Run a creator campaign without an agency
By Starcovery. Updated .
Describe the campaign, pick creators, send the proposal, and fund the creators who accept, while the Starcovery team sends the proposals and pays the creators.
To run a creator campaign without an agency, describe the campaign in Starcovery, pick the creators for its Shortlist, write the proposal, and choose Send Proposal. The Starcovery team sends the proposals, invoices your organization for the creators you fund, and pays each funded creator after they post.
This page covers each step from brief to payout, who takes each step, what each step costs, a live example, and common questions.
Steps
Describe the campaign
Choose New Campaign and paste your company website, or describe the creators you want. Starcovery finds creators whose reels already fit on the web. Select the ones you like: Hire These Creators starts a campaign with them, and Add to Campaign adds them to a campaign you already have. Save as List saves them to a List, and the List page offers Add to Campaign later.
Edit the Shortlist
The Creators section of the campaign page is the campaign's Shortlist. Add Creators opens a search for the campaign, and Remove takes a creator off the Shortlist. The Shortlist stays editable until you choose Send Proposal.
Write the proposal
Choose Write the Proposal. On the Proposal page, set What they post, the platforms the one payment covers, Pay per creator in whole dollars, the Creator posting date, and the Disclosure statement. What the creator sees shows the proposal as each creator reads it.
Under More Options, set the visibility and the Declassifying date. On a public campaign, signed-in visitors read the campaign details from that date.
Send the proposal
Choose Send Proposal. The request goes to the Starcovery team, who send the proposals from the staff queue. The campaign needs a contract, a disclosure statement, and at least one creator with 1,000 or more followers. A creator posting date, when set, needs to be today or a later day in UTC.
Once Starcovery starts sending, the contract and the disclosure statement are locked.
Read the answers
Each creator accepts or declines. The Creators section shows each creator's answer.
Fund the creators who accepted
Choose Fund Creators, answer the market information question if you have not answered it, and choose Request Funding. The answer sets the platform fee, as Prices lists, and locks while a funding request is open or the campaign holds funds. Campaign funding offers all three answers, including a hold of up to 18 months.
The request covers the creators who accepted and are not yet funded: the pay per creator times those creators, plus the platform fee. The Starcovery team emails an invoice for that amount, and the campaign is funded once the invoice is paid. Only an owner or admin of the organization requests funding.
Creators post and get paid
Each funded creator posts, by the creator posting date when one is set. Starcovery records each live post on the campaign, one per platform, with its view count and engagement count. After a funded creator posts, the Starcovery team pays that creator. The campaign shows Paid out. once every funded creator is paid.
Over REST, create the campaign with POST /api/campaigns and a goal, store ranked matches with POST /api/campaigns/{campaignId}/generate, and edit them with POST /api/campaigns/{campaignId}/matches and DELETE /api/campaigns/{campaignId}/matches/{matchId}. Set contract, disclosure, and marketInformation on the create or with PATCH /api/campaigns/{campaignId}, then call POST /api/campaigns/{campaignId}/send and POST /api/campaigns/{campaignId}/fund. Funding needs the marketInformation answer. The same steps work over MCP and the CLI. See Campaigns, and Pay creators and handle disclosure for the disclosure statement and the creator's payout account.
Who takes each step
| Step | Who |
|---|---|
| Pick creators | You |
| Write the proposal | You |
| Send the proposals | The Starcovery team |
| Accept or decline | Each creator |
| Request funding | An owner or admin of your organization |
| Pay the invoice | Your organization |
| Post | Each funded creator |
| Pay the creators | The Starcovery team |
Live example
coffee creators is a published search page: a ranked list of creators for the brief "coffee creators", each with platform, followers, average views, and engagement on views. Each creator name opens the creator page, such as @jameshoffmanncoffee on TikTok and @orenmeetsworld on Instagram.
To run a campaign from it, run the brief on the web, select the creators you want, and choose Hire These Creators. Then follow the steps above from Write the proposal. A creator page with 1,000 or more followers shows Hire, which starts a campaign with that one creator.
Prices
A credit costs $0.05. Send Proposal and the funding request spend no credits. Each signed-in user gets 200 uses per rolling 24 hours as the daily grant.
| Step | Price |
|---|---|
| Search within the daily grant | Free |
| Search past the daily grant | 1 credit |
| Thread turn | 1 use, from the daily grant and then 1 credit, plus up to 3 searches and exclusions in all, each billed like a search |
| Campaign generate | One search, billed like a search |
| Private campaign | 1 credit at creation, or when a public campaign becomes private |
| Creator pay | The pay per creator, for each funded creator |
| Platform fee, market information answer Yes | None |
| Platform fee, answer Not for up to 18 months | 1% to 18% of the creator pool, one percent per month held |
| Platform fee, answer No | 20% of the creator pool |
The creator pool is the pay per creator times the funded creators. For example, three creators at $200 each make a $600 pool. The answer No adds a $120 fee, for an invoice of $720. Prepaid credit packs are on Pricing. See Pay for API calls without a subscription for the credit ledger.
Frequently asked questions
How do I run a creator campaign without an agency?
Paste your website or describe who you want with New Campaign, pick the creators, write the proposal, and choose Send Proposal. The Starcovery team sends the proposals, and pays each creator you fund after they post.
How do I find creators for a brand campaign?
Describe the creators you want on the web. Starcovery ranks Instagram and TikTok creators for the brief by fit score. See Search.
How do I send a creator a paid partnership offer?
Write the proposal on the campaign, then choose Send Proposal. The Starcovery team sends it to each creator on the Shortlist.
How much does a creator campaign cost?
The pay per creator for each funded creator, plus the platform fee your market information answer sets, plus credits for searches past the daily grant and for a private campaign. See Prices.
Who pays the creators, and when?
The Starcovery team, after each funded creator posts. You pay the Starcovery invoice for the creators you fund.
Can I keep the campaign private?
Yes. New campaigns are public by default. Making a campaign private costs 1 credit, at creation or when you change a public campaign to private.
Can an AI agent run the campaign for me?
Yes. An agent creates the campaign, edits its matches, and requests the send and the funding over MCP, REST, or the CLI. The Starcovery team sends the proposals and pays the creators.