Instagram Reel and Story Partnerships, Briefed and Measured

The buy criterion here is sends per reach, not follower count. The head of Instagram has said in public that sends carry more weight in Reels distribution than likes or comments, and the ratio is also the closest available proxy for whether an audience treats a creator as a source of information rather than as entertainment. We do not shortlist a creator whose last twenty organic Reels sit under 1 percent sends per reach, however large the account. Where we are useful: Two audiences, and we are honest that they are the two we know. Developer tooling, where the audience will read the pinned comment, check whether the CLI in the demo actually exists, and say so publicly if it does not. And kids-and-family, where the buyer is a parent, the platform minimum age is thirteen, and the child is not the person we are talking to. Outside those two, hire somebody else. What the engagement covers: Creator identification and direct outreach, without a marketplace listing in between. Rate negotiation against measured reach rather than a published rate card. A brief written per creator, not one deck sent to all of them. Review of each deliverable against Appendix K of the ARB Code in South Africa and the FTC Endorsement Guides for United States audiences. Meta Branded Content tool set up and the paid partnership label verified before publication. Insights collected at 24 hours, 7 days and 28 days, because Reels accrue reach for weeks and a screenshot taken on day two undercounts the buy badly. The brief: Two pages. The first is the product claim we will stand behind, the specific thing to show on screen, the phrasings we cannot use for regulatory reasons, and the disclosure requirement. The second page is empty, and the creator fills it with how they would say it. We approve concept and claim; we do not write dialogue. A creator reading somebody else's sentences is audible within four seconds and the audience punishes it. Formats: Reels at 9:16 with the first frame carrying the product in shot rather than a title card. Story sequences of three to five frames with the link sticker on frame two, not frame one, because frame one is where the sticker gets scrolled past. Carousels at 4:5 when the argument needs a before-and-after that motion hides. Rights and paid amplification: Standard grant is a 90-day usage window for Partnership Ads on Meta's platforms, negotiated per creator and priced as a separate line from the organic post. We will run whitelisted spend behind a post the creator was going to be proud of anyway. We will not put paid distribution behind a post written to a script, because that turns a weak endorsement into a widely seen weak endorsement. What we refuse: Exclusivity longer than 30 days in category. Follower-count pricing. Comment moderation that deletes honest criticism from the creator's own audience. Any placement whose intended viewer is under thirteen. Beauty effects or face filters on a child appearing in a kids-and-family deliverable. Reposting a creator's face into brand-owned ads after the usage window closes. Measurement and release: Escrow releases against reach, link taps and post-click conversions read from your own analytics rather than ours. Where a placement falls short of the reach we bought, the shortfall refunds pro rata and we raise it before you do. Not for you: Launches with no working product to show on camera. Anyone who needs a creator to state a results figure we cannot evidence. Brands who want the caption rewritten in their tone of voice.