How to price your UGC: from free products to real day rates
The habit that moves creators off gifting and onto real money: price the deliverables and the usage, not a vague vibe.
Priya Shah · Brand Deals · · 2 min read
Ask a new creator their rate and you'll usually get a nervous round number, or "whatever you usually pay." Ask someone who gets booked repeatedly and they'll quote per video, note how many hooks are included, and ask where the brand plans to run it. That second answer is most of the difference between gifting forever and earning real money.
Price the parts, not a vibe
UGC isn't one price. It's a base rate per video, plus extras the brand chooses: additional hook variations, different aspect ratios, and — the big one — usage rights. Break it into parts and a quote stops feeling like a guess and starts feeling like a service.
- Set a base rate per finished video.
- Add for extra hooks and format variations.
- Price usage separately: organic only costs less than paid ads.
- Put it in a short rate card so you quote the same way every time.
Tip: Usage is where the money is
A brand running your video as a paid ad for six months is getting far more than organic use. If usage isn't named, you've probably undercharged. Always ask where it will run and for how long.
Done consistently, pricing by deliverable and usage means you're never pulling a number out of the air, and you stop leaving money on the table on the rights. That's the core of the Landing Brand Deals course, which gives you a rate card and a usage cheat sheet you can defend in a reply.
