Read Your Own Media Kit the Way a Media Buyer Does

Build your media kit around what a buyer can verify and price, not around how big you are. A buyer opens it to answer one question fast: what will this creator deliver for my money, and can I prove it to my boss?

Totals don't answer that. Delivery does: typical views, who those views are, and what the audience does next. Rebuild the kit so those answers sit on the first screen, backed by evidence a buyer can check.

Know the four questions behind the thirty seconds

A buyer rarely reads a kit. They scan it, with a budget, a brief, and a shortlist of other creators open in other tabs. Whatever they are scanning for, it reduces to four questions:

• Fit. Does this audience match the person my product is for?
• Delivery. What does a normal post from this creator reach?
• Action. Does this audience save, share, click, or buy, or only watch?
• Risk. Will this be easy to work with, and will the content do what the brief needs?

Every line in your kit should answer one of these. A line that answers none of them is decoration, and decoration costs you scanning time you don't get back.

Read your current kit with that filter. Highlight each line in one of four colors, one per question. The unhighlighted lines are the ones to cut or move down.

Lead with one sentence that states fit

The top of the kit needs a single plain sentence: who you make content for, what you make, and what that audience does with it.

"Strength training for lifters over 35 returning after a break, mostly form breakdowns and programming" works. A buyer can place it against a product in two seconds. "Fitness, wellness, and lifestyle content" cannot be placed against anything.

Specificity does not shrink your market. It makes you findable for the briefs you are actually right for, and it lets a buyer forward your kit to a colleague with one line of context.

Follow the sentence with the audience facts that support it: where the audience lives, the age and gender split, and the platform you're strongest on. Pull these from your native analytics and screenshot them. A screenshot beats a typed number because the buyer doesn't have to take your word for it.

Replace totals with the numbers buyers price against

A buyer prices a post by what it is expected to deliver. That means the numbers that predict delivery carry the weight, and the numbers that describe history carry little.

Put these on the first page:

• Typical views per post. Use the median of your last 15 to 20 posts on the platform in question, not the average. A median ignores the outlier. An average does not.
• Range. Show the low and the high of that same window. A buyer who sees a typical figure and a floor can plan around the floor.
• Engagement that signals intent. Saves, shares, and comments tell a buyer more than likes. A save says the viewer wants to come back to the content. A share says they'd put their name next to it.
• Retention or watch time. If you can screenshot it, do. It shows the audience stays through the part of the video where the product appears.
• Audience composition. Location matters most when the brand ships to specific regions or sells in specific currencies.
• Posting consistency. A steady cadence makes your typical-views figure believable.

Why the median matters: say your last ten videos reached 6,000, 7,000, 5,500, 8,000, 6,500, 7,500, 6,000, 7,000, 5,000, and 90,000. The average is pulled far above what a normal post does. A buyer who books you on that average and receives 6,500 views will remember the gap. A buyer who sees "typical: 6,500, range 5,000 to 8,000, one breakout" books with confidence and rebooks. Honest ranges build repeat work.

Move the vanity totals down the page

Some numbers belong in the kit but not at the top.

Follower count. It tells a buyer how many people once chose to follow you. It does not say how many see a post today. Keep it in a small line under your name.

Lifetime likes or total views. These grow with time, not with quality. They flatter a long career but say nothing about the next post.

A single viral peak. Mention it once, labeled as a breakout, with the reason it traveled if you know it. It proves the ceiling exists. It does not set the price.

Follower growth. Growth can be worth including if it is recent and steady, but only beside delivery numbers, never in place of them.

None of these are dishonest. They just don't answer the buyer's questions, so they shouldn't occupy the space where the answers go.

Show proof of action

Delivery gets you shortlisted. Proof of action gets you booked at a better rate.

A buyer who can see that your audience acts on what you recommend has a reason to pay above the bare delivery price. Build a short proof section from what you can legitimately show:

• Past brand work, described by category. "A supplement brand, one short-form video and three stories" is enough when a contract keeps the name private. Say what you made and what the brief asked for.
• Results you can substantiate. Link clicks, code redemptions, or sales that the brand reported to you. Include a number only if you can show where it came from. If you have none, leave the section as deliverables and process.
• Organic evidence. Comments where viewers ask which product you use, or save counts on your own recommendation posts. Screenshot a few. These show the audience's behavior without needing a brand's data.
• A short testimonial. One sentence from a past partner on reliability. Ask for permission to use it.

If you are earlier in your career and have no brand history, use organic evidence. Make a point of choosing three of your own posts that best match the category you want to work in, and annotate why each one is relevant.

Show you are easy to work with

Risk is the fourth question, and it is the one creators skip. A buyer with a campaign date does not want to chase a late draft.

Add a short working-terms block:

• Typical turnaround from brief to first draft
• Number of revision rounds included
• Usage rights you offer by default, and what extra usage costs
• Disclosure: you label paid posts clearly, every time
• How to reach you, and who handles contracts

The disclosure line is not just compliance. It tells a buyer that your audience trusts you because you are straight with them, and that trust is the asset they are renting.

Price from your own delivery

Once your kit has an honest typical-views number, your rate card gets easier to defend. Work the arithmetic backward from delivery.

An illustration, not a market benchmark: say your typical video reaches 6,500 views and you want $400 for a post. That is roughly $62 for every thousand views. Now say the audience is tightly matched to a niche product and your saves are strong. You have an argument for a higher figure. Say the brand wants the video reused in its own ads. That is additional usage, and it is priced separately from the post.

The point of the exercise is not to hit a particular number. It is to know your own effective rate so that when a buyer asks why you cost what you do, you answer with delivery and fit rather than with follower count.

Keep two or three packages on the page:

1. One post, with defined deliverables
2. A small bundle of posts plus stories across a few weeks
3. A longer relationship with usage rights included

Offer a range or a "starting at" figure, and state what moves the price: usage, exclusivity, rush timing, and number of deliverables.

Rebuild the kit in this order

One page is enough for most creators. Two at most.

1. Header. Name, platform handles, one-sentence fit statement.
2. Delivery block. Median views, range, engagement that signals intent, retention screenshot.
3. Audience block. Location, age, gender, and the screenshot behind it.
4. Proof block. Past work by category, substantiated results, organic evidence.
5. Working terms. Turnaround, revisions, usage, disclosure.
6. Packages. Starting prices and what changes them.
7. Contact. One email, one link.

Refresh the numbers every month or whenever you pitch. A stale kit with last quarter's figures forces the buyer to ask for updated analytics, and each question you make them ask is a reason to move to the next creator on the list.

Test it against real briefs

Read the briefs brands actually send and compare their language with your kit. The brief tells you which of the four questions that brand weighs hardest. The Deal Radar is a free weekly email of fitness brand deals, which gives you a steady supply of briefs to measure your kit against.

Then run a final check. Hand the kit to someone outside your niche and give them thirty seconds. Ask them what you make, who it's for, and what a typical post reaches. If they can answer all three, a buyer can too.

The short version

• A buyer scans for fit, delivery, action, and risk. Make each answerable on the first screen.
• Use the median of recent posts and show the range. Averages invite disappointment when one breakout inflates them.
• Move follower totals, lifetime likes, and viral peaks below the delivery numbers.
• Prove action with screenshots, substantiated results, and organic evidence. Include only numbers you can show.
• Work out your effective rate from your own delivery, and list what changes the price.