UGC vs brand deals
A UGC deal pays a creator to make content the brand publishes on the brand's channels. A brand deal, also called an influencer deal, pays the creator to publish or promote on their own channels. Many briefs mix the two. When they do, they are two jobs, and they should be two prices.
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What is the difference between a UGC deal and a brand deal?
A UGC deal pays a creator to make content the brand publishes on the brand's channels. A brand deal, also called an influencer deal, pays the creator to publish or promote on their own channels. Many briefs mix the two. When they do, they are two jobs, and they should be two prices.
"Brand deal" is also used more loosely, for any paid work with a brand, including UGC. This page uses it the way people search for it: the posting job, set next to a UGC deal. The wider meaning is covered in what a brand deal is.
What is a UGC deal?
A UGC deal pays you to create content for the brand to publish. UGC means user-generated content. In brand work, that is footage or photos that look like a person made them, which the brand then uses on its own channels, site or ads.
You deliver the files: a video, a set of photos, a few hooks, sometimes the raw footage. You are not being paid for your follower count. Unless the brief says otherwise, you do not post the work on your account, and the brand is not buying access to your audience.
What you are selling is the content, plus whatever permission you give the brand to use it. That permission is usage rights. On a UGC deal it is often the part of the fee people forget to charge.
What is a brand deal?
In this comparison, a brand deal pays you to post or promote on your own channels. An influencer deal is the same idea. Creators, brands and contracts use both names, and the difference between UGC and brand deals is the same either way.
The brand is buying distribution: a post in front of your audience, in your voice. You still make the content, but the reason the fee exists is the audience, not only the file. A gifted product with no fee is neither a brand deal nor a UGC deal. Nothing was paid for the work.
If the brief also asks the brand to reuse your post as an ad, or to run ads from your handle, that is usage or whitelisting. Agreeing to post does not include it.
UGC vs brand deals
The difference between UGC and brand deals is who publishes, and what the fee is for.
| UGC deal | Brand deal (influencer deal) | |
|---|---|---|
| Who posts | The brand, on the brand's channels | You, on your channels |
| Whose audience | The brand's, or a paid audience | Yours |
| The file | Agree it in writing. Often you keep copyright and grant a licence. Some contracts ask you to hand ownership over | The post stays on your account. The brand gets only the reuse you agree to |
| What the fee is for | Making the content, and the licence to use it | Putting it in front of your audience. Making it is part of the job, not the whole price |
| Usage and whitelisting | Common, and often the point of the job. Paid ads, a long window, or ads from your handle should be their own lines | The organic post is the base. Boosting it, whitelisting it, or letting the brand reuse it is extra |
| How it is priced | Production effort and revisions, then the licence. Follower count barely matters | Audience, engagement and fit, then extras if they want more than the post |
Neither is the better job. They are different products. You can sell both, including to the same brand, as long as the invoice shows which fee is which.
Can one job be both?
Yes. A brief that says "send us the files for our ads, and post a Reel on your account" is a UGC deliverable and a brand-deal deliverable in one email.
Split it into line items before you say yes:
- a creation fee for the files
- a posting fee for the Reel on your account
- a usage fee if they want paid ads, a set window, other countries, or the right to re-cut
- a whitelisting fee if the ads will run from your handle
One blended number hides which part you discounted. When the brand later says "we only need the files", you have already given that job away inside the post price.
How to price each
Price the thing you are actually selling, in layers. There is no honest single number for either job, and this page will not invent one.
For a UGC deal, start with a creation fee: how many pieces, how much production, and how many revision rounds are included. Then price the licence. Organic use on the brand's channels is not the same product as paid ads, a 12-month window, or worldwide use. How to charge for UGC walks through those layers. It does not publish a rate chart, on purpose.
For a brand deal where you post, start with the post itself: engagement, niche, and whether your audience is actually this brand's customer. A Reel, a TikTok, a Story and a YouTube integration are not one price. Add usage or whitelisting only if the brief asks for them. How influencers set a rate covers that side, again without a per-follower table.
Usage sits on top of either fee. It should move with duration, with paid versus organic, and with territory. The usage rights calculator estimates a usage fee as a percentage of the base rate you type in. Treat the result as a starting point you can adjust, not a market rate. Read what the terms mean before you agree a window.
If you want both offer types on a menu you can reuse, put them on separate rows of a rate card. A rate card is not a quote for one brief.
What to check before you say yes
Five gaps cause most of the messy briefs. Settle them before you name a fee.
- Ownership. Are you licensing the file, or assigning it so the brand owns it? A licence and an assignment are not the same grant.
- Usage. Which channels, organic or paid, which countries, and from which date until which date?
- Whitelisting. Will ads run from your handle? That uses your name and your reach. It is not a free extra on top of a UGC file or an organic post.
- Revisions. How many rounds are included, and what a further round costs?
- Payment. A deposit, payment on delivery, or a set number of days after the invoice. Get the timing in writing before you film.
If any of those are missing, ask. "Full usage" and "all rights" are not a scope. They are a prompt to write a narrower sentence.
Once it is agreed, write down the deliverables, the fee and whether you have been paid, somewhere you will still understand in a month. A brand deal tracker is one place to keep either kind of job.
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FAQ
Keep either kind of job in one place
Once it is agreed, write down the deliverables, the fee and whether you have been paid, somewhere you will still understand in a month.