Most problems between creators and brands don’t come from bad faith. They come from nobody reading a two-page document carefully, and three months later the two sides remembering different things.
These are the six clauses where almost everything is decided. You don’t need a lawyer to review them; you need to know they exist.
1. Deliverables: what, how many, and where
“Content for social” is not a deliverable. A deliverable is one reel between 20 and 40 seconds posted to your Instagram account, plus two stories with a link, between October 3rd and 10th.
If the document doesn’t say it at that level of detail, somebody will say it over WhatsApp the week of the post, and it will probably be more than you thought.
Look too at how many rounds of revisions it includes. “Subject to brand approval” with no cap means you could be reshooting the same piece four times for the same money.
2. Usage rights: where your content ends up
The clause that moves the most money and gets read the least.
Three questions need written answers:
- Where can the brand use it? Only reposting on their account, or their website, their store, their paid media too?
- For how long? A term. “In perpetuity” is a content buyout and gets priced as one.
- Can they edit it? Cutting your video down to a six-second ad changes what you said.
If the contract says something like “worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable and transferable licence” and the fee doesn’t reflect it, there’s a conversation still to be had.
3. Exclusivity: what you’re giving up, and for how long
A reasonable exclusivity clause has three limits: category (not “consumer brands”, but “collagen supplements”), term (weeks or months, with an end date) and compensation (paid separately).
One missing any of the three is an open-ended restriction on your business. And watch for the kind that starts before the campaign: being asked not to post anything in the category for the previous month is exclusivity too.
4. Payment: how much, when, and against what
Three facts: the amount, the term, and what triggers payment.
The third is the one people forget. Do you get paid on posting, on approval, or thirty days after invoicing? Do you have to hand over metrics first? Who covers withholding tax if there is any?
If payment runs against “results” — views, clicks, sales — ask that they be defined, measurable by you, and backed by a guaranteed minimum. Working entirely on commission means absorbing another company’s commercial risk for free.
5. What happens if it falls through
Campaigns get cancelled: the launch moves, stock runs out, the brand reshuffles the quarter.
Find the cancellation clause. The reasonable shape is that if you already produced, production gets paid; and if the cancellation lands after the piece is live, it gets paid in full. If the contract says nothing, the default is that you don’t get paid.
And the other way round: check what happens if you’re the one who can’t deliver. A notice period and a fallback date keep a personal problem from turning into a breach.
6. Paid-partnership disclosure
In the United States, the FTC requires a paid partnership to be identified as such, clearly and somewhere visible without expanding the caption. It isn’t optional, and the responsibility is yours as well as the brand’s.
Any contract asking you not to disclose, or to bury it in the fourth hashtag, is asking you to take on a risk that isn’t worth it. And audiences spot it anyway: disclosed content performs perfectly well when the recommendation is genuine.
The short version
Before signing, check that the document answers these six questions without you having to ask over WhatsApp: what do I deliver, where does it end up, what am I giving up, when do I get paid, what happens if it falls through, and how is it disclosed.
If all six are clear, the rest almost always sorts itself out in conversation.
This is general information, not legal advice. For a specific contract with real money in it, have a lawyer look at it.