MCS (Minimum Compensation Standard)
MCS is the minimum amount a brand can offer per deliverable, set by country × tier. It prevents race-to-the-bottom pricing and is enforced at campaign creation.
What MCS protects
If 1,000 brands all decided to offer $5 per Reel to a Micro influencer in Turkey, the marketplace’s price floor would collapse and quality would follow. MCS prevents that by setting a hard minimum per deliverable.
How it’s set
MCS values come from:
- Local cost-of-living and average rates per country
- Tier (a Pico floor is lower than a Mega floor)
- Platform (a TikTok Reel and an Instagram Story have different floors)
- Deliverable type (a full post vs a Story vs a Reel)
We publish the current MCS matrix in /legal/mcs and refresh quarterly.
Enforcement
Campaign creation blocks budgets below MCS. The error is specific, “Your offer of $30 is below the MCS for Macro × USA × Instagram Reel ($150).” Adjust up or change the targeting.
Override path
There are legitimate sub-MCS cases, barter-only campaigns, internal influencer pilots, Brand → Brand collabs. These need a service-mode flag (barter_only=true) which Keepface staff approve case-by-case.