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Approval and review

What happens to a clip after you submit it: who decides, what each word on the clip means, and what a decision does to your money.

Written by CR Support

Approval and review

You've posted and submitted, and now you're waiting on someone else, so here is what is happening on their side and what each word on your clip means.

Every clip you submit is reviewed by the campaign's own team, who approve or reject it against the requirements written on the campaign, and nothing is approved on its own. While they decide, a CPM clip that has passed the campaign's minimum is already earning, and that money is set aside for you from the campaign's budget. The one thing that is not a decision is a flag, which pauses the clip while our team checks the engagement, and which you can appeal.

Who reviews your clip

The people running the campaign for the brand, whether that is the brand itself or an agency, look at every submission and make the call. Content Rewards does not review clips and does not set the order they are reviewed in, so the queue you are waiting in belongs to that campaign, and the people who can say when yours will be looked at are in the campaign's support chat rather than in ours. There is no deadline on their side, which is why the wait varies so much from one campaign to the next.

What each status means

Your submissions page sorts clips into three tabs, Approved, Pending and Rejected, and the tab is the status. There is no separate tab for flags, and a flag is not shown on the clip; if a payout stops moving past its expected date, or a card shows Rejected without a reason, open a ticket through Help & Support with the clip link and we will do our best to help, though we cannot promise an outcome yet.

The three tabs

Tab

What it means , and your money

Pending

We have fetched the post and the campaign's team has not decided yet. The card already shows the views and, on CPM, what it has earned so far.

On CPM, views past the campaign's minimum are already earning and the money is set aside for you.

Approved

The team accepted the clip. The card shows what it has earned, and View details opens the detail for that clip.

On CPM the clip keeps earning until 7 days after approval, then holds for 3 days, then pays. Per post pays about 15 minutes after approval once the clip has reached the minimum views.

Rejected

The team decided the clip does not meet the campaign's requirements. Their reason is on the card under Rejection reason, and a team cannot reject without typing one; if a card shows Rejected with no reason, open a ticket through Help & Support with the clip link and we will do our best to help, though we cannot promise an outcome yet. Nothing is paid on a rejection, and anything set aside for the clip goes back to the campaign.

A clip nobody has decided on yet: views counted, no earnings figure, View details

Every card points at a live post on the platform, and the views on the card are the views that post is gathering there. This is the Instagram reel behind one creator's Pending card, as anyone visiting Instagram would see it.

The live Instagram reel behind a creator's Pending card

An approved clip on the Submissions page, with what it has earned and View details

A rejected clip on the Submissions page, with Rejection reason

A post we can no longer find on the platform is flagged automatically; if the post comes back, the flag lifts on its own and the clip returns to where it was.

What a decision does to your money

On a CPM campaign, approval does not start the earning, it sets its finish line. The clip has been earning since it passed the campaign's minimum, and once it is approved it keeps earning for seven more days, after which the amount holds for three days and is paid on the tenth. On a per post campaign the fixed amount is set aside the moment the clip reaches the minimum views, and it is paid about fifteen minutes after approval. The full path, with every status a payout passes through, is in Payouts.

Can a decision change?

Until the payout is paid, yes. The team can approve a clip it rejected, or reject a clip it approved, and rejecting an approved clip pulls back whatever was set aside but not yet paid. If a rejected clip is approved again while we are still watching the post, a fresh seven day window starts from that approval and the earnings it had are set aside again. Once a payout has been paid, nothing changes it.

What a rejection can rest on

A rejection has to rest on the requirements written on the campaign. That is the rule, so read the reason on the clip first: if it names something in the requirements, the fastest fix is the next clip. If the reason quotes a rule that only ever appeared in a chat or a Discord message, or you have evidence the decision is wrong, open Help & Support (the chat bubble in the corner of this page and of the app) and send us the clip link and the reason. We put it to the campaign's team, and they decide; we cannot approve or reject on their behalf.

The Rejection reason panel with the reviewer's note

The reason the brand typed, in full, on the clip itself.

If it says Flagged

A flag is not a decision, it is a pause. It comes from a reviewer during review, from a bot score above the campaign's threshold, or from the post going missing. While it is open the clip cannot be paid, and only our team can resolve it. You can appeal a flag once: open Help & Support, name the clip, explain why the engagement is real and attach your analytics, and the appeal opens a conversation with our team. If the flag is dismissed, the freeze lifts and the payout resumes where it was. If it is upheld, the money set aside for the clip returns to the campaign, and anything already paid to you in earlier cycles stays yours. The detail on bot scores is in Flagged and botted submissions.

Where to see the details

Every card carries the views we have tracked and, once the clip is earning, the amount so far. Press View details on a Pending or Approved clip and a panel called Payout details opens: how the clip is paid, three amounts (Total earned, Received and Pending), and a payout timeline with the date the money is expected to clear. On a Rejected clip the button is Rejection reason instead, and it opens the team's note. When you write to the campaign's team or to us about a clip, describe what that panel shows.

The Payout details panel: Total earned, Received, Pending, and the payout timeline

That's the whole of it: the campaign's team decides, the money moves on the rules above, and a flag is a pause you can answer.

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