Campaigns & Applicants

The Campaigns page (/brand/campaigns) is where every campaign you've created lives, shown as cards in a grid. Use the search bar ("Search campaigns...") and the Status (All Statuses, Draft, Open, Paused, Closed/Completed) and Platform (All Platforms, YouTube, Instagram) filters to find what you're looking for.

Each card shows at a glance:

• A status badge (Draft, Open, Paused, Closed, Pending) and the budget range "₹[min] – ₹[max]".
• The campaign title, a short description, and tags for niche and target age range (e.g. "18–35 yrs").
• Platform icons, the number of applicants, and the "% filled" progress toward your target creator count.

Click a card to open its detail view. If you have campaign-management permission, a Create Campaign button in the header starts the campaign wizard.

If no campaigns match your filters, you'll see: "No campaigns found — Try adjusting your search or filters to see more results."

Clicking Create Campaign opens a two-step wizard at /brand/campaigns/create. Step 1, Campaign Details, is where you define the brief:

• Campaign Title (min 5 characters, max 80) and Description (min 20 characters, max 500) — both have live character counters.
• Campaign Type — Reels, Story, YouTube Video, UGC (User Generated Content), Review, or Photo Post — plus Required Platforms (Instagram and/or YouTube, at least one required).
• Deliverables — describe exactly what you expect (e.g. "1 Dedicated Instagram Reel (30s-60s), 1 Dedicated YouTube Video (5+ mins)"). The placeholder text changes based on the type and platforms you picked, so you have a concrete example to follow.
• Campaign Timeline — Production Start, Go-Live Date, and End Date. These must be in order (Start ≤ Go-Live ≤ End) — the form validates this and shows "Start date must be before go-live date" if not.
• Target Audience & Creator Niche — Niche (Fashion, Beauty, Tech, Fitness, Travel), Min/Max Age (default 18–35), and Target Locations (comma-separated, e.g. "India, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu"). A note explains: "Our matching algorithm looks at the creator's actual follower analytics to ensure their audience aligns with your age and location criteria."
• Budget & Creator Details — Total Campaign Budget, Min/Max Budget Per Creator, and Target Number of Creators. The form enforces that Max > Min per creator, and that your total budget covers (Max per creator × target creator count) — otherwise it shows "Max budget per creator must be greater than min budget" or "Total campaign budget must be at least ₹[amount] for your target creators."

From Step 1 you can Save Draft at any time (once the title and description are valid), Cancel (with a confirmation — "Any unsaved changes will be lost"), or click Next Step once the whole form is valid.

Step 2, Zylolo Suggestions, shows up to 10 creators matched to your brief: "We found 10 creators matching your needs — Our Zylolo algorithm matches your niche, target locations, and analyzes creator audience demographics to find the best fit." While it loads you'll see "Analyzing creator databases..."; if nothing matches, "No perfect matches found. Try broadening your targeting."

Each suggested creator card shows a "[X]% Match" badge, their avatar, name, handle and follower count, audience interests, primary platform, engagement rate, and average views. Click Select for Invite to mark them — the button changes to Included in Invites. Selecting creators here sends them a direct invitation as soon as you publish.

Click Back to return to Step 1 (your edits are preserved), or Publish Campaign (or Publish & Invite ([count]) if you selected creators). A confirmation modal explains: "Your campaign will go live and be visible to creators on Zylolo," and warns that "once a creator applies to your campaign, the campaign details will be locked for editing to protect their experience. You will still be able to pause or close the campaign at any time." Choose Go Back & Review or confirm with Publish Campaign.

Clicking a campaign opens its detail page (/brand/campaigns/view/[id]), with a status badge, niche, creation date, and a summary line: "Applicants: X | Accepted: X | Pending: X | Openings: X". If you can manage campaigns, you'll also see a status dropdown (to move between Draft → Open → Paused/Closed, following valid transitions only) and an Edit Campaign button — disabled once the campaign is Closed or Completed. Three tabs sit below: Overview, Applicants, and Performance.

The Overview tab includes:

• Budget & Spend — your budget range, total budget cap, total committed amount across accepted creators, and (if a budget cap is set) a Risk Status indicator: "Healthy" (green), "At Risk" (orange, ≥85% used), or "Over Cap" (red, ≥100%), alongside reserved-in-approvals and projected-usage figures with a progress bar.
• Top Contributors — avatars of accepted creators with the amount committed to each; click View All to jump to the Applicants tab.
• Campaign Timeline — your Start Date, Go Live Date, and End Date.
• Applicants / Pending / Openings stat cards summarizing where things stand.
• Campaign Brief — your full description, campaign type and required rank badges, required platforms, target audience (age, gender, locations), and the deliverables list.

Campaign Notes & Mentions

Expand Campaign Notes & Mentions to leave internal notes for your team on this specific campaign — type a note, optionally @mention teammates so they get notified, and click Add Note. If there's nothing yet, you'll see "No notes yet for this campaign."

You can review applicants for a single campaign from its Applicants tab, or manage applicants across all campaigns from the dedicated Management page (/brand/applicants) — reached via the Review Applicants quick action on your dashboard.

In a campaign's Applicants tab

The tab header shows the applicant count and either "X openings available (accepting more creators)" or "No openings left (maximum creator count reached)". Each applicant row shows their avatar, name, handle, and follower count, plus:

• If Accepted — "Committed: ₹[agreedAmount]" and a Message button to chat with them directly.
• If Pending — "Asking: ₹[askingPrice]" with Accept (✓) and Reject (✕) icon buttons.
• If Rejected — "Was Asking: ₹[askingPrice]" shown for your records.
• View Profile — opens a side panel with the creator's full profile (stats, connected platforms, audience demographics, niches) and a View Full Public Page button that opens their public media kit in a new tab.

If nobody has applied yet: "No creators have applied yet."

The Management page: Waitlist & Hired

The Management page adds a campaign selector and (on Rising/Scale) saved filters and a Broadcast Message button to message all hired creators on a campaign at once.

• Waitlist tab — same Accept/Reject/Message/View Profile actions as above, plus a Compliance badge ("Payout Ready", "Compliance Watch", or "Compliance Action") showing whether the creator has completed the bank/tax details needed for payouts. On Rising/Scale, each applicant can have Application Notes (internal team notes) and Task Reminders (due-date reminders with Low/Medium/High priority).
• Hired tab — your active contracts. If a creator has accepted but the contract isn't active yet, you'll see "The creator has accepted this contract. Activate it to start the collaboration" with an Activate Contract button. Once active, each card shows the current milestone status and lets you Approve Submission, Request Revision, Pay Now (once approved), View Contract Details, or Message the creator. If you haven't hired anyone yet: "No Active Hires — You haven't hired anyone yet. Accept applicants from the Waitlist to see them here."

Hiring an applicant

Clicking Accept opens the Hire & Pay modal — a two-step flow:

1. Offer Details — enter the Agreed Amount (INR) for this creator. The modal shows a full breakdown: Creator Payout, Platform Fee (12%), GST (18% on fees), and the Total Payable. A note explains: "This deposit covers the creator's full payout for all milestones in this contract, plus Zylolo's platform fee & GST. No further payment is required when you approve milestones — funds are released from this escrow automatically."
2. Contract Review — review the creator's custom terms (if any) plus Zylolo's standard Brand Platform Terms (covering review timelines, escrow funding, cancellation fees, dispute handling, and platform-bypass rules). Check "I acknowledge and agree..." and click Agree & Pay Securely (requires finance permission).

On success you'll see a "Payment Secured!" confirmation with a digital receipt — campaign, creator, total secured, transaction ID, and date.

The Performance tab turns submitted content into campaign-level metrics. Before any posts are submitted, you'll see: "No performance data yet — Metrics will appear here once creators start submitting campaign posts." Once data exists, use Refresh Metrics to pull the latest numbers (it has a cooldown timer, e.g. "Refresh available in 4:32", to avoid hammering the analytics pipeline).

You'll see four groups of metrics:

• Reach & Engagement — Total Reach (views across all posts), Avg. Engagement (rate + total interactions), Cost per View (CPV, your "Efficiency Index"), and total Watch Time.
• Business KPIs — Campaign Success Rate (completed vs. accepted creators), Response Rate (creators who moved beyond "invited"), Conversion Rate (accepted vs. responded), and Cost per Creator (budget ÷ accepted creators).
• Funnel — how many creators were Invited, Responded, Accepted, and Completed — a quick read on where your pipeline is leaking.
• Platform Distribution — views and post counts broken down by YouTube vs. Instagram.

A Top Performing Creators leaderboard ranks contributors by views, showing each creator's avatar, name, number of posts submitted, and total views — useful for spotting who to invite back for future campaigns.