“Why would I add to my CPA when I can just pay $200 to $300 a video?”
You do not have to pick. A base for the work, commission for the results, same campaign. A hybrid UGC payment combines a base that pays for the work with parts that pay for the result. The base is per video or per hour. On top of it sit commission (a share of the ad spend behind the video, a share of the sales it brings, or both), a per-1,000-views term if the creator posts, and samples so they can film. Each component pays for one thing, so a good hybrid is not more generous than a flat fee. It is more precise: the creator earns for filming, for being scaled, for selling and for reach, in proportion to what they delivered.
Why one model never pays for everything
| What the creator does | Model that pays for it |
|---|---|
| Films and edits a video | Per video or per hour (the base) |
| Makes a video a media buyer wants to scale | Commission: share of ad spend |
| Makes a video that converts | Commission: share of sales |
| Posts it to their own audience | Per 1,000 views on their post |
| Needs the product to film with | Samples |
A flat fee alone overpays the videos that do nothing and underpays the one that carries a quarter. Commission alone pays nothing for the work and gets refused by creators who have been burned. The market has drifted to mixes for this reason: Trybe describes six ways brands pay creators on its platform (2 September 2026): a percent of GMV, a flat amount per order, a flat amount per approved submission, Meta performance pay on ad metrics, retainers and bonuses. On HourlyUGC a campaign picks a base (hourly, per video or none) and adds commission, a per-view term and samples on top, all in the same campaign.
The building blocks
- Base, per video. A fixed amount per approved video. Public data: a median advertised offer of $100 in Pitchlo’s report of 670 briefs (December 2025 to November 2026); an average payout of $154 in Collabstr’s 2026 report.
- Base, per hour. A rate times a number of hours, no fixed video count. For iteration with a creator you trust.
- Commission, share of ad spend. A percent of what you spend running the video as a Meta ad, read per ad. On HourlyUGC: 1 to 30 %, optional cap per video.
- Commission, share of sales. A percent of each attributed order, or a fixed amount per order. On HourlyUGC: 1 to 50 %, or $1 to $500 per order.
- Per 1,000 views. A fixed amount per 1,000 views on the post the creator publishes, over a window.
- Samples. The product shipped before filming.
Any component can be zero. The skill is choosing which ones are not.
Example 1: per-video base plus a share of sales
Example. A coffee brand offers $60 per approved video plus 15 % of each attributed order for 90 days, counted by creator link and code.
| Creator | Videos | Base | Orders at $40 | Commission | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 2 | $120 | 10 | $60 | $180 |
| B | 2 | $120 | 90 | $540 | $660 |
| C | 1 | $60 | 0 | $0 | $60 |
| Total | 5 | $300 | 100 | $600 | $900 |
$900 for five videos and 100 orders ($4,000 in revenue): $180 per video all in, $9 per order. B earned eleven times what A did on the same base because B’s videos sold. At a flat $150 per video, all three earn the same, the brand pays $750, and B has no reason to post again.
Example 2: hourly base plus a share of ad spend
Example. A skincare brand books a creator it trusts for 3 hours at $70 an hour ($210, held at the offer). Nine takes. The brand runs four as Meta ads and pays 8 % of spend per video, capped at $800.
| Video | 60-day ad spend | Share at 8 % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $300 (paused) | $24 |
| 2 | $2,000 | $160 |
| 3 | $6,500 | $520 |
| 4 | $12,000 | $800 (cap) |
| Total | $20,800 | $1,504 |
$210 for the session plus $1,504 in spend share: $1,714 for nine takes of which four ran. Creator cost was 7.2 % of the media behind the videos. The take that failed cost $24 plus its slice of the session.
Example 3: no base, commission plus per-view plus samples
Example. A snack brand: samples shipped, 20 % of each attributed order through the creator’s code and link, plus $1.50 per 1,000 views on the creator’s own TikTok post for 30 days, capped at $300 per post.
| Creator | Post views | Per-view pay | Orders at $30 | Commission | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | 25,000 | $37.50 | 6 | $36 | $73.50 |
| B | 400,000 | $300 (cap) | 70 | $420 | $720 |
| C | 90,000 | $135 | 30 | $180 | $315 |
| Total | 515,000 | $472.50 | 106 | $636 | $1,108.50 |
Plus three sample kits at $15 landed cost. For $1,153.50 the brand got three videos, 515,000 organic views and 106 orders ($3,180). The per-view term paid for reach that did not click; the commission paid for buyers who did. No order was counted under both because they measure different things.
Example 4: one creator across three rounds
On most rosters a few creators carry most of the spend; a brand said as much on X (4 October 2026), that it did not need a thousand creators (ecommcowboy). Sort yours by what each creator’s videos spent, not by submissions, and move the top of the list through rounds like these:
| Round | Deal | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100 per approved video, 2 videos | Audition at the market median |
| 2 | $60 per video + 10 % of ad spend, capped $500 per video | Round 1 performed; lower base, upside on scale |
| 3 | 2-hour session at $75/hour + 10 % of ad spend + $1 per 1,000 views on their own post | Trusted creator, iterating on winning styles, posting too |
The base goes down as the result-based parts go up, and the creator’s total goes up with it because the results are there. Round 3 does not reprice round 1.
Three rules that keep a hybrid honest
- One result, one payment. Spend share pays on budget; sales share pays on orders; per-view pays on views. What must not happen is paying a share of sales on the same order twice, once from Meta’s count and once from your store’s. Pick one count per campaign.
- The base is for the work, not a loan against commission. Do not recover it later.
- Terms freeze per video. When you change a rate, delivered videos keep the term they were delivered under.
How HourlyUGC does it
On HourlyUGC the hybrid is the campaign form, not a spreadsheet. You choose the base: hourly, per video, or none. You add commission: a share of Meta ad spend (1 to 30 %, optional cap per video), a share of sales (1 to 50 % of each order or $1 to $500 per order), or both. You add a per-1,000-views term on the creator’s post, and samples. The form shows each share in dollars on a round figure, and that is what the creator reads before accepting.
Then the mechanics do the bookkeeping:
- Each video carries its own terms, fixed at upload. Change the campaign and the form tells you how many delivered videos keep the old terms before you confirm.
- Spend is read per ad from your Meta account on ads built through Build Ads, matched to the source video and creator. The Ads tab shows upcoming charges by video and by creator before they are taken.
- Sales are counted once, by Meta or by HourlyUGC‘s own links, codes and pixel, last touch within 7 days, whichever you chose; both counts are shown side by side.
- Hourly funds are held at the offer and released when you mark the session done; per-video slots are paid on approval.
Every component above, in one campaign, with one statement per creator.
Write it in money
Base: $60 per approved video. Commission on sales: 15 % of every order through your link or code, last click within 7 days, paid 30 days after the order. A $40 order pays you $6. Commission on ad spend: 8 % of what we spend running your video as a Meta ad, up to $800 per video. A $5,000 run pays you $400. Views: $1.50 per 1,000 views on your own post for 30 days, up to $300 per post. Samples: one kit shipped before filming, yours to keep.
Every component is a material connection in the FTC’s terms. If the creator posts, they must disclose; the FTC says to disclose “if you got anything of value to mention a product” (FTC, Disclosures 101), and its sample wording for links is “I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post” (FTC FAQ).
Which mix to start with
| Your situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| New to UGC, no attribution yet | Per video only; add components once you can measure |
| Can read spend per ad, will run videos as ads | Low per-video base + share of ad spend with a cap |
| Can attribute sales on your store | Per-video base + share of sales |
| Reach matters more than conversions | Small per-video base + per 1,000 views on the creator’s post |
| A few creators whose videos keep winning | Hourly base + share of ad spend, plus per-view if they post |
| Thin margins, a product people want to try | Samples + commission only |
Proof
ALLSALE, Head of Growth, on running all of it in one place on HourlyUGC: “The rights are ours the moment payment clears. Everything sits in one place, so the team stopped chasing invoices and files.”
Next step
Start a campaign on HourlyUGC with a per-video base and a share of ad spend. Add a share of sales when Shopify or the pixel is connected, and a per-view term for the creators who post. Pricing is on https://hourlyugc.com/pricing.