Retainers

What are Retainers?

We have upgraded our Retainer feature to match how you hire creators on a fixed package of videos for a fixed price, then allow you track delivery and payment in one place. One setup covers the whole collaboration, from the offer through to the payout.

You decide how many videos are in a package, what it pays, which products it covers, and the window the work is due in. Creators accept your terms or counter on price. Euka handles the money, the tracking, and the paperwork around it.

Coming from the previous Retainer feature?

If you have run retainers in Euka before, this is the same idea with everything that used to sit around it brought into one flow. Instead of setting a price per video and re-offering each period, you agree one package at one price. Creators can counter you in Euka rather than in a DM. Usage rights are part of the package, so you are not requesting them per video afterwards. Your contract is filled in from each creator’s own offer. And Euka carries the money through to the payout. Start a new retainer rather than moving an existing one across.

Why use it

Paid collaborations used to live in more than one place, which made them hard to compare and hard for creators to keep straight. Retainer Flex puts the whole deal in one flow:

• One setup, every creator. Set the package, the pay, the dates, the products, and the payment schedule once, and they prefill for everyone you invite. You can still adjust any of it per creator.

• Open it up or keep it closed. Invite specific creators by link, or open the retainer to the Euka Creator Community and approve applicants yourself.

• Negotiate in Euka. Creators accept or counter inside the product, so the deal does not live in a DM thread.

• Usage rights up front. Include rights in the package, and creators are told before they apply, so the price they give you already covers it.

• Pay on the schedule that fits. Hold the money with Euka until delivery, pay once the work lands, or keep a creator going and pay per installment as they earn it.

Where to find Retainers

In the left sidebar, open Campaigns and then Retainers. To start a new one, click New Retainer.

How a retainer works, start to finish

On an Ongoing retainer, tracking does not stop at one package, and the Payment stage has nothing to charge: it shows Paid per installment, with "This retainer pays the creator per earned installment, so this stage completed with nothing to charge." You pay each installment as it is earned instead.

Create a retainer

Setup runs across four steps, and you can move back and forth between them before anything goes out.

Step 1: General

Everything on this step applies to the whole retainer.

Retainer type

• One-time. Each creator delivers one package and is paid once for it. This is what the rest of this article describes unless it says otherwise.

• Ongoing. You pay the package price again each time a creator earns another installment, and you can end after any paid one. See Ongoing retainers, paid per installment, below.

You cannot change the type once the retainer exists. Open it for editing and this section reads back what you chose, with "Set when the retainer was created."

Creator Selection

• Invite Only. You invite creators, and they accept through the link you send.

• Open Application. Your retainer is open to the 70,000+ creators in the Euka Creator Community, plus a link you can share anywhere. You approve who gets in.

Package & Pay

Set how many videos are in a package, and the pay applicants see. Max is what they are shown, and Min is optional if you want to give a range. Euka shows creators a plain summary of it, for example "Up to $500 · 1 video". Tick Cap total creator spend if you want a ceiling on the retainer as a whole.

On an Ongoing retainer the two fields read Videos per installment and Default price per installment ($) instead, and there is no Cap total creator spend.

Deliverables

What a creator has to hand in for a video to count toward their package:

• Post to TikTok. Creators post inside the tracking window, and videos count once TikTok Shop attributes them to your store.

• Review, then post. Creators upload each video for your approval before posting it, and you can request revisions. Once you approve a draft, the creator taps Send to TikTok on it, and the approved video goes straight into their TikTok inbox so they can finish posting.

• Upload only. Creators deliver the video files for your approval. Nothing is posted, and no TikTok connection is required. Use this when you want footage for your own ads or channels.

On an Ongoing retainer only Post to TikTok is offered, and the section says "Installments count posts only, so review modes are off."

Usage Rights

• Usage rights included. Once a creator delivers the package, you can use every counted video in ads and on your own channels, with no end date. Creators are told this before they apply, counter, and accept, so their price covers it.

• No usage rights. Creators keep their videos. You can still request usage rights per video from Content.

Notifications

The contact name and email that creator activity on this retainer goes to.

Creator defaults

Everything below this point is prefilled for every creator you invite, and you can adjust it per creator on the next step.

• Tracking Window. The start and end dates the work is due in. On an Ongoing retainer, only videos posted inside the window earn installments, so you extend a creator's window from their collaboration to keep paying them.

• Products. The products this retainer tracks against. Leave it empty and the review screen shows Every video for your store, which means the retainer is not limited to a product list.

• Payment Schedule. Choose Held by Euka until delivery, where you pay the upfront share once the creator accepts and signs anything you have required, and it becomes theirs when they deliver, or Pay after delivery, which is one charge once the creator delivers with nothing held in advance. Creators are told which one you picked. An Ongoing retainer has no Payment Schedule: you pay each installment as it is earned, and Euka holds nothing in advance.

• Held upfront (% of package price). Only appears on Held by Euka, and defaults to 100. Creators see the full package price held by Euka.

• Contract. Optional. Attach a contract template and Euka fills the video count and package price from each creator’s offer.

Before you send

Upfront payments come out of your Euka Balance, which is shown on this step with an Add funds button next to it. If the balance will not cover what you are holding, top it up before the retainer goes out.

Click Creator Search & Pricing to continue.

Step 2: Creator Search & Pricing

A note at the top of this step says it plainly: inviting creators is optional now, and you can invite them from the retainer page later. If you would rather get the retainer live first, click straight through.

To invite someone now, click + Invite Creator under Invite Creators to Retainer. Search by handle, and results come back with each creator’s handle and follower count. Click the plus next to anyone you want, then click Done.

Your step 1 defaults carry over to everyone you invite, and this is where you adjust the terms for an individual creator rather than the whole retainer.

Click Customization to continue.

Step 3: Customization

This step is the retainer as creators see it.

• Retainer name. Creators see this name, so use something they would recognize.

• Banner image. Shown at the top of the retainer page. 1680 x 945 (16:9), up to 20MB.

• Description & qualification. Your pitch, and who you are looking for.

• Creative brief. Attach a brief creators can read before they accept and throughout the retainer. Briefs made in the brief builder appear here once they are published.

• Discord community. Optional, and only shown if Discord is switched on for your account. You can require Discord before a creator can accept, auto-assign roles when they join, open a retainer channel to work in, and DM the creative brief on join.

• Disqualification rules. Optional. Pick from the same 8 presets contests use, or write your own, up to 10 rules and 200 characters each. Creators read them on the retainer page, under the creative brief, before they accept. You apply them yourself on a retainer: nothing is disqualified automatically.

• Require shipping address & phone number. Turn this on if you are shipping samples yourself. Creators have to provide both before they can accept.

Disqualification rules lock when you create the retainer

You cannot add, change, or remove them afterwards, so every creator on the retainer works under the same rules. A warning on the Review step says so before you create, and a retainer created with no rules stays that way. Open the retainer for editing and the rules are there to read but not to change.

Click Review and Create to continue.

Step 4: Review and Create

The last step lays everything out in three sections, General, Creator Search & Pricing, and Customization, each with an Edit link back to that step.

The General section is the one worth reading twice, because it restates your choices in plain language rather than as form fields:

• Tracking window, tracked products, and deliverable

• Payment schedule, spelled out in full, for example "100% upfront after acceptance and any required signing, held by Euka until delivery"

• Usage rights, contract, creator selection, package, budget, and your notification contact

When it all reads the way you meant it, click Create Retainer.

Start a retainer from one you have already run

When a retainer ends and you want the same package again, you do not have to build it twice. Both of these open the create wizard already filled in, and neither changes the retainer you started from.

• Duplicate, at the top of the retainer next to Edit, copies the whole retainer: the setup, and every active or completed creator, plus anyone still under Negotiating on the Applications tab. The wizard is headed Duplicate and the retainer's name.

• Renew, at the top left of the Creators table, just after the search box, copies the retainer for the creators you pick. With nothing ticked it carries the same creators as Duplicate. Tick some and the button reads Renew (3), and it carries only those. The same button sits in the bar that appears when you tick creators. The wizard is headed Renew and the retainer's name, and it says the original is unchanged.

What carries over, and what doesn't:

• The tracking window moves forward by its own length, starting the day after the old window ended, or today, whichever is later.

• The name comes across with "(copy)" on the end, so change it to something your creators will recognize.

• Each creator who agreed a price comes across at that price, not the one you set on General, with their video count, products, upfront split, and contract wherever those differ from the retainer's own defaults.

• Step 2 says which retainer it filled in from and how many creators it brought over at their agreed prices, and asks you to remove anyone you don't want to invite again.

• Creators with no TikTok account linked are left out, even on an Upload only retainer, and the notice counts them. Once you've created the new retainer, invite them from Affiliate CRM > Creators: select them, click Invite to program, pick the retainer, check the terms, and click Send invites.

• A creator still negotiating has no agreed price yet, so they come across at the price you set on General, with the retainer's own defaults. If that price is blank, which an Invite Only retainer allows, they need one before you can continue.

• A fixed upfront amount isn't copied. The new retainer pays in full after delivery unless you set an upfront percent on General.

• Discord settings aren't copied. Set them up again on Customization if you want a channel for this retainer.

• Only the first 200 creators are loaded. Invite the rest from the new retainer's page afterwards.

• Renew is grayed out when none of the creators you ticked is active or completed, and points at the reason: "Select active or completed creators to renew".

• If you tick Cap total creator spend, the cap has to cover the offers on the Creators step. Below it, General says "Budget is below the total of the offers" with the total, and you can't create the retainer until you raise the cap or drop a creator.

Share your retainer

There is one link to share, and it's the same page creators see in the Euka creator app at creators.euka.ai.

• Copy Link, at the top of the retainer, copies it. View Retainer next to it opens the same page, so you can read what creators read.

• On an Open Application retainer, a creator who isn't signed in can read the page: your banner, description, creative brief, disqualification rules, and pay. Apply takes them to sign in first, then brings them back.

• An Invite Only retainer shows nothing to someone who isn't signed in. They see Sign in to view this retainer, with "If the brand invited you, sign in with the account they invited so we can check your invitation." A creator who signs in without an invitation sees "This retainer is invite only".

• Application-page links you shared before still work, so you don't need to replace them.

Negotiating with a creator

A creator can accept your package as sent, or counter with a different price. Both happen inside Euka, so the history stays on the collaboration instead of in a message thread.

If a deal needs more back and forth than a counter-offer, talk it through in Euka Chat and come back to accept.

Reviewing content before it goes live

Whether you see videos before they are public depends on the deliverable you chose on step 1.

• Post to TikTok. No review. Creators post inside the window and the video counts once TikTok Shop attributes it to your store.

• Review, then post. Every video comes to you first. Approve it and the creator taps Send to TikTok, which drops the approved video into their TikTok inbox to finish posting, or request revisions and they upload again.

• Upload only. Every video comes to you for approval, and nothing is posted anywhere.

On both of those, you can watch each file a creator uploads and save a copy. Creators are told so before they accept, under How it works on the retainer page in the Euka creator app. When the package includes usage rights, the retainer rules they agree to say so too.

Only approved videos count

When you use Review, then post, only videos the creator sends through Send to TikTok count toward the retainer, one per approved draft. If the creator posts anything else, it shows as Not counted for both you and the creator, so you always know the video that went live is the one you approved.

Tip

Post to TikTok works well for creators you have worked with before. Review, then post is worth the extra step with new creators, or on a product where the claims have to be exact.

Watching what creators post

The retainer has five tabs: Details, Applications, Creators, Submissions, and Payout.

Submissions is every video in one place. Posted lists the TikTok Shop videos the retainer counted, whoever posted them, and they show up within an hour of TikTok Shop attributing them to your store. On a retainer that reviews drafts, a Drafts queue sits beside it.

• Click a video's thumbnail or its caption to watch it in Euka, including a video with no public link.

• Disqualify, to the right of Status, takes a video out of that creator's count. Pick one or two reasons from the list, and write your own when you pick Other.

• A disqualified video shows Undo in place of Disqualify, which puts it back in the count.

• Neither button shows once that creator's delivery is complete.

The Creators tab has the same thumbnails and the same Disqualify and Undo inside each creator's row, so you can work creator by creator instead.

The review window before payment

Once a creator's counted videos reach their package, you have 3 days to look through them before the collaboration moves to payment on its own.

• Upload only has no review window. Approving a video is final, so the approval that completes the package moves the creator straight to payment, and the Pay button appears on the Payout tab right away.

• Open the creator from the Creators tab, click Open Posts, and a line names the date: "Payment unlocks automatically on October 10, 2026 unless you disqualify a video first". Confirm delivery sits beside it, and moves them on now rather than waiting.

• We email your notification contact when the creator meets the target, and again 24 hours before the 3 days are up. Both say how many videos were delivered and when payment unlocks, and both have a Review videos button that opens the Creators tab. Upload only retainers skip both and get a payment-due email instead.

• Disqualifying a video takes the count back under the package and stops the clock. If the creator posts again and meets the target, the 3 days start again from that moment, and you are emailed again.

Confirm delivery

Confirm delivery ends tracking for one creator and moves them to payment. It's in the menu on the creator's row, and under Manage when you open the creator from the Creators tab. It's there for as long as they're on tracking, so you can use it before they reach their package as well as after.

The dialog says where the creator got to before you decide:

• How many videos were delivered against the target, on a retainer where creators post.

• How many uploads you've approved against the target, on Review, then post and Upload only, and how many are still waiting for your review. Those stay unapproved once you confirm.

• A warning when they haven't reached their package: "The target is not met yet, so this accepts the delivery as it is." Confirming accepts the shortfall, and they move on to payment on their agreed package price.

• What happens next: "Tracking ends and the creator moves on to payment. Any upfront Euka is holding is released to the creator."

Before freezing the numbers we count again. On a retainer where creators post, that count only includes videos we've already picked up from TikTok Shop, so a post we haven't picked up yet doesn't count. You then see "Delivery confirmed. The creator moves on to payment."

During the review window, a second Confirm delivery sits beside the line that says when payment unlocks. It skips the dialog, confirms straight away, and shows "Delivery confirmed — the collab moves on to payment".

Confirm delivery works on one creator at a time, so it isn't in the bar for several creators at once.

Retainer creators are never hand-moved between stages

A retainer is one agreed package, so a creator on a retainer has no Mark Complete and no Move to Stage. Both would skip the Payment stage and leave you unable to pay them through Euka. Use Confirm delivery to end tracking, or Terminate to end the collaboration.

How payment works

You set the schedule on step 1, and it prefills for everyone you invite:

• Held by Euka until delivery. You pay the upfront share once the creator accepts and signs anything you have required. Euka holds it, and it becomes theirs when they deliver. The share defaults to 100% of the package price, and creators see the full amount as held.

• Pay after delivery. One charge once the creator delivers. Euka holds nothing in advance, and creators are told that up front.

Upfront payments come from your Euka Balance, so make sure it covers what you are holding before the retainer goes out.

When a video counts as delivered depends on your deliverable. On Post to TikTok it is posted in the window and attributed to your store. On Review, then post and Upload only, it is once you have approved it.

Ongoing retainers, paid per installment

A one-time retainer is one package at one price, and the collaboration ends at payment. An Ongoing retainer keeps going: a creator earns the package price again each time they deliver another package, and you pay each one as it lands. Nobody commits to a number of months, and you can end a creator after any installment you have paid for.

Pick Ongoing under Retainer type on step 1, then choose how an installment is earned:

• Every package of videos. An installment is earned each time the creator posts another full package of counted videos. With 10 videos per installment, the first is earned at 10 posts, the second at 20, and so on.

• Each month. An installment is earned for each calendar month, in UTC, with at least a full package of counted videos in it. A month with fewer earns nothing, and it does not carry over.

A notice on the step says the same in the app: "You pay each installment as creators earn it, from the Payout tab. Creators are told you may end after any paid installment. Videos past the last earned installment aren't paid or licensed. Posts after a creator's end date don't count, so extend their window to keep going."

What creators are told

Creators see the pay as a rate rather than a package, for example "$500 per 10 videos", or "$500 per month for 10 videos" when it is monthly. Before they accept, they confirm a line that says you pay each installment after they earn it, that Euka does not hold it, and that you may end after any paid installment. Their retainer page shows how far they are from the next installment.

How to pay an installment

Each earned installment waits for you on the creator's collaboration and on the retainer's Payout tab. Until a creator has earned one, the Payout tab says "Each installment appears here as soon as a creator earns it, until it is paid."

1. Open the creator from the Creators tab, or find the installment on the Payout tab.

2. In the Installments section, click Pay on the installment you are paying. A monthly retainer names them by month, like October 2026 installment, and a per-package one numbers them, like Installment 2.

3. Choose how to pay, and click the Pay … button, which shows the total including Euka's fee.

4. The installment shows Paid, or Processing while a bank payment settles. The creator can withdraw it once it settles.

Installments are paid one at a time, so there is no bulk selection for them on the Payout tab.

How to end an Ongoing retainer with a creator

End after this installment, on the creator's collaboration, stops the retainer for that one creator. The dialog says what it does: "Tracking ends after the last earned installment. Videos past it aren't paid or licensed, and earned installments you haven't paid stay payable from the collaboration." It cannot be undone.

Once it is ended, you see "Retainer ended. Videos of earned installments are now licensed."

Rules and limits

• The type is fixed at creation. An Ongoing retainer can never become one-time, or the other way round.

• Ongoing retainers hold nothing upfront, have no total spend cap, and post to TikTok only. Choosing Ongoing clears all three if you had set them.

• Only videos posted inside the creator's tracking window count toward an installment. Extend their window from their collaboration to keep going.

• A disqualification takes the video out of the count. An installment already paid that a later disqualification un-earns stays listed, marked "No longer earned after a disqualification".

• An installment a payment failed on shows Charge failed with Retry in place of Pay. Retrying collects the same bill rather than billing twice.

• When the package includes usage rights, they cover the videos of earned installments. Videos past the last earned installment are not licensed.

• A creator's row says where they are, for example "14 posts · next installment at 20", or "14 posts · 4 of 10 this month" when it is monthly.

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the difference between Invite Only and Open Application? Invite Only means the retainer is only reachable by the link you send to the creators you picked. Open Application puts it in front of the 70,000+ creators in the Euka Creator Community and gives you a link to share, and you approve applicants.

• Do creators have to post on TikTok? No. Choose Upload only and creators deliver the video files for your approval. Nothing is posted and no TikTok connection is required.

• What is the difference between a one-time and an Ongoing retainer? One-time is one package at one price, paid once. Ongoing pays the package price again each time a creator earns another installment, either per package of videos or per calendar month, and you can end after any installment you have paid for. You choose under Retainer type on step 1, and it cannot be changed afterwards.

• Do I have to commit to a number of months on an Ongoing retainer? No. You pay each installment as it is earned, and End after this installment stops a creator after the last one you paid for.

• Can I hold money upfront on an Ongoing retainer? No. Nothing is held, and creators confirm that before they accept. If you want money held, use a one-time retainer with Held by Euka until delivery.

• A creator stopped earning installments. Why? Their tracking window has probably closed, and posts after their end date do not count. Extend their window from their collaboration. On a monthly retainer, a month with fewer than a full package of counted videos earns nothing and does not carry over.

• Can I set up a retainer before I know which creators I want? Yes. Inviting creators is optional during setup, so you can create the retainer and invite people from the retainer page afterwards.

• Can I run the same retainer again next period? Yes. Duplicate, at the top of the retainer, copies the whole thing, and Renew, on the Creators tab, re-offers the same terms to the creators you pick. Both create a new retainer and leave the original as it is.

• Can I change the terms for one creator? Yes. Everything under Creator defaults is prefilled for everyone, and you adjust it per creator on the Creator Search & Pricing step.

• Where does the upfront money come from? Your Euka Balance. It is shown on the General step with an Add funds button, so you can top it up before you send.

• Do I have to pay anything before a creator delivers? Only if you choose Held by Euka until delivery, and even then the money is held rather than released. Choose Pay after delivery and there is one charge once the work lands.

• What happens if a creator counters my offer? You will be notified, and you can accept the counter, hold at your number, or talk it through in Euka Chat. Nothing is locked in until both sides agree.

• Can I change the disqualification rules after I create a retainer? No. They are fixed at creation, so every creator on the retainer works under the same rules, and a retainer created without rules cannot be given any. Check them on the Review step before you click Create Retainer. The retainer's Retainer Details lists what you set, or None. If the rules have to change, create a new retainer.

• If I do not include usage rights, can I get them later? Yes. You can still request usage rights per video from Content. Including them in the package is usually simpler, because creators price it in rather than being asked after the fact.

• How do I share a retainer with creators? Click Copy Link at the top of the retainer. That is the only link you need, and it opens the same page creators see in the Euka creator app. On an Open Application retainer it works for creators who aren't signed in yet.

• Can I still disqualify a video after a creator hits their target? Yes, for 3 days. After that the collaboration moves to payment on its own, so act while the "Payment unlocks automatically" line is still showing. Disqualifying inside those 3 days takes the count back under the package and stops the clock.

• Why does a video show as Not counted? If the retainer uses Review, then post, a video only counts when the creator sends the approved draft to TikTok from Euka. A video posted any other way, even the same content, shows as Not counted. Ask the creator to open the approved draft in Euka and tap Send to TikTok.