Campaign settings: products, applications, invite-only access, and terms

Open Creator Community → Campaigns, choose a campaign, and use its edit controls to review the saved configuration. When creating one, use the creator preview to check the offer and joining experience. Available fields depend on the campaign type.

Public, invite-only, and application-based campaigns

Privacy and approval are independent settings:

For Make campaign private, enter the allowed creator handles. Creators with personalized payout settings also have access. A private campaign requires allowed creators; sharing its URL alone does not add a recipient to the allowlist. Creators outside the permitted audience cannot use the link to bypass the restriction, and the rewards/joining experience is hidden from them.

New retainers and races start with approval enabled in the builder; other campaign types can have different defaults. Check the saved switch rather than assuming every campaign is open-join.

Require approval / must submit an application puts a joining creator into a pending review state. Review requests in the campaign's creator review interface. Approval, rejection, removal from a campaign, and disqualification of an individual post are different actions.

A member of your Brand Hub or Discord is not automatically an approved participant in every campaign. Similarly, an invitation is not an accepted retainer negotiation. Negotiated offers can be under review even where ordinary joining would auto-approve.

Joining requirements

• Require Stripe setup: the creator must complete the required payout onboarding before joining. With it off, they can join without a ready payout account. That does not remove the need for a usable payout destination to receive money.
• Require phone number: the creator needs a phone number on their account. This does not override their SMS consent preferences.
• Require Discord: when the shop has a connected Discord integration, require the creator to link Discord. Cruva can add them to the connected server upon approved joining; older connections may need to be reauthorized. See Discord and creator messages.
• Terms acceptance: creators see the campaign terms in the Join flow, plus the brand's community terms if required and not already accepted. If either uses a contract, the creator must sign it before they can join.

A paused or completed campaign is not open for new joins. If someone cannot join, check campaign status, their exact handle and allowed access, unmet joining requirements, and their existing application/negotiation state before changing the reward.

Name, description, and button text

The campaign name and description should explain deliverables, products, dates, rewards, and any review expectations. The Join button text changes the label; it does not change whether joining requires approval. Retainers have a separate optional negotiation-button label.

Custom approval and rejection messages explain the outcome to applicants. Use the editor's supported variables, including [affiliate_handle], [campaign_name], and [shop_name], rather than assuming any text in brackets is a working variable.

Schedule and counting switches

• Timezone: determines the calendar-day start/end interpretation for the campaign. The fixed end date runs through 11:59 PM locally.
• Fixed dates: a shared start and end date. A past start date is allowed.
• Recurring: weekly or monthly periods for contests and retainers, with an optional maximum number of periods.
• Dynamic: a retainer's per-creator deal/first-post schedule and duration.
• Only count videos posted after they join: uses the creator's join calendar day as an additional lower bound, not the exact joining hour. Dynamic retainer deals have their own rules.
• Enable Grace Period: keeps collecting data after the ordinary deadline; the default is usually three days for schedules that support it. Recurring contests/retainers have contiguous periods and are saved without grace.
• Allow new posts during the grace period: separately extends which posting dates qualify. Without it, grace is only for collecting delayed metrics on timely posts.

For contests and retainers with participants, schedule type, cadence, and start-date anchor are protected from edits. Fixed end dates can still be extended; the original end-date anchor of a recurring schedule is preserved. Check the saved configuration after editing, especially if the form displays a lock note.

See Date and manual-submission rules for examples.

Products and content types

Choose all shop products or an explicit list of campaign products. A manually submitted link still has to pass product validation when TikTok provides its tags.

With a product list, Auto-disqualify posts tagged outside these products appears beside the picker. It's on by default:

• On: a video or carousel whose product tags are all outside the list is disqualified and stops counting toward the campaign.
• Off: every post counts, whatever it's tagged with. Use this if you list products only to steer sample requests but want to pay on everything creators post. Turning it off releases posts that were already flagged on the next sync.

LIVEs are never disqualified this way; the product list only decides which products' GMV counts from a LIVE. A brand's manual disqualify or requalify always sticks.

Where supported, choose videos, LIVE, photo carousels, or a combination. Content eligibility and performance metrics are separate: selecting LIVE does not turn a video-only Bingo cell into a LIVE condition. Review each campaign type's available controls.

The option to use the first product image as the campaign image changes the campaign artwork, not the product eligibility rule. Replacing an image or changing the description does not automatically add a new product ID to the campaign list.

Requirements, guidelines, inspiration, and terms

• Do's and Don'ts: the Content Guidelines table on the Content & rules step explains the creative requirements, such as demonstrations, claims to avoid, or presentation expectations. A campaign can have up to 10 Don'ts. Presets marked Auto-scan, such as the Video language videos must be in, are checked on every new video and breaks are flagged for you; rows marked You check, including Don'ts in your own words, are shown to creators but not checked. See Content guidelines and flagged videos. Written guidelines do not automatically become numerical reward thresholds.
• Inspiration videos: under Content Inspiration Videos (optional) on the same step, use manually selected links or the offered automatic selection configuration. These are examples for creators, not their submitted campaign deliverables.
• Creator briefs: insert the relevant brief/link where the editor offers it so creators can find detailed instructions.
• Campaign terms / usage rights: configure terms text plus a PDF or a contract to sign in the terms step. These are shown in the Join popup. Review that popup in the preview, not only the main campaign page.
• Seller/community terms: a separate brand-level requirement may also appear in the joining flow. It is distinct from campaign-specific terms.

The current editor always shows campaign terms in the Join popup; the old hide-terms switch is no longer offered. Saving a legacy campaign through this editor restores its campaign terms display. Check the Join preview and brand-level terms separately.

Inspiration video controls in detail

Manual selection lets you add TikTok links or select videos from the available shop/vault pickers. Remove examples you no longer want, and drag examples to reorder them. These selections supply the brief's inspiration content; they do not enroll the featured creators or credit those videos as a participant's submission.

Automatic selection has its own filters:

Review the inspiration preview after changing filters. An empty result can mean no examples match those filters, not that creators have no eligible campaign posts. An unavailable/deleted example may need replacement.

Terms text, PDFs, and contracts

The campaign needs terms text, an attachment, or both. You can use Reset to default to restore the standard campaign text and insert [shop_name] where offered. Removing the attachment is separate from editing the text; leave at least one valid form of campaign terms.

The attachment is either a PDF creators can read, or a Contract to sign: one of your published Creator Contracts. Never both. With a contract, the Join popup shows the terms text and then asks the creator to sign the contract before they can join. A creator who already signed that contract, for example from its link, isn't asked again. Their signed copy is listed on the campaign and under Creator Community → Contracts. A contract that is a campaign's terms can't be voided until you switch the campaign to other terms.

If the contract's termination terms are Ends with the campaign, copies signed through this campaign's Join flow end when the campaign is completed, archived, or past its fixed end date, or when the creator leaves or is removed. Ending a contract is recorded only: it doesn't remove the creator or change payouts.

Brand-level seller/community terms are configured separately and can require one-time creator acceptance. The creator Join popup combines the applicable terms. Neither selecting inspiration content nor hiding a page section replaces acceptance in that popup.

Saving and validation

Branding styling is optional; missing custom colors or support email alone does not prevent saving. When validation highlights a field, correct that field and confirm the saved result. Some schedule fields remain protected after participation begins even if the UI lets you type another value.

See Reward limits reference for defaults and required values per tier/rank, and Dynamic retainer periods for deal-driven schedules.

Pausing, completing, archiving, and the campaign limit

Campaigns are never permanently deleted. Every campaign keeps its joined creators, tracked content, and payout history for as long as the shop exists. Use the row menu in the campaigns list to change what a campaign does:

The same rules apply to campaigns managed through the public API or an AI agent connected to your account: there is no delete, only archive.

The campaign limit. Each shop can run up to 100 campaigns at once. Only active and paused campaigns count; completed and archived ones do not. When you hit it, the create page refuses with "Limit reached". To free a slot, mark a finished campaign Completed or archive one you no longer need. Restoring an archived campaign or reopening a completed one takes a slot again, so those are refused at the limit too.

Unpaid creators block new campaigns. If any creator payout is ready and unpaid, creating a campaign is refused, whether you create from the dashboard, the API, or an agent. Clear it either way: pay the creators out from the campaign's payouts view, or use Mark as Paid on each creator you already paid outside Cruva. The block lifts as soon as nothing is owed. See Creator payouts and adding funds.

Branding and creator support

Configure the campaign image/logo, colors, fonts, card/background styling, support email, and available Discord display option. Saved brand themes apply copied values to the campaign; changing the saved theme later does not automatically restyle every existing campaign.

The support email and Discord entry point tell creators where to get help. If your shop has no support email, the campaign page suggests adding one; that shop-wide address shows on every campaign that doesn't set its own, and in the Help screen of the creator app. Showing a Discord link is separate from requiring Discord, assigning server roles, or scheduling Discord announcements.

Budget and notification settings

Budget behavior is specific to the campaign: cash-bearing contests can cap funding and winner spots; races use a shared pool and optional creator/content caps. Retainers do not expose the contest budget control, and prize-only contests do not use a cash budget. Creators can see the budget; the old Hide the budget from creators switch has been removed.

Configure SMS, Discord, Lark, and Cruva chat reminders, plus winner notifications and private status/payment messages, in the campaign's communication settings. Read Reminders and community messages for the destination and timing of each option.

Review a live campaign's changes before communicating new terms to creators. Changing settings does not prove an old disqualification has been cleared, historical data reprocessed, or an already paid reward recalculated.