How much should a creator charge for a brand deal?

There's no fixed rate. A common rule of thumb is roughly $100 per 10,000 followers, but real rates vary enormously and are often lower at scale. Engagement, niche, deliverables, usage rights and exclusivity move the number far more than follower count. Treat any benchmark as a starting point, not a price.

What is whitelisting in a creator deal?

When the creator lets the brand run paid ads from the creator's own handle. It's different from just posting (organic) or the brand reusing the content elsewhere (usage rights). Whitelisting is more valuable to the brand, so it should cost more – many creators charge a separate fee for it.

Do creators have to disclose paid partnerships?

Yes. US FTC rules require a clear, conspicuous disclosure of any paid or material connection – 'ad,' 'sponsored,' or a paid-partnership label. It can't be buried in hashtags, hidden behind 'more,' or left only in the bio, and for videos it has to be in the video itself. It's the creator's legal responsibility.

Creator brand-partnership deals

A creator brand partnership pays a creator to promote a product to their audience. The fee depends far more on engagement, usage rights and exclusivity than on follower count – and US law requires clear disclosure of every paid post. Here's how the money and the rules actually work.

How rates are set (and why benchmarks lie)

You’ll see rules of thumb like ~$100 per 10,000 followers, and rough tiers – nano creators earning a few hundred per post, micro creators a few thousand, bigger creators well into five and six figures. Use these as a starting point only. Real rates scatter widely, and the formulas tend to overstate what mid-size and large creators actually get. What moves the number more than follower count is engagement and niche – a small, highly engaged audience in a valuable niche (beauty, finance) is worth more than a big passive one. Deals are usually a flat fee per deliverable, though some run on CPM (a rate per 1,000 impressions).

Usage rights and whitelisting

This is where creators leave money on the table. There are three different things, and they should be priced differently:

Organic posting – the creator publishes on their own channel. That’s it.
Usage rights – the brand gets to reuse the content elsewhere: their own ads, website, email, retail screens.
Whitelisting (or allowlisting) – the brand runs paid ads from the creator’s own handle, using the creator’s identity.

Each step up is worth more to the brand and should cost more. Usage rights commonly add anywhere from 20% to 50%-plus on top of the content fee, and they should be time-bound – a 30 to 90 day window is normal, with extra for longer. Never hand over unlimited, perpetual usage as part of a basic post fee.

Exclusivity

Same idea as artist brand deals: if the brand wants category exclusivity (no promoting competitors), it has real cost to the creator and should be paid for and time-limited. Keep the locked category narrow – product-level, not a whole industry – and the window short.

The FTC rules you can't skip

US law makes this the creator’s responsibility, not the brand’s. Any paid or material connection – including free product – has to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously: “ad,” “sponsored,” or a paid-partnership label. The FTC is specific about what doesn’t count:

Don’t bury it in a clump of hashtags or at the end of a long caption
Don’t hide it behind a “more” link
A single note in the bio is not enough
For a video, the disclosure has to be in the video, not just the description

It’s simple to do right and a real liability to get wrong, so make it part of every deal. (General guidance, not legal advice – the FTC’s own pages are the authority.)

The manager's job

Your commission – usually 15–20% – applies to brand income like any other earning. The value you add is in the terms: pin down the fee, the exact deliverables, the usage rights and how long they last, exclusivity kept narrow and paid for, and an approvals process that leaves ownership with the creator. Across a busy creator’s many deals, just keeping all of that straight is most of the job.

Common questions

How much should a creator charge for a brand deal?: There's no fixed rate. A common rule of thumb is roughly $100 per 10,000 followers, but real rates vary enormously and are often lower at scale. Engagement, niche, deliverables, usage rights and exclusivity move the number far more than follower count. Treat any benchmark as a starting point, not a price.
What is whitelisting in a creator deal?: When the creator lets the brand run paid ads from the creator's own handle. It's different from just posting (organic) or the brand reusing the content elsewhere (usage rights). Whitelisting is more valuable to the brand, so it should cost more – many creators charge a separate fee for it.
Do creators have to disclose paid partnerships?: Yes. US FTC rules require a clear, conspicuous disclosure of any paid or material connection – 'ad,' 'sponsored,' or a paid-partnership label. It can't be buried in hashtags, hidden behind 'more,' or left only in the bio, and for videos it has to be in the video itself. It's the creator's legal responsibility.