UGC usage rights explained

The four kinds of use

• Organic use: the brand posts your video on its own website, email and social accounts. Usually included in the base rate.
• Paid usage: the brand runs your video as an ad from its own accounts. Charged on top, by term.
• Whitelisting / Spark Ads: the ad runs from your handle, with your name and profile. Charged on top, usually per month.
• Buyout or perpetual use: the brand can use the video anywhere, forever. The most expensive option.

What creators charge for paid usage

Influee publishes paid ad usage as a share of the base rate that grows with the term: 20–30% for 3 months, 25–40% for 6 months, 30–50% for 12 months and 100–150% for perpetual use. Insense puts paid usage at 30–100% depending on the term, and Later at 30–50%. No source we found gives a figure for under three months.

Whitelisting and Spark Ads

Because the ad uses your name and your audience’s trust, whitelisting is priced on top of paid usage. Influee lists about 30% of the base rate per month; Insense’s guide starts Meta whitelisting and TikTok Spark Ads at $100–$150 a month for a 30-day license; Later gives +30–50%.

Exclusivity

Exclusivity stops you working with competing brands for a period. Every source we checked says it adds a premium, but none publishes a number, so price it by what the lost deals would have paid you.

How to write it into the deal

1. Put each right on its own line of the quote, with its term. The UGC rate calculator does this for you.
2. Write the channels and the term into the contract, and say that use beyond them needs a new fee (UGC contract template).
3. Start the term on first ad spend, not on delivery, and tie the license to payment in full.
4. Diary the end date. When a term ends, a renewal is a new fee.