A media kit is a one-page document that tells a brand who you are, who watches you, how well your content performs and how to work with you. To make one, you collect five things (audience demographics, engagement, reach, past partnerships and rates), pull the numbers from your Instagram or TikTok insights, and put them on a single page with your contact details. Below is what brands actually look at, section by section, and a complete media kit example for a small, fictional creator.
What brands look for in a media kit
I run ads and social media for small businesses, so I sit on the other side of this: the side that receives media kits. When a brand looks at one, it is trying to answer four questions quickly:
- Are these the people we want to reach? Country, city, age and gender of the audience.
- Do they actually pay attention? Engagement and views, not just the follower count.
- Has this person done this before? Past partnerships, and whether the content looked like an ad or like the creator.
- What will it cost and how do I reply? Rates or packages, and a contact that works.
Everything on your media kit should serve one of those questions. A long "about me", a list of every hashtag you use, or a screenshot wall of your insights doesn't help anyone decide.
How to make a media kit, section by section
1. Name, niche and a one-line pitch
Start with your name, your handles and one sentence that says what you post and for whom. "Slow home cooking for busy people in Porto" beats "content creator and lifestyle lover". A brand should know in five seconds whether you fit.
Add a clear photo of yourself. Brands are buying your face and your voice as much as your reach.
2. Audience demographics
This is the section small creators underestimate. A brand selling to women aged 25 to 34 in Lisbon cares more about an account with 5,000 followers where that is the main audience than about 50,000 followers spread across the world.
Show:
- Top countries (and top cities, if your audience is local)
- The main age range
- The gender split
3. Reach and engagement
Show per platform:
- Followers
- Average views per Reel or video (over a clear period, e.g. last 30 days)
- Engagement rate
Engagement rate is the number most brands ask for, and there is no single official formula. The usual Instagram version is the average interactions per post (likes, comments, saves, shares) divided by followers. On TikTok, and fairly for Reels too, people often divide interactions by views instead. Whatever you use, say which one it is.
Free toolEngagement Rate Calculator →Your Instagram or TikTok engagement rate by followers and by views, against accounts your size.4. Past partnerships
List the brands you have worked with, even small local ones, and even if the deal was a product in exchange for content. If you have one result you can share (a discount code that was used a lot, a story with many link clicks), add it in one line. If you haven't worked with brands yet, skip the section rather than inventing it, and put two or three of your best posts there instead.
5. Services and rates
Say what you offer: a Reel, a feed post, a carousel, a set of Stories, a TikTok video, UGC (content the brand posts on its own channels), or a package. Then decide whether to show prices.
Showing a "from" price saves you from long conversations with brands that only want free stuff. Keeping rates "on request" gives you room to price each job. Both are fine; being vague about what you offer is not.
If you don't know what to charge, start with a rule of thumb and adjust. More on that below.
6. Contact
An email address you check, and a link to your page. Not a DM request: brand managers work from email.
Where to find the numbers on Instagram and TikTok
You don't need a paid tool. Both apps show the numbers you need, for free.
Instagram insights
According to Instagram's help page on insights, the overview in the app shows Views, Interactions, New followers and Content you shared, and you can pick a preset or custom period within the past 90 days. Tap each one for detail and the demographics.
A few rules from the same page that matter for a media kit:
- You need a public account to see insights (Instagram Help Center).
- Audience demographics (top countries, cities, age ranges and gender) appear under Viewers and Accounts engaged, but only on preset timeframes and once you have reached or engaged more than 100 accounts. If "Last 7 days" shows nothing, try "Last 30 days" or "Last 90 days".
- Follower trends (growth, top locations, age range, most active times) appear under Total followers once you have at least 100 followers.
- Instagram labels several of these metrics as estimated and in development, so treat them as a guide, not a court record.
For engagement, open your recent posts, tap View insights under each one, and note the interactions. Put them into the calculator above.
TikTok analytics
TikTok's Creator Academy guide to analytics says you open it from your profile, then the menu, then TikTok Studio, then Analytics. You can choose the last 7, 28, 60 or 365 days, or a custom range. The tabs you need:
- Overview: post views, profile views, likes, comments and shares.
- Content: your top posts and each video's retention and traffic sources.
- Viewers: unique and returning viewers, plus inferred gender, age and location (TikTok notes these come from predictive models, not confirmed data).
- Followers: gender, age and top locations of your followers, and when they are most active.
For a media kit, "Followers" gives you demographics and "Overview" gives you average views.
A full media kit example (fictional creator)
To make this concrete, here is a complete media kit for a creator I made up for this article. The name, numbers, brands and prices are fictional. Use it as a model for structure and wording, not as a benchmark.
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Name and pitch | Maya Reis, on Instagram and TikTok. Easy weeknight recipes and kitchen tips for people who cook after work. Based in Porto. |
| Platforms | Instagram: 6,800 followers, 2,900 average Reel views. TikTok: 4,100 followers, 3,500 average video views. (Last 30 days, September 2026) |
| Engagement | Instagram: 4.1% by followers. TikTok: 6.3% by views. |
| Audience | 71% women. Main age range 25 to 34. Top countries: Portugal, Brazil, France. Top city: Porto. |
| Past partnerships | A local bakery (3 Reels), a kitchenware shop (product in exchange for a recipe series), a regional cheese brand (1 Reel with discount code). |
| Services | Recipe Reel with the product: from €90. Set of 3 Stories with link: from €35. Recipe carousel: from €70. UGC video for the brand's own channels: from €120. Packages on request. |
| Contact | hello@mayamakes.example · link to her page |
Why this works:
- The pitch tells a food brand in one line that the audience cooks at home.
- Every number has a period.
- Engagement is shown the way each platform is usually judged.
- The partnerships are small but real, and one mentions a result-oriented format (discount code).
- Prices are "from", so she can still quote bigger jobs higher.
You can build this exact layout, with your photo, your numbers and one of five colour themes, in our free generator, and download it as a PNG or PDF.
Free toolMedia Kit Generator →A one-page media kit for brands — numbers, audience, past work and rates — as a PDF.How to price your services
There is no public price list for sponsored posts. What exists are rules of thumb. Influencer Marketing Hub's Instagram money calculator page mentions that some influencers charge $100 per 10,000 followers for a post, and its guide to nano influencer rates (accounts with 1,000 to 10,000 followers) gives these typical ranges on Instagram:
| Format | Typical range for nano influencers |
|---|---|
| Static feed post | $10 to $50 |
| Reel | $20 to $100 |
| Story frame | $5 to $25 |
These are US-dollar rules of thumb, not a tariff. Engagement, niche, production effort, usage rights (can the brand use your video in its ads?) and exclusivity all move the price, and brands in Portugal or Brazil usually pay less than in the US. Our earnings calculator starts from the same per-thousand-followers logic and adjusts for engagement, niche and market, so you get a range to start negotiating from.
Free toolInstagram & TikTok Money Calculator →What to charge brands per Reel, post, story or TikTok video, with a rate card to send.Put your media kit where brands will find it
A PDF sitting in your downloads only works when you remember to send it. Two things help:
- Link it from your bio. Brands check your profile before they email. A "Work with me" link that opens your media kit, next to a button that opens an email, answers them right there.
- Keep one updated version. If the link always points to the same place, you update the file once and every brand sees the new numbers.
Our creators template is built around exactly that: your latest content on top, your social icons, a "Media kit" link and a "Work with me" email button, and a newsletter sign-up.
TemplateCreators →Latest video, your favourite things, media kit and a newsletter.To be clear about cost: building and publishing a page in Linktotem is free, with our badge in the footer. Starter (€5 a month or €50 a year; US$5 or US$50, after a 14-day free trial) removes the badge and keeps a year of stats, useful when brands ask for numbers. The media kit generator itself is free to use. Details are on the pricing page.
Mistakes that make brands close the file
- Follower count only. Without views, engagement and audience, a brand can't judge you.
- Numbers without a period. "10k views" from which month?
- Invented or inflated numbers. Brands can ask for screenshots, and many do. One mismatch ends the conversation.
- Three pages of text. One page. Two if you have many past partnerships with results.
- No way to reply. An email address, visible, at the bottom.
Disclose paid partnerships
Once a brand pays you, or sends you a product, the post has to say so. On Instagram, the branded content policies require the paid partnership label when you post branded content. In the US, the FTC's Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers says the disclosure should be in the post itself, not only on your profile or behind a "more". Brands notice creators who get this right, and it belongs in your media kit's "how I work" line too.
