How clipping campaigns pay: CPM, caps and pools explained with numbers

Every clipping campaign is four numbers. Once you can read them, you can tell in ten seconds whether a campaign is worth your afternoon, or, if you are a brand, whether your budget will do what you want.

The four numbers

Rate. Dollars per 1,000 views. This is the CPM. A $1.50 rate pays $1.50 for every thousand views a clip gets.

Cap. The most one clip can earn. A $300 cap means a clip stops accruing at $300 no matter how far it goes.

Minimum payout. The dollar amount a clip has to earn before it goes to review. At the rate, that is a view count: a $1 minimum on a $1 rate is 1,000 views, so a clip with 800 views is never sent for review and nothing is committed for it.

Budget. The pool. A hard ceiling on what the whole campaign can pay out. When it is spent, the campaign closes itself.

There is a fifth number that is easy to miss: the tracking window, 30 days by default. Views count for that long after you submit. After that, the clip is done.

The formula

earnings per clip = min(cap, views ÷ 1,000 × rate), once it has passed the minimum payout, counted for the tracking window, while the pool has money.

Worked examples for a clipper

Campaign A: $1.00 rate, $300 cap, $1 minimum payout (1,000 views), $5,000 budget.

• 800 views: below the minimum. $0.
• 6,000 views: $6.
• 90,000 views: $90.
• 1.2 million views: would be $1,200, capped at $300.

Campaign B: $2.50 rate, $100 cap, no minimum, $2,000 budget.

• 6,000 views: $15.
• 40,000 views: $100, capped. Every view above 40,000 earns nothing.
• 1.2 million views: $100.

Notice what happened. Campaign B pays more per view, and Campaign A pays more for a clip that takes off. If your clips usually land at 5,000 to 30,000 views, B pays better. If you are chasing big hits, A does. Both are fair. They are just built for different clippers, which is why both numbers are on the card.

The pool changes things at the end

The budget is shared by everyone in the campaign. When it is nearly empty, whichever views are read first take the last dollars. A clip that had earned $40 and was still climbing stays at $40 if the pool hits zero. Nothing already committed is ever taken back, but nothing new is added.

Practical rule: check budget left before you cut. A fresh pool with thousands left has room. A pool with $60 left is a lottery.

What the brand pays

The brand funds the pool and pays a 10% platform fee on top of what creators earn. So a brand that wants to pay out $5,000 to clippers funds $5,500. The rate on the card is what the clipper receives in full; nothing is taken from the creator side.

If the brand closes the campaign early, anything not committed comes back to their balance, including the fee on the unspent part. The brand pays only for delivered views.

Setting the numbers as a brand

Rate. Look at the board. Campaigns in your niche have rates on their cards. Sitting a little above the others is what makes the good clippers pick yours, and it costs less than it sounds because you are still only paying per view.

Cap. Decide the most you are happy to pay one clip. A low cap protects the pool and tells clippers not to bother chasing hits. A high cap attracts the clippers who get hits. For most brands a cap somewhere between 100 and 500 times the rate works: a $1 rate with a $300 cap pays out on a clip up to 300,000 views.

Minimum payout. A small floor, $1 to $5 at a $1 rate (1,000 to 5,000 views), stops your review queue filling with clips nobody saw. Set it too high and clippers with steady mid sized clips go elsewhere.

Budget. Divide by the rate to see the views you are buying. $5,000 at $1 is up to 5 million views, minus what caps and minimums shave off. If the pool is burning fast, that is clippers finding it worth their time. Topping up is one click.

Other reward models

Not everything is per view. A flat fee campaign pays a fixed amount per approved post and is usually offered to hand picked creators when a brand wants control over exactly who posts. A retainer pays a fixed sum per creator for an agreed number of approved posts, useful for a creator you want posting every week. Both show on the same card with the reward model written on it.

The other timing rules

Views accrue until the cap or the end of the 30 day tracking window. Once the brand approves a clip, its earnings land in the creator's balance and keep growing with views. Every amount in the balance unlocks 30 days after it lands, and then it can be withdrawn.

The per clip math is on your Submissions page for every clip, live. If a number ever looks wrong, how your earnings are calculated shows exactly where each figure comes from.