How to Get Brand Deals as a Small Creator: Media Kit, Pitch, Rates and Disclosure

To get brand deals as a small creator: pick a clear niche, make a one-page media kit with real numbers, and pitch brands you already use with one concrete video idea. Price by what they get (the video, usage rights, exclusivity), get it in writing, and disclose every deal clearly inside the video. You don’t need a big following. You need an audience a brand wants to reach and proof that your videos get watched.

This lesson goes through each step and finishes with the disclosure rules, which are the part most new creators get wrong.

What brands look for

When a brand checks your profile, it’s asking three questions:

1. Is this my customer? A 6,000-follower channel about budget meal prep is worth more to a grocery app than a 60,000-follower channel of random memes.
2. Do the videos get watched? Views per video and watch time matter more than total followers. A small account with steady views looks safer than a big one with one lucky viral hit.
3. Will this creator make an ad people don’t skip? Brands look at whether your normal videos are clear, well-lit and confident, and how you would mention a product without breaking the mood.

TikTok’s Creator Academy says the same in its own brand-deal advice: follower count matters, but niche expertise and consistent quality often matter more. If you haven’t settled on a niche yet, do How to choose a niche first. Pitching is much easier when your channel is about one thing.

Build a one-page media kit

A media kit is your channel’s résumé. One page is enough. Brands skim it in seconds.

What goes on it

• Name, handle and one line about the channel. For example: “Quick, cheap dinners for students, 3 Shorts a week.”
• Platforms with followers and average views per video over the last 30 days. Use average views, not your best video.
• Audience: top countries, age range and gender split, copied from your analytics.
• Engagement: average watch time or retention, and comments or shares per video if they’re strong.
• Three example videos with links, ideally including one where you showed a product naturally.
• What you offer: for example, “a dedicated 30 to 45 second short”, “a 10 to 15 second mention in a regular video”, “a LIVE segment”.
• Past brands, if any. If none, leave this out. Don’t invent any.
• Contact email.

Put screenshots of your analytics in an appendix or second page. Real screenshots build more trust than numbers you typed. Update the kit every month. Learn what each metric means in How to read your analytics.

Find brands worth pitching

Start close to home. The best first sponsors are:

• Products you already use and talk about. Your recommendation is believable, and you already know the selling points.
• Brands already sponsoring creators in your niche. They have a budget for creators. Look at the “paid promotion” and “Sponsored” labels on videos in your niche.
• Small and mid-sized brands. A local coffee roaster or a new app often decides faster than a global brand with an agency.
• Platform marketplaces. On TikTok, set up TikTok One from TikTok Studio, then Creator Marketplace. Fill in your email, languages, expected rate and content categories so brands’ matching tools can find you, and browse open projects. Projects start at a baseline of 1,000 followers.

Aim for a list of 20 to 30 brands. Expect most pitches to get no reply. That’s normal, not a sign you’re doing it wrong.

Write the pitch

Keep it under 150 words. Make it about their customer, not your dream. Here’s a template:

Subject: Video idea for [Brand]: [one-line hook]

Hi [Name],

I make short videos about [niche] for [who] on [platforms]. My last 30 days: [X] average views per video, mostly [country, age range].

I’ve used [product] for [time], and I have an idea: [one or two sentences describing the video, e.g. “a 40-second ‘dinner for 2 euros’ where your spice mix saves a boring dish”].

Here are two videos that show my style: [link], [link]. My media kit is attached.

Do you have budget for creator content this quarter? Happy to send options.

[Your name]

Follow up once after 5 to 7 working days, with one short line and the idea repeated. Then move on.

Set your rate

There’s no official rate card for creators. Public “rate per follower” tables vary a lot, and many come from agencies selling something. Build your price from what the brand actually gets:

How to handle the money talk: ask for their budget first (“What budget did you have in mind for this?”). If they ask you to go first, quote a package with a clear base and add-ons. Your first deals are partly about getting proof that you deliver, so it’s fine to start modest. Raise your price after every deal that performs well, and keep notes on the results.

Free product only? That’s fine when you would buy the product anyway. But a free product is not payment for your work, and the disclosure rules below still apply.

Get it in writing

Even for a small deal, get an email or contract that covers:

• Deliverables: how many videos, which platforms, rough length, deadlines.
• Approval: whether they review before posting, and how many revisions.
• Usage: where and for how long they can use the video, and whether paid ads are included.
• Exclusivity: which competitors and for how long, if any.
• Payment: amount, currency, when (for example, 50% upfront, 50% on posting, within 30 days), and what happens if they cancel.
• Disclosure: that you will label it as an ad. A good brand will want this too.

Disclose it the way the FTC says

If you’re paid, or get a free or discounted product, or have any business or family link to a brand, US law treats it as a material connection, and you have to disclose it. The FTC’s Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers and its Endorsement Guides FAQ (the guides were revised in 2023) say:

• Put it in the video. For video, the disclosure should be in the video itself, not only in the description.
• Match the format. If you talk about the product on camera and show it, disclose it both out loud and on screen. Saying it and showing it at the same time is clearest.
• Make it hard to miss. Not in your bio, not at the very end, not behind a “more” tap, and not buried in a pile of hashtags.
• Use plain words. “Ad”, “Sponsored”, “Advertisement”, or “Thanks to XYZ for the free product” all work. The FTC calls “sp”, “spon”, “collab” and a standalone “thanks” or “ambassador” unclear.
• Repeat it on LIVE. In a livestream, disclose again from time to time, because people join late.
• Affiliate links need it too. Say clearly, near the link, that you earn a commission on purchases.
• Stay honest. You can’t talk about a product you haven’t tried. If you thought a product was bad, you can’t be paid to call it great. You also can’t make claims, such as health claims, that the brand can’t back up.
• Outside the US? The FTC says US law applies to posts from abroad when it’s reasonably foreseeable they’ll reach US consumers. Your own country’s rules may apply too.

Turn on the platform labels too

• YouTube: in the video details, tick paid promotion. YouTube then shows a disclosure label at the start of the video. YouTube’s help page says you have to do this for sponsorships, endorsements and other commercial relationships.
• TikTok: TikTok’s Branded Content Policy says you must turn on the commercial content disclosure toggle in the content disclosure settings when you post. TikTok then labels the video.
• Instagram: use Instagram’s branded content tools for paid posts. Check help.instagram.com for the current setup.

The FTC is clear that platform tools alone may not be enough. Use the label and also say and show “ad” in the video. A simple pattern for a short: open with the words “Ad:” on screen while you say “This is sponsored by XYZ”, then go on with your normal hook. If you’re not sure what fits in 45 seconds, see How to write a short video script.

What’s next

Brand deals pay you to make content. There’s another way to earn with short-form video: cutting other creators’ long videos into clips, with their permission, for pay. Learn how it works and what it really pays in What is clip farming and how to become a clipper.