you haven’t run a campaign before, and it’s hard to tell what you need in place before paying someone to start.
here’s how i’d build that campaign, from choosing what to test to deciding when to spend more:
- work backward from the customer**
before finding creators, i’d map out what should happen after someone watches a video.
- what would make them interested in the product?
- where would they go next?
- what would they need to understand before becoming a customer?
those answers belong in the brief. they help a creator decide which situation to show, what part of the product to demonstrate, and how to connect the story to a next step.
i’d also make sure we can track that next step before the videos go live. otherwise, we could finish the campaign knowing which videos got attention without knowing which ones brought in business.
as results come in, i’d compare the cost of the campaign with the customers it brings in. that’s what would help me decide whether to keep developing the approach and put more money behind it.
- turn your research into a creator brief**
i’d start on TikTok and Instagram. look at how competitors present the product, then look at creators talking about the problem it solves.
before planning new content, i’d check whether the brand has already paid to learn something we can use. go through earlier campaigns and ask what they revealed about the customer. if a message attracted the wrong audience, put that in the brief with the reason you’d change it. the next creator should start with that context.
if there aren’t direct competitors to study, those conversations give you another starting point. find content your potential customers already relate to and work out where your product can fit.
https://www.tiktok.com/@sarafinacantina/video/7650218781096185108
one example is @sarafinacantina, who manages a ugc account for our client. she opens with a relationship problem, shows a long message on her phone, then reveals an animated character delivering the reply. the joke plays out through the product’s output, and the brand name appears at the end.
that post had about 24.8 million views, what i’d take into a brief is the sequence: establish a situation, give the viewer context, then let the product play a role in what happens next.
turn that into a creator brief. include a short product walkthrough, who the customer is, reference videos, and hook ideas the creator can develop.
make the references easy to act on. for this example, i’d put the opening reaction, long message, character reply, and brand reveal on one page as four frames. write what happens beside each frame. then have creators map their own concept to a shot list so they know what they need to film.
i’d record a Loom explaining the product so everyone starts with the same context. then put the posting expectations, payment timeline, and answers to common questions alongside it.
the first creators should have enough direction to start making videos and enough understanding to bring their own ideas.
i’d ask each creator to come back with a scene they could film after spending time with the product. what would they be doing, and where would the product become useful? if they can only repeat the description from the website, i’d spend more time helping them understand it before paying for a batch of videos.
3. choose your first creators
with a brief ready, i’d start by working closely with a small group, such as three to five creators. the initial job is to develop the content together and understand what gets a response.
you can also get help finding that first group. on affiliatenetwork.com, our campaign managers will handle creator sourcing, and you choose who you want to work with. that gives you candidates to consider while keeping the final selection in your hands.
look at their previous work. can they deliver on camera? do they understand how to present a product? have they made relevant short-form content before?
i’d interview the suitable applicants, including people who show potential even if they’re newer to ugc.
part of the first budget should help you decide who deserves a longer commitment. i’d pay shortlisted creators to work through a small assignment with us, including an agreed revision. for example, if the benefit is hard to see, ask them to make that moment clearer. the way they handle that request helps you judge how much direction an ongoing partnership would need.
then give them the resources to do the work. break down the reference videos, explain what you want them to try, and help them understand the product.
the guidance matters. a creator can have potential and still need help turning your brief into a useful video.
4. agree on the scope and payments
before moving from a trial into ongoing production, agree on what each creator will deliver and how they’ll be paid. specify whether you need finished edits, raw clips, or additional openings you can test against the same video. if you plan to reuse the content in ads, agree on that use and its duration when discussing the scope.
one arrangement i’d discuss is a base payment plus additional pay for qualifying views. the base pays for the agreed work, and the view payment gives the creator upside when a video performs.
for app-style content, a reference arrangement is $600 to $800 for 30 to 60 unique videos posts on both TikTok & Instagram, plus a CPM bonus if the posts perform well. It's key to incentivize creators with a CPM bonus so that they work hard to create viral content. A standard CPM bonus is $1 to $3 per thousand views with a cap per video.
Agree on the base plus incentives before the videos go live. creators should understand how their payment is calculated and when they receive it.
there are also performance-based agency arrangements where the agency earns as views are delivered. that shifts more risk onto the agency when content underperforms. be specific about what earns payment: a view-based arrangement pays for reach, while your campaign still needs to be evaluated against its customer acquisition goal.
i’d understand which arrangement i’m buying before committing the budget. creator base payments, view incentives, and agency fees need to be clear in the proposal. if you’re starting with $10,000, for example, check how those commitments fit within the total before agreeing to the next batch of work.
once the payment terms are agreed, there’s still the job of getting everyone paid. on affiliatenetwork.com, you deposit the funds onto the platform and we distribute the creator payments automatically based on their verified views. we've spent the last few years perfecting our bot detection system to make sure our system doesn't pay out for fraudulent views. you can manage the campaign budget without arranging a separate transfer to each creator.
5. put someone in charge of execution
you can run the program yourself, put someone on your team in charge, or work with a campaign manager who handles execution with you.
running it yourself means being involved in the early strategy, talking to creators, reviewing videos, and updating the briefs. as the program develops, you can bring in a strategist or give a strong creator more responsibility.
i’d consider that route if i wanted to learn the operation closely and had the time to work with the creators. if i needed someone to run the campaign day to day, i’d look for a campaign manager and agree on what they would handle, what i would review, and how we would work through changes.
that’s how we’ve built affiliatenetwork.com: a marketplace where brands can find traditional face ugc, ai ugc, and faceless ugc in one place, alongside the people who manage those campaigns, killers like @hazan0608. you choose the kind of content and the support that fit your business.
if you want help from start to finish, you can work with a campaign manager on the platform, including managers from agency partners. they take care of the day-to-day execution while you keep control of the budget and direction. you can review the work, give feedback, and change course together as the campaign develops.
i’d approach that relationship with a clear brief and stay involved in the decisions that matter. the agency partner fee averages around 20%, so make sure the proposal explains what it covers and how it’s calculated.
whichever route you take, someone needs to help the creators improve. a shared group gives you a place to review a video, discuss its watch time, and decide what to try next.
that might be a different opening, different audio, or another change to the execution. the person running the campaign needs to turn those observations into direction the creators can use.
6. publish, review, and improve
have the person running the campaign review the first videos against the brief before they go live. once the creators publish, bring the results back into the same review process so the next round of content builds on what you’ve learned.
keep a record of each published video, its creator, the concept, the opening, and the results available to you. compare individual posts and creators as well as the campaign total. one breakout video can account for much of the reach; check whether other executions are showing promise before expanding the whole group.
i’d look for several versions of a format getting a response, then examine watch time and retention to understand what appears to be helping.
before commissioning another version, write down what you want to learn from it. suppose the opening explains too much before anything happens. you could test a version that starts with the action and keeps the rest similar. that gives the next review something specific to examine, even though organic results will still vary.
share those findings with the creators and have them test further versions. this is how i’d approach finding content market fit: work toward a format that shows enough promise to keep developing.
then look at what happens after the view. if people watch but don’t take the next step, i’d examine how the video connects to the product and where it sends them. that gives us a more useful next test than simply asking creators for more of the same.
i’d leave room in the content plan for questions we didn’t anticipate. suppose viewers understand what the product does but keep asking whether it fits their situation. the creator can address that in another video, using the product to explain the answer. whoever runs the campaign should bring those questions into the next brief and check whether the follow-up helps people take the next step.
7. use the results to decide what to scale
when a format brings in customers at a cost the business can sustain, you can bring in more creators to work on it while keeping some creators testing new ideas.
you can also take promising organic videos into paid tests, with the agreed usage in place. use tracked links and conversion reporting to examine what happens after the click, then decide whether the results justify more spend.
for organic posts, a rise in sales or signups around a viral video is useful context, but it doesn’t tell you exactly which customers came from that post. keep measured conversions separate from that broader signal when reviewing the campaign.
by this point, you should have a working brief, a creator group, agreed payment terms, and a process for reviewing what they produce.
once those pieces are in place, the next challenge is keeping the campaign moving: helping creators improve, testing new ideas, and putting more behind what brings in customers. you can stay involved in those decisions while working with people who handle the daily execution.
if you want that support for your brand, set up a campaign on affiliatenetwork.com. tell us what you sell, who you want to reach, and what a successful campaign would deliver. we’ll match you with top talent in your field, including a campaign manager who works with you from the first tests through to scaling.
you keep control of the budget and direction. the collaboration is fully performance-based, with their earnings tied to the results you agree on upfront. they have a reason to keep improving the campaign alongside you.
-> start your campaign at AffiliateNetwork.com
