Mathew PaquetTemplate · 4 min read
The Creator Deal Calculator
One sheet to work out the most you should pay a creator per thousand views, pick creators whose audience actually listens, and brief them in two minutes.
Cal AI, a photo calorie app, grew on paid creator posts. MyFitnessPal, which bought it, says it made more than $30 million a year in revenue within two years. It wasn't luck. It was a price.
Co-founder Zach Yadegari's rule, from a 2024 interview:
"Every dollar you pay per thousand views needs to be less than the amount of money you will make per thousand views."Price per thousand views = what you pay ÷ views × 1,000.
Jake Castillo, who ran Cal AI's influencer program, gives example numbers (not Cal AI's):
That's why he likes a flat fee: the upside is yours. According to a write-up of Castillo's conference talk this year, Cal AI's own prices ran between $0.50 and $3 per thousand views.
Views aren't customers. Your ceiling comes from two numbers:
Ceiling per 1,000 views = what a new customer is worth ÷ views per customer × 1,000Worked example: a new customer is worth $200 after costs, and your first tests show about 10,000 views bring one new customer. $200 ÷ 10,000 × 1,000 = $20. Pay less than that and the machine makes money. Pay more and it doesn't, however good the video looks.
Then check it in customers. In Castillo's example, 100 paying customers means $10 each; 25 means $40 each. Cal AI's yearly plan is about $30. Same views: one deal works, one loses money.
A. A new customer is worth, after costs: $[VALUE]
B. Views it takes to get one customer: [VIEWS PER CUSTOMER]
C. Ceiling per 1,000 views = A ÷ B × 1,000 = $[CEILING]
THE CREATOR'S OFFER
Creator: [NAME] Code or link: [THEIR OWN CODE OR LINK]
D. Flat fee: $[FEE] for [NUMBER] posts
E. Typical views, last 20 or so posts: [VIEWS]
F. Expected views = posts × E = [EXPECTED VIEWS]
G. Price per 1,000 views = D ÷ F × 1,000 = $[PRICE]
Is G below C? [YES: test it / NO: not at this price]
AFTER THE POSTS
H. Paying customers from their code or link: [CUSTOMERS]
I. Cost per customer = D ÷ H = $[COST]
Is I below A? [YES / NO]
Give every creator their own code or link from day one. In 2024 Zach said there was "no way to track where people are coming from." Without it, line H is a guess.
Pay creators "that had very tight communities," as Zach put it. Castillo's test:
Can someone see what your product does in three seconds of video? Cal AI told creators: "in the first fifteen seconds, just show the product."
Show it early: [THE MOMENT SOMEONE CAN SEE IT WORK IN THREE SECONDS]
Format: [ONE EVERYDAY FORMAT, LIKE CAL AI'S "WHAT I EAT IN A DAY"]
Deal: $[FLAT FEE] for [NUMBER] posts, paid on time
Your code or link: [THEIR OWN CODE OR LINK]
You can't promise: [CLAIMS THE PRODUCT CAN'T BACK UP]
Disclosure: say "ad" or "sponsored" in the video and show it on screen. Not only in the caption.
Why "can't promise": in an early, not yet peer reviewed National Institutes of Health study, every calorie app tested came in under the real calories on average, Cal AI by about 345 a meal.
The part not to copy. In 2024 Zach described posts where "people don't even know it's an ad." We don't know how every Cal AI post was labeled. In the U.S., the FTC says paid disclosure goes in the video itself, and the brand can be liable even when the creator isn't.
Where it doesn't fit. A result that takes weeks to show, a six-month sales cycle, or only a handful of creators who reach your customers.
Sources
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Write down what a new customer is worth to you after costs and how many views one customer takes, then work out your ceiling per thousand views before you talk to any creator.
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