A 12-point checklist before signing a creator booking

Most booking deals go wrong in one of three places: the numbers were not what the media kit said, the audience was not your customer, or the contract did not give you the right to reuse the video. The twelve checks below are grouped accordingly and take about an hour.

Group 1 — channel numbers (4 checks)

1. Which denominator the engagement rate uses. Ask directly. If the media kit does not say, recalculate on views — see how to calculate it.

2. Median views of the 60 most recent videos. This is what you are actually buying, not the follower count.

3. The spread of views. If one viral video accounts for most of the total, the average is lying. Ask to see the whole series.

4. The seven signs of bought engagement. Work through the list.

The first three read off one channel report run — 5 credits, 60 most recent videos.

Group 2 — audience (4 checks)

5. Where the followers are. A Vietnamese-language channel can still have most of its audience abroad.

6. Whether age and gender match your customer. The most skipped check of all.

7. What else they are interested in. A food channel whose audience also follows beauty is an opportunity for a cosmetics brand; one that follows gaming is not.

8. Whether anyone asks about buying in the comments. People asking prices are people ready to buy.

These four read from audience analysis — 12 credits, 3 pages — and comments analysis — 12 credits, 300 comments.

Group 3 — contract (4 checks)

9. Rights to reuse the video in paid advertising. Booking a post does not implicitly grant advertising rights. It has to be written in, with a term and the platforms named.

10. How long the post stays on the channel. A post deleted after two weeks is a post you paid two weeks for.

11. Number of revisions and who approves the final cut. Without this clause, every revision is a fresh negotiation.

12. How long they agree not to take a competitor's booking. Ask up front, because it is rarely in the template.

The order to work in

Do group 1 for the whole candidate list first — 5 credits each, quick eliminations. Only the channels that survive group 1 are worth 24 credits for group 2. Group 3 comes last, once you have chosen.

For a list of ten candidates, that is 50 credits for screening and about 72 credits for the three finalists.

Frequently asked questions

What if the creator will not share numbers? You do not need them to. Everything in groups 1 and 2 reads from the channel's public data.

Does CIA find a creator's email so I can contact them? No. This is a hard boundary. You read the numbers and reach out through whatever public channel they have published themselves.

Is there a contract template? CIA does not provide contract templates. The four points in group 3 are the clauses people forget, not legal advice.