How much to charge for a sponsored post: a formula you can recompute from your own analytics
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On this page
- How much should you charge for a sponsored post?
- How do you estimate expected views from your own insights?
- Why is the CPM anchor the brand's own ad price?
- How do you price your own production time?
- Which extras go on separate lines?
- Worked example: one Instagram reel
- What should the quote show the brand?
- When does the formula need adjusting?
- Frequently asked questions
- Sources
The rule
Charge for a sponsored post by its expected views: the median of your comparable recent posts, divided by 1,000, times the brand's paid CPM for that audience, plus production hours times your hourly cost. Price usage rights, ad codes, exclusivity, revisions and rush separately.
Checked Primary sources
Meta, TikTok and YouTube quote ad prices per 1,000 impressions, per 1,000 people reached or per view (Meta, TikTok, Google Ads). A brand weighing a sponsored post against an ad compares prices in those units, so the fee below is built in them too.
Every input is a number from your own analytics, a cost you set yourself, or a price the brand already pays. You can rerun the formula for each deal and show the brand the working. The example figures are hypothetical and labelled that way. This page publishes no market rates or benchmark CPMs, and it covers the creator's side of one deal only, not how brands plan campaign budgets.
How much should you charge for a sponsored post?
post fee = expected views ÷ 1,000 × CPM anchor
production = hours × hourly cost
quote = post fee + production
+ usage rights + ad code + exclusivity
+ extra revisions + rush
| Input | What it is | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Expected views | The median views of your last comparable posts | Your own insights, read as set out below |
| CPM anchor | What the brand pays to show an ad 1,000 times to this audience | The brand's figure, your own ad account, or the brand's budget back-solved |
| Hours | Your time on this deliverable, from brief to report | Your own time log |
| Hourly cost | (Income target + business costs) ÷ billable hours a year | Your own figures |
| Line items | Usage rights, ad code, exclusivity, revisions, rush | Rates you set, per month, per round or per day |
The first two lines price the attention the post delivers. The production line prices the work. The extras price rights and restrictions, which the brand can take or leave one by one.
How do you estimate expected views from your own insights?
Use the median of recent posts that match what the brand is buying.
- Match the deliverable. Same platform, same format (reel, Story, Short, long-form video), similar length. A Story does not predict a reel.
- Take the last 10 or more. Enough posts that one outlier cannot move the middle value. If you have fewer, use what you have and say so in the quote.
- Leave out anything paid. Drop posts you boosted or promoted and posts a brand ran as an ad. On YouTube, ad views count toward a video's public view count (YouTube Help); on TikTok, a brand's TikTok One project reporting splits organic video views from paid video views through Spark Ads (TikTok One). Your median should count organic views only.
- Leave out posts younger than the reporting window. If the contract measures views at 30 days, a post from last week has not finished counting.
- Sort and take the middle value. With an even number of posts, average the two middle values.
The median ignores how big the outlier is. The mean does not: in the worked example below, one reel with 142,000 views lifts the mean about 50% above the median, and a fee priced on the mean would rest on a result you had once.
Which view figure to take on each platform
This table names the figure to feed into the formula. For what each metric counts, follow the platform's own help page in the Source column.
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| Platform | Figure to take | Watch for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram Reels | Views; Viewers if the brand's number is per person reached | Insights need a public account, personal or professional. Reel insights exist for reels posted on or after 14 May 2021 and stay viewable for up to two years after publishing | Instagram Help |
| YouTube | Engaged views, where YouTube Analytics shows them, for a median that spans 24 August 2026; otherwise views for videos posted from that date | YouTube Partner Program earnings are still based on engaged views and engaged watch hours | YouTube Help, YouTube Help |
| TikTok | The post's view count in your TikTok analytics | If the deal runs as a TikTok One project and the brand runs your post through Spark Ads, its TikTok One project reporting shows organic and paid video views separately; use the organic figure | TikTok One |
One definition changed recently: from 24 August 2026, YouTube counts a view the moment a video starts to play, so a median that spans that date mixes two ways of counting (YouTube Help, YouTube Help).
Why is the CPM anchor the brand's own ad price?
A brand that does not pay you can buy the same number of screens with ads. Meta defines CPM as "the average cost for 1,000 impressions" and an impression as "the number of times your ads were on screen" (Meta). TikTok Ads Manager defines CPM as "cost per mille or one thousand impressions" (TikTok).
So expected views ÷ 1,000 × the brand's CPM is what the brand would pay the platform to put an ad in front of that many screens. That is the brand's alternative to you, and the one price in the deal both sides can look up. Your post can be worth more than that figure, because it is your content in front of your audience, or less, because the brand cannot choose who sees it. The anchor is where the talk starts. The line items and the negotiation move it.
Where to get the anchor
- Ask the brand. "What CPM do you pay to reach this audience on this platform?" If it answers, the anchor is its own number.
- Your own ad account. If you have run ads on the platform to an audience like yours, your ad reporting gives the CPM you paid. Meta's reporting has a CPM field (Meta); on any platform, spend ÷ impressions × 1,000 from the same report gives it, which is how Meta calculates CPM (Meta Business Help Centre).
- Back-solve the brand's budget. If the brand names a budget first, divide it by expected views ÷ 1,000. The result is the CPM the offer puts on your views, and you can set it next to the brand's ad CPM.
- After the campaign. If the brand ran your post with your ad code, its reporting shows the CPM on your content. TikTok One reports CPM as "the average amount of money you've spent per 1,000 paid impressions" (TikTok One). Ask for that figure and use it when the brand comes back.
Match the unit before you multiply
Ad platforms quote more than one price per 1,000. Pair each one with the view figure that counts the same thing.
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| The brand's number | What it counts | Pair it with your | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPM, Meta | "The average cost for 1,000 impressions"; impressions can include the same account more than once | Views | Meta |
| CPP, Meta | "The average cost to reach 1,000 Accounts Center accounts"; estimated | Viewers or reach (unique accounts) | Meta |
| CPM, TikTok | "Cost per mille or one thousand impressions"; impressions are the "number of times ads were shown" | Views | TikTok, TikTok |
| Cost per 1,000 people reached, TikTok | "Average cost to reach 1,000 unique users" | Unique viewers or reach | TikTok |
| CPV, YouTube ads | Price per paid view. In-stream: 30 seconds watched, or the whole ad if shorter, or an interaction. Shorts ads: 10 seconds, or the whole ad if shorter, or a call-to-action click | Engaged views; multiply CPV by 1,000 first | Google Ads Help |
Instagram counts a replay as a view, and Meta's impressions can count the same account more than once, so views pair with CPM and reach pairs with CPP. A paid YouTube view needs 10 or 30 seconds of watching (the whole ad if it is shorter) or an interaction with the ad, which sits closer to engaged views than to a view counted at the start of play.
How do you price your own production time?
Hourly cost = (the income you want for a year + your business costs for a year) ÷ the hours a year you can bill.
Billable hours are the hours you sell to clients, not every hour you work. Pitching, invoicing, admin and your own channel's posts are paid for out of the billable ones. Business costs are everything the channel needs to run: equipment, software, insurance, an accountant.
For the deliverable, count every step: reading the brief, concept, script, shoot, edit, the brand's review, posting and the performance report. Log the hours on your next two or three deals; a logged figure holds up in negotiation better than a guess.
Which extras go on separate lines?
Each extra is a separate thing the brand gets, with its own term. Listing them apart lets the brand drop one without reopening the post fee, and stops rights of indefinite length going out at the price of a post.
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| Line | What the brand gets | Price it by |
|---|---|---|
| Usage rights | Reuse of your post on its own channels, site or email for a set term | A rate you set per month of the term, higher for more channels |
| Ad code | The right to run your post as an ad through a Partnership Ads or Spark Ads code; in TikTok One project reporting, paid views through Spark Ads are reported apart from organic ones (TikTok One) | A rate you set per 30 days the code is valid |
| Raw footage | Unedited files the brand can cut into its own ads | A licence priced like usage, by term and channel |
| Exclusivity | You turn down competitors in a category for a term | The income you expect to give up: your category deals per year, pro-rated to the term, at your usual fee |
| Revisions | Rounds of changes beyond the ones included | Hours per round × hourly cost |
| Rush | Delivery faster than your standard turnaround | The hours of other work it displaces × hourly cost, or a surcharge you set |
The scope and term of each right are set out in usage rights, Partnership Ads and Spark Ads codes; the exclusivity and revision clauses are in the brand deal contract checklist.
Worked example: one Instagram reel
Every input below is hypothetical, chosen for easy arithmetic. The $12.00 CPM, the percentages and the hours are not market rates. Replace each one with your own; the currency does not matter.
The deal: one Instagram reel, views reported at 30 days, three months of usage on the brand's own channels, a 30-day ad code and 30 days of category exclusivity. Your last 11 comparable reels, all older than 30 days and none boosted, had these views, sorted: 9,800 · 16,200 · 17,800 · 18,400 · 19,700 · 20,500 · 21,900 · 22,600 · 23,100 · 25,300 · 142,000.
Your other inputs: an income target of $48,000 and business costs of $6,000 a year over 900 billable hours; 6 hours for this reel; usage at 10% of the subtotal per month; an ad code at 20% of the subtotal per 30 days; four category deals last year at an average $600 each.
Two things the tape shows. Priced on the mean, the post fee would be 30,664 ÷ 1,000 × $12.00 = $367.97, $121.97 more, and all of it from one reel. And the post fee is $246 of a $1,109 quote: most of the price is your time and the rights the brand asked for, which is why they belong on lines of their own.
What should the quote show the brand?
One line per item, each with its input:
- the deliverable, platform and format;
- the view figure used, the number of posts behind the median, and the metric by its platform name, such as Instagram views or YouTube engaged views;
- the CPM anchor and where it came from;
- production hours and the included revision rounds;
- each right and restriction with its term: usage, ad code, raw footage, exclusivity;
- the reporting window, such as views at 30 days.
A quote in this shape moves the negotiation to the inputs. If the brand thinks your median is high, it can say which post it doubts. If it thinks the anchor is high, it can name its own CPM. The terms the lines depend on, from approvals to payment dates, are in the brand deal contract checklist.
When does the formula need adjusting?
- A new format with few posts. Use the closest format you have, state that the estimate rests on it, and consider quoting a range.
- Only part of your audience is in the brand's market. Multiply expected views by that share, taken from your analytics' audience breakdown where the platform gives one, and use the brand's CPM for that market.
- The brand wants a views guarantee. The median is an estimate, and a fee priced on it does not promise it. If the brand needs a guarantee, price the risk or agree in the contract what happens on a shortfall.
- A bundle across platforms. Price each deliverable with its own median and its own anchor, then add the lines. A bundle discount is your decision, shown as its own line.
Frequently asked questions
Should I charge per 1,000 followers?
The formula does not use followers. Ad platforms quote prices per 1,000 impressions, per 1,000 people reached or per view (Meta, TikTok, Google Ads), so views are the figure a brand can compare with its alternative. Your follower count shows up in the formula only through the views your posts get.
What if the brand will not share its CPM?
Use the CPM from your own ad account for a similar audience, or back-solve the brand's budget: budget ÷ (expected views ÷ 1,000). Either gives you a number to put on the quote, and both are open to the brand to challenge with a better one.
The brand offers product instead of part of the fee. How do I price that?
Count the product as payment only if you would otherwise have bought it; the rest of the quote stays in money. Whether a product received for a deal counts as income, and at what value, is set by your tax authority; are gifted products taxable? covers the US, UK and Germany.
Do Stories, reels and YouTube videos use the same formula?
Yes, one deliverable at a time. Each format gets its own comparable posts, its own median and the anchor from the platform where it will run. A YouTube video bought against CPV pairs with engaged views, where YouTube Analytics shows them, rather than views.
Sources
Opened and checked on 2026-09-28.
- Meta for Developers, Ad Account Insights reference: definitions of CPM, CPP, impressions, reach and frequency.
- Meta Business Help Centre, CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions): CPM as amount spent ÷ impressions × 1,000.
- TikTok Ads Manager, Basic metrics and definitions: impressions, reach, cost per 1,000 people reached.
- TikTok Ads Manager, Available bidding strategies: CPM definition.
- TikTok, About TikTok One project reporting: CPM per 1,000 paid impressions; organic and paid video views.
- Instagram Help Centre, View insights on your Instagram reels: views, viewers, account requirement, insight availability.
- YouTube Help, Understand your YouTube content performance: views, engaged views.
- YouTube Help, How engagement metrics are counted: the 24 August 2026 view-counting change, ad views and the public view count, YPP earnings on engaged views.
- Google Ads Help, About YouTube's cost-per-view (CPV) bidding: what counts as a paid view by ad format.