How to get brand deals on TikTok as a small creator

The three ways small creators get paid deals

Follower count is not the gate. One creator had roughly 2,000 followers when Fishbowl, a workplace-networking app, offered her $450 for a set of three videos.² It was her first brand deal, and it works out to $150 per video, right inside the typical nano rate range. Size was not the obstacle.

Brands are actively moving budget toward smaller accounts. In Influencer Marketing Hub's 2026 report, cited by Toptal, 51% of brands plan to increase spending on nano influencers. A further 53% plan to increase spending on micro influencers.¹

Everything below follows the order you would actually do it: know your rate, make your profile brand-ready, pick your deal routes, pitch, negotiate, then deliver and get paid.

What brands pay per video, by follower tier

Toptal publishes typical per-video rates by follower tier:¹

Sources disagree on where tiers start and what they pay, so treat any table as a rough range. Impact.com draws the lines differently, with nano below 15,000 followers and micro from 15,000 to 75,000. Its nano- and micro-influencer pricing starts at $25-500 depending on the platform and campaign.³

Anchor on your average views. Brands judge you on view reach and engagement first, and follower count second, since higher reach translates to better ROI.¹

What moves your rate up

Toptal's guidance is to "use the rate table from earlier as a baseline, then adjust for the specific deliverables, usage rights, and exclusivity being asked for."¹ Three kinds of modifiers can apply on top of that base rate.

• View reach: reaching 80-150% of your follower count adds 25%, and reaching above 150% adds 50%.¹
• Usage rights: an organic repost adds 30% to the base rate, while paid ads or Spark Ads add 75%.¹
• Exclusivity: +20% for a 30-day non-compete, +40% for 90 days.¹

On a $150 base, a repost right brings it to $195, and Spark Ads rights bring it to $262.50. If a deal asks for more than one modifier, Toptal gives no rule for how they combine, so agree the final figure with the brand rather than assuming the percentages add up.¹

Your niche matters too: personal finance, crypto, tech gadgets, AI tools and software often pay noticeably more, since brands there usually have larger ad budgets. Certain health and wellness creators, along with specialized beauty and skincare creators, also earn above average because their audiences engage heavily.¹

Compare it to Creator Rewards

Toptal estimates that creators earn between $0.40 and $1.00 for every 1,000 qualified views through TikTok's Creator Rewards program. To match one $150 sponsored video, you would need 150,000 to 375,000 qualified views. Brand deals pay 10-50x more per video than Creator Rewards, and you don't need a huge following to get them.¹

Make your profile and media kit brand-ready

Check your content the way a brand would. Does it tell a strong story, look sharp, sound clear and grab viewers with a hook in the first 3 seconds?¹

In your bio, add simple phrases like "Open for collaborations" or "DM for partnerships."⁴ It also helps to include a contact email. State your niche plainly. Brands judge content quickly: Toptal's checklist asks whether your videos hook viewers within the first 3 seconds, so your page should make what you make obvious just as fast.¹

Brands prefer a creator with 5,000 followers and an active, chatty community over one with 50,000 followers and a quiet audience.⁵ Reply to comments and keep that engagement visible on your page.

What goes in your media kit

Your media kit is the document you attach to pitches, and it should cover the following:

• A short bio of under 150 words that conveys your niche, tone and personality.¹
• Key stats: follower count, average views, view reach, average watch time, retention, completion rate, plus shares and saves.¹
• Who watches you: age, gender, location and top interests.¹
• Services offered: sponsored posts, Spark Ads or whitelisting, ambassadorships and content creation, sold individually or as a package.¹
• Past collaborations with brands: logos, screenshots or campaign highlights.¹

If you have no past deals yet, create 2-3 mock brand posts to show you can make that type of content. You can also showcase videos where you organically featured products, even if it wasn't paid.¹

Canva is a free way to design the kit. Search "media kit," "influencer media kit" or "press kit" for templates, then match the design to your own color palette and style.¹ You can also start from our media kit template.

Every deal route, compared

The app's official creator marketplace is TikTok One, which replaced TikTok Creator Marketplace in early 2025.¹

TikTok's own help page, updated July 2026, settles the eligibility question. Joining requires only that you are at least 18 years old, live in a region where TikTok One has launched, and meet TikTok's Community Guidelines and Branded Content Policy.⁶² There is no follower minimum for joining, but participating in projects requires at least 1,000 followers, with other requirements varying by project. Once registered, you can fill out your profile with details like starting rates, contact information, languages and industries.⁶

Backstage gives the enrollment path: "In the app, tap Profile, then TikTok Studio, then Creator Marketplace."² One caveat: deals through the platform tend to pay less than ones you negotiate yourself.¹

Third-party marketplaces are the next option. Names that come up for TikTok deals include Collabstr, Creator.co, #paid, Aspire and Fohr.¹ On these platforms you register, set up a profile, add your platforms, then apply to campaigns that match your niche.⁴ Our comparison of the best creator marketplaces goes deeper on each one.

Stan's list adds Afluencer, Glewee and JoinBrands, plus Pearpop for UGC deals, where brands pay for UGC based on performance.⁴ Impact.com is another option worth a look.⁵ On impact.com, partners can pay you "at a flat rate or with performance- or commission-based fees."³ Stack Influence describes itself as a micro-influencer platform that connects online stores with ordinary creators for product gifting campaigns.⁵

Affiliate deals pay commission instead of a flat fee: TikTok Shop links or promo codes can pay up to 30% commission on each sale, depending on how big the campaign is and what the brand earns per item.² There is no risk to the brand because it pays commission only on sales you actually refer.³ Run the break-even before you accept. Here is the math.

Take a $30 product where a flat fee would be $150. At 10% commission you need 50 sales to match that fee. At 15% you need 34, at 20% you need 25, and even at 30% you need 17 sales.

That is a real sales target. Be honest about your audience.

If that sales volume looks plausible for your audience, affiliate can beat a fee. If not, ask for a hybrid. US creators can check the TikTok Shop affiliate requirements before applying.

Gifted deals are product-only: if you have under 1,000 followers, they can help you build a portfolio, but move toward paid work as you grow or you risk undervaluing your efforts. Only accept them when the product is high-value and suits your brand.¹

UGC deals pay you to create content that the brand publishes on its own channels. You don't have to post it yourself. That makes it a good fit if you prefer creating over promoting.⁴ Ambassador and affiliate programs are usually easier to get into than sponsored posts.³

Your warmest leads are brands already in your orbit. If you have posted a TikTok featuring a brand's product and it performed well, that video is a strong opener for a paid deal. And if a brand already pays you for content on another platform, propose adding a few TikTok videos into the partnership package as a bundle.⁷

Pitching brands yourself tends to bring the best rates. No platform is billing the brand or skimming your pay.¹ Rateful can handle the inbound side instead. It gives you a public booking page at rateful.ai/@handle that shows your packages, recent videos and numbers, plus a deals address, handle@rateful.ai.

Brand emails there get answered by Sam, Rateful's AI manager. Sam negotiates against your rate card, with your minimum as the floor, and a scam check on brand emails comes with every plan. Nothing is accepted without your OK, and Rateful takes 0% of your deals.

How to pitch brands, with a template

Send 5-10 personalized pitches per week to brands you know your audience would love.¹ That is 20-40 pitches a month. If you would rather not do the pitching yourself, Sam, Rateful's AI manager, can pitch brands for you: every creator gets 10 free pitches, and the Scale plan at $149/month includes unlimited pitches.

Find the right contact

On LinkedIn, search the brand name together with terms like "influencer marketing" or "partnerships." Check the brand's own site too. Contact-finding tools like Hunter.io or Apollo.io can also surface the right person.¹

Send your pitch by email. Most brands prefer it, and impact.com's research found more than half of brands would rather be contacted by email than by DM.¹³

Who to pitch

Start with brands you already use and like. In impact.com's 2023 research, 83% of brands said a deep love and understanding of the brand signals a successful partnership. In the same research, only 5% of brands said they want to recruit creators themselves, so a good cold pitch arrives as help rather than spam.³

The pitch itself

Keep the pitch short: cover who you are and your niche, one proof point (a strong video, a past result, or a mock post), one specific idea for their product, and a question they can answer. Attaching a 15-30 second TikTok-style pitch video to your email helps you stand out in a crowded inbox.¹

If you have a past result, cite it. Toptal's example points to a UGC campaign for Kudos Technologies that had a CTR of 2%. End with a reply-inviting question, like asking whether they are open to a paid partnership this quarter.¹

A template you can copy:

> Subject: TikTok partnership idea for [Brand] > > Hi [Name], > > I'm [Your name], a TikTok creator making [niche] videos for [audience, e.g., "first-time renters"]. My last video on [topic] hit [average views] views. > > My audience regularly asks about [product category]. That gave me an idea for a video featuring [product]: [one sentence concept]. Media kit and sample post attached. > > Are you open to paid partnerships this quarter? > > [Name] | [TikTok handle] | [email]

Send one follow-up about a week later if you hear nothing. Then move on to the next brand.

Negotiate the deal and read the contract

A brand's first number is rarely its budget ceiling, so if the first offer feels low, it probably is. Expect a low opener. Before you name any price, ask: "What is the budget for this campaign?"¹

Set two numbers before replying. Set your floor at roughly 70% of your fair market rate, and start the conversation about 50% above it.¹ On a $150 fair rate, that is a $105 floor and a $225 opening ask.

If the brand can't meet your rate, ask what it can offer. Brands can sometimes move on deliverables, timeline or usage terms rather than price. Trade scope instead of cutting price: suggest fewer deliverables or shorter usage rights, like 6 months instead of permanent.¹

When you get a lowball, spell out again what the price covers (deliverables, usage, exclusivity) so the value is obvious. Then reply with your rate plus a short reason for it. A professional response can salvage the deal and, at minimum, present you as a partner worth trusting.¹

If the compensation is far below your worth, walk away. Focus on partners who pay fairly.¹ There are ready-made lines for this in our counteroffer scripts.

Contract checklist

Get every deal in writing. Then check these items:

• Deliverables: clearly outline everything expected (for example, 2 TikToks plus whitelisting rights), which prevents scope creep, the slow addition of extra work the brand expects later.¹
• Payment terms: put the invoice due date and the late-fee policy in the contract itself, not just in an email thread.¹
• Kill fee: a share of the fee, such as 50%, that the brand owes you if it cancels once work has started.¹ On a $300 deal, a 50% kill fee comes to $150.
• Content ownership: the best setup is that you keep ownership and the brand gets a license; once the brand owns the content, it can reuse it forever.¹
• Termination clause: how either party can end the contract and under what conditions.¹
• Non-disparagement: a clause stating you won't speak negatively about the brand, its products or leadership.¹
• Spark Ads terms: set a clear timeline and make sure the brand targets the right audience. Ads run too broadly can bombard your own followers until they unfollow you.¹

Before signing with any agency or ambassador program, review the terms just as carefully.⁴

Red flags

Toptal lists these as red flags: unlimited usage rights without added payment, payment windows that stretch past Net 60, and no contract at all. The same goes for "we pay in exposure/product only" aimed at accounts with real engagement, demands for full content ownership, or pressure to accept immediately.¹

Disclosure, delivery and getting paid

TikTok's Branded Content Policy requires you to switch on the commercial content disclosure toggle for branded posts, and the content is then automatically labelled to indicate that it is Branded Content.⁸ The label is not optional. Backstage's guidance is to keep the toggle on whatever the deal type, which covers gifted and affiliate deals as well as sponsored ones.²

Put the dates in writing. Net 30 means payment is due 30 days after invoicing. An invoice dated Nov 5, 2026 comes due Dec 5, 2026 on Net 30; on Net 60, the outer limit before payment terms cross into red-flag territory, that same invoice would not be due until Jan 4, 2027.¹ If a brand goes quiet past the due date, follow the steps in our guide to late brand deal payments.

With Rateful, Sam puts the deal into a written agreement for the brand, and once the brand signs, payment goes through Rateful via Stripe. On your own deals, a deposit is paid out to you ahead of filming, and Rateful keeps the balance until your posts are live. The agreement spells out the exact plan.

The brand also sees a booking protection fee of roughly 5% added to the deal amount before paying. On a $300 deal the brand pays about $315 and you receive the full $300, paid out to your Stripe account (US only for now).

Your next 30 days

1. Week 1: fix your bio (niche, contact email, "Open for collaborations"), pull your stats, and build a one-page media kit with 2-3 mock posts if you have no past deals.
2. Weeks 2 and 3: send 5-10 personalized email pitches per week to brands you already use, and set up profiles on TikTok Studio and one or two marketplaces.
3. Week 4: follow up once on every unanswered pitch, reply to any inbound with the budget question first, and get every yes into a written contract before you film.