11 Essential Rates for Your Influencer Rate Card | The Ultimate Guide + FREE Template (Part 1)

Do you need an influencer rate card for your brand deals? I’m sharing the key rates you must include to get the most out of your brand deals!

Getting paid sponsorships is so exciting, but now you have to figure out what to even include in your influencer rate card to maximise your brand deals. As a lawyer for influencers and creators like you, I have seen many different influencer rate cards and even helped with creating them, and I’m sharing exactly which key rates you must include to earn more (and prevent losing money).

You will learn all the crucial rates you must include in your rate card, AND I’ll share my influencer rate card template, so you’ll have everything you need with my free influencer rate card.

After learning about the crucial rates you need in your influencer rate card, you’ll easily 5x your brand deals!

This post is all about the key rates you must have in your influencer rate card to maximise your brand deals (and avoid losing money).

Essential Influencer Rate Card

Key rates for your influencer rate card template

So, in this blog post, I am setting out all the different rates you need to include in your influencer rate card.

Please note that this blog post is dedicated to rate cards for social media influencers and creators, so we’re talking about an Instagram influencer rate card, an influencer rate card TikTok creators would use, or a YouTube rate card.

If you run a podcast, you’ll want to have a different rate card for your podcast, on which I’ll create a separate blog post (and a free rate card).

The same goes for bloggers. If you’re a blogger and you’re getting paid by a brand for a sponsored blog post, you’ll want a different rate card for that, too. I’ll also go into that in a separate blog post (with access to a special blog post rate card).

Now, let’s get into exactly which rates you must include in your influencer rate card!

1. Your base rates for each platform & post type

The first rates you’ll need to include in your influencer rate card are your base rates based on the following 2 factors:

Each type of platform you provide sponsored content for, like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube
Each type of content piece, like the following:
- Instagram carousel post
- Static Instagram photo post
- Instagram Reel
- Instagram Story
- TikTok video
- YouTube video
- YouTube Short

Certain influencers and creators also segregate each type of post into dedicated and integrated posts:

A dedicated post is a post that solely focuses on the brand’s product or service. For example, if a brand sponsors you to talk about their digital planner, you can do a fully dedicated YouTube or TikTok video on how you use their planner.
An integrated post is a post in which the sponsored product or service is included, but the entire video is not dedicated to just that product. It’s more naturally introduced. For example, you could talk about the 7 things you do to be productive. The planner would then be one of the seven things you talk about.

Now that you have your base rate for each (1) platform and (2) content piece, we’re getting into the money-maker fees. These are the fees you add to your influencer rate card to take $2,000 deals to $5,000.

I’ve also written separate blog posts on how you can 1.5 to 3x your deals (including calculations) if you want to learn more:

For each of the base rates, you should also include what is included in the influencer rate card, like the following

One or two revision rounds
30 days of exclusivity
30 days of organic usage rights

These are essential terms for your influencer rate card, which I will discuss in more detail in another blog post.

2. Package deal rates

Bundles

Bundle service rates are discounted rates for combining multiple content pieces. Here’s what you could offer:

Multiple types of content pieces on the same platform, such as One Reel, one Story, and one static Instagram photo
Multiple types of content on different platforms, like one sponsored integrated YouTube video, a TikTok video, and an Instagram Reel

You could offer all these different content pieces together at a discounted rate of 20%, for example.

When a brand is working with you for the first time, they might want to stick with just one sponsored post first, but this will entice a brand to purchase an entire bundle instead of just one post again, which, ultimately, will have you earning more.

Campaigns

A slightly different type of rate to include in your influencer rate card is the campaign rate. A campaign rate is a rate for multi-post or multi-story campaigns over a set period. It’s a series. For example, you could offer the following campaign rates:

6 sponsored reels over a period of 3 months (so, 1 sponsored reel every 2 weeks)
3 integrated YouTube videos over 3 months (thus, 1 sponsored YouTube video per month).

Bundle and campaign rates are discounted rates, but ultimately, these rates will have you earning way more than if you were to offer just one rate per post. Brands will ask for a discount when purchasing multiple content pieces from you. This is very normal in most creative service industries.

I also discuss discounted package deals in more detail in this blog post on the 23 Best Ways to Make Money as a Photographer in Any Niche to Maximise Income.

3. Rate for organic usage rights

The next rate you should include in your influencer rate card is a rate for organic usage rights.

‘Organic’ in this context means that the brand can use your Instagram Reel in its own feed on its own Instagram account.

Usually, this rate is stated in the influencer rate card as a percentage of the base rate per 30 days or per month. But you can also set a fixed fee for this. You could also charge a rate for every 3 months.

I go deeper into why you need to specify the period in my next blog post.

As I mentioned, you can also include those organic usage rights for the first 30 days in your base rate. Then, you charge an additional fee for every additional month for which the brand wants to use your content.

So, let’s say your base fee is $1,000 for an Instagram Reel, which includes 30 days of organic usage rights for the brand. You charge an organic usage rights rate of 20% for every additional 30 days. The brands want an additional 2 months of organic usage rights. Then you’ll charge the brand an additional (20% x $1,000 x 2 months =) $400. The total price the brand will then pay you is $1,400.

4. A separate rate for paid usage rights

A rate that should be separately stated in your influencer rate card is a rate for paid usage rights. Paid usage rights are the right of the brand to use your sponsored post for ads on social media and other (paid) advertising and marketing, like marketing emails. This ad is not on your account or under your name (like is the case with whitelisting). This is also referred to as “dark posting”.

You should be compensated extra for that on top of the organic usage rights you grant the brand.

You can charge a fixed fee for this. However, most often, I see either of the following rates charged:

A percentage of the base rate or a fixed rate for every 30 days or longer
A percentage of the ad spend (usually charged by influencers with a larger following)

5. Whitelisting rate

Another rate you should include in your influencer rate card is a whitelisting rate. ‘Whitelisting’ refers to the brand running ads on your account. The brand can ‘boost’ your post so that more people see your sponsored post.

You should charge the brand a fee for whitelisting.

The brand may present it as being a favour to you because you will have more reach. That may be true, but sponsored posts will also bring your engagement down, and thus, you should be compensated.

The whitelisting rate, like the paid usage rates, is usually stated in the influencer rate card as either of the following:

A percentage of the base rate or a fixed rate for every 30 days or longer
A percentage of the ad spend (if you have a large following)

6. Exclusivity rate

Usually, a brand will ask for exclusivity, which means that you will not be allowed to create any (sponsored) posts of any products or services that compete with the brand.

The restrictiveness of exclusivity depends on the terms used in the influencer contract, which I discuss in more detail in this blog post on the 7 Key Things Influencers Must Consider Before Signing Sponsorship Contracts.

But, in any case, it means that you will be limited from working with other brands, thus limiting future income opportunities for a certain period.

Therefore, you should be compensated by the brand and include a fee for exclusivity in your influencer rate card. The fee should reflect the opportunity cost.

This fee is often stated in the influencer rate card as a percentage of the base fee for every 30 days.

As I’ve already mentioned, you can also include exclusivity for 30 days in your (higher) base fee.

The other 5+ crucial rates for your influencer rate card

To find out about the other 5 crucial rates you need in your influencer rate card, read Part 2 of this blog post here: 11 Key Rates for Your Influencer Rate Card Template | The Ultimate Guide + FREE Template (Part 2).

Part 2 also includes bonus rates that you must include in your contract to boost your profits!

But if you want to get straight into creating your own rate card, get my free influencer rate card template below!

Grab your FREE influencer rate card!

Now that you know exactly what rates you must include in your influencer rate card, it’s time to create your own!

I’ve made it easy for you by creating an influencer rate card on Canva for you! All you need to do is fill in the blanks!

Sign up for my newsletter in the box below and get instant access to your free influencer rate card template free of charge.

Not only will you be able to access my rate card, but you’ll also have access to my entire legal library of free resources!

Sign up now to get full access:

Influencer rate card calculator

Don’t know how much you should be charging brands?

I’ve written an entire blog post on how to calculate your base rate, and I’ve included a simple influencer rate card calculator to help you calculate your own rate.

Just go to my blog post on How Much Should I Charge as an Influencer in 2024? 15 Crucial Factors (+ Example Calculation).

Instagram influencer rate card

Are you an Instagram influencer?

I have written a blog post specifically on the add-on rates you should include in an Instagram influencer rate card for sponsored Instagram posts. With these add-ons, you’ll easily 3x your brand deals! And I back it up with an example influencer rate card calculator.

Find out how to 3x your Instagram sponsorships in this blog post on the 5+ Key Add-Ons for Your Instagram Post Price List to 3x Your Brand Deals (+ Example Calculation).

This post was all about the important rates to include in your influencer rate card to maximise your brand deals (and safeguard your value).

Read Part 2 of this blog post here: 13 Key Rates for Your Influencer Rate Card Template | The Ultimate Guide + FREE Template (Part 2).

Want to know how to maximise every deal after creating your influencer rate card? Read this blog post on how to Turn a $5,000 Brand Deal into $7,500 with Your Brand Sponsorship Contract (7 Essential Money Terms).

Once you have landed a deal, you must solidify your brand deal with a brand sponsorship agreement! Don’t have one? Get your contract template on this page of my contract shop!