Short answer
Small creators get brand deals in two ways: posts to their own audience, which brands find on TikTok One or Meta's Creator Marketplace from 1,000 followers, and videos the brand posts itself (UGC), which need no followers at all. Pitch brands you already use with a short email and a media kit, send a rate card that prices the video, extra hooks and ad usage separately, and get the usage terms and payment date in writing.
What kinds of brand deals can small creators get?
| Deal | What the brand gets | Needs an audience? | How it's paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gifted product | Usually a post, sometimes nothing asked | Usually | Product only |
| Sponsored post | A post to your audience | Yes: it's what they buy | Flat fee per post |
| UGC video | The video and the right to use it on its own accounts and ads | No | Flat fee per video, plus usage |
| Spark Ads or whitelisting | Ads run from your account, under your name | No, but ads show your handle | Per 30 days, on top of the video |
| Affiliate | Sales from your link, your Amazon storefront or your TikTok Shop showcase | Yes: about 1,000 followers for TikTok Shop in the US (TikTok has changed this before) | Commission per sale |
For a small account the UGC row is the one that pays soonest, because nothing in it depends on your reach. A sponsored post on a 3,000-follower account and a UGC video can be the same 30 seconds of filming; the difference is who posts it and what you charge for. The UGC creator guide covers that route, and the map of paid creator work shows where both sit among the other ways creators are paid.
How many followers do you need for brand deals?
None to pitch brands directly or to make UGC. The platforms' own brand marketplaces set a floor. TikTok's is TikTok One now (the old Creator Marketplace name survives only as the button in TikTok Studio). As each platform's help page stated it on October 14, 2026:
| Marketplace | Followers | Other requirements |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok One | 1,000+ to take part in projects | 18 or older, in a country where it has launched, meet the Branded Content Policy |
| Meta Creator Marketplace | 1,000 minimum | 18 or older, a professional, public Instagram account, Meta's partner monetization policies |
| YouTube Creator Partnerships | None beyond the Partner Program's | 18 or older, in the YouTube Partner Program, no active Community Guidelines strikes |
On TikTok you join from TikTok Studio, and on YouTube you set your own rates for long videos and Shorts. These marketplaces let brands filter by audience, so below a few thousand followers, direct pitches and UGC usually bring in more work than waiting to be found. Independent marketplaces work much the same way: Aspire's creator marketplace, for one, lists campaigns paid in cash, commission or free product.
How do you get brand deals as a small creator?
- List 20 brands you already buy from
Brands you can talk about honestly, and already working with creators (tagged posts, "Paid partnership" labels). If those posts tag an agency, or the contact is an agency's address, pitch the agency instead.
- Make a one-page media kit
Followers per platform, average views, your audience's age and location from each app's analytics, three recent videos and how to reach you. The media kit builder lays it out.
- Find a real contact
A partnerships or marketing email on the brand's site or LinkedIn beats a DM to the brand account.
- Send a short pitch
Who you are, one video idea for their product, what you'd deliver, and a link to your work. Under 150 words. The pitch email template has versions for posts and UGC.
- Follow up once, after about a week
One line, with a new idea or a fresh sample. Then move on.
- Send your rate card when they ask
Prices per item, so they can build their own package.
- Meanwhile, take UGC briefs
UGC platforms post paid briefs that need no following; the UGC jobs guide compares ten. Each job is also a sample for your next pitch.
What should a small creator's rate card include?
Each thing a brand might buy, priced separately: the video, extra hooks, raw files, how long they may run it as an ad, ads from your own account, and rush delivery. Here is a rate card built with our UGC rate calculator's code for two stated tiers, using its default rates. The tiers are by experience and portfolio, not followers, because a video's price follows the work. Ad usage is a percentage of everything filmed, so in the bundle it's charged on the hooks too:
| Item | Beginner (under a year, a small portfolio) | Intermediate (a year or more, steady clients) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 edited video, 15 to 30 s, your files to the brand (organic use) | $175 ($100–$300) | $500 ($300–$800) |
| Extra hook (a re-shot opening), each | +$44 ($25–$75) | +$125 ($75–$200) |
| Raw clips with the edit | +$44 ($25–$75) | +$125 ($75–$200) |
| Brand runs it as an ad, 30 days | +$53 ($30–$90) | +$150 ($90–$240) |
| Brand runs it as an ad, 90 days | +$88 ($50–$150) | +$250 ($150–$400) |
| Spark Ads code or whitelisting, per 30 days | +$53 ($30–$90) | +$150 ($90–$240) |
| Category exclusivity, per month | +$35 ($20–$60) | +$100 ($60–$160) |
| Delivery in 48 hours | +$44 ($25–$75) | +$125 ($75–$200) |
| A third revision round (two included) | +$100 ($50–$200) | +$100 ($50–$200) |
| Bundle: 3 videos, 1 extra hook each, 30 days of ads (usage on videos and hooks) | $853 ($488–$1,463) | $2,438 ($1,463–$3,900) |
The usage lines are the ones small creators most often give away. The calculator's +50% for 90 days sits at the top of SideShift's published 25 to 50% for 30 to 90 days. Usage and Spark Ads stack: usage covers ads from the brand's account, Spark Ads or whitelisting cover ads run from yours, so a brand that wants both pays both lines.
What should you charge for a sponsored post on your own account?
The calculator above prices videos the brand uses, not posts to your audience. For posts, the best published data we found is InfluenceFlow's Q4 2026 rate report, built from creators' own rate cards on its marketplace (asking prices, not paid deals, and small samples): a median of $225 for a TikTok video from nano creators (40 rate cards), $122.50 for an Instagram Reel (28) and $70 for an Instagram post (25).
Our pick: price a post to your audience at your UGC video price plus a posting fee, not by follower count. The "$100 per 10,000 followers" rule that most guides repeat isn't sourced anywhere we could find, and it prices a small account's video below what the same video is worth as UGC. If a brand wants both the post and the right to run it as an ad, quote both lines.
A worked quote for a 3,000-follower TikTok account: the beginner video at $175, plus a posting fee for the reach. Next to InfluenceFlow's nano median of $225, a fee of about $50 lands you at the middle of what nano creators ask; raise it as your average views grow. Add the 30-day ad usage line if they'll boost it.
What do you say when a brand offers gifted only?
Decide before they ask. Gifted product is a fair trade for an unpaid post you'd make anyway, not for a video the brand will use in ads. A reply that keeps the door open: "Thanks, I'd love to try it. For gifted product, I can share an honest post on my account. If you'd like videos you can use in your own ads, my rate card is attached."
- Red flag: you pay first. A "brand ambassador" offer that needs you to buy product with a discount code is selling to you, not hiring you.
- Red flag: free product for unlimited usage. Ad rights in exchange for a gift is a bad trade: usage is the part of the deal brands pay most for.
- Red flag: moving to private chat or gift-card payment. Keep the deal in email or on the platform, in writing.
What should a brand deal contract cover?
- Deliverables: how many videos, length, format, hooks, and whether you post them.
- Usage: where the brand may use the video (organic, paid ads, your account through Spark Ads) and for how long, then what renewal costs.
- Exclusivity: which competitors you can't work with, and for how long. Charge for it per month.
- Revisions: how many rounds are included (our calculator assumes two), and the price of extra rounds.
- Payment: amount, date (for example 50% up front, 50% on delivery, or net 15), and how. Free product isn't payment for usage rights.
- Cancellation: what you're paid if the brand cancels after you've filmed (a kill fee, for example the up-front half).
- Ad access: for Spark Ads or whitelisting, how long the code or access lasts and that it ends with the paid period.
- Disclosure: who adds the label and where.
Our contract template has each of these as a clause you fill in.
Do you have to disclose brand deals and gifted products?
Yes, in the US, whenever you post about a brand that paid you or gave you something. The FTC says to disclose "free or discounted products" too, even if you weren't asked to mention them, inside the video rather than only in the description, and not to assume a platform's tool is enough.
TikTok adds its own rule: a post that promotes a brand needs its content disclosure setting turned on, and TikTok says undisclosed commercial content may not be shown in the For You feed. Deals made through TikTok One have the setting turned on for you.
What didn't we check?
- We didn't pitch brands or run outreach, so we have no reply rates to share.
- The rate card is our calculator's default rates; they come from published guides, and every rate is editable in the tool.
- InfluenceFlow's medians are asking rates from one marketplace with small samples. We couldn't open IZEA's guide, OpenSponsorship's deal data or Aspire's survey, so none of them is used.
- Disclosure rules here are the US's; other countries have their own.
