Marketing & Getting Customers
When should I share sponsorship rates, and how should I set a rate card?
The short answer
Share a starting range after you understand the deliverables, timeline, audience, usage, exclusivity, revisions, and reporting. Build the rate from your work and the rights the brand receives, not follower count alone. A rate card is a conversation guide, not a promise that every campaign costs the same.
Ask for the brief before naming one number
A single post used only on your channel is not the same job as a video the brand can run as an ad for a year. Ask:
- Which content pieces and platforms?
- Who develops the idea and script?
- How many revision rounds?
- What approval timeline?
- Will the brand repost, edit, advertise, or place the content on other channels?
- Is category exclusivity required, and for how long?
- What reporting is expected?
- Are travel, props, models, shipping, or raw files involved?
If a brand asks for rates in the first message, you can give a clearly labeled starting range and say the proposal follows the brief.
Build the price in layers
Use this structure:
production fee + publication value + usage license + exclusivity + expenses + rush or extra revisions
Suppose a video takes eight hours across planning, filming, editing, administration, and reporting. At an internal labor target of $60 per hour, the production floor is $480. If the brand also wants six months of paid-ad use, that right needs a separate price. If it blocks you from working with competing brands, the lost opportunity needs a separate price too.
Don't copy those dollar amounts. Use your own time, demand, audience evidence, business costs, taxes, and opportunity cost.
The IAB's Creator Economy Taxonomy treats exclusivity and content-usage arrangements as distinct partnership terms. That is a good reminder to keep them visible in the quote instead of burying them inside “one post.”
Make the rate card easy to adapt
List two or three common packages with “starting at” language, what is included, and what is quoted separately. Add your contact details and a short note that final pricing depends on the campaign brief and agreement.
Review rates after several proposals. Track hours, revisions, results, win rate, late-payment effort, and rights granted. If every brand says yes instantly and the work is consuming your week, the price may be too low. If good-fit brands disappear only after the quote, improve your proof, package, or target list before assuming price is the sole problem.
Rates, taxes, contracts, intellectual-property rights, and worker classification can vary by location and arrangement. Use a qualified local attorney or accountant for terms you don't understand.
Sources and further reading
A free next step
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Helpful WAHMN tool
Use the Pricing Worksheet to build a sponsorship rate from the work, usage, audience value, and costs involved.
Related Questions
- Do I need a large following to get sponsorships, or do brands care more about audience fit?
- How do I find the right brands and pitch them for sponsorships?
- How are sponsorships, affiliate partnerships, and brand-ambassador deals different?
- How many times should I follow up after a sponsorship pitch before I stop?
Related WAHMN resource
If you want a complete system for planning, creating, distributing, and measuring useful content, this course carries the process further. See Content Marketing Business.