and video.

Use it as a quick check on a small account. Followers say less about a post's reach than views do, so build the actual quote on views.

Your cost floor

List what the deal costs you to make: concept, scripting, filming, editing, revisions, props, travel and any paid help. Add the slot it takes in your posting calendar too, because a sponsored post replaces something you'd have made for your audience.

If the CPM math comes in under that total, quote the cost floor.

How much should you add for usage rights, whitelisting and exclusivity?

Add each right as a percentage of your creation fee for a fixed window, and raise it as the window, the channels or the scope grows. Published ranges disagree, so pick 1 method and use it the same way on every deal.

Each figure below is that source's own rule of thumb, and none of the guides publish a sample size behind it.

Usage rights

Usage rights cover how the brand uses your content once it's live. impact.com's guide says most creators add 20% to 50% of their base rate for usage, and it suggests brands include 1 month of usage in their contracts.

Longer windows and paid use cost more. mysocial.io puts paid usage at 50% to 100% of base and content in perpetuity at 2x to 3x base. Our guide to pricing usage rights breaks the math down by channel and window.

Whitelisting, Spark Ads and Partnership Ads

These put ads behind your handle, so each ad reads as your endorsement. Price the access by window, and settle whether the brand can create new ads in your name.

On TikTok, the creator picks a Spark Ads authorization of 7, 30, 60 or 365 days, according to TikTok's Ads Help Center (updated October 2025). Instagram's Help Center lists no expiry for partnership ad permissions and says creators can revoke them at any time, so the end date has to come from your contract.

Fee methods and an access checklist are in our whitelisting and Spark Ads guide.

Exclusivity

Exclusivity pays you for the deals you'll turn down while it runs. Price it from the category income it blocks, then check that number against published premiums.

Creator by Toptal lists 20% to 35% of the base fee for 30 days of exclusivity and 100% to 150% for 12 months. Creators Agency puts a narrow named-competitor lockout at 10% to 25%, and says a broad finance-category lockout can justify 50% to 100% or more when it blocks paying sponsors.

Athletes should check team, league and sponsor contracts before quoting any of it. The method, red flags and clause rewrites are in our guide to pricing exclusivity clauses.

A worked example

Here's the arithmetic on a made-up deal. A skincare brand wants 1 Reel from a creator with 50,000 followers whose Reels average 40,000 views, plus 60 days of paid usage and 30 days of skincare exclusivity.

The spread is wide because the sources are rules of thumb. Pick where you sit inside each range, write down why, and quote the same way next time so your pricing holds together across brands.

What should the quote say about deliverables and payment?

List every deliverable with its format, platform and posting date, and set when and how you'll get paid. Both are easier to settle in the quote than after the content is live.

Deliverables

Name the number of posts, their format and length, the platforms, the posting dates and the rounds of revisions included. Define a revision as changes to the edit, and price a reshoot or a new concept as new work.

Raw footage, extra cut-downs and Story frames are separate assets, so give each one a price. Add a rush fee when the brand wants delivery faster than your normal turnaround.

Payment terms

Payment terms decide when the money lands. Digiday reported in February 2024 that creators are usually paid 30 to 90 days after the work is done, and that 56% of creators surveyed by the finance platform Tipalti said they'd faced late payments.

Write these terms into the quote:

• A deposit on signing, such as 50% of the creation fee.
• A payment date counted from delivery or posting, such as net 30.
• A kill fee if the brand cancels after you've started, tied to the stage of work.
• A late fee for payments past the due date.
• Who covers platform or processing fees.

If a brand needs 60 or 90 days to pay, price the wait in or ask for a larger deposit. Longer terms cost you money, and the quote should show it.

How do you answer a brand's first offer?

Answer with questions first, then a line-item quote. Ask for the budget, every right the brand wants and its payment terms, and price each piece on its own.

Data on first offers is thin. Net Influencer reported in October 2026 on the deal log of Ames Create, a studio that negotiates brand deals for creators: across 124 conversations from February 2024 to October 2026, brands' opening offers for a single sponsored video had a median of $433, and closed deals had a median of $1,250.

Those medians rest on 9 opening offers and 10 closed deals from 1 studio. Read them as a reason to counter and nothing more. Karat's guide offers a simpler test: if every brand says yes right away, you're undercharging.

Before you quote, ask the brand:

• What's the budget for this campaign?
• Where will the content run, and for how long?
• Will any ads run from my handle?
• What does exclusivity cover, and when does it end?
• When do you pay, and is there a deposit?

When the budget comes in low, trade scope before price. Cut a deliverable, shorten a usage window or narrow the exclusivity list, and keep your per-item rates intact.

Packages help here. mysocial.io's guide builds 3 options from a $2,000 stated budget, priced at $2,000, $5,000 and $15,000, so the brand chooses how much it wants to buy.

1DS Management represents 107 creators, athletes and entrepreneurs and has closed 2,000+ brand deals. Brand Partnerships and Legal & Business Affairs are 2 of our 10 services. If you'd like a management team behind your next deal, apply for representation.