Brand deal glossary

The words in a brand's email or contract, defined the way you would explain them to a friend before they sign.

A

Affiliate commission: Affiliate commission is a percentage of each sale made through your tracked link or code. The FTC treats it as a material connection that you must disclose near the link. See How to disclose sponsored posts.
Agency: An agency is a company that plans and runs influencer campaigns for brands. The person who emails you about a deal often works for the agency, not the brand itself. See How to get paid brand deals.
Ambassador program: An ambassador program is a longer brand relationship in which a creator promotes the brand over months, paid in cash, free products, commission, or a mix. Scammers use the same name for pay-to-join schemes, and a real program never asks you to buy in. See How to spot a fake brand deal.
Approval round: An approval round is one cycle of the brand reviewing your draft and asking for changes. A contract should cap the number of rounds and bill any extra ones. See Brand deal contract checklist.

B

Boosting: Boosting is paying to show an existing post to more people as an ad. When a brand boosts your post, that is paid usage and should be priced as such. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.
Brief: A brief is the document a brand sends that describes the campaign, the key messages, required mentions, things to avoid, and deadlines. Check it against the contract. If they disagree, look for the contract's clause on which document controls, and settle the conflict in writing before you film. See Brand deal contract checklist.
Buyout: A buyout is a deal in which the brand pays a one-time fee for unlimited or very long use of your content, sometimes including ownership of the copyright. Price it at several times your base fee, or decline. See Brand deal contract checklist.

C

Content disclosure setting: The content disclosure setting is TikTok's switch for marking a post as commercial. TikTok says you must turn it on when a post promotes a brand, product, or service, and it adds a Paid partnership label for third-party brands. See How to disclose sponsored posts.
Conversion: A conversion is the action a brand wants a viewer to take after seeing your content, such as a purchase, a sign-up, or an app install.
CPA: CPA is cost per acquisition, the amount a brand pays for each sale or sign-up a campaign drives. Affiliate deals and performance bonuses are priced this way. See How much to charge for a brand deal.
CPM: CPM is cost per mille, the price for 1,000 impressions or views. A $500 fee for a video that gets 50,000 views works out to a $10 CPM. See How much to charge for a brand deal.
CPV: CPV is cost per view, the amount a brand pays for each video view. Divide a quoted fee by your expected views to compare offers. See How much to charge for a brand deal.

D

Dark post: A dark post is an ad that runs under an account's name but never appears on that account's profile. Meta says partnership ads do not show on the creator's profile but are listed in its Ad Library. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.
Deliverables: Deliverables are the specific pieces of content a creator owes a brand under a deal, such as one Reel and three Story frames, with their formats, lengths, and posting dates. See Brand deal contract checklist.

E

Engagement rate: Engagement rate is the share of followers or viewers who interact with a post, usually likes, comments, shares, and saves divided by followers or reach. Brands use it to compare creators of different sizes. See What to put in a creator media kit.
Exclusivity: Exclusivity is a contract term that bars you from working with a brand's competitors for a set period. It should name the competitors, last a short time, and carry its own fee. See Brand deal contract checklist.

F

Flat fee: A flat fee is a fixed price for a set of deliverables, paid no matter how the content performs. See How much to charge for a brand deal.
FTC disclosure: An FTC disclosure is the statement, such as "Ad" at the start of a post, that tells US viewers you have a material connection with a brand. The FTC Endorsement Guides require it to be clear, conspicuous, and hard to miss. See How to disclose sponsored posts.

G

Gifting: Gifting is a brand sending free products to a creator. Under FTC rules a free product is a material connection, so a post about it needs a disclosure even if the brand did not require one. See How to disclose sponsored posts.

K

Kill fee: A kill fee is the money a brand owes a creator if it cancels a deal after work has started. Ask for a share of the full fee that rises as the work progresses. See Brand deal contract checklist.

L

Link in bio: A link in bio is the clickable link in a social media profile, used to send followers to a brand's site or a page of links. The FTC says a disclosure that sits only on your profile is easy to miss and does not cover a sponsored post. See How to disclose sponsored posts.

M

Material connection: A material connection is any relationship between an endorser and a brand that the audience would not expect and that could affect how they judge the endorsement, such as payment, free products, commission, or a family tie. The FTC requires creators to disclose it clearly. See How to disclose sponsored posts.
MCN: An MCN is a multi-channel network, a company that partners with many YouTube channels and offers services such as audience growth, brand deals, rights management, or monetization help. Read the revenue split and the contract length before you sign.
Media kit: A media kit is a short document that shows a brand who your audience is, how your content performs, and what you charge. Send it with a pitch or when a brand asks for your rates. See What to put in a creator media kit.
Morality clause: A morality clause is a contract term that lets one party end the deal if the other does something that harms its reputation. Ask for a defined trigger and make it apply to both sides. See Brand deal contract checklist.

N

Net 30: Net 30 is a payment term that gives the brand 30 days after it receives your invoice to pay. Net 60 and net 90 mean 60 and 90 days. See How to invoice brands and get paid on time.

O

Organic post: An organic post is a post published to your account with no paid promotion behind it. Organic usage means the brand reposts your content on its own accounts without paying to promote it. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.

P

Paid partnership label: The paid partnership label is Instagram's built-in tag for branded content, which shows "Paid partnership with" and the brand's name. Instagram's policies require it on organic branded content, and the FTC says to add your own disclosure as well. See How to disclose sponsored posts.
Paid usage: Paid usage is the right to run your content as paid advertising. It should be priced separately from organic usage and limited to a set number of days. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.
Partnership ad code: A partnership ad code is a code a creator generates on Instagram or Facebook that lets an advertiser turn one of the creator's posts into a partnership ad. Instagram's help center says a code lets one advertiser at a time boost the post for 180 days, and turning it off stops new ads but not ads already running. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.
Partnership ads: Partnership ads are Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram that show the creator's account, the brand's account, or both in the header. Meta renamed branded content ads to partnership ads, and the brand needs the creator's permission to run them. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.
Perpetual license: A perpetual license is a grant of usage rights with no end date. Treat it as a buyout and price it that way, or refuse it. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.
Product seeding: Product seeding is a brand sending free products to many creators in the hope that some will post, with no obligation to do so. Creators who do post about a seeded product still need to disclose it. See How to disclose sponsored posts.
Promo code: A promo code is a discount code tied to one creator, which lets the brand track the sales that creator drives. If you earn commission on it, that is a material connection to disclose. See How to disclose sponsored posts.

R

Rate card: A rate card is a list of your standard prices for each deliverable, such as one Reel, one TikTok, or one YouTube integration, plus add-ons like usage rights. See How much to charge for a brand deal.
Raw footage: Raw footage is the unedited video files from a shoot. Brands can cut new ads from it, so price it as a separate deliverable. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.
ROAS: ROAS is return on ad spend, the revenue an ad brings in divided by what it cost. A ROAS of 3 means $3 of sales for every $1 spent.

S

Spark Ads: Spark Ads are TikTok ads that run from an organic TikTok post, with the engagement counted on the original post. A brand needs an authorization code from the creator, valid for 7, 30, 60, or 365 days. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.

T

Talent manager: A talent manager is a person who represents a creator, finds and negotiates brand deals, and takes a commission on the deals they handle. Read how long the management contract lasts and which deals the commission covers. See How to get paid brand deals.

U

UGC: UGC is user-generated content. In brand deals it means photos or videos a creator makes for the brand to post or run as ads, often without posting them on the creator's own account. See How much to charge for a brand deal.
Usage rights: Usage rights are the permissions a brand gets to reuse your content beyond your original post. A usage grant should state the channels, the length of time, and the countries. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.

W

Whitelisting: Whitelisting is giving a brand permission to run ads from your social media account, with your name and photo on the ad. Meta calls this partnership ads, TikTok handles it through Spark Ads, and some brands call it allowlisting. See Usage rights, whitelisting, and Spark Ads explained.
Work made for hire: A work made for hire is a US copyright term for work that legally belongs to the employer or the party who commissioned it, not the person who made it. For a commissioned video, the US Copyright Office says it requires a written agreement signed by both sides. See Brand deal contract checklist.