A creator media kit is a two page document that tells a brand who your audience is, how far your content reaches, how people engage with it, what you have delivered before, and what you charge. It exists to answer a brand’s questions before they have to ask, so the conversation starts at “which package” instead of “send us your numbers”.
Most kits fail for the same reason: they lead with follower count and stop there. Follower count is the least useful number you own. This guide covers what brands actually check, a copyable structure you can rebuild in any tool, how to calculate every number correctly, how to present a rate card, a worked example profile, and the mistakes that quietly lose deals. All money figures here are examples in US dollars.
Key takeaways
- Lead with reach and engagement rate by reach, not followers.
- Quote the median of your last twenty posts and state the date range beside it.
- Audience demographics decide most deals. Age, location and language matter more than size.
- Two or three past results with real numbers beat ten screenshots of vanity metrics.
- Publish a starting rate range and price usage rights, exclusivity and rush separately.
- Keep it to two pages, update it quarterly, and send a PDF plus a live link.
What do brands actually look at in a creator media kit?
Brands check four things in order: does this audience match our customer, how many of them will see the post, how strongly do they react, and has this creator delivered before. Follower count only matters as a rough size filter. Everything else is audience fit and proof.
Put yourself on the other side of the email. A brand manager has a budget, a target customer and a deadline. They are not evaluating your creativity in the first pass. They are checking whether your audience overlaps their customer and whether you will be easy to work with.
That is why demographics belong near the top. A food account with 20,000 followers, 70 percent of them women aged 25 to 34 in three cities the brand sells in, is more valuable than a general account with 200,000 followers spread thinly. YouTube built the same logic into its own tooling: its Creator Partnerships help page describes giving creators a media kit with audience insights and rate preferences so brands can find them inside YouTube Studio.
What should a creator media kit include?
Eight blocks in this order: header, about, audience, platform numbers, content formats, past results, packages and rates, terms. Two pages total. Each block should be readable in under ten seconds, because the first pass is a skim, not a read.
| Section | What goes in it | Why a brand cares |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Header | Name or handle, niche in six words, one photo, contact email | They need to know in two seconds whether you fit |
| 2. About | Two sentences on what you make and who watches | Sorts you into a category they already buy |
| 3. Audience | Age split, gender split, top five cities or countries, top language | Decides whether your audience is their customer |
| 4. Platform numbers | Per platform: followers, 30 day reach, median views, engagement rate by reach | Reach and rate are the two inputs to their cost model |
| 5. Content formats | The three formats you make best, with one example link each | Shows you can deliver the asset in the brief |
| 6. Past results | Two or three campaigns with the metric that mattered and the outcome | Proof beats promises |
| 7. Packages and rates | Deliverables bundled, with a starting price range | Tells them if you fit the budget before a call |
| 8. Terms | Usage rights, exclusivity, turnaround, disclosure policy | Legal and compliance clear you faster |
Rebuild this in whatever tool you already use. A shared document, a slide deck exported to PDF, or a simple page on your own site all work. The structure matters more than the design. If you want help drafting the wording for each block, our guide to prompt engineering for marketers has patterns you can reuse for writing the about and results sections.
How do you calculate the numbers in a media kit?
Use reach based metrics and quote medians over your last twenty posts. Engagement rate by reach is the standard because it counts people who saw the post rather than people who happen to follow you. Always state the formula and the date range so a brand can sanity check it.
Formula: Engagement rate by reach = (Likes + Comments + Shares + Saves) ÷ Reach × 100
Formula: Median views per post = the middle value of your last 20 posts, not the average
Formula: Implied CPM = (Your fee ÷ Median views) × 1,000
Use the median, not the mean. One viral post drags an average so far off that a brand comparing your kit to your actual delivery will feel misled, and you will not get the second deal. The engagement rate entry in our media planning glossary covers how the same number is defined across platforms, which matters when a brand compares three creators side by side.
Implied CPM is the number that wins arguments. It translates your fee into the language a media buyer already uses, and it lets you show that a creator post can cost less per thousand views than the brand’s own paid social. Run it with the free engagement rate calculator and ad budget calculator before you send a rate.
What does a worked example creator profile look like?
Here is a fictional creator profile with the numbers filled in the way a brand wants to see them. Every figure below is invented to show the format. Copy the row labels, replace the values with your own, and keep the date range visible at the top of the block.
Example creator, invented numbers. A home cooking creator posting three times a week, reporting on the 30 days to 31 August.
| Metric | YouTube Shorts | |
|---|---|---|
| Followers or subscribers | 48,200 | 21,400 |
| Reach or views, last 30 days | 612,000 | 845,000 |
| Median reach or views per post | 27,400 | 38,900 |
| Median engagement rate by reach | 6.8 percent | 4.1 percent |
| Median shares per reach | 1.2 percent | 0.6 percent |
| Top audience age band | 25 to 34 | 25 to 34 |
| Top three markets | United States, Canada, United Kingdom | United States, India, United Kingdom |
Now price it. Say this creator charges $900 for a Reel plus a three frame story set.
- Implied CPM on Instagram = ($900 ÷ 27,400) × 1,000 = $32.85
- If the brand adds 90 day paid usage at 60 percent, the fee becomes $900 + $540 = $1,440
- If the same creator bundles a YouTube Short at $600, the package is $2,040 for a median 66,300 views across both platforms
- Blended implied CPM = ($2,040 ÷ 66,300) × 1,000 = $30.77
That last line is what a media buyer will screenshot. It reframes your fee as a media cost they can compare against their own buying. The CPM definition in our glossary is worth linking in your kit if you work with smaller brands who have never bought media.
How should you present a rate card?
Show three packages with a starting price, then list add ons for usage rights, exclusivity and rush turnaround as percentages of the base fee. Say clearly that rates are starting points. That single line keeps you free to price up for a demanding brief without looking inconsistent.
| Package | What is included | Example starting rate |
|---|---|---|
| Single Reel or Short | One vertical video, one round of edits, 30 days organic | $600 |
| Reel plus Story set | One video plus three story frames with a link sticker | $900 |
| Three video series | Three videos over four weeks, one round of edits each | $1,600 |
| Add: paid usage, 90 days | Brand may run the asset as an ad on its own handles | Plus 60 percent of the base fee |
| Add: category exclusivity, 90 days | You take no competing brand in the category | Plus 40 percent of the base fee |
| Add: 48 hour turnaround | Rush delivery | Plus 25 percent of the base fee |
Every figure in that table is an example, not a benchmark. Real rates vary hugely by country, niche and season. What should not vary is the structure: base fee for the content, separate charges for the rights a brand wants on top.
Three rules that protect your pricing:
- Never bundle paid usage into the base fee. Running your face as an ad for 90 days is a different product from one organic post.
- Charge for exclusivity by the week, not forever. Open ended category exclusivity quietly removes your other income.
- Put revisions in writing. One round included, extra rounds billed. Scope creep is the real margin killer.
Add a short terms block covering disclosure. Paid posts must be labelled, and the FTC guidance for influencers says the disclosure should be in the video itself rather than only in the description, and warns against vague terms like “sp”, “spon” or “collab”. Creators working with Indian brands should also follow the ASCI influencer guidelines, which list the permitted labels and require the disclosure to be upfront and prominent.
How do you prove past results?
Use a three line case format: the brief, what you made, and the outcome with a number attached. Pick outcomes a brand can act on, such as link clicks, code redemptions, saves or comments from buying intent, rather than views alone. Two strong cases beat six weak ones.
A case that works reads like this: “A skincare brand wanted to reach first time buyers. We made one Reel and two story frames explaining a routine. The Reel reached 34,000 accounts, the story link earned 1,900 taps, and the brand’s discount code was used 210 times.”
If you cannot quote the brand’s sales data, quote what you can measure yourself. Tag every link you post for a client with the free UTM campaign builder so that six months later you still know which post drove which traffic. That habit turns a vague claim into a case study you own.
What this means for marketers and creators
For creators
- Rebuild your kit around reach, engagement rate by reach and demographics. Move follower count to a single line.
- Quote medians with a date range. Screenshot the insights that back every number.
- Separate content fees from usage, exclusivity and rush. That is where your margin lives.
- Keep one page per platform of past results with real outcomes, updated every quarter.
For marketers and brand teams
- Ask for reach and engagement rate by reach with the date range, and for median rather than best post numbers.
- Request audience demographics before you request rates. Fit decides value.
- Price usage rights explicitly in the brief so creators can quote accurately the first time.
- Write the disclosure requirement into the contract and check the delivered edit against it.
Which media kit mistakes lose deals?
Deals are lost by stale numbers, averages inflated by one viral post, missing demographics, no contact email, rates hidden behind a call, and a design so heavy the file will not open on a phone. Every one of these is fixable in an afternoon.
- Six month old numbers. Brands check your recent posts. If your kit says 40,000 average views and your last ten Reels sit at 9,000, the call ends there.
- Averages instead of medians. One viral post makes your kit look dishonest even when it is not.
- No demographics. The single most common gap, and the one that decides fit.
- Rates only on request. Small brands with fixed budgets will skip you rather than ask.
- A 40 megabyte PDF. It bounces, or nobody opens it.
- No disclosure policy. Compliance teams treat that as a risk flag.
Frequently asked questions
What should a creator media kit include?
Eight blocks: who you are in one line, your audience, platform by platform reach and engagement rate by reach, audience demographics, two or three past results with numbers, what you offer, your rates, and how to contact you. Two pages is enough. Anything longer gets skimmed.
How do you calculate engagement rate for a media kit?
Use engagement rate by reach. Add likes, comments, shares and saves for a post, divide by that post’s reach, then multiply by 100. Do it for your last twenty posts and quote the median, not your best post. State the formula and the date range next to the number.
Should you put your rates in your media kit?
Yes, as a starting range rather than a fixed price. A range filters out briefs you cannot serve and saves two rounds of email. Add a line saying final pricing depends on usage rights, exclusivity and turnaround, which is where most of the real negotiation happens anyway.
How many followers do you need to get brand deals?
There is no threshold. Brands buy an audience that matches their customer, and small accounts with high engagement and clear demographics regularly beat larger ones. What you do need is proof: screenshots of insights, a documented result from a past post, and a clear description of who watches you.
What file format should a creator media kit be?
A PDF for email plus a live link you can update. Keep the PDF under five megabytes so it does not bounce, name the file with your handle and the month, and make every number in it traceable to a screenshot you can send if a brand asks.
How often should you update your media kit?
Every quarter, and before any pitch. Numbers age fast, and quoting a reach figure from six months ago is the quickest way to lose credibility in a call. Keep a simple sheet of monthly reach, engagement rate and best post so the update takes ten minutes.
Next steps
Build the audience and numbers blocks first, because everything else is writing. Pull your last twenty posts, run them through the free engagement rate calculator, and write down the median. If most of your reach is short form, our guides to growing on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts monetization will help you decide which platform to lead with. The rest of the kit sits in the TechMachaw tools library.
Want more templates like this one? Join the free TechMachaw newsletter using the signup form on this page.
Schedule a month of posts in one sitting
Publer’s free plan covers 3 social accounts with 10 scheduled posts each, enough to run a real posting calendar without paying anything. Paid plans start at $5 a month if you outgrow it.
Affiliate link. We may earn a commission if you upgrade, at no extra cost to you.
Free tools for this: our 10 social media tools include a carousel splitter, engagement rate calculator, caption counter and a best time to post planner.
