You get Instagram brand deals by switching to a professional account, making your niche obvious on your profile, joining Instagram’s creator marketplace if you are eligible and pitching brands directly. At Earn by Creating, we write how-to guides for people who get paid to create, and on Instagram the creators who land paid deals early usually pitch first rather than wait for offers.
Brands on Instagram buy three formats most: Reels, story sets with a link and feed or carousel posts. Each paid post needs the Paid partnership label plus a plain disclosure in the caption. Instagram shows which monetization tools you can use in your Professional dashboard, so check there before you plan around any one of them.
Five Steps to Your First Instagram Brand Deal
Most creators get their first Instagram brand deal by following the same short sequence. Work through these in order:
- Switch to a creator or business account. Professional accounts give you Insights, the Paid partnership label and the creator marketplace.
- Make your niche obvious. Your bio, highlights and last nine posts should tell a brand who watches you in five seconds.
- Pull your numbers. Note median Reel views, average story views and audience location from Insights.
- Build a one-page media kit. Our influencer media kit guide walks through each section, and the media kit builder lays it out for you.
- Pitch ten brands a week and check partnership messages daily. Direct pitches bring the first deals for most small accounts. Marketplace offers add to them.
If you are still building your account, start with our guide to becoming an Instagram influencer and return here once your recent posts get steady views.
Set Up a Profile That Brands Can Read Fast
A brand manager opening your Instagram profile looks at the bio, the highlights and the top row of the grid. Fix each one before you pitch.
- Bio: one line on your niche and who it is for, plus a business email. “Small-space plant care for apartment renters” is easy to match to a product.
- Highlights: add a “Collabs” or “Work with me” highlight that shows past product posts, even unpaid ones.
- Grid: pin three posts that show you using or explaining a product. Brands want to see you sell without sounding like an ad.
- Contact button: turn on the email contact button so brands do not have to DM (send a direct message to) you.
Post on a steady schedule for at least a month before a big pitch push. Brands check dates, and a long gap makes them worry about deadlines.
Join Instagram’s Creator Marketplace
Instagram’s creator marketplace lets brands search for creators and send you partnership offers inside the app. Offers land in a separate partnership messages folder in your inbox, and you can list the brands you want to work with and add your past partnerships to your profile there. Eligibility depends on your account type, country and account standing, and Instagram shows whether you qualify in your Professional dashboard. Check the current rules in the Instagram Help Center before you count on it.
Fill in every field of your marketplace profile. Brands filter by niche, audience and location, so blank fields can keep you out of a search. Add a portfolio of branded posts if Instagram asks for one. Organic product posts count if you have no paid work yet.
The marketplace brings offers you did not chase, but you cannot control when they arrive. Keep pitching directly while you wait.
Use the Paid Partnership Label on Every Sponsored Post
The Paid partnership label is Instagram’s built-in disclosure for branded content. When you post, turn on the branded content setting and tag the brand as a partner. The label appears above your post or Reel and tells viewers a brand paid for it.
Instagram requires creators to tag the brand on branded content, and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asks for more than a label alone. The FTC’s Endorsement Guides, revised in 2023, call for disclosure of any material connection (payment, free product, affiliate commission, family or employment ties) clearly and conspicuously. That means:
- “#ad”, “Sponsored” or “Paid partnership with [brand]” at the start of the caption, not buried after hashtags
- Saying it out loud or on screen in Reels and stories
- Disclosing gifted products too, even when no money changed hands
A brand may also need you to approve it as a branded content partner so it can see your post’s results and run it as an ad. Approve only brands you have a signed agreement with.
How Collab Posts Fit Into Instagram Brand Deals
A collab post is a single post that shows on both your profile and the brand’s profile, with both handles at the top. Likes, comments and views count once and appear on both accounts. Brands like collab posts because your content reaches their followers too, and creators get exposure to the brand’s audience.
Collab posts are a format choice. A sponsored collab post still needs the Paid partnership label and a caption disclosure. Price a collab post a little higher than a regular post if the brand’s account is much larger than yours, since the brand gets your content on its own profile with no extra work. Agree in writing how long the post stays up on both accounts.
Partnership Ads and Usage Rights on Instagram
Partnership ads let a brand pay to show your post as an ad that still carries your handle. This is a form of usage rights, because the brand gets paid reach on content you made. Charge for it as an add-on, priced by how many days the brand can run it.
Ask the brand three questions before you allow partnership ads:
- Which posts can it promote?
- For how many days?
- Can it edit the caption or add a call-to-action button?
Put the answers in the contract. When the window ends, the brand should stop running the ad or pay to extend. Our influencer rates guide shows how creators price usage windows.
Pitch Instagram Brands Directly
A direct pitch is how most small accounts land their first paid Instagram deal. Find brands by checking who sponsors other creators in your niche, which brands run ads in your feed and which products you already use. Look for posts with the Paid partnership label above them, since those brands already have a creator budget.
Email works better than a DM for a first pitch. Find the brand’s partnerships or influencer email on its website or in its Instagram bio, or search for its influencer marketing manager on LinkedIn. Keep the pitch to five or six sentences with one concrete content idea and a link to your media kit. Our guide on how to pitch brands has three example emails you can adapt.
Payment and Taxes on Instagram Deals
Agree on the fee, the payment date and the deliverables before you post. Send an invoice that lists each post, its go-live date and the usage window. In the US, Instagram brand deal income is self-employment income, and self-employment tax is 15.3% on net earnings once they reach $400. Free products you receive for promotion are generally taxable income too, at their value.
The Modern Wallet explains how much to set aside from each payment. This is general information, so talk to a tax professional about your own case.
When This Approach Is the Wrong Fit
Pitching for Instagram brand deals is a poor use of time if your account is a few weeks old or your Reels rarely reach beyond your followers. Build three strong examples first. If you want paid work sooner, UGC (user-generated content) jobs pay for videos brands post on their own accounts, and they do not depend on your follower count.
What would change this advice: if Instagram opened its creator marketplace to every account in your country, joining it would come first, since offers there arrive with the brand’s budget already set.
Turn on your professional account today, pull your last 15 posts from Insights and send your first five Instagram brand deal pitches this week.