Instagram media kit: what brands actually check (and what creators keep putting in instead)

A brand reading your media kit checks fit first and proof second, and price comes after both. In IAB's 2025 survey of 453 US brand and agency decision-makers, the criteria most often rated "very important" when picking a creator were reputation (58%) and audience alignment (56%). Cost-effectiveness came in at 34%. And if you have joined Instagram's Creator Marketplace, a brand may already have your basic numbers before your kit arrives: Meta shows it your followers, plus your reach and engaged accounts over the last 30 days. What none of Meta's pages say a brand sees is your price. That, and the story your numbers tell over time, is the job your kit still has.

The short version:

• Fit and proof come before price. Reputation (58%) and audience alignment (56%) top IAB's list of what brands rate "very important". Cost-effectiveness sits at 34%.
• Follower count is the number brands rank last. CreatorIQ's 2025 to 2026 survey reports that "follower count ranked as brands’ least-important factor when selecting creators."
• Joining Creator Marketplace hands brands part of your insights. Meta's help page says joining makes "your information about you and your insights visible to brands", including your reach over the last 30 days. It needs a public professional account with at least 1,000 followers.
• Make your kit agree with what Meta shows. Meta's 30-day figures include reach from ads. State your window, and whether your numbers include boosted posts, so a brand comparing the two finds they match.
• Your kit carries what those tools leave out: a rate, median reach per Reel, engagement with the denominator stated, and dates on everything.

What a brand can already see about you 🔍

Before your kit arrives, a brand can look at up to four things that Instagram and Meta provide. Knowing which one shows what tells you where your kit earns its place.

Three things follow. The portfolio does the showcase part of a media kit for free, so a kit that is only good photos and brand logos now duplicates something a brand can open in one tap. The hub gives a brand your last 30 days, so a kit that disagrees with it without saying why reads as padded. And nothing on the list is a price. If you're deciding whether to send your own kit as a PDF or a link, the PDF-or-link comparison sets the two side by side.

The six things your kit has to prove 📋

1. Audience fit. Top countries or cities, age bands and gender split, straight from your Professional dashboard. It is the criterion brands rate highest after reputation, and most kits leave it out. A skincare brand selling to women aged 18 to 34 in India needs those three numbers before anything else, and when they are missing it has to guess.

2. That the numbers are real. You cannot prove a negative, but you can make the check easy. Lead with reach and engagement rather than follower count, since follower count is the factor brands rank last. And if you have joined Creator Marketplace, remember the brand can hold your kit up against Meta's own 30-day numbers. Use the same window, and say whether your figures include boosted posts, because Meta's reach and engaged accounts include ads.

3. Engagement, with the denominator stated. Write "4.2% on reach, last 30 days", not "4.2% engagement". Every public benchmark divides by followers, and there is no published benchmark for engagement on reach at any follower size, so the honest comparison is your account against its own recent median. We went through why every engagement benchmark disagrees in detail.

4. What one post actually does. The median reach of your last ten or so Reels, and the dates it covers. Not your best month, and not your monthly total. A brand buying one Reel is buying one Reel's reach, and your monthly reach can be many times larger than that on the same account. Turning that median into a price is its own short piece of arithmetic.

5. A rate, or at least a range. "Rates on request" invites the brand to open low, and most creators are already being opened low: in Aspire's survey of nearly 1,200 creators, 70% said they "always" or "often" receive offers below their standard rates. A number with its derivation written beside it is harder to talk down than a blank, and it is the one thing on this list no Meta tool will show a brand for you.

6. Proof of work. Two or three real posts with their numbers, and past brand work labelled honestly. A gifted collaboration is not a paid partnership, and calling it one is exactly what a careful brand is checking for, especially since the hub already shows it your past partnership ads. Instagram has also started rolling out a way to add posts you're tagged in to your own grid, so brand collaborations can sit on your profile as well as in your kit.

What creators put in instead

The standard template fills pages with things a brand either skips or can already see: follower milestones, a collage of your prettiest grid squares, logos from gifting campaigns, a paragraph about your journey, and screenshots of insights from months ago.

None of it is dishonest. It answers questions nobody on the brand side is asking, and it leads with follower count, which brands rank last. The screenshots are the real problem, because an undated screenshot is the one number a brand has no way to check.

Why the date matters more than the design 📅

A kit is a claim about now, and every number on it has a window. Meta's hub shows a brand your last 30 days. Instagram's free insights show you 90 days of account history, so a six-month trend you would like to show a brand slides out of view unless something recorded it. A PDF is right on the day you export it and ages from there. Instagram's own portfolio page never goes stale, because it carries no numbers that could.

So put a date on every figure, name the window it covers, and refresh it before you send it rather than when you remember.

That is the gap the live media kit is built for: your reach, audience and best posts at your own link, refreshed through the day from Instagram's official API, and you see when it's opened and where from.

Build yours in 20 minutes

1. One line at the top: niche, audience and location. "Strength training for women 25 to 34, mostly India" beats any bio.
2. Your last-30-day numbers, dated: reach, median reach per Reel, and engagement on reach with the denominator stated. Say whether boosted posts are in them.
3. Audience: top three locations, age bands and gender split, from your Professional dashboard.
4. Three posts with real numbers, including one that shows consistency rather than your outlier.
5. Deliverables and a rate or a range, with usage terms written beside the price.
6. Contact and turnaround. "Replies within 24 hours" is worth a line, because how you run a deal is part of what a brand is buying.

For the block-by-block version, including exactly where to pull each number, see the 2026 media kit guide.

❓ Questions people actually ask

What do brands look for in a media kit? Fit first, then proof, then price. In IAB's 2025 survey of 453 US brand and agency decision-makers, reputation (58%) and audience alignment (56%) were the criteria most often rated very important when picking a creator. Show your audience, show numbers a brand can believe, and put a rate on it.

Can brands see my Instagram insights? Some of them, if you join Creator Marketplace. Meta's help page says joining makes "your information about you and your insights visible to brands", and its Creator Marketing Hub shows them your followers and your reach and engaged accounts over the last 30 days, both including ads. Without joining, a brand sees your public profile and, inside the hub, your partnership ads, branded content, past partners and some metrics. Meta keeps the more detailed insights for creators who have joined.

Do I still need a media kit if I have an Instagram creator portfolio? Yes, if a brand wants your numbers or your price. The portfolio shows your work, the brands you have worked with and badges for how you handle partnerships. It shows no reach, no audience and no rate.

How many followers do you need for Instagram's Creator Marketplace? At least 1,000, on a public professional account, and you must be 18 or over. Meta says it is "available to eligible creators worldwide in all countries where Meta advertising operates", except Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Russia.

Should I put my rates on my media kit? Yes, as a range, with the deliverable and the usage terms beside it. A blank invites a low opening offer, and 70% of the creators in Aspire's survey say they usually get one anyway.

How often should I update my media kit? If it is a file, before every send. Date every number and name its window. A figure with no date reads as either stale or chosen because it flatters you.

The one-line takeaway

Instagram now shows brands your work, and if you have joined its marketplace, your last 30 days. It does not show them your price. Put that on the page, with numbers that agree with what Meta shows and a date on each one, and make the yes easy.