The short answer
Only if the deals are big enough to pay for the work, and no follower count switches that on. Below roughly $3,000 in creator fees there isn’t enough commission in it to cover the five jobs every deal goes through.
And never pay to be represented: an agency is paid by the brand, or takes a commission after you’ve been paid.
The job, honestly
Five things every deal goes through, and most of them are admin.
I was the founder and CEO of Krex Talents for six years, and I booked creators with 300+ brands over that time. Every deal went through all five of these, and all five were mine.
Found the creator
For brands running campaigns, across fashion, beauty, lifestyle and tech. Somebody who fitted the brief, not somebody on a roster I needed to monetise.
Wrote the pitch
Thousands of emails to brands on behalf of the people I represented.
Agreed the fee
Arguing about money for a living, with the person holding the budget, on the creator’s side of the table.
Papered the contract
Every contract that came back got read before anybody signed it, usage terms included. A perpetual-usage clause is still the thing I most often tell a creator to walk away from, and I’ve written about what it costs separately.
Ran delivery and chased the invoice
Through to payment, and then chasing the invoice when it didn’t arrive. The unglamorous half of every campaign is chasing drafts, approvals and posting windows.
What isn’t on that list
Nobody grew an account. Nobody had an idea for a video. A manager who represents you will tell you straight what is landing and what is not, because your feed is the thing they are selling, and a good one is steering where the whole thing goes rather than working deal to deal. But if what you want is somebody to make the work, a manager is the wrong purchase, and an expensive one.
How they get paid
Two ways, and there isn’t a third.
The brand pays the agency out of the campaign budget. Or the agency takes a commission on a deal it actually got you, after you’ve been paid, out of money it brought in.
That is the whole list. I ran one of these for six years and never charged a creator a penny, and nobody worth signing with does either.
No signing fee. No monthly fee. No fee to be put forward for a campaign.
The only question
Which direction is the money moving?
If it’s moving from you to them before a brand has paid anybody, stop there. Some of these arrangements aren’t even illegal.
There are real companies taking real money for a listing on a database no brand ever searches. You won’t get that money back and there’s nobody to complain to.
So the rule isn’t avoid the scams. Never pay to be represented.
The arithmetic
What the commission has to buy.
On the brand side of my own work I charge 15 to 20% of the creator fees, depending on scope, agreed in writing before anything is booked. I’m not going to tell you what every manager charges, because I haven’t read every manager’s contract.
If somebody is taking a fifth of everything, they have to bring you at least a fifth more than you’d have got on your own before you’re level. Not more interesting work.
More of it, or better priced, by at least that much, every year, for as long as the arrangement runs. Ask how they intend to do that. If the answer is a feeling rather than a plan, you have your answer to the headline.
Then ask about margin, which is the part nobody volunteers. I don’t take a margin on a creator fee without telling the brand what it is: they see what the creator is paid and they see what I’m paid.
Hidden margin is the standard model in this industry. It works exactly the same way pointed at you.
None of those questions is answerable until you know what the work is worth. That’s the real prerequisite, and it’s free: the rate bands, then the calculator.
Three questions, before you sign
- What is the brand paying, and what am I being paid? If those two numbers aren’t both shown to you, there’s a reason.
- How will you bring me more than the commission takes? A plan is an answer. Enthusiasm isn’t.
- What holds me in, and for how long? No exclusivity and no contract holding you in is a position somebody can take. Ask whether they take it.
The threshold
It’s about the size of the deals, not the size of the audience.
There’s no follower count that switches this on, and anybody who gives you one is guessing. There is a threshold, though, and it’s the line I give brands about their own campaigns.
Point that at yourself and it holds just as well. All five barely change with the size of the fee. On small deals there isn’t enough commission in it to pay for that work.
Which means one of two things is true. Either they aren’t really doing it, or they’re doing it for somebody else and you’re the name that fills a gap on the roster.
A roster agency has to sell the creators it has signed, because that’s how it makes money, so the shortlist a brand gets is shaped by the contract book before it’s shaped by the brief.
On the wrong end of that you’re represented and never pitched, and nothing in the paperwork tells you which one you are.
What I say to brands
Below roughly $3,000 in creator fees, a managed campaign stops making sense for either of us, because the coordination costs the same whether the campaign is small or large.
It might be worth it if
- Offers are landing faster than you can price them, and they’re big enough that a fifth of them buys real work
- You’re turning things down because the contract frightened you rather than because the deal was bad
- You keep being asked for usage and exclusivity you have no idea how to price
- The chasing has quietly become the job, and it’s eating the days you used to spend making things
It probably isn’t if
- No brand has emailed you yet. A manager doesn’t fix that, and finding brands yourself is a skill you’ll want anyway
- Somebody has asked you for a fee to be represented. That is the answer, and the answer is no
- You’ve never priced a deal yourself, so you have no way of telling whether the ones they bring you are any good
Declaring an interest
There’s a middle, and I sell it.
A mentorship client pays a flat monthly fee. I take no percentage of anything they earn, there’s no exclusivity, and they can leave whenever they like. Once the rate card and the media kit are ready I pitch them to brands in my network.
That’s access. It isn’t a promise that anyone says yes.
I do also represent a small number of creators. That’s a different arrangement with its own terms, it’s by application, it isn’t something I take on often, and I wouldn’t put you into it just because you asked.
Everything I do is on the services page, priced wherever the price is fixed, so you can hold it against whatever you’ve been quoted.
The line to carry into every one of these conversations
I won’t say I’ll place you with a brand. I pitch you. The yes isn’t mine to promise, and anybody promising it is guessing.
Before you sign anything
The version with the paperwork in it.
Two pages of Getting On The Shortlist are about exactly this: agencies and databases that charge creators to be represented, and what a real approach looks like sitting next to a fake one. It’s the shortest thing I sell and it’s deliberately blunt.
If what you want for now is to do the pitching yourself, everything you need to price the work is free on the rates page.
The list
What brands are actually paying.
Rate breakdowns, pitch teardowns, and when a brand comes to me looking for creators, that goes out here first. The free guide arrives the moment you sign up.
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