Brand Deal Contract Checklist: What to Look For Before You Sign

Before you sign a brand deal, check six things: exactly what you must deliver, how the brand can use your content and for how long, whether you are blocked from working with competitors, when and how you get paid, how many rounds of edits you owe, and how either side can end the deal. Usage rights and exclusivity are where most of the money hides, so read those lines twice.

This guide is not legal advice. For a big or unusual deal, have a lawyer read it.

1. Deliverables: what you actually owe

The contract should list every piece of content, in plain detail:

• How many posts, videos, stories or lives
• Which platforms and which accounts
• Length or format (for example, one 30 to 60 second vertical video)
• Posting dates or a posting window
• Required talking points, tags, links or codes
• Whether the brand must approve before you post

If it just says "content as requested," push back. Vague deliverables turn into extra unpaid work.

Superfiliate, which writes contract guidance for brands, notes that being specific about what the creator must do also matters because it decides what counts as a breach later. Clear lists protect you too.

2. Usage rights: who can use your content, where, and for how long

This is the clause that changes the value of a deal the most. Posting on your own account is one thing. Letting the brand reuse your video is another.

Look for:

• Organic usage. Can the brand repost your content on its own social pages? For how long? Superfiliate tells brands it is best practice to ask for organic usage in perpetuity, meaning forever. You do not have to agree to that by default. It is a point you can negotiate.
• Paid usage. Can the brand run your content as an ad? Superfiliate says paid usage licenses are commonly 30, 60 or 90 days, and that longer licenses affect price. Influencer Marketing Hub says usage rights can raise budgets for larger creators by 30% to more than 100%.
• Whitelisting or Spark Ads. Can the brand run ads through your account, under your name? Superfiliate says whitelisting and ad usage typically command higher fees. This should be its own line with its own price.
• Channels. Website, email, in-store displays, TV. Each one is more use of your work.
• Edits. Can the brand cut your video, add text or combine it with other footage?

Watch gifted deals too. Influee, a creator platform, warns that some gifting terms let a brand run your video as a paid ad, which is advertising use beyond a gifted post, and suggests asking for the usage window and charging for it.

3. Exclusivity: who you cannot work with

Exclusivity means you agree not to promote competitors for a set time. It costs you future income, so it should be paid for.

Check:

• How long. Only during the campaign? 30 days after? Six months?
• How wide. Direct competitors by name, or a whole category like "any skincare"?
• Paid and organic. Does it block only paid posts, or even mentioning a competing product you bought yourself?
• Past deals. Do you already have content live for a competitor that the brand is now asking you to remove?

Superfiliate's own advice to brands is to keep exclusivity narrow, limited to direct competitors, and to pay creators for it. Use that as your starting point.

4. Payment terms: how much, when, and what triggers it

A deal is only as good as when the money lands. The contract should state:

• The total fee and currency
• How you get paid (bank transfer, PayPal, a platform)
• When. Superfiliate lists net 15 or net 30 as typical, meaning 15 or 30 days after something specific happens.
• What starts the clock. Content approval? Posting? The end of the campaign? An invoice? This matters more than the number of days.
• Deposits. For bigger jobs, asking for part of the fee up front is reasonable.
• Late payment. What happens if they are late?
• Product. If free product is part of the deal, is it on top of the fee or instead of part of it?

Brand income is usually self-employment income. The IRS says self-employed people generally pay tax through quarterly estimated payments, so plan for that from the first deal.

5. Revisions and approvals

Edits eat time. The contract should say:

• Who gives feedback and how fast
• How many rounds of changes you owe
• What happens if the brand asks for a full reshoot

Superfiliate quotes a brand marketer who uses a two round approval process. Two rounds is a fair thing to ask for. Anything beyond that should cost extra.

6. Disclosure and honesty rules

The contract should require you to disclose the partnership, and you should do it anyway. The FTC says disclosures must be easy to see, placed with the endorsement, and in videos both on screen and spoken. Plain words like "ad" or "sponsored" work.

Also check for required claims. The FTC says you can only talk about products you have actually tried, you cannot call a product great if you did not think so, and you should not repeat claims the brand cannot back up, such as health benefits. If a brief asks you to say something you do not believe or cannot back up, ask to change it.

7. Term, termination and kill fees

Look for:

• Length of the deal. Superfiliate says campaign contracts usually run 30 to 90 days and ambassador agreements 6 to 12 months.
• Renewal. Does it renew on its own? At the same rate?
• How either side can end it. Brands often include exits for controversial conduct or missed deliverables. Make sure the language is specific, not "anything the brand dislikes."
• What you get paid if they cancel. If the brand cancels after you filmed, you should still be paid for work done. Ask for this in writing.

8. The small print that bites later

• Who owns the content. Check whether you keep ownership and the brand gets a license to use it, or whether you are handing over everything. If you see words like "work for hire" or "assign all rights," slow down and ask what you keep.
• Where disputes are handled. Superfiliate notes contracts should set the jurisdiction.
• Morality clauses. Fine in principle, but they should be clear.
• Confidentiality. Can you say you worked with them?

A quick red flag list

Slow down if you see:

• Usage "in all media, worldwide, in perpetuity" with no extra pay
• Category wide exclusivity for months at a normal rate
• Payment that starts "after campaign completion" with no end date
• Unlimited revisions
• No written contract at all

How Plane Site helps

Contract negotiation is one of the four core things Plane Site Talent Management does: we read every line, push on rates and rights, and keep clients out of bad terms around usage, exclusivity, payment terms and renewals. If you have a contract in front of you right now, book a call and see how we represent influencers. For pricing the usage line, read how much to charge for a sponsored post, and before signing with a manager, read red flags when signing with a creator agency.

Questions