Library
The short-form measurement library
Practical guides to measuring TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, and to pricing and settling creator payouts on numbers you can defend.
Measurement
Engagement rate benchmarks for short-form video — and why published numbers disagree
Published 2026 benchmarks disagree wildly because they use different denominators. How to read them, and how to build a baseline you can trust.
· 3 min read
Cross-platform video reporting without lying to yourself
TikTok, Reels and Shorts count views under similar but not identical rules. How to combine them into one report that survives scrutiny.
· 3 min read
View velocity: spotting a video that is about to take off
Total views tell you what already happened. Velocity tells you what is happening now. How to measure it, what thresholds mean, and when to act.
· 3 min read
How long does a short-form video keep earning views?
Measure your own decay curve instead of trusting folklore. How to compute the share of views earned in the first 24 hours, 72 hours and 7 days.
· 3 min read
Measuring creator ROI when you cannot track clicks
Short-form content rarely produces a clean click path. Five approaches that work anyway: holdouts, matched markets, promo codes, surveys, time series.
· 3 min read
Platform mechanics
How Instagram Reels views are counted — and why your report disagrees with the app
Views, plays, impressions and reach are different numbers. What Instagram counts as a Reels view after the 2025 change, and how to report it.
· 3 min read
YouTube Shorts: views vs engaged views, and which one belongs in your report
Since March 2025 every Shorts playback counts as a view, while engaged views keep the older definition. Which one belongs in which report.
· 3 min read
TikTok metrics explained: what each number means before you report it
Views, likes, comments, shares and saves measure different things and are gamed to different degrees. A field guide to numbers you did not generate.
· 3 min read
Creator payouts
How to calculate CPM for creator campaigns (and what a fair rate looks like)
The CPM formula is trivial; a defensible number is not. How to define the view window, handle usage rights, and read published 2026 rate ranges.
· 3 min read
Flat fee, CPM or milestones: choosing a creator payout model
Each payout model moves risk somewhere different. A framework for choosing between flat fees, per-view rates and milestone bonuses, with the caps.
· 3 min read
Building a creator payout process that survives an audit
When finance asks how a creator payment was calculated eight months later, the answer must be reproducible. The data and records that make it so.
· 3 min read
Campaign operations
The measurement section every UGC campaign brief is missing
Most creator briefs detail the creative and leave measurement to one vague line. The clauses that prevent invoice disputes, in plain language.
· 3 min read
Auditing a creator before you pay: what fake engagement actually looks like
Audits find suspicious activity on a large minority of creator accounts. A pre-contract checklist using public data: ratios, timing and comments.
· 3 min read
Organic UGC vs paid amplification: measuring them without mixing them
Boosting a creator post changes what its view count means. How to keep organic and amplified performance separable, and what to agree beforehand.
· 3 min read
Tracking competitor creator content: what is fair, useful and legal
Watching competitors is standard practice; doing it usefully is not. What public data supports, which comparisons mean something, and where the lines sit.
· 3 min read