Product Seeding Budget Calculator: How to Size Your Gifting Programme
Sizing a creator gifting budget is more straightforward than most brands expect. This guide walks through the calculation step by step, with worked examples for different programme sizes and markets.
Step 1: Define Your Target Monthly Send Volume
Start by deciding how many creators you want to seed to per month. A practical framework by programme stage:
Starting out: 10 to 20 sends per month. Enough to generate data and begin building relationships without significant investment.
Building momentum: 30 to 60 sends per month. Enough to run a programme across two to three European markets and generate consistent content output.
Scaling: 60 to 150 sends per month. Enough to build meaningful coverage across multiple markets and creator tiers simultaneously.
Step 2: Calculate Your Average Cost Per Send
Your cost per send is: product cost plus packaging and shipping.
If you don't have exact shipping costs, use these European estimates as a starting point:
Domestic EU shipping (within the same country): €4 to €8 Cross-border EU shipping: €8 to €15 UK from EU: €10 to €18 Australia to UK or EU: €18 to €35 (standard), €30 to €60 (express)
Step 3: Estimate Your Monthly Product and Shipping Cost
Multiply your average cost per send by your target monthly send volume.
Example A: Small European fashion brand, 20 sends per month Product cost: €40 Shipping (cross-border EU): €12 Cost per send: €52 Monthly product and shipping cost: €1,040
Example B: UK beauty brand, 40 sends per month Product cost: €25 Shipping (domestic UK): €6 Cost per send: €31 Monthly product and shipping cost: €1,240
Example C: Australian wellness brand, 15 sends per month to UK and EU Product cost: €35 Shipping (Australia to Europe): €28 Cost per send: €63 Monthly product and shipping cost: €945
Step 4: Add Platform Cost
Add your gifting platform subscription to the monthly product and shipping total.
Conciergia pricing: Starter: €69 per month (suitable for up to approximately 20 sends per month) Growth: €129 per month (suitable for 20 to 60 sends per month) Pro: €299 per month (suitable for 60 to 150 sends per month)
Step 5: Calculate Total Monthly Investment
Example A completed: Product and shipping: €1,040 Platform (Growth): €129 Total monthly investment: €1,169
Example B completed: Product and shipping: €1,240 Platform (Growth): €129 Total monthly investment: €1,369
Example C completed: Product and shipping: €945 Platform (Starter): €69 Total monthly investment: €1,014
Step 6: Estimate Content Output
Use a conservative post conversion rate of 25% to 30% for new programmes. As your programme matures and creator relationships deepen, conversion rates typically improve.
Example A (20 sends, 25% conversion): 5 pieces of organic content per month Example B (40 sends, 30% conversion): 12 pieces of organic content per month Example C (15 sends, 25% conversion): 4 pieces of organic content per month
Step 7: Calculate Cost Per Piece of Content
Divide total monthly investment by content pieces generated.
Example A: €1,169 divided by 5 = €234 per piece of organic content Example B: €1,369 divided by 12 = €114 per piece of organic content Example C: €1,014 divided by 4 = €254 per piece of organic content
At scale, with higher post conversion rates, these numbers improve significantly.
For reference: commissioned creator content from a mid-tier European creator typically costs €300 to €1,500 per post. Even at the starting programme scale in these examples, gifting generates content at a cost below what commissioned content would cost for equivalent creator profiles.
Adjustments to Consider
Higher-value products: If your product retail price is above €80, consider whether the gifting economics work at scale. Gifting works best for products with retail prices between €15 and €80.
Customs and duties: For brands shipping from outside the EU or UK, customs duties apply above certain thresholds. Factor this into your per-send cost.
Product damage buffer: Build a 5% to 10% product cost buffer for sends that arrive damaged or that require replacement.
Team time: At small programme volumes, gifting management takes 1 to 3 hours per week. At larger volumes, scale this into your cost assessment as an internal resource cost.
The Quick Reference
For a back-of-envelope calculation:
Monthly gifting budget = (Product cost + Shipping cost) x Monthly send volume + Platform subscription
Content output estimate = Monthly send volume x Post conversion rate (use 25% to 30% as a starting estimate)
Cost per content piece = Monthly gifting budget divided by Content output estimate
If your cost per content piece is below what you would pay to commission equivalent content in your category, your gifting programme is generating a positive content efficiency return.