How to launch your first creator campaign

This guide takes you through a first creator campaign in cyrqle, from an empty workspace to paid creators and a report. It assumes a small campaign: one market, five to fifteen creators, Instagram or TikTok. For the bigger picture, read running a creator campaign end to end.

Before you start

• You need editor access to create and run the campaign, and admin access for contracts, brand terms and any money action.
• Your workspace needs an active plan with a campaign allowance left.
• For sales tracking, connect your store first under Integrations. See the Shopify guide, Step 8.
• Decide your budget, your market and your launch window.

The four settings to check before inviting anyone

1. Compensation is complete on the Brief tab. Invites are refused until it is.
2. A destination link is set on the brief. Without it (and without a connected store) no tracking links are created and nothing is tracked.
3. Paid-ads rights are ticked on the offer if you might ever boost the content. They freeze into the agreement when you send it.
4. The campaign is in a recruiting status before you share the public campaign link.

Step 1: Create the campaign

1. Click New campaign on your dashboard.
2. Enter an internal name.
3. Describe the campaign in one sentence in Brief prompt, for example: "Launch of our new trail running shoe in Spain, for runners aged 25 to 40, during May, budget EUR 8,000."
4. Click Create draft.

cyrqle creates a draft and opens the Brief tab with a brief drafted from your sentence: audience, objective and deliverables.

Step 2: Edit the brief

Read the draft carefully and rewrite anything generic. Discovery ranks creators from the brief, so a vague brief gives vague matches. For a model of what good looks like, see our brief template with a filled example.

• Objective: pick one: sales, leads, traffic, trial, booking, UGC, awareness or engagement.
• Audience and markets: be specific about country, language, age range and interests.
• Content ideas and hashtags: what you want shown, and what to avoid.
• Destination URL: the full address where traffic should land. Required for sales, leads and traffic objectives.
• Launch window: start and end dates. Set these after the brief, since saving the brief can fill in default dates.

Each card saves separately. Batch your edits: saving the brief notifies creators already on the campaign.

Step 3: Set compensation

In compensation defaults:

1. Turn on at least one type: Cash fee, Affiliate / commission, Free product, or No payment (product-only / gifting).
2. If cash is on, enter a fee range.
3. Set the combination rules: fee only, fee plus affiliate, or all three.
4. If you ship product, add fulfilment instructions so creators know how to chase a parcel. You ship the product yourself.

You can override the offer per creator during negotiation. For help choosing, see the four compensation models.

Step 4: Author the deliverables

Add one row per platform and format, for example "Instagram reel × 1" and "Instagram story × 3". cyrqle counts delivery against these rows and creates one tracking link per row, so you can tell a reel's sales from a story's.

Tracked formats today are Instagram posts, carousels, reels, stories and videos, and TikTok videos and carousels. Story metrics need the creator to connect their Instagram account.

Step 5: Tracking hashtag and approvals

The tracking hashtag card holds the campaign's primary hashtag, which cyrqle uses to find posts. It locks when the first creator is invited, so check it now.

In the same card, choose No approval needed or Require draft sign-off. Pick sign-off for a first collaboration, regulated products or anything where wording matters.

Step 6: Link your brand terms (optional)

Every creator signs the cyrqle platform agreement. To add your own campaign terms as an annex, an admin pastes a link to them in the Brand terms card. Do it before any agreement is sent: the annex is frozen into each agreement at the moment it is sent.

Step 7: Find creators

Open the Creators tab and click Discover creators. The drawer ranks creators against your brief. Tick the ones you want and add them to the pool. You can also add creators by handle, or add a saved list.

Before you invite, check each shortlisted creator's recent views and engagement, not just followers. See choosing creators by views and CPM.

Step 8: Invite

From the pool, invite creators one by one or with Bulk invite in the Outreach toolbar. Bulk invite shows how many creators are reachable by email or already on cyrqle, and lets you pick the language: auto (Spanish for Spain and Latin America, English elsewhere), or forced Spanish or English.

cyrqle sends two follow-ups, five days apart, to creators who do not reply.

Share invite link only creates a link; it sends nothing. If you use it, send the link yourself.

Step 9: Negotiate and sign

Each creator has a thread on the Outreach tab, with the conversation in the middle and the deal terms on the right: fee, commission, product, timeline and rights.

1. Agree the terms in the deal pane.
2. Check the Paid ads box under content usage rights if you want to boost the content later.
3. An admin clicks Send for e-sign. The creator gets a signing link.
4. Once both sides sign, the creator is under contract and production can start.

Unsigned agreements get reminders and are cancelled automatically after fourteen days.

Step 10: Fund the campaign

An admin opens the Money tab and clicks Fund campaign. Pay through the hosted checkout. The budget card shows funded, scheduled, paid and available amounts.

Fund before creators deliver: a payout cannot be sent if the wallet cannot cover it.

Step 11: Approve drafts and track posts

If you chose draft sign-off, review drafts on the Content tab and approve them or request changes.

When creators submit their live post links, posts appear on the Posts tab with views, engagement and effective CPM. Numbers refresh daily, and cyrqle also looks for campaign posts by hashtag several times a day.

On the Attribution tab, click Mint codes to create a promo code per creator. Sales are matched to creators by promo code, by a purchase in the same session as a link click, or by a later purchase within 30 days of a click.

Step 12: Pay creators

When a creator delivers, cyrqle schedules a payout from the agreed rate or accrued commission. Creators with a Stripe Connect account (available in Europe and the US) receive their net amount directly. For others, pay by bank transfer and record it with Mark paid externally. Each paid payout has a receipt, and each creator has a statement.

Step 13: Report before you close

Open the Report chip for the full campaign report and download it as a PDF, or export tables as CSV. Do this before you move the campaign to Completed: post metrics stop refreshing once the campaign is completed.

FAQ

How many creators should my first campaign have?

Five to fifteen is a manageable first campaign. It is enough to compare creators, and small enough to give each one attention.

Can I run a campaign with gifting only?

Yes. Turn on No payment (product-only / gifting) or Free product in compensation, and add fulfilment instructions.

What if a creator is not on cyrqle?

Invite them by email if cyrqle has an address, or use a share link and send it yourself. They sign up and land on your brief.

Can creators outside Europe and the US be paid through cyrqle?

Stripe Connect payouts cover Europe and the US. For creators elsewhere, including most of Latin America, pay by bank transfer and record the payment in cyrqle so the campaign's books stay complete.