You get brand deals by joining the brand marketplaces that YouTube, TikTok and Meta run, and by pitching brands yourself with a short email that proves your audience matches their customers. As of October 2026, TikTok One and Meta Creator Marketplace both open at 1,000 followers, and YouTube Creator Partnerships is open to Partner Program channels, which can join from 500 subscribers.
Most first deals are small. Collabstr’s 2026 report, covering more than 21,000 collaborations on its marketplace, found nearly 80% were priced under $300, according to Storyboard18. This guide covers finding and landing the deal. For contracts, disclosure and payment, read how brand deals work, and for what to charge, read how to price sponsored posts.
Which brand marketplaces should you join?
Join every marketplace you qualify for, because each one puts you in front of brands that are already searching for creators. The three big platforms each run their own, with different entry bars.
| Marketplace | Where you find it | Entry bar as of October 2026 | How brands reach you |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube Creator Partnerships, formerly BrandConnect | Earn section of YouTube Studio | 18 or older, in the Partner Program, no active Community Guidelines strikes, in a supported country | Inquiries in the Creator Partnerships tab, plus email and social handles |
| YouTube Open Call | Inside Creator Partnerships | Invitation only. US, UK or India, 1,000 to 500,000 subscribers, a Short posted in the last 30 days | Brands pick from Shorts you submit to their brief |
| TikTok One | Creator Marketplace in TikTok Studio | 18 or older, in a launched region, 1,000 followers for projects | Direct invitations, open applications and invite links |
| Meta Creator Marketplace | Instagram, with Facebook creators being added | 18 or older, public professional account, 1,000 followers | Brands search through Meta’s Creator Marketing Hub |
YouTube Creator Partnerships
YouTube makes every eligible Partner Program channel discoverable to brands by default and adds a Creator Partnerships tab to the Earn section of YouTube Studio. When you mark a brand’s inquiry as interested, YouTube shares your contact details, and you negotiate, sign and get paid by the brand directly.
The setting that matters most is off by default. Channel insights sharing lets advertisers see your channel statistics, audience demographics and shopping performance, and Google’s advertiser help says audience and performance filters in creator search leave out creators who have not opted in. Turn it on in YouTube Studio under Settings, then Channel, then Advanced settings.
Open Call is YouTube’s brief board. Invited creators submit an unlisted Short against a brand’s brief, and if the brand picks it, YouTube pays through AdSense within 60 days, at a price YouTube says is based on subscriber count and market rates. Videos the brand passes on earn nothing, and for ad projects the brand gets a license to run your video in ads for 6 months.
TikTok One
TikTok One is the brand marketplace run by TikTok, open to creators 18 or older with at least 1,000 followers where it has launched. Sign up through Creator Marketplace in TikTok Studio, then fill in your profile with starting rates, contact details, languages and industries, because that profile is what brands see when they search.
TikTok One lists four project types as of March 2026:
- Creator Marketing, where you make custom content for a flat fee
- Branded Buzz, where you post with a campaign hashtag and share a performance-based cash pool
- Spark Opportunity Program, where you authorize videos you already posted and earn when brands run them as Spark Ads
- TikTok Creative Challenge, where you make ad content and earn a commission that grows with the brand’s ad spend
Open applications have a weekly cap, and TikTok raises it when you complete projects with videos that perform well. Direct invitations expire after 7 days. TikTok tells creators to check that an invite link points to tiktok.com and comes from a known brand contact before tapping it.
Meta Creator Marketplace
Meta Creator Marketplace lets brands find Instagram creators for branded content and partnership ads once you are 18, run a public professional account and have 1,000 followers. Meta launched its Creator Marketing Hub globally in September 2026, adding Facebook creators to the same marketplace and letting advertisers search for creators with an AI assistant, according to Marketing Dive. The rollout runs through the rest of 2026.
How do you pitch a brand directly?
A direct pitch is a short email to a named marketing contact that says why you, why this brand and what you would make. YouTube’s own brand deal tips list a brand’s contact form, LinkedIn messages to marketing directors and posts on X as fair routes in, and say there are “not too many wrong ways” to make contact.
We build every pitch in six parts:
- A subject line with the brand’s name and your idea.
- One line on why this brand. Name a product you have actually used, because the FTC says you cannot talk about your experience with a product you have not tried.
- Your audience in numbers that match the brand’s customers, with top countries, age range and median views.
- One proof point, such as a past result or your best recent post in the format you are pitching.
- Two specific content ideas, one line each.
- One ask with a link to your media kit, such as “Can I send rates and dates for a June post?”
YouTube’s media kit advice runs in the same order. It suggests opening with why you want to work with the brand, then describing your channel and audience, adding statistics such as subscribers, views, watch time and demographics, and closing with a few video ideas.
Here is a pitch built on that structure. The first line is the subject, and everything in brackets is a placeholder, not a real figure.
A 30-day [product] test for [brand]
Hi [name], I have used [product] for [time] and it already appears in my [niche] videos unpaid. My audience is mostly [country] and [age range], and my last 15 Shorts had a median of [number] views. A [format] I made about [topic] drove [result]. I have two ideas, [idea one] and [idea two]. Can I send rates and dates? My media kit is at [link].
Send one follow-up after about a week, then move on to the next brand. That is our editorial view, not a published rule.
What do brands check before they reply?
Brands check whether your audience matches their customers and whether your reach is real. Their own search tools show which numbers they look at first.
TikTok One lets brands filter creators on follower count, follower gender and language, audience country, age range and gender ratio, median video views and engagement rate. YouTube’s channel insights sharing gives brands your channel statistics, audience demographics and shopping performance. Instagram tells creators to give brands follower counts and average likes, views, comments and shares from both regular and past branded posts.
| What brands check | Where they see it | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Audience country, age and gender | TikTok One filters, YouTube channel insights, your media kit | Pitch brands that sell where your viewers live |
| Median views per post | TikTok One filters, your profile | Quote medians, not averages lifted by one viral post |
| Engagement rate | TikTok One filters and campaign reports | State your formula. TikTok One divides likes, comments and shares by views |
| Past branded posts | Your profile and media kit | Show results you can prove from your analytics |
| Disclosure on past deals | Your profile | Label every past sponsorship clearly |
| Follower and view history | Your public counts over time | Never buy followers or views |
Fake reach is a legal problem as well as a credibility one. Since October 21, 2024, the FTC’s Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule has banned buying or selling fake indicators of social media influence, such as followers or views, when the buyer knew or should have known they were fake and uses them to misrepresent influence for a commercial purpose.
Your disclosure history matters for a similar reason. The FTC tells creators that disclosing brand relationships is their responsibility and that a platform’s disclosure tool may not be enough, so unlabeled sponsorships on your feed look like risk to a careful brand.
Which brands should you pitch first?
Pitch brands you already use whose customers look like your audience. A brand that already sells to people like your viewers can say yes on fit alone.
YouTube’s tips point the same way. YouTube tells creators to partner only with brands they believe in and their audience will enjoy, to be open with viewers about deals, and not to post branded content so often that it hurts the viewing experience. It also says turning down a brand is fine.
We would build a first list from products you already own and mention, brands that sponsor creators of your size in your niche, and brands already advertising to your audience. With nearly 80% of Collabstr’s 2026 collaborations priced under $300, expect the first deal to be small whoever it is with, and treat it as proof for the next pitch.
How many followers do you need to get brand deals?
You need no followers to pitch a brand directly, but platform marketplaces set entry bars. TikTok One projects and Meta Creator Marketplace start at 1,000 followers, YouTube Creator Partnerships requires Partner Program membership, which opens at 500 subscribers, and YouTube’s Open Call takes channels with 1,000 to 500,000 subscribers.
Below those bars, a direct pitch and a clear media kit are your route in, and they work at any size when the audience fit is obvious. Our guide to how many followers you need to get paid lists every platform’s thresholds.
What happens after a brand says yes?
After a yes, the brand sends a brief, you quote, and both sides sign a contract before you make anything. Get the deliverables, dates, usage rights and payment terms in writing first.
Our guide to how brand deals work walks through the brief, the contract terms that change the price, FTC disclosure and payment, and how to price sponsored posts turns your median views into a quote. Paid partnership labels on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok help, but in the US the FTC expects your own clear disclosure in the post as well. When the money arrives, a brand that pays you $2,000 or more in 2026 sends a Form 1099-NEC, and our creator taxes basics guide explains what you owe.