If you already make edits, the work is done. The part most editors never get is the part where somebody pays for the views.
That is what a paid campaign is. A brand puts up a budget and a rate per view, you post an edit that meets their brief, and you earn on the views your post gets. No audience threshold from us, no application, no pitching.
What the rate actually means
Rates are quoted per 1M views. A campaign at $1,000 per 1M pays $1 for every thousand views your edit gets, and it says so on the campaign page before you start.
The rate is locked to your edit at the moment you submit it. If the brand changes the rate later, that applies to edits posted after the change and never to yours. This matters more than it sounds: it means submitting early is never punished by somebody else negotiating the rate down.
A campaign also has a budget, and the budget is finite. When it is spent, the campaign is done. Rate and budget are both on the campaign page, so you can see how much room is left before you spend an evening on an edit.
Getting set up
Three things, none of which take long.
- Make an account. Sign-in is a code to your email, so there is no password to invent or forget.
- Connect the account you post from with Sign in with TikTok. The connection is read only. It covers your profile, your follower count and your own posts. It cannot post, message anyone or change anything, and your password never leaves TikTok.
- Pick a campaign on Explore and read its brief properly. That is the whole rulebook for whether your edit earns.
What happens after you post
Post the edit, then paste the link back on the campaign. Your edit is accepted straight away, and it starts earning once it is six hours old.
From there, view counts are read from TikTok's own API over the connection you authorised. Nothing is self reported and there is nothing to screenshot, which also means there is nothing to argue about. A fresh reading is taken roughly every six hours.
Your edit keeps counting until the campaign ends, not for some fixed window after you post. An edit posted on day one of a month long campaign is still earning in week four.
When the money arrives
Money from a campaign that is still running shows as locked. Views are still moving, so the number is not final and paying it out early would mean settling a figure that is about to change.
When the campaign finishes, a person reads every edit on it against the brief. Anything that broke the brief earns nothing, and the brand is not charged for it. Everything else is released into your balance and you get an email.
Withdrawals are not open yet. Earnings still accrue, they still show in your balance, and PayPal can be linked now so there is nothing to do on the day they open. This article will say otherwise the moment that changes.
One condition applies after you are paid: the post stays up, and stays as posted, for 30 days.
The things that cost editors money
Most edits that earn nothing fail for boring reasons rather than for quality.
- Posting from an account you have not connected. Only a connected account can be read, so an edit from anywhere else cannot be counted.
- Submitting the same post to two campaigns. A post can only ever earn on one, however the link is written.
- Ignoring a rule in the brief. Every campaign lists what gets an edit approved and what gets it rejected, in the brand's own words.
- Buying views or engagement. It does not work, and it is the fastest way to earn nothing on an edit that would otherwise have paid.
- Taking the post down inside 30 days.
Start here
Explore lists every live campaign with its rate and its rules on the card. Read a brief before you make anything, because the brief is the difference between an edit that earns and an edit that does not.