A brand sends over a three-page brief. Somewhere in it is a fee, and you are expected to reply with yours.
The rate is already in the brief. Every clause that asks for something maps to a line item: the deliverables set your base rate, and the rest of the document (usage, exclusivity, deadlines, revisions) lists the add-ons the brand hopes you won't price separately.
This guide shows how to read a brief line by line, what each clause adds to your number, and how to send back a quote the brand can't wave away with "that's higher than our budget."
The Short Answer
Start from your audience size, price each deliverable on its own, then add a line for every right or restriction the brief asks for. Here is how the common brief language converts, at a 100K audience:
| What the brief says | What it adds | Selah prices it at |
|---|---|---|
| "One Instagram Reel and two Stories" | A line per deliverable | Reel $2,800, Story $850 each |
| "Brand may repost on its own channels" | Organic usage rights | 20% of your fee for 3 months |
| "Brand may run the content as an ad" | Paid usage rights | 53% of your fee for 3 months |
| "Ads run from your handle" | Whitelisting / ad code | 100% of your fee for 3 months |
| "Category exclusivity for 60 days" | Exclusivity | 35% of your fee for 2 months |
| "Live within five days" | Rush surcharge | 50% of your fee |
| "Link in your bio for two weeks" | Link in bio | 10–15% of your fee, per month |
| "Posted as a collab with our account" | Collab post | 20% of your fee |
These are Selah's figures. The add-on percentages sit at the top of published ranges on purpose, and base rates follow the published market for your audience size. Most guides online are written for the brand's budget. This one is written for yours.
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1. Count what you're being asked to make
Start with the verbs. "Create," "post," "film," "share," "tag": each one is something you produce or publish.
List every deliverable separately: platform, format, length, and number. "A Reel plus Stories" is two lines, because a Reel and a Story set are priced differently. If the brief says "content across our social channels," that is not a deliverable yet, and you need the brand to name the platforms and formats before you quote. The deliverables guide covers how vague wording gets tightened.
If the same piece goes to a second platform, price it as its own line too. Your rate for the Reel is not a rate for the Reel plus a TikTok copy.
2. Read the paragraph about rights twice
This is the part of the brief that costs creators the most, because it is usually written in the least memorable language.
You are looking for any sentence about what the brand may do with your content after you post it: repost it, put it on their site, include it in emails, "amplify" it, "boost" it, run it "as a paid placement," or use it "across all media." Each one points to a different usage right, and each is priced differently. How much to charge for usage rights breaks down the four types and the term brackets.
Two phrases deserve extra attention. Ads that run from your own handle are whitelisting or ad code, which usually carries the highest price of the common usage types and a reputation cost you absorb (whitelisting vs. ad code explains the difference). And "in perpetuity" or "in all media, worldwide" is not something to price casually. What perpetual usage rights mean covers why Selah declines it and what a buyout looks like.
Brands know this math. That is why the rights paragraph often sits near the end of the brief, after the fee and the creative direction, in the section titled "Usage and compliance." They are counting on you to have decided before you reached it.
3. Find the exclusivity
Exclusivity hides under softer names: "no competing brands," "category protection," "we ask that you not partner with similar products for a period." Check three things: which category, how long, and whether the clock starts at signing or at posting.
A vague term ("a reasonable period") is the expensive kind, because you cannot price what has no end date. The exclusivity pricing guide shows how to turn it into a number of months and a defined category.
4. Check the dates
Count the days between today and the go-live date, not the days between the brief and the contract. A deadline inside a week is a rush and carries a surcharge. Two to three weeks is tighter than your normal window and worth a line of its own; how to price a tight timeline brand deal explains where that line sits and how to explain it.
Also check when the brief wants your draft. A short review window combined with approval rights is how a comfortable deadline quietly becomes a rush.
5. Read the revision and approval language
"Up to two rounds of revisions" and "final approval from the brand team" read as housekeeping. They are scope. Selah builds in one round of revisions, and each extra round is 15% of your content fee. Approval rights add risk on top, since the brand can hold a post past its date. What approval rights mean and the reshoot pricing guide cover both.
Bonus Tip: If the brief says "revisions as needed," ask for a number before you quote. A cap turns an open-ended cost into a line item, and a brand that refuses to cap revisions has told you something about the next three weeks.
6. Look for what the brief leaves out
Silence is information. If the brief never mentions usage, assume organic only and say so in your quote. If it never mentions exclusivity, you are not granting any. If it never states payment terms, ask for them before you price anything, because a net-60 deal is worth less than the same fee paid on posting.
Say the assumptions out loud in your reply. "This quote assumes organic posting only. Ad usage is quoted separately." That one sentence stops a missing clause from becoming a free one later.
7. Price it before you look at their budget
Many briefs state a budget near the top. Do not let it become your anchor. Build the number from your audience and the clauses above first, then compare. If the brief's budget is lower than your quote, the difference is almost always one of the rights or restrictions you just priced, which gives you something specific to negotiate.
A worked example
A creator with 100K Instagram followers gets this in her inbox:
"We'd love one Instagram Reel (30–45 seconds) featuring our new serum. We can offer $3,000 all-in. We'll want to run the Reel as a paid ad for three months, and we ask that you not work with other skincare brands for 60 days after posting."
The brand called it "$3,000 all-in." Read as line items, the brief asks for three things: a Reel, three months of paid usage, and two months of category exclusivity.
| Line item | Amount |
|---|---|
| 1× Instagram Reel | $2,800 |
| 2-month exclusivity | $1,000 |
| 3-month paid usage rights | $1,500 |
| Total | $5,300 |
The quote lands well above the $3,000 offer, and the gap comes from the two lines the brand folded into "all-in." Her Reel fee is already close to the full offer on its own. That is the whole conversation: she can accept the offer for the Reel with no ad rights and no exclusivity, or she can price those rights separately.
Either answer is fine. What she does not do is hand over paid usage and a 60-day restriction for nothing because the number looked close.
What to send back
Send the line items, not a single total. A brand can negotiate a total down by pushing on one number. A list of line items makes them choose which right they want to drop.
A short reply is enough:
"Thanks for the details. For one Reel with three months of paid usage and 60 days of category exclusivity, my quote is below. If paid usage or exclusivity isn't essential, I can quote the Reel on its own."
Then the breakdown. If they push back on price, the counter-offer playbook covers what to concede first, and how to respond to a lowball covers the case where the offer is far off. To check an offer you already have against your numbers, the brand offer checker does it in a few seconds.
Selah builds this breakdown automatically from the brand's message. Paste the brief, get the line items. For the full framework behind it, start with how to price a brand deal, and if you want a starting figure for a single deliverable, the free influencer rate calculator gives one with the published range beside it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate brand deal rates from a brand brief? Find your base rate from your audience size and the deliverables, then add a line for every right or restriction the brief asks for: usage, exclusivity, a short deadline, extra revisions. Send the lines as a breakdown so the brand can see what each clause costs.
What should I look for in a brand brief before quoting? Seven things: the exact deliverables, any language about how the brand may reuse your content, exclusivity terms, the go-live date, revision and approval limits, anything the brief leaves out, and the stated budget last.
What if the brief doesn't mention usage rights? Quote for organic posting on your own account only, and say so in your reply. If the brand later wants to run the content as an ad, that is a separate line item, priced then.
Should I quote before I've read the whole brief? No. The fee is usually near the top and the rights are usually near the end. Reading only the first half means pricing a deal that is smaller than the one you are about to be asked to sign.
What if the brand's budget is lower than my quote? Find which clauses account for the gap. It is nearly always usage or exclusivity. Offer to quote the deliverable alone, or to drop one of the rights, rather than discounting your fee.
Can I quote from a short DM instead of a full brief? Yes, but ask what the brand plans to do with the content and for how long before you give a number. A single question about ad usage can change the price more than your follower count does.