Create and fund your first campaign

This guide takes you from an empty studio workspace to a funded campaign that creators can see and apply to. You will configure the 7 steps of the wizard, save the draft, fund it, and launch it.

Not sure which format, CPM, or creator profile fits your game best? Read our strategy guides on choosing Short-form vs Video, setting your CPM and budget, and selecting niche vs generalist creators.

Before you start

Prepare the following before opening the form:

• A game already added in Studio → Games. You can also create a game directly from the campaign form without losing what you have entered.
• The campaign objective, start date, and end date.
• Your total campaign budget in CAD. The default minimum is $2,500 CAD (customizable per studio).
• A CPM (amount paid per 1,000 verified views, minimum $7 CAD) and a mandatory Max Payout Per Creator (CAD).
• Your single content format (Short-form or Video), publishing rules, and any game keys or campaign resources.

You can launch a campaign without game keys and without an asset pack. Both are optional ways to give accepted creators what they need.

Step 1 — Campaign: identity and game

1. Go to Studio → Campaigns.
2. Select New campaign.
3. In Campaign Name, enter the title of your campaign.
4. In About This Campaign (optional), add internal context for your studio team. This note is visible only to your studio, not to creators.
5. Select the game this campaign promotes.
6. If the game does not exist yet, select Add a game. Ripple saves your in-progress campaign form, sends you to the game form, then returns you to the campaign with your information restored.
7. Select Continue.

The selected game determines the cover, Steam genres, key pool, and reusable game resources that you can attach to the campaign.

Step 2 — Setup: visibility, format, language, volume and validation

On Setup, configure how creators participate and how submissions are validated:

Visibility

Open campaigns are visible to eligible creators, who can browse the campaign and apply. NDA-gated is reserved for campaigns that need restricted information and is currently Coming soon.

Content format

Each campaign accepts one content format:

• Short-form: TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and Facebook Reels (vertical short clips).
• Video: long-form YouTube videos (typically 10+ minutes) and deep gameplay showcases.
• Live: currently Coming soon.

If you want both short vertical clips and long-form videos, create two separate campaigns.

Language

Select one or more languages that creators should use for their content. Selected languages are displayed on the campaign card and used when creators filter campaigns by language in discovery. If you clear all languages and leave the list empty, no language restriction is displayed on the campaign.

Max videos per creator

Choose 1, 2, or 3 in Max videos per creator. This limit counts the number of submissions (pieces of content) each accepted creator can create on the campaign, regardless of their status — each submission has one review video and up to one published video per allowed platform. Setting a clear per-creator limit keeps quality focused and makes submission reviews predictable.

Submission validation

Choose how submitted videos are reviewed:

• Auto-validate is the default for a new campaign. Submissions are approved to publish immediately, with no review delay.
• Manual review gives the studio 24 hours by default for a new campaign, with 48 hours or 72 hours also available. You can approve or request changes before the deadline; if you take no action within that delay, the submission is automatically approved so the creator can publish.

Automatic approval only approves the video for publication — it does not trigger an immediate payout. Payouts are calculated and settled after the campaign ends, as described in CPM, estimates and final payouts.

Use Auto-validate only when your brief is specific enough that an individual pre-publication check is not required. See Review submissions.

Step 3 — Budget: budget and creator economics

Enter the Campaign Budget (CAD). Ripple requires a default minimum of $2,500 CAD per campaign.

Ripple deducts a 20% platform fee from the total budget. The remaining 80% is the creator pool: the money available for creator payouts. The form displays this breakdown live.

Then configure:

• Max Creator Slots (optional): an optional capacity target for how many creators you plan to accept.
• Max Payout Per Creator (CAD) (required): the maximum amount a single creator can earn on this campaign, even if their verified views exceed the CPM calculation.
• CPM per 1,000 views (CAD) (required): the rate paid per 1,000 eligible verified views. The default and minimum are $7 CAD, in whole dollars.

Example: with a $3,000 CAD total budget, the $600 CAD Ripple fee (20%) leaves a $2,400 CAD creator pool. A $7 CAD CPM means $7 CAD per 1,000 eligible verified views, up to the mandatory Max Payout Per Creator (CAD).

Step 4 — Schedule: dates, embargo and resources provided

On Schedule, set your campaign window and the resources you will provide to accepted creators:

• Start Date and End Date (required): creators can submit content only during this campaign window.
• Embargo Date (optional): the earliest date creators are allowed to publish publicly. If left empty, creators can publish as soon as their submission is approved after the campaign starts. With Manual review and an embargo date, creators can upload a private review video to Ripple before the embargo lifts, then publish on the platform once the embargo date arrives.
• Resources provided:
  • Keys: when enabled, one game key from your game’s key pool is automatically granted to each approved creator.
  • Giveaway keys (optional): appears when Keys is enabled. Check this option if you also want to provide extra keys for creators to share with their audience.
  • Asset Pack: enable this when you plan to provide screenshots, press kits, logos, or other campaign resources. You attach resources to the campaign while it is in Draft (from the campaign page’s Resources modal), and only resources attached to the campaign are visible to creators.

See Manage games, keys and resources for details on importing keys and attaching resources.

Step 5 — Matching: Smart Matching and audience filters

Smart matching is optional. Turn on the Smart matching toggle in Step 5 to unlock targeting criteria that help Ripple recommend compatible creators and surface your campaign to matching creator profiles:

• Creator criteria — Steam genres: select the Steam genres that match your game (genres from your selected game are highlighted automatically).
• Audience filters — Geographic zones: select target audience regions (North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Russia, Global).
• Audience filters — Minimum followers: set the minimum follower count on the creator’s connected platforms.

Whether Smart Matching is enabled or not, you can always browse and filter the creator directory manually. Smart Matching is a discovery and recommendation layer, not an automatic hiring system.

Step 6 — Brief: goals, rules and deliverables

On Brief, state the campaign goals, key message, mandatory hashtags, mandatory rules, and deliverables. Include concrete do’s and don’ts, disclosure requirements, and any gameplay boundaries.

Use the brief for rules creators must follow. Use campaign resources for trailers, screenshots, press kits, or downloadable files.

Read Write an effective brief before launch for practical examples.

Step 7 — Review, fund and launch

The Review step summarizes your entire configuration: Campaign, Budget & payout, Schedule & resources, Creator experience, Matching, and Creator brief.

1. Check the creator pool, CPM, maximum payout per creator, dates, and brief carefully.
2. Select Create Campaign to save the campaign as a Draft.
3. While in Draft, attach your campaign resources if you enabled Asset Pack, and make sure your game has enough keys if you enabled Keys.
4. Select Fund campaign on the draft campaign page and complete payment through Stripe.
5. Return to the campaign after payment succeeds: the badge in the campaign header shows Funded (and the payment record in Studio → Transactions shows Paid; see Billing, transactions and receipts).
6. Select Launch campaign, then confirm the action.

Launching makes the campaign visible to creators. While it remains a Draft, creators cannot see or apply to it. After launch, all campaign settings, attached resources, and the entire brief are locked (including objectives, key message, mandatory rules, hashtags, and deliverables), and the campaign cannot return to Draft. Funding a draft locks only its budget; launching locks everything else.

What happens next?

After launch, monitor applications in the Creators tab, review work in Videos, and use campaign messages to answer creator questions about the brief. Continue with Write an effective brief, Find creators and use Smart Matching, or Review applications.