GTM Sauce

Halo AI · B2C · AI photo editing app

Pay creators $20 a video plus bonuses at 20K, 100K, 500K and 1M views

29 of 30 creators chose it over a better-paying CPM deal; effective CPM under $1

Workedcreator-opsugc-creators

What they did

Compared four structures (flat retainer, capped CPM ~$1/1K views, base+CPM, base+milestone) and let 30 creators choose between CPM and base+milestone at roughly equal (CPM slightly higher) expected pay. Standardized on base+milestone for everyone: $20 per video (one video = 4 posts), bonuses of $60 at 20K, $200 at 100K, $500 at 500K, $800 at 1M views. Only one of the 4 cross-posts needs to hit a milestone and bonuses don't stack, so views on other platforms and between milestones are unpaid. Also simpler to operate than CPM (no re-checking view counts and paying differences).

What happened

29 of 30 creators chose base+milestone even when told it pays less; expected CPM ~$1 but effective CPM lower; creators gamify it (asking each other for engagement to hit milestones).

In their words

Dillion Verma - 0 to $300k/mo in 45 days with my ai app (just copy me)

Play from 1:36
1:24

JosephAnd how he kept 85 creators posting everyday, consistently, competitively, without someone managing them super tightly, that came down to a deal structure experiment with a very unexpected result.

1:36

Dillion VermaBoth of them are structured in a way where the pay was equivalent or like very close, but CPM was slightly more, and we gave this contract to 30 creators, and you wouldn't believe it, but like 29 of them picked this one and one person picked CPM in the end.

1:50

Joseph29 out of 30 creators chose the option that actually paid them less. In this episode, Dillion breaks down the entire system, the one format, the math behind his content machine, and the creator pay structure that keeps all of it running. Let's get into it. This is the Superwall Podcast, and I'm Joseph Choi, founder of Consumer Club. The members in the Consumer Club Discord and the founders that I interview on the pod build apps at a median of 1 …

36:01

JosephWhat are the milestones that you like to set for the view counts?

36:04

Dillion VermaThere's multiple ways, but in the beginning, we did 20k, 100k, 500k, and 1 mil views. For each one, we had like a different payout. For this, I think we did 60 additional, and then we did 200, 500, and then 800.

36:19

JosephIt's around like $1 uh per 1,000 views like on average?

37:04

JosephDoes the post itself, like on Instagram or TikTok have to hit hit the milestone, or do you add up all of the counts?

37:11

Dillion VermaWe just let one hit. If one of them hits the bonuses, we pay out for that.

37:15

JosephOh, okay. So, if they hit like two, then they get like two bonuses?

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Tags: creator-comp, milestone-bonus, per-video-base, cpm-vs-milestone