How to track UGC brand deals when every brand pays differently

Why does the spreadsheet break at two brands?

One brand deal is a flat fee plus a bonus plus a set of accounts, and none of those is a single cell. A $1 CPM on the first 30 days of each video needs the view count on the day the video was posted and the count 30 days later, per video, per platform. A milestone at 100,000 views needs the highest tier reached, once, and must not pay twice. A campaign with fixed dates needs the views a video had before the campaign started subtracted out. By the second brand the sheet has three tabs and a formula nobody trusts, and by the third the bonus is being estimated rather than counted. The four bonus shapes themselves are in how much to charge for UGC.

What are the five things to track?

Why one view reading per day, not the latest number?

A bonus window is views at the end of the window minus views at the start. You cannot compute that from one number. If you only keep the latest count, an older video that joins a fixed-date campaign brings its whole back catalogue into the bonus, and a 30-day rule keeps paying forever. So the tracker keeps one row per video per day, and the window arithmetic reads the last reading on or before each edge.

Owed is not paid

Earned is what the rules say the brand owes as of today. Paid is what landed. Keep both, and freeze a payout the day it is logged: the numbers on it are text, never recomputed, and a correction is a new adjustment line rather than a change to a bill already sent. The gap between earned and paid, per brand, is the number that tells you who to chase, and how to invoice a brand for UGC is the bill that does the chasing.

How UGC Flows does it

It is on both plans, from $199 a month, and the editing marketplace beside it is $3 a video, or $2 a video from 6 videos on one ticket.

1. 01

   Add the deal

   The brand, the flat fee, the pay cycle and the net terms.

2. 02

   Type the rate sheet in as rules

   Shape, rate, window, minimum, cap, per platform. Several rules on one deal is normal.

3. 03

   Paste the post links

   One account per platform, one cut across all of them.

4. 04

   Let it read

   Each account is read a few times a week, and every rule's window is computed off the daily rows.

5. 05

   Log the payout

   The numbers freeze as text. The dashboard draws a calendar of what each day earned, with an untracked day drawn blank rather than as $0.

Questions people ask

Can I track UGC deals in a spreadsheet?

For one brand with a flat fee, yes. It breaks at the second brand, because a bonus window needs a view reading per video per day and a spreadsheet only ever holds the latest number. By the third brand the bonus is an estimate.

How often should I check views on a bonus deal?

Often enough to have a reading on or before every window edge. Every few days is enough for most rules, with a reading on the closing day of a fixed-date window, because the payout is computed off the newest snapshot at the edge.

What is the difference between earned and paid?

Earned is what the deal's rules say is owed as of today. Paid is what actually landed, frozen on the day it was logged. The gap between them per brand is the money to chase.