It pays to be TikTok famous—Meta is trying to lure popular TikTok content creators away from TikTok towards Instagram with high-paying deals for exclusive Reels.
Business Insider reported on Monday that Meta is offering some creators with more than one million TikTok followers compensation of up to $50,000 per month for exclusive short-form content posted to Instagram Reels, Meta’s version of TikTok.
According to the leaked contracts, the payouts range from $50,000 per month for six months, for a total of $300,000 at the higher end, to $2,500 per month over six months, for a total of $15,000 at the lower end. There are tiers in between offering $25,000, $15,000, and $5,000 per month.
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But there is a catch: the contracts have exclusivity agreements that range from posting up to 10 Reels exclusively on Instagram every month to keeping videos exclusively on the platform for at least three months.
With the deals, Meta is hoping that the uptick in exclusive content on Instagram incentivizes a creator’s audience to migrate over from TikTok to watch their Reels.
On the creator side, the money is a draw — though it might not be a strong enough pull for everyone. According to ZipRecruiter, influencers in the U.S. make an average annual income of about $58,000 or $27.85 per hour. TikTok influencers have pay that varies widely, with top influencers receiving between two to four cents per 1,000 views through the TikTok Creator Fund.
“Some clients are taking [the deal] because the money is good for them, and I’ve seen some clients pass,” one talent manager told BI. They said that the exclusivity and requirements to post frequently made the deal “untenable” for some of their clients.
Exclusivity in influencer partnerships isn’t a new concept. Brands like luxury fashion marketplace Farfetch have asked creators to agree to a 48-hour competitor exclusivity window when creators promote their products.
Meta is working hard to sign creators up for these contracts and even launched an additional “Breakthrough Bonus” initiative last week to pay TikTok creators new to Facebook or Instagram up to $5,000 within three months for Reels content.
“Meta is being really bullish on locking these in,” another talent manager told BI.
Meta’s push into short-form content arrives as TikTok’s fate remains unclear. TikTok faced legislation forcing it to separate from its parent company ByteDance or face a ban in the U.S. by January 19. Though President Donald Trump granted it an extension to find a buyer, and anyone from Kevin O’Leary to Microsoft are reportedly in talks to buy it, TikTok has yet to sign a deal.
Inside the terms of a $50,000-per-month deal
According to BI, Meta has sent an offer totaling $300,000 over six months to several select content creators. It’s not certain when the deal starts and who received it.
As part of the deal, creators must post at least 10 new Instagram Reels per month and keep each one exclusively on Instagram for three months from the time of posting. Each video must be at least 15 seconds long but no longer than three minutes, and creators must share two of them per month as Instagram stories.
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This contract says that the creator has to post twice a month on TikTok or YouTube promoting their Instagram Reels and asking their audience to follow them on Instagram, plus post 25% more on Reels than TikTok or any other short-form video platform. So five on Instagram for every one on TikTok.
Instagram could also advertise a creator’s Reels content on TikTok through paid ads, as part of the contract.
Inside the terms of a $15,000-per-month deal
According to BI, the $15,000-per-month offer has been sent to several creators. It requires them to post eight new Reels per month that are at least 15 seconds but no longer than three minutes.
The content has to be exclusive to Instagram for at least three months from the time of posting, just as with the $50,000-per-month contract.
Creators have to post more content to Instagram than they do to any other platform, including TikTok, X, and YouTube, though the exact percentage isn’t specified in this contract.
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