Pricing a brand deal when you have no idea what to charge

The first brand email is a strange moment. Someone wants to pay you and you have no idea whether the number they said is generous or insulting.

Most advice at that point is a formula based on followers. It is the wrong input, and it is popular because it is the only number that is public.

Why followers price badly

Two accounts with fifty thousand followers can be worth wildly different amounts. One has an audience that bought something because it was mentioned. The other has an audience that arrived through a video that went wide and has no particular relationship with the person who made it.

Brands who have run campaigns before know this. They are pricing your audience, not your number.

What to price from instead

What the deal asks of you, and what it stops you doing.

Deliverables are the obvious half. A single story is not a dedicated video. A dedicated video with three rounds of approvals is not the same job as one you post as you like it.

The part creators forget is usage and exclusivity. If they can run your face as a paid advert for a year, that is a media buy and it is worth far more than the post. If you cannot work with a competitor for six months, you are selling six months of other income, and you should know roughly what that is worth before you agree.

Exclusivity clauses get dropped into contracts as a formality and they are frequently the most expensive line in the deal.

A practical way to get to a number

Work out your production cost first, honestly. Hours, at a rate you would accept for any other work, plus anything you have to buy. That is your floor. Never quote it, but never go under it either.

Then add for usage, for exclusivity, and for how much of your judgment you are handing over. A brand that wants approval on your script is buying more than one that trusts you, and the price should say so.

One habit worth starting immediately

Log every offer, including the ones you turn down, with what was asked and what was offered. After eight or ten you can see your own market, and you stop negotiating from feeling.

It also shows you which brands come back and at what number, which is the closest thing to leverage a solo creator gets.