Retainers: deliverables, recurring periods, and negotiations

A Retainer pays an agreed total amount when a creator completes the required deliverables for a period. For example, “five qualifying posts for $250” is a $250 deal for the five-post requirement. It does not automatically pay $250 per post or pay extra for every post above five. For a shared pool that pays at a per-post rate, use a Race.

Retainer requirements

Configure the supported content types, required post count, payment amount, products, and schedule. The content must satisfy the campaign's product, date, and participation rules.

An optional Minimum GMV adds a second requirement: the creator must satisfy both the deliverable count and the campaign GMV floor for that period. Meeting the count alone is insufficient. The GMV floor is campaign-wide, including creators with personalized deals; it is not the creator's overall historical shop GMV.

Fixed, recurring, and dynamic schedules

Recurring retainers use contiguous weekly/monthly windows and are saved without grace. Fixed and dynamic retainers can use the separate grace settings. The join-date switch is hidden in Dynamic mode because deal timing governs eligibility.

A fixed or recurring campaign can have a past start date. Whether earlier content counts depends on that window and the join-date setting, not a blanket “posted after campaign creation” rule.

Once creators have joined, schedule type, recurrence cadence, and start-date anchor cannot be changed by saving a new configuration. This preserves period numbering and payout history. Personalized deal settings also have edit restrictions once a creator has joined; use the supported negotiation workflow rather than assuming a form edit will rewrite an existing agreement.

Personalized creator payouts

Turn on Enable Personalized Creator Settings to open Custom Creator Payouts. Choose how creators get their own rate:

• Manually set: enter creator handles with their own required number of posts and total payout amount.
• By GMV tier: set GMV bands instead of naming creators, and each creator's rate is picked automatically when they join.

Creators without a custom rate use the campaign's default terms. If a manual rate sets only a payout amount, the creator gets that amount with the campaign's default post requirement.

Payouts by GMV tier

1. Choose Which GMV decides the tier:
   • GMV with your brand (last 30 days): only sales the creator drove for your shop, across all their accounts.
   • GMV across TikTok Shop (last 30 days): the creator's TikTok-reported GMV across every brand, the same figure as the GMV column on My Affiliates.
2. Add tiers. Each one has a Min. creator GMV, a Payout, and optionally its own posts requirement (leave it blank to use the campaign's). Each tier needs a higher minimum than the one before it.
3. Click the eye icon on a tier to preview which of your affiliates would qualify today.

When a creator joins, Cruva checks their GMV at that moment and gives them the highest tier whose minimum they meet. Their rate is locked from then on, even if their GMV changes later. Creators below the lowest tier get the campaign's standard payout.

Tier-assigned rates show an Auto tier badge in the campaign summary and the participants table; hover to see the GMV it was based on.

Once anyone has joined, the payout method, GMV source, and tiers can't be changed. Switching from manual rates to tiers removes the manually assigned rates, since a creator can't have both.

Check personalized payouts

Check the exact handle and the creator preview. Personalized requirements are not simply a bonus added to the default payout. In a private campaign, creators with personalized payouts also have access, alongside the explicit allowlist.

Let creators negotiate

Enable Allow creators to negotiate their payout and optionally customize the negotiation button text, such as “Don't like this offer?”.

1. The creator opens negotiation with an offer, including the proposed payment and deliverables and an optional message.
2. The offer appears for the brand to review in the campaign's negotiations interface.
3. The brand can accept, decline, or counteroffer. The creator can respond to the brand's counteroffer.
4. The parties take turns. A proposal under review is not an accepted deal.
5. Acceptance records the agreement for that creator and period. Declining rejects the proposal; it does not create an approved paid deal.

Negotiation can put a joining creator under review even if ordinary applications would auto-approve. A pending approval request and a negotiation awaiting a response are different states. Review the accepted amount and deliverable count for the relevant period instead of assuming the campaign's headline offer applies to everyone.

Negotiation actions can also appear as structured cards in the creator's Cruva conversation with the brand. A normal chat message saying “sounds good” is not the same as accepting through the negotiation controls.

Dynamic retainer deadlines in detail

A dynamic period must have an active deal before its posts can count. With negotiation enabled, an accepted deal creates that window. Posting before agreement does not make a new deal retroactive.

The first qualifying post after the deal anchors the creator's duration. For example, with a ten-day duration, a first qualifying post on September 5 starts that creator's ten-day posting window. Use the displayed deadline for the precise cutoff. If an earlier qualifying post is discovered later, it can move the anchor earlier and change which later posts fit.

Grace is normally extra time to collect metrics on posts already made within the duration. It extends the posting window only if Allow new posts during the grace period is enabled. Content made in a gap outside an agreed posting window does not automatically become eligible merely because the creator submits it later.

When negotiation is enabled, a later period needs another agreed deal. The next negotiation opens after the previous period is fulfilled or its window expires; Cruva does not silently accept a new paid deal for the brand. Without negotiation, an expired dynamic window can roll into a subsequent period as later content is processed, subject to the campaign's period settings.

Detailed dynamic-period examples

For exact deal timestamps, first-post anchors, duration-plus-grace gaps, renewals with and without negotiation, and why an earlier discovered post can move a deadline, see Dynamic retainer periods. This includes a worked timestamp example and the meaning of each negotiation/submission error.

Why a retainer is not complete or payable

Check the period, accepted/personalized deliverables, required count, any GMV floor, approval status, product matching, disqualifications, and posting/deal deadlines. A successful manual link submission can still be awaiting TikTok metrics or product validation.

Finishing deliverables, closing a period, and releasing payment are separate events. Review the campaign's payment controls and payment history before telling a creator money has been sent. See Creator payouts and Content tracking.