Cap Revision Rounds: Stop Giving Bangkok Brands Free Edits
By Mai Influence
You delivered the Reel on Tuesday. The brand asked for a tweak on Wednesday, another on Friday, a new voiceover on Monday, a different cut on Thursday. By the time it posts you have spent eleven hours on an 18,000 THB job that was quoted at four. That is the revision round trap, and it is the single biggest reason Bangkok creators in the 20K to 100K micro tier underearn against their rate card.
The fix is not working faster. The fix is writing the revision policy into every quote before you send it, then holding the line when round three arrives. Here is how to price rounds, cap them, and bill overage in 2026 without losing the client.
Why the trap keeps working on you
Brands rarely plan to burn your evenings. The usual pattern is that the brief was signed off by a junior marketer, then round two surfaces a comment from the brand manager, and round three is the agency account director weighing in. You are absorbing the cost of their internal mis-alignment because your quote never defined what a round is.
The quietest money leak in a Bangkok creator business is the unbilled revision. A micro-tier creator (20K to 100K followers) who ships four paid posts a month and absorbs an average of two extra rounds per post is giving away roughly 16 unbilled hours a month. At a target 1,500 THB per hour, that is 24,000 THB vanishing every month. Over a year that is enough to pay for a trip to Chiang Mai and the camera upgrade you have been putting off.
Define what counts as a round
A round is one consolidated list of changes sent in writing. Not three WhatsApp voice notes on Monday followed by a fourth on Tuesday afternoon. Spell this out in your quote so the brand has to batch their asks.
A clean definition that holds up in Bangkok briefs:
One round equals one written feedback list received within 48 hours of delivery, covering edits to a single deliverable. Feedback received after 48 hours, or split across multiple messages, counts as a new round.
The 48 hour window matters more than the batching rule. Without it, you have a deliverable sitting in review for three weeks, blocking the slot you kept open for a different client.
The pricing structure that stops the bleed
The industry default most Bangkok creators quote is "two rounds included". That is not wrong, but two rounds without an overage rate is still unlimited revisions, because round three always arrives and you always do it. Price the overage before the quote goes out.
Here is the structure that works on the Mai Influence roster in 2026, broken out by tier:
- Nano (5K to 20K): One round included. Overage 500 THB per round. Typical top-quartile 800 THB.
- Micro (20K to 100K): Two rounds included. Overage 1,200 THB per round. Typical top-quartile 2,000 THB.
- Macro (100K and up): Two rounds included. Overage 2,500 THB per round. Typical top-quartile 4,500 THB.
- All tiers, re-shoot clause: If a round requires reshooting (not just an edit), overage doubles. A re-shoot burns daylight, a new location, sometimes a stylist. Charge accordingly.
- All tiers, deadline multiplier: If overage work has a sub 24 hour turnaround, add 50 percent on top.
If a brand pushes back on overage pricing, your lever is the included rounds. Offer three included instead of two, same overage rate. You almost never get asked for a fourth once three are explicit, and the brand feels they won a concession. You can price the calculator yourself inside your free creator profile on Mai Influence and send it to the brand as a line item, which stops the "oh we assumed that was included" response cold.
Catching the sneaky revisions
Not every revision looks like a revision. These are the three that Bangkok creators swallow most often without billing:
The scope creep rewrite. The brief said "one Reel, one carousel". Round two asks you to turn the carousel into a second Reel because "it would film so much better". That is a new deliverable, not a revision. New quote, same project.
The silent re-brief. Round one arrives and the feedback contradicts the original creative deck. Someone senior saw the first cut and changed their mind on tone. This is a re-brief and should be billed as a fresh round-one, not folded into your included rounds.
The usage-rights revision. The brand asks for a cleaner cut-down "for internal use" or "just for the pitch deck". That is a derivative asset. Price it the same way you would price any paid usage addition, which is typically 40 to 70 percent of the base fee for 90 days of internal usage.
How to say no to round four without losing the brand
The language that works best in Bangkok is calm, specific, and attaches a price. Not "I cannot do this" but "I can do this, the overage is 1,200 THB and I can turn it around by Thursday". Attach the invoice preview, not just the quote.
If the brand resists, you have three defensible positions. First, point them back to the signed quote where the round count is spelled out. Second, offer a smaller concession, such as a 15 minute call to walk through the feedback instead of a new cut. Third, if the relationship is worth protecting, do the round at half overage and label it as a one-time goodwill credit on the invoice. The label matters, because it sets the precedent for the next job.
What you do not do is absorb it silently. The brand marketer who got free round four this month will quote you to the next creator at their agency as "quick on revisions". That reputation costs you more than the 1,200 THB.
Build the policy into your quote template once
The reason this trap keeps catching Bangkok creators is that they re-negotiate revision terms every quote. Write the policy once, paste it into every quote, and treat it as non-negotiable copy. Clients learn fast which creators have a template and which creators are improvising. The template signals that you have done this before, which is often what wins the project at the quote stage.
Add three lines to the bottom of every quote: the round definition, the included round count for the deliverable tier, and the overage rate. That is the whole fix. The hard part is holding the policy when round three arrives at 10pm on a Sunday. Everything in this post exists to make that moment easier, because by then the pricing has already been agreed in writing and all you are doing is sending the invoice line.
The number to leave with
A Bangkok micro creator who enforces a two-round cap with a 1,200 THB overage, applied consistently across four jobs a month, recovers roughly 60,000 THB a year in previously unbilled work. That is a flight home for Songkran, a new lens, or a three month buffer in your savings account. The clause takes thirty seconds to paste. Paste it tonight.
