Product seeding, also called gifting, is the lowest-friction creator deal there is: the brand ships product and asks for nothing in return. Some creators post, some do not. It is a volume play. The brand’s cost is the product and the shipping, and the return is whatever posts, tags and sales come back.
Seeding is often the first step of a commission relationship. The creator receives the product and an affiliate link or code at the same time. If they post and the post sells, they earn. If they do not, the brand has spent one unit.
Example. A brand ships 100 units with a landed cost of $18 each, so $1,800 plus postage. Thirty creators post. Each creator has a 15 % code. Over two months the codes bring 150 orders of $45, so $6,750 in sales and $1,012 of commission. The brand spent about $2,800 all in for the posts and the sales. Example numbers, not a benchmark.
When brands use it. The pain this answers: “Why add to my CPA when I can just pay $200-300 a video?” Seeding plus a code is the zero-fee version. Seeding fits products that are cheap to ship and easy to show on camera, and brands that can afford low hit rates. It does not fit products with a high unit cost or heavy regulation. Brands get more from seeding when they attach a code, a short brief, and a next step (a per-video or hourly offer for the creators whose posts worked).
The creator’s view. Free product is payment in the FTC’s eyes. The FTC’s FAQ says receiving a free product is a material connection that usually must be disclosed, and that the disclosure should say who provided it (FTC). Instagram’s branded content policies treat free or loaned products and affiliate links the same way (Instagram). No post is owed unless the creator agreed to one.
On HourlyUGC. HourlyUGC treats samples as a pay component: the brand ships the product to the creator, alone or alongside hourly, per-video or commission pay in the same campaign.