Clipping for game marketing: a UGC campaign paid per view
Gameplay clips reach players where a trailer no longer does: short-video feeds, cut by clippers on their own accounts, paid for only on counted views. Here are the five formats that sell a game, the folder of material clippers need from you, what a launch, an update and a season cost under pay-per-view, and the bans worth writing into the brief up front.
Which clips sell a game
Trailers announce a game; moments sell it. Five formats work consistently on game tasks; name them in the brief so nobody invents a sixth.
- The gameplay moment. One 15-to-30-second episode: a boss, a race, a rare drop, action from the first frame.
- The fail or the clutch. A wipe on the last second or a win with one hit point left: the most reposted format, because viewers see themselves in it.
- How to beat it. A short guide to the spot where everyone gets stuck; it picks up search and lives for months.
- The streamer reaction. A slice of a stream with a real reaction; needs partner streams and the right to cut them.
- Before and after an update. Old version against new: graphics, balance, content. The format for patches and seasons.
One format per task is easier to moderate than five; for all of them, run several tasks and compare the views.
Materials for clippers
A clipper will not buy the game for a task: everything a clip needs sits in one folder linked from the brief and opens without an access request.
- A build or access. Keys for PC and consoles, the store link for a mobile game, a test account with content unlocked; limit keys per creator.
- Gameplay captures. Ten to twenty minutes of clean 1080p footage without overlays or watermarks.
- Partner streams. Links to streams that may be cut and the streamer's written permission; without it a copyright claim takes the clip down with its views.
- Logo, name, link. How the title is spelled, which icon goes in the frame, which link goes in the description.
- Spoiler and version rules. Which scenes stay hidden until a date and which version counts as current.
All five map onto the Materials, Must-be-in-the-clip and Not-allowed fields of the clipping brief template.
Pay per view or pay per install
The primary mode for a game is pay per view: you set a rate per 1,000 views, a threshold and a cap per clip, and fund the budget. The clipper publishes on their own TikTok, Reels or Shorts account and sends the link; the platform reads views from the site's public counter, reconciles several times a day and drops inflated views.
In open tasks rates currently run from $1 to $2 per 1,000 views, typically $1. The threshold defaults to 1,000 views and is usually 2,000; a clip below it earns nothing, a clip above it is paid for its whole counter. The cap per clip is usually $100, so no single viral clip takes the whole pool. A hypothetical example:
20,000 / 1,000 × $1.00 = $20.00
The second mode suits games that earn from paying players and need installs rather than reach: a CPA offer pays a flat fee per accepted clip plus a share of purchases by players who came through the creator's tagged link or promo code; conversions arrive by S2S postback, incentivized traffic is banned. The offer for apps is described on the apps vertical.
Launch, update, season: three campaign scenarios
The scenarios use the formula at $1 per 1,000 views and a $100 cap per clip. This is arithmetic, not a forecast: the number of clips and views depends on the game, the materials and the brief.
| Scenario | Pool | Paid views at $1 | Clips at the $100 maximum | The brief |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | $800 | 800,000 | 8 | moments and fails, deadline two weeks after release |
| Update | $300 | 300,000 | 3 | before-and-after of one patch, one-week deadline |
| Season | $500 a month | 500,000 a month | 5 | a new task every season, how-to guides and partner streams |
Launch. The largest pool and two formats at once; hand out materials before release under a publication-date embargo, so clips land in the first week.
Update. A small pool and one format; keep the cap at the low end, or three clips take the whole pool.
Season. A series of tasks instead of one big one; creators who earned last season come back first.
Add 10 USDT for creating a contest to any pool; the contest fee is 0% and topping up the budget is 0%. Put your budget and rate into the calculator:
Contest fee 0%: the whole budget goes to creators. Launching costs 10 USDT once; the budget is locked on the platform before the start.
The line-by-line breakdown is on the clipping campaign cost page.
What to ban in the brief
A ban missing from the brief cannot be applied afterwards, so the ban list for a game is longer than for any other product.
- Cheats, exploits and third-party software. A clip with a cheat sells the cheat, not the game.
- Leaks. Datamined content, unannounced scenes, endings before the date in the materials.
- Toxicity. Insults aimed at players, developers or competitors, harassment by nickname, mocking newcomers.
- Other brands and music. Other games' logos in the frame and music without rights, which the site will mute.
- False promises. "Free gems", "paid for watching", giveaways you are not running.
- Other people's clips. A re-upload under your hashtag is rejected without pay.
A submission enters the task only through the creator's link and a moderator's check; a clip that breaks a ban is rejected in the selection window and is not paid.
How to read the results
A campaign has three sources of data, and none replaces the others.
Counted views. Each submission shows the link, the counted views and the amount earned. Look at the spread, not the total: five clips at the cap and forty below the threshold means the format was clear to few.
Rejected submissions. The rejection rate measures the brief, not the creators: more than a third rejected usually means a vague must-be-in-the-clip list or a ban nobody noticed.
The store side. Installs and purchases are not counted by the platform: watch organic installs by day in the store console, clicks on tagged links and promo code activations; on a CPA offer, conversions per creator arrive by postback.
You do not have to hunt for clippers: the task goes into the feed, where creators worldwide see it. More ways to bring them in: how to find clippers; the setup order: how to set up a contest; the terms for studios: the business page.
Frequently asked questions
Can clipping start before the game is released?
Yes, with materials: closed-beta captures, keys under NDA or pre-recorded gameplay. State the date before which a clip may not be published; a clip published early is rejected.
What about clips where the creator criticizes the game?
An honest review with complaints does not break the brief unless it contains something banned: toxicity, cheats, other brands. Viewers read such clips as genuine; if criticism is unacceptable, put a specific scenario into the must-be-in-the-clip list instead.
Does the platform count installs of the game?
No. The platform counts views from the site's public counter and pays by the formula; installs and purchases live in the store console and behind tagged links, and on a CPA offer conversions arrive by postback.
How many keys should clippers get?
One per creator for the main platform, plus a reserve for consoles if needed. Hand keys out on request through the task, not as an open list: an open list is gone within an hour without a single clip.