For years, most UGC deals have worked the same way.

You agree on a price. You create the content. The brand pays you. The deal is done.

That model works, and it isn't going away at Vidovo.

But there is something creators rarely get to see after they hand over their content.

A brand might test your video as an ad. If it performs, they increase the budget. Then they increase it again. That same video could run for weeks or months and have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in ad spend put behind it.

Under a traditional fixed-fee deal, your payment stays exactly the same whether the brand spends $100 behind the video or $100,000.

We think creators should have another option.

That is why Vidovo is introducing performance-based opportunities, including CPM payouts and percentage-of-ad-spend payouts.

The goal is simple.

If your content becomes more valuable to the brand, there should be ways for you to participate in that upside.

First, We're Not Getting Rid of Fixed Fees

We want to be very clear about this.

Fixed-fee UGC is still a great model.

You know exactly what you're getting paid before you create anything. You get guaranteed compensation for your time, production and creative work regardless of what happens after delivery.

Vidovo has used fixed-fee campaigns for years and will continue to offer them.

Performance-based payouts are another earning option.

Some opportunities may be entirely fixed fee. Some may be performance-based. Others may combine guaranteed compensation with additional performance payouts.

There is no single payment structure that makes sense for every creator or every campaign.

We want creators to understand all of them.

Why Is This Happening Now?

Creator content has become a much bigger part of advertising.

According to the IAB’s 2025 Creator Economy Ad Spend & Strategy Report, U.S. creator advertising spend is expected to reach $44 billion in 2026. The report also found that 48% of creator ad buyers consider creators a "must buy" part of their advertising strategy.

Brands aren't only paying creators to post anymore.

They're taking creator videos and running them as ads across TikTok, Meta and other platforms.

TikTok’s own analysis of campaign data found that creator-led ads produced a 70% higher click-through rate and 159% higher engagement rate than non-creator ads at the same CPM. Separately, TikTok’s Spark Ads Creative Playbook reported that 87% of its top 200 high-spending Spark Ads involved creators, based on an analysis from 2023.

That changes what a piece of creator content can be worth.

Your video is no longer necessarily something a brand uses once.

It can become a paid media asset.

And if it works, brands may keep putting money behind it.

Think About What Happens After You Submit an Ad

Let's say two creators each make a video for the same brand.

Both are paid $400.

The brand tests both videos.

Creator A's video gets $500 in ad spend before the brand stops running it.

Creator B's video starts performing well. The brand spends $5,000. Then $20,000. Then $50,000.

Under a standard fixed-fee deal:

Creator A earns $400.

Creator B earns $400.

There is nothing wrong with that. Both creators completed the work they agreed to do.

But performance payouts create another possibility.

Creator B can continue earning as the brand continues scaling their creative.

That is what we find interesting.

How Percentage Of Ad Spend Works

This is one of the models Vidovo is introducing.

Instead of only receiving a one-time payment, a creator can earn an agreed percentage of the advertising spend placed behind their content.

Say your payout is 3% of ad spend.

If the brand spends $5,000 behind your creative, your performance payout would be:

$150

If they spend $25,000:

$750

If they spend $100,000:

$3,000

If they spend $500,000:

$15,000

Those numbers are only illustrations. Every Vidovo opportunity will have its own terms and payout rate.

This type of compensation is already being used in creator advertising.

In an analysis of roughly $500 million in creator payouts, Lumanu found that brands using ad-spend-share agreements typically paid creators 1% to 7% of ad spend run through creator accounts. That range describes the deals in Lumanu’s analysis, not a standard payout rate or a promise of what Vidovo campaigns will pay.

There was also a massive range in outcomes.

Among the ad-spend-share payouts Lumanu examined, the median was just $22 per month and the average was $127 per month. The largest single monthly payout was approximately $30,000.

That's important.

Performance pay does not mean every video suddenly makes thousands of dollars.

Most ads don't become huge winners.

But when one does, the creator has the opportunity to participate in what happens next.

How CPM Payouts Work

CPM stands for "cost per thousand" and is commonly used in advertising to describe the cost of 1,000 impressions.

In a creator payout model, a CPM-style rate can mean your earnings increase for every 1,000 eligible impressions or views, depending on the specific terms of the campaign.

Say an opportunity pays a $3 creator CPM.

100,000 eligible views would equal:

$300

500,000 would equal:

$1,500

1,000,000 would equal:

$3,000

5,000,000 would equal:

$15,000

The exact definition matters.

A campaign might calculate CPM based on paid impressions, video views or another specific metric.

Creators should always know exactly what is being counted before accepting a campaign.

"Performance-based" should never mean "we'll figure out how much you made later."

What About Hybrid Payouts?

This might be the easiest model for creators who want to start experimenting with performance pay.

A hybrid campaign combines guaranteed compensation with additional upside.

You might receive:

$300 guaranteed + 3% of ad spend

Your $300 pays you for creating the content.

Then the performance payout gives you additional earnings if the creative scales.

Hybrid compensation is already used in creator marketing. In a 2025 Modash survey, 52% of the marketers surveyed said they combine fixed fees with performance incentives when negotiating creator partnerships.

As another example, impact.com’s creator payment documentation describes flat fees, commissions and performance bonuses as options that brands can combine.

So performance compensation doesn't have to mean giving up guaranteed pay.

It can mean adding another layer to it.

Why Should Creators Care?

1. A fixed fee has a ceiling

You know exactly what you're earning.

That's the benefit.

It's also the limitation.

If you get paid $400 for an asset, you're making $400 whether the brand barely uses it or turns it into one of its biggest ads.

Performance pay can remove that ceiling, depending on the campaign terms and any payout cap.

2. Winning creative can keep paying you

Creators sometimes negotiate additional usage fees when brands want to run content for longer periods.

Performance payouts create another way of thinking about that relationship.

Instead of only negotiating around how long something might be used, part of your compensation can be connected to how much the brand actually uses and scales the creative.

That doesn't mean usage rights no longer matter.

They do.

The Association of National Advertisers’ Influencer Pay Equity Guide specifically recommends clear and fair payment terms for ongoing content usage.

Performance payouts can simply give creators another way to earn while that usage continues.

3. You get visibility into something creators almost never see

Most UGC creators deliver a video and never find out what happened to it.

Did the brand spend $100?

$10,000?

$100,000?

Did it last two days?

Did it run for six months?

Did it become one of the brand's best ads?

That information is incredibly useful.

You start learning which hooks work.

Which opening shots hold attention.

Which formats brands scale.

Which concepts die quickly.

Which products you perform well with.

Which brands you should continue working with.

You're not just creating more videos. You're learning what happens after you hit submit.

4. Performance can matter more than follower count

UGC has already helped separate content creation from audience size.

Performance-based UGC can take that further.

A creator with 5,000 followers can make a better ad than somebody with 500,000 followers.

If brands continue putting money behind your creative because it works, performance gives them a measurable reason to keep working with you.

Your value becomes easier to prove.

5. Winning can lead to longer relationships

A brand finding a creator who repeatedly produces ads that work is valuable.

If your content keeps performing, the brand has less reason to constantly start over with new creators.

That can lead to more briefs, more concepts, more testing and longer relationships.

Creator income today can be unpredictable. In its 2026 State of Creator Compensation report, CreatorIQ found that total creator payments tracked in its data rose in 2025, but income was still hard to predict because of one-off campaigns. The top 10% of creators in its data received 62% of total payments.

We think successful performance relationships can become another path toward repeatable creator income.

6. You can earn based on what happens after creation

Making the video and creating value for the brand are connected, but they're not exactly the same thing.

A traditional fixed fee mostly pays for the first part.

Performance compensation can reward the second part too.

That's the biggest reason we're excited about it.

"But Isn't Performance-Based Pay Better For Brands?"

It can be.

Brands like performance compensation because it gives them more flexibility when testing creators and creative.

Instead of committing large amounts of money before knowing which ads will work, they can put more budget toward winning content.

But that doesn't automatically make the model bad for creators.

The important question is how the upside gets shared.

If the brand benefits every time an ad scales while the creator's compensation never changes, the creator isn't participating in that success.

A properly designed performance model can benefit both sides.

The brand gets creative it feels comfortable scaling.

The creator earns more when that scaling happens.

"Why Wouldn't I Just Charge a Higher Fixed Fee?"

You can.

There will always be creators who prefer guaranteed compensation.

If you know you want $500 for an asset and don't want any uncertainty, a fixed-fee opportunity may make more sense.

Performance becomes interesting when you are comfortable accepting some variability in exchange for additional upside.

It also doesn't have to be one or the other.

You can have guaranteed compensation and performance compensation.

"Could I Make Less?"

Yes.

And we think anybody educating creators about performance pay should be honest about that.

If your compensation is heavily performance-based and the brand barely puts any spend behind your content, your payout may be lower than what you could have negotiated through a fixed fee.

That's the tradeoff.

You're exchanging some certainty for potential upside.

It's the same reason we don't think creators should blindly accept every performance campaign.

Look at the guaranteed payment, payout rate, brand, product, terms and how performance is measured.

Then decide whether the opportunity makes sense for you.

Not All "Performance-Based" Deals Are Good Deals

Creators should ask questions.

You should know:

• How is my payout calculated?
• What is the CPM or percentage?
• Is there guaranteed compensation?
• What views or impressions count?
• Can I see my results?
• Is there a maximum payout?
• How often is performance updated?
• When do I get paid?
• How long can the brand use my content?
• What happens if the brand edits my video?
• Do variations made from my original creative still count?
• What happens if the brand stops spending?
• Is performance based on advertising spend, impressions, sales or something else?

Transparency matters even more when compensation depends on data.

The creator industry still has work to do here. A 2026 Association of National Advertisers report found that only 51% of marketers surveyed had full visibility into the exact amounts paid to influencers through their programs.

We don't think performance payouts work without trust.

Creators should understand what they're being paid for and how that number was calculated.

Ad Spend Is Different From Sales Commission

This difference is worth understanding.

Pure affiliate deals usually compensate creators when somebody purchases.

That means your income can depend on a lot of things outside the actual video.

The price of the product.

The landing page.

The offer.

The checkout.

Shipping.

Inventory.

The brand's website.

Retargeting.

A creator can make a great ad and still have weak sales if other parts of the business aren't working.

Percentage-of-ad-spend and CPM models look at something closer to the advertising itself.

If a media buyer keeps spending money behind a creative, they're making an active decision to continue distributing it.

That doesn't mean spend is a perfect measurement of creative quality.

It isn't.

Brands have different budgets and different advertising strategies.

But continued spend can be a strong sign that a piece of creative is providing enough value for the advertiser to keep running it.

Why Vidovo Is Doing This

We've historically been a fixed-fee creator platform.

We've worked with thousands of creators under that model, and we're continuing to support it.

But we've also watched the creator advertising market change.

More brands are treating creator content as paid advertising creative.

More money is being put behind creator ads.

More creator content is being tested, measured and scaled.

We don't think creator compensation should stop changing while everything around it changes.

We've already started testing performance structures with creators, and we've seen firsthand how differently creators think about these opportunities once they can actually see what brands are spending behind their content.

A $300 UGC video feels very different when you find out a brand spent $50,000 scaling it.

We want Vidovo creators to understand that side of the industry.

You should know what CPM means.

You should know what ad spend means.

You should know why brands scale certain creatives.

You should know what a fair performance offer looks like.

And when the right opportunity comes along, we want you to have the option to participate.

Fixed Fee or Performance?

Neither is automatically better.

A fixed fee gives you certainty.

Performance gives you upside.

A hybrid can give you some of both.

The right choice depends on the opportunity and what you are comfortable with.

Our recommendation isn't that every creator should switch to performance-based UGC.

It's much simpler:

Learn how it works. Look at the opportunities. Understand the numbers. And don't automatically say no to performance just because it's different from the UGC deals you've done before.

Creators have spent years learning how to price the work required to make content.

The next step is learning how to understand the value that content can create after it's made.

And when your creative becomes a winner, we want there to be ways for you to win too.