"What's your rate?" is easy to answer when a brand wants one video. It gets hard the moment the deal grows a second deliverable, a paid-ad flight, or a 90-day exclusivity clause — and that's most real deals. This is the umbrella framework for pricing any brand deal, not just a single piece of content, so the number you quote actually covers everything you're giving up.
If the deal is purely a UGC video, the full UGC pricing guide goes rate-by-rate on that one deliverable. This guide sits one level above it: how to build a price when a deal has moving parts.
Every brand deal is four inputs
Break any ask into four things, and price each one on its own:
- Deliverables — the content itself. How many pieces, on which formats, how much production and how many revisions.
- Usage — what the brand does with it. Posting organically is one thing; running it as a paid ad, or from your handle, is another.
- Exclusivity — what you agree not to do. Locking out competitors has a real cost to your future pipeline.
- Timeline — how fast they need it and how long the deal runs. Rush work and long campaigns both move the number.
Almost every underpriced deal comes from charging for the first input and giving away the other three. Get the brief before you quote — a vague "how much for a collab?" deserves "what are we making, and where does it run?" before a number.
Rough norms for the deliverable itself
These are ballpark ranges for the content, before any usage or exclusivity is layered on. Treat them as illustrative starting points — your niche, audience quality, and production level move them a lot:
- In-feed static or carousel post — the lightest lift; a modest base per post.
- Stories — usually priced per frame or as a small set, since they expire.
- Reels / TikTok / short-form video — more production, higher base; this is where most creators anchor.
- Integration inside a longer video or podcast — a dedicated segment in a YouTube video or episode is priced well above a short-form post, because it lives inside content people chose to watch.
Don't price off follower count alone. A tightly-niched creator with an engaged 5k audience routinely out-earns a broad 80k account, because the brand is buying attention it can't easily buy elsewhere. Run your specific deliverables through the UGC Rate Calculator to sanity-check the base.
Usage and whitelisting are separate lines
This is the single most common place creators leave money on the table. Your content rate buys the brand the right to post organically. Everything beyond that is a new line item:
- Paid-ad usage — the brand boosts your content as an ad from their account. Charge a usage fee for it, scaled to how long they can run it. See how to charge for usage rights.
- Whitelisting / Spark Ads — the brand runs paid ads from your handle. That rents your name and trust, so it's priced as a weekly fee tied to their ad spend, not a flat add-on. The whitelisting guide and the Whitelisting Rate Calculator size it for you.
Write the exact usage term — where, and for how long — before anything runs, so "can they keep boosting this?" is never a fight later.
Exclusivity and timeline
Exclusivity is priced on two axes: how broad the lockout is and how long it lasts. Being unable to post one named competitor for 30 days is minor. Being unable to work with anyone in your entire category for six months is a large add-on, because it directly shrinks your pipeline. Bill for the deals you're turning down.
Timeline cuts both ways. A rush turnaround is a premium, not a favor. And a longer commitment — an always-on campaign or a multi-month deal — is where you either earn a volume rate or a per-piece discount in exchange for guaranteed work.
Package or itemize?
Both are correct, at different moments:
- Itemize when the ask is a one-off, or the brand is still shaping scope. A line-item quote makes every right visible and stops you handing away usage or exclusivity for free.
- Package once the deliverables are settled and you're bundling several pieces. A single clean number is easier to approve — just make sure the package names the usage and exclusivity it includes, so a bundle doesn't quietly become "unlimited everything."
Keep both a rate card and a package tier ready, and you can answer either way in one message.
Bundles, ambassadorships, retainers, and IRL
The framework scales up cleanly:
- Ambassadorships and retainers — recurring content plus ongoing exclusivity. Price the monthly deliverables, then add for the exclusivity the retainer locks in, and quote it as a monthly rate.
- IRL appearances and events — an in-person day rate plus travel, plus separate usage if they film you. Manage these as their own deal type with in-person bookings.
Bundles hide free rights. The bigger the package, the easier it is to bury paid-ad usage or a long exclusivity inside a round number. Itemize it privately first, then present the bundle — so you know exactly what you're charging for even when the brand sees one price.
Lock the number on Plug Pro
Once you've built the price, agree it and lock it so it can't drift. On Plug Pro you set terms, deliverables, usage, and exclusivity on one board, both sides accept, and it's fixed. The brand pays you directly through your own Stripe, PayPal, or Venmo — Plug never sits in the payment path — and every licensed piece ships with a verifiable certificate spelling out exactly what the brand can do with it. Flat monthly subscription, zero per-deal fee, so the number you quote is the number you keep. No escrow, no payout hold.
Start your free Plug Pro trial — 7 days, no card, and you keep 100% of every deal you price.