Influencer Brief Template and Filled Example (Copy and Paste)

An influencer brief, or creator brief, is a one-page document that tells a creator what the video is for, the one idea it has to get across, what must be in it, what to avoid, and what the creator decides. The deal terms go alongside it: how many videos, when to post, how pay works, how to disclose and who may reuse the content. Copy the template below, then check it against the filled example for a short-form UGC campaign and the short version for a single TikTok or Reel.

Keep the creative part to 200 to 350 words; viral.app's Copilot flags drafts over 450 because creators skim. Put volume and pay in the deal terms. Across hundreds of campaigns in 2026, the median monthly target was 30 videos per creator, and 57% paid a base per video plus pay for views.

Influencer brief template (copy and paste)

Part 1 is what creators read before they film, part 2 holds the deal terms; replace everything in [brackets].

Part 1: the creative brief

## The assignment

[1 to 2 sentences: the video's job, who it is
for, and what they should think or do after.]

## Who you're talking to

[The viewer's situation in 1 to 2 sentences.
A moment in their life, not an age bracket.]

## The one idea

- Message: [the one thing viewers remember]
- Proof on screen: [what they must see]

## How to build it

- Hooks to try: [2 to 4 directions, not scripts]
- Story beats: [2 to 4 steps]
- Product moment: [what appears, and by when]
- Call to action: [one action]

## Learn from the samples

1. [Label]: [what to take from it, what not
   to copy]
2. [Label]: [what to take from it]
3. [Label]: [what to take from it]

## Must include

- [The product moment]
- [Approved claims, word for word if needed]
- Disclosure: [the exact method]

## Avoid

- [Claims you can't make]
- [Competitors, words, scenes, music]

## Make it yours

- [What the creator decides: setting, wording,
  delivery, humor]

## Resources

- [Links, promo code, app login, product shots]

Part 2: the deal terms

## Deliverables

- Platforms: [TikTok / Instagram Reels / Shorts]
- Volume: [number] videos per [week / month]
- Length: [range in seconds]
- Dates: [start], [end or posting window]
- Review: [before posting or not], [turnaround],
  [number of revision rounds]

## Pay

- Guaranteed: [per video / monthly base]
- Performance: [rate per 1,000 views, or bonuses
  at view thresholds]
- Which views count: [organic only?], for [days]
  days after posting
- Paid: [cycle], by [method], [cap if any]

## Disclosure

- [How the creator marks the paid partnership]

## Usage rights

- Repost on brand accounts: [yes / no]
- Boost as a Spark Ad or Partnership Ad: [yes /
  no], [for how long], [extra fee]

## AI policy

- [Real people only / AI allowed / AI voice only]

## Contact

- [One channel], [reply time]

In viral.app, volume and pay rules live in the campaign settings, which creators see. Put disclosure, usage rights and the AI policy in the brief or contract. The template is plain markdown, so it pastes into a doc or a Notion page, and the viral.app briefs API accepts it as contentMarkdown. If your team works in Notion, the free influencer brief Notion template comes with a deliverables board and two filled examples.

What to write in each field, and the common mistakes

Each field answers a question a creator would otherwise ask you in a DM, or guess at.

Influencer brief example: a filled UGC campaign brief

The setup: Acme Planner wants student creators to post on their own TikTok and Instagram accounts about once a day during exam season, paid per video plus views. Part 1 comes in at about 280 words. For a real example, Knowunity pays StudyTok creators per video plus a view bonus.

## The assignment

Hi Sam, make a native problem-solution video for
students who leave revision to the last week, so
they see Acme Planner as the fastest way to plan
exam week.

## Who you're talking to

A student with three exams in five days who has
not started revising and feels behind everyone.

## The one idea

- Message: Acme turns your exam dates into a
  day-by-day revision plan in under a minute.
- Proof on screen: you type in your exam dates
  and the finished plan appears.

## How to build it

- Hooks to try: "POV: 3 exams in 5 days and you
  haven't started"; panic to calm in one cut;
  "the app that got me through finals"
- Story beats: the panic, the sticky-note plan
  that fails, Acme builds the plan, you tick off
  day one
- Product moment: the plan appears by second 8
- Call to action: "It's free for students, link
  in bio"

## Learn from the samples

1. Panic POV: copy the pacing and the fast cut
   to the phone screen. Don't copy the wording.
2. Desk timelapse: how to show the app without
   a screen recording.
3. Day 1 vs day 5: the before-and-after ending.

## Must include

- The plan being generated, on screen
- "Free for students" as the only price claim
- Disclosure: as set out in the deal terms

## Avoid

- Grade promises ("you'll get an A")
- Other planner apps by name
- Filming inside a real exam hall

## Make it yours

- Setting, wording, outfit, humor, and which
  hook you open with
- Talk the way you would to a friend in your
  year

## Resources

- Free premium login: in the viral.app chat
- App store links: in the campaign

And the deal terms for the same campaign:

## Deliverables

- Platforms: your TikTok and Instagram accounts
- Volume: 30 videos a month, about one a day
- Length: 15 to 60 seconds
- Dates: October 6 to December 15
- Review: no approval before posting; feedback
  on each video within 48 hours

## Pay

- Guaranteed: $16 per posted video that follows
  the brief
- Performance: $1 per 1,000 views
- Which views count: organic views only, for
  30 days after posting
- Paid: monthly through viral.app, no cap

## Disclosure

- Mark every video as a paid partnership with
  Acme Planner

## Usage rights

- We may repost your videos on Acme's accounts
  with credit
- For videos we want to boost, we ask for a
  Spark Ads code covering 60 days and pay a
  flat fee we agree with you first

## AI policy

- Real people only: no AI avatars or AI voices

## Contact

- viral.app chat, replies within one working day

Why it is built this way:

• One idea, one proof shot. Everything in part 1 serves "exam dates in, plan out." The hooks are directions, so 30 videos a month don't all open the same way.
• The samples have names. The text says "Panic POV," and in viral.app creators see "1. Panic POV" above the first sample video, so the reference is unambiguous.
• The numbers come from real deals. 30 videos a month is the median target in viral.app campaigns with monthly payouts. $16 per video and $1 per 1,000 views are the medians on USD jobs paid monthly on our jobs board. In viral.app you would write "Hi $creator_first_name" instead of "Hi Sam," and each creator sees their own name.

Short brief for a one-off TikTok or Reel

For a single paid or gifted post, the full template is too much. This version fits in one message and still covers the four things that cause disputes later: disclosure, review, pay date and usage rights.

## One [TikTok / Reel] for [Brand]

Hi [name], one video about [product].

- The idea: [one sentence]
- Show: [the product moment], by second [x]
- Avoid: [claims, competitors]
- Your call: hook, setting, wording, length
- Disclosure: [how to mark the paid partnership]
- Link or code: [URL / code] in [bio / caption]
- Draft: send by [date], [one] round of edits
- Post: between [date] and [date]
- Pay: [amount] by [method] within [x] days
  of posting
- Usage: [organic repost only / ads for x days
  at an extra fee]

Send it after the creator has said yes to your influencer outreach message, not as the first message. If you're still looking for creators, start with how to find micro-influencers on TikTok.

UGC brief template (for ad creative)

When you buy UGC to run as ads on your own accounts instead of posts on the creator's, the brief needs file specs and rights instead of posting dates. Keep part 1 of the template for the idea and swap part 2 for this:

## Delivery

- Format: 9:16 vertical, [1080 x 1920],
  [length range]
- Files: the edited cut plus raw footage,
  clips named by shot
- Hook variants: [3] different openings on
  the same body
- Captions: [burned in / none, we add text]
- Music: none, or [the track we supply]
- Send via: [Drive / Frame.io / chat] by [date]
- Revisions: [one] round within [x] days

## Pay and rights

- Fee: [amount] per video, hook variants
  [included / extra]
- Usage: paid ads on [platforms], [regions],
  for [3 / 6 / 12] months
- Creator's handle on ads: [Spark Ads code /
  Partnership Ad access], for [days]
- AI policy: [real people only / AI allowed]

Ask for hook variants as separate files so you can test openings against each other, and set the usage period before the creator films, not after an ad starts working.

What to put in the deal terms: numbers from hundreds of campaigns

This is what brands and agencies set in the creator campaigns with at least one creator assigned that ran on viral.app between January and October 2026.

• Name the volume as a number per cycle. A target of 30 a month is about one video a day per creator, and weekly campaigns asked for a median of 5. Programs with hundreds of creators can ask each for less: the sub-$1 CPM UGC playbook works through 200 creators posting 3 to 5 videos a month.
• Say which views count, and for how long. Campaigns split between a window of about a month and one of a week or less. A creator paid on views can't plan without knowing which.
• Most deals mix guaranteed and performance pay. 57% combined a base per video with pay for views, and 15% paid nothing for views. For how to set this up, see performance-based creator payments.

What brands ask for in job posts

Job posts show the same terms before a creator is hired. Across every job published on the viral.app jobs board between August 3 and September 30, 2026:

• Volume: a median minimum of 7 videos a week per creator (middle half: 4 to 10).
• Platforms: TikTok in 96% of jobs, Instagram 85%, YouTube 27%, Facebook 24%.
• Formats: talking head 61%, product demo 53%, tutorial 30%, review or testimonial 29%.
• AI: 46% said real people only, almost none asked for AI-made content, and the rest set no rule. That's why the template has an AI policy line.
• Tests: 22% asked applicants to film a sample video against a short challenge brief.
• Pay: on USD jobs paid monthly, the median was $16 per video, $1 per 1,000 views and a $500 monthly base. Current figures are on UGC rates.

Video length: give a range, not a second count

The median TikTok in our data runs 16 seconds and the median Reel 18 seconds, and about two thirds of both are under 30 seconds. But length barely changes how often a video beats its creator's usual views.

On Reels, the share that reached 10 times the account's median stays between 4.4% and 5.5% at every length. On TikTok, videos of one to three minutes did a little better: 7.7%, against 4.9% for videos under 15 seconds. In a brief, give a range that fits the idea, such as 15 to 60 seconds, and let the creator cut to the story.

What creators say they need from a brief

Two creator surveys agree: creators want clear guardrails and room to make the video their own.

What that means for the brief:

• Separate the non-negotiables from the rest. Later's write-up blames briefs that mix fixed rules with preferences. The Must include, Avoid and Make it yours sections exist so creators can see the line.
• Make expectations countable. "A few videos" invites the unrealistic expectations Tipalti's creators complained about. "30 videos a month, 15 to 60 seconds, no approval before posting" doesn't.
• Say when the money arrives. Name the payout cycle and the method. viral.app pays creators in 180+ countries, by the method they choose: USDC or EURC arrive in seconds to minutes, PayPal and Venmo usually within the hour, SEPA and UK bank transfers in 1 to 2 business days.

How briefs work in viral.app

The template follows the structure of briefs in viral.app. A brief has an internal name creators never see, the text creators read, and numbered sample videos. You choose who reads it: the creators on a campaign, creators you pick, or everyone at your brand.

• Creators have to read it. Every creator a brief reaches gets a must-read dialog and clicks Mark as Read. The brief's card shows a count such as "12/15 read", and Read Status lists who hasn't read it yet.
• Variables fill in per creator. Type $ to insert the creator's first name, the brand name, the campaign's video target, the payout cycle or the creator's start date, so one brief works for every creator on a campaign.
• Samples carry labels. Each sample video gets a label of up to 60 characters, shown above the video after its number.
• Changes are explicit. Save quietly, or use Save & Notify: every creator then gets an in-app notification and an email, and has to read the brief again.
• Copilot and API. The Copilot drafts a brief and finds sample videos in your niche, and you approve before anything is created or shared. The briefs API takes the text as markdown or TipTap JSON, and webhooks fire when a brief is published or read.
• Boosted views stay out of view pay. Create Ad turns a tracked post into a Spark Ad or a partnership ad on your own ad account. With TikTok or Meta connected, viral.app splits boosted posts into organic and paid views, and view-based campaign payouts count organic views only.

The full walkthrough is in the creator briefs docs.

How we measured

• Campaigns: all creator campaigns with at least one creator assigned, created between January 16 and October 1, 2026. No single workspace dominates the sample. We read each campaign's payout cycle, video target and payout rules.
• Jobs: every job published on the viral.app jobs board between August 3 and September 30, 2026, including jobs paused since then.
• Videos: 1.3 million TikTok videos and 1.2 million Instagram Reels posted between October 2025 and August 2026 by about 37,000 accounts with at least 10 videos in that period. The accounts are ones brands, agencies and creators track in viral.app (their own, their creators' and their competitors'). A video broke out when it got 10 times its account's median views. Views are as of October 2026.
• Privacy: we report shares and medians only. No campaign, brand or creator is identified.
• Surveys: as linked in the text, checked on October 1 and 2, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Write your next brief in viral.app

Draft the brief with the Copilot, attach labeled sample videos, send it to a campaign and see who has read it, then track every video your creators post and pay them on the views. Create a viral.app account to set up your first campaign.