Getting Started

Welcome to ViewsBase. This guide walks you through the full setup from your first login to your first tracked campaign.

1. Accept Your Invite

Your organization admin will send you an email invite. Click the link in the email to confirm your account. You'll be redirected to your organization's dashboard automatically.

If you're the first user in a new organization, your dashboard will include a demo campaign pre-loaded with sample creators and videos so you can explore the interface immediately. You can dismiss the demo whenever you're ready.

2. Create a Campaign

From your org dashboard, click New Campaign in the top right. Give it a name - the URL slug is generated automatically (e.g., "Summer Launch" becomes summer-launch).

Each campaign is an independent workspace with its own creators, videos, analytics, and payment tracking. See Campaign Dashboard for a full tour of what's inside.

3. Add Campaign Creators

Navigate to the Creators tab inside your campaign and click Add Creator. You'll need:

• Handle - their TikTok or Instagram username (e.g., @alexcreates)
• Platform - TikTok or Instagram
• Deal terms - the CPM rate and view cap for this campaign
• Campaign rules - optional overrides for the auto-reject minimum and counting window

Each creator is one platform account. If the same person posts on TikTok and Instagram, add two creator records: one for each handle/platform pair.

You can set a simple single rate (one CPM + one cap) or a tiered deal with multiple rates based on audience quality. See Payment Engine for details on how deals work.

Each creator automatically gets a unique access code they can use to log in to the Creator Portal and check their own earnings.

4. Track Internal Creator Posts

Once creators start posting, their videos need to be added to the campaign.

Via Discord Bot (recommended): Creators submit their own videos using /submit-post in Discord. Stats are fetched automatically and the video appears on your dashboard instantly. See Discord Bot for setup.

Via dashboard: Admins and editors can open Posts -> Track Videos and paste TikTok or Instagram URLs. Internal posts must match an active creator handle in the campaign. If the creator does not exist yet, add the creator first.

Via watched account: From the Creators tab, expand a creator and choose Watch Account when you want ViewsBase to discover new posts automatically. This is optional and disabled by default; individual video tracking remains the default workflow.

Both TikTok and Instagram stats refresh every 6 hours. Instagram watched accounts track Reels only because slideshow view counts are not always public. See Tracking & Intelligence for the full behavior.

5. Track Competitors and References

Competitor content lives in Intelligence, not Posts.

Use Intelligence -> Track Video to paste competitor or reference URLs. ViewsBase fetches source metadata when available, including author handle, display name, avatar, thumbnail, caption, views, and engagement.

Competitor videos do not need creator records, do not enter the internal creator lifecycle, and are excluded from payments and reports. You can also watch competitor accounts when you want ongoing discovery every 6 hours.

6. Review the Dashboard

Each campaign has focused tabs:

• Overview - campaign KPIs, filters, top creators, top videos, and shortcuts
• Posts - internal creator posts, lifecycle actions, filters, and bulk actions
• Intelligence - competitor/reference videos and watched competitor accounts
• Payments - finalized unpaid internal creator posts grouped by creator
• Reports - internal creator campaign reports, markdown exports, and shareable links
• Creators - campaign creator roster, offer terms, pause/resume, and watched creator accounts
• Settings - campaign rules, leaderboard visibility, sharing, and Discord server allowlist

Reports and Settings are visible only to users who can edit the campaign.

7. Process Payments

Once videos are finalized, their earnings are locked and ready for payment.

1. Go to the Payments tab to see a summary grouped by creator
2. Review finalized unpaid amounts; pending and competitor posts are not counted as ready to pay
3. Click the copy button to export the payment summary as formatted text
4. Pay creators through your preferred method and mark selected finalized videos as Paid in the Posts tab

The formula is simple: min(finalized_views, cap) x CPM / 1000. See Payment Engine for worked examples and tier selection.

8. Share Campaign Reports

Use the Reports tab to create internal creator campaign summaries:

• Pick a date range
• Copy or download markdown
• Create a shareable report link
• Decide whether that link includes payout totals
• Revoke links when they should no longer be accessible

Reports intentionally exclude competitor/reference videos. See Campaign Reports for details.

9. Invite Your Team

Once your campaign is set up, invite team members to help manage it.

1. Go to Members in the top nav
2. Click Invite Member, enter their email, and pick a role
3. For org members, assign them to specific campaigns with a campaign role (Admin/Editor/Viewer)

They'll receive an email and get access as soon as they log in. See Roles & Permissions for the full breakdown.

10. Link Your Discord Account (Optional)

If your team uses the Discord Bot, you can link your Discord account to ViewsBase for identity verification.

1. Go to Account in the top nav
2. Click Connect Discord
3. Authorize via Discord OAuth
4. Your Discord username and avatar will appear on your account page

This lets the Discord bot verify who you are when managing campaigns.

What's Next

• Campaign Dashboard - learn what each tab does
• Tracking & Intelligence - understand internal, competitor, and watched account tracking
• Video Lifecycle - understand how videos move from active to paid
• Campaign Reports - create markdown exports and shareable report links
• Roles & Permissions - set up your team with the right access levels
• Discord Bot - let creators submit posts from Discord