Missing campaign content: manual submissions, dates, and product checks

Cruva automatically tracks qualifying TikTok Shop content for community campaigns. TikTok can take up to 48 hours to surface new content in its data. Cruva then needs to process the available data. A public post being visible on TikTok does not mean its shop analytics and product information are already available to Cruva.

This applies to campaign progress, qualifying posts, GMV, views, leaderboard positions, and reward calculations. Do not treat a newly submitted post's zero GMV or views as its final performance.

How a creator manually adds missing content

1. Sign in to the Cruva creator account that owns the TikTok handle used to post.
2. Open the brand's campaign and its content/progress section. For a campaign with periods, check the period you are viewing.
3. Use Try uploading it now, Add Video, or Submit content link, depending on the screen and content type.
4. Paste the TikTok post link and submit it. A direct link such as https://www.tiktok.com/@handle/video/POST_ID is useful if a shortened share link fails. Photo carousels use a TikTok photo link and require a campaign that counts carousels.
5. Check the result, then allow the product information and metrics to populate.

For these campaigns, “manual upload” means submitting a link to content already posted on TikTok. It does not publish a video to TikTok, replace a real posting date with today's date, or let a creator type in their own GMV or views. File uploads for other creator programs are a different workflow. A LIVE session is not submitted through this video/photo link form.

What Cruva checks when the link is submitted

• Valid post and posting time: Cruva resolves the TikTok post and retrieves its actual creation time. If that time cannot be read, the creator must retry or use a direct link; Cruva does not substitute the submission time.
• Ownership: the post's handle must match the creator's primary handle or a linked alias on their account.
• Content type: the campaign must count videos or photo carousels, as applicable. Calling a photo link a video does not make it eligible for a video-only campaign.
• Dates: the posting time must fit the campaign's permitted window, plus the join-date restriction if enabled. Dynamic retainers must have a valid agreed deal window.
• Limits: a full race or a campaign progress limit can prevent an additional manual submission.
• Known product information: if Cruva already has conclusive product tags for that post and none match the campaign's selected products, it can reject the link immediately.

The same post cannot count twice in one campaign merely by submitting it as both a video and a carousel. Re-submitting a disqualified post does not clear its disqualification.

What happens after submission

A post can appear in the content list, and may initially contribute to the post count, before its complete shop data is available. New records can have zero views, likes, and GMV while they wait for TikTok data.

When the data arrives, Cruva fills in the available metrics and checks the post's product tags against the campaign's products. If at least one selected product matches, the post can remain eligible subject to the other rules. If the populated tags conclusively show only products outside a restricted campaign, Cruva disqualifies it and excludes it from progress.

Unknown product tags are not the same as a confirmed mismatch. Missing or empty tag data is left for later reconciliation. Conversely, “added successfully” does not certify that the product already matched. Progress can decrease when a provisional post is later disqualified.

A disqualification is not automatically cleared by another sync or by later changing the product list. The brand must review the post and use the available requalification controls when appropriate.

Campaign dates and timezone

For a fixed campaign, the selected start date begins at midnight in the campaign's timezone, and the end date runs through the end of that local calendar day. Use the campaign timezone when comparing a TikTok timestamp with the deadline. Older campaigns without a timezone use UTC.

Eligibility uses when the creator posted, not when the creator pasted the link or when Cruva discovered it. Submitting today does not make an older post new. Likewise, a post discovered after the posting deadline may have been posted on time; check its actual timestamp and the campaign's remaining collection window.

Fixed campaigns can be configured with a past start date. There is no universal rule that a post must be newer than the date the brand created the campaign, and no general extra day before the configured start date.

Recurring contests and retainers assign content to the relevant period using its posting date. A campaign's original first-period end date is not the end of every later period. Dynamic retainers instead use the creator's deal and first qualifying post; see Retainer periods.

“Only count videos posted after they join”

With this switch off, eligible content from within the campaign window can count even if it predates the creator's joining date. Other rules, including products and approved participation for rewards, still apply.

With the switch on, the lower bound is the later of the campaign start and the beginning of the creator's join calendar day in the campaign timezone. It is not an exact-hour cutoff.

Example: a campaign starts September 1. A creator joins September 10 at 8 PM and posted at 9 AM that same local day. The September 10 post can count; a September 9 post cannot. Turning this switch off still does not allow a post from before September 1.

This restriction also applies to manual submissions. Dynamic retainer eligibility is deal-driven instead; do not use the ordinary join-day rule to justify a post made before an accepted deal.

Grace period versus extra posting time

Enable Grace Period keeps the collection window open after the normal deadline so metrics on eligible posts can settle. The usual default is three days, but the brand can change or disable it.

Allow new posts during the grace period is a separate, opt-in switch:

• Off: posts must be made by the normal end date. Grace collects additional data on those posts; it does not admit new late posts.
• On: new posts made during the configured grace period can also count.

For example, if the campaign ends September 20 with three days of grace, a September 21 post does not qualify unless grace-period posting is enabled. A September 20 post can continue receiving metric updates during grace. Disabling grace removes that additional collection time; it does not make TikTok deliver its data faster.

Do not promise that data first appearing after finalization will automatically reopen a completed campaign or change an already released payout. Escalate that case with the post and campaign details.

Recurring contests and retainers are an exception: their weekly/monthly periods are contiguous. The current builder saves grace as disabled and grace-period posting as off for recurring schedules. Do not append the fixed-campaign three-day default to every recurring period.

Products, metrics, and disqualified content

The brand can include all shop products or select a product list. For a restricted campaign, a post promoting only an unlisted product does not qualify, even if it mentions the brand. Check product IDs, particularly for similar listings or variants.

LIVE campaign GMV can be lower than the session's total GMV because only the selected campaign products' sales are included. A LIVE that sells $500 overall but only $100 of the campaign's selected products contributes $100 of qualifying GMV.

Views come from TikTok Shop analytics and can differ from the public TikTok view counter. The campaign uses its tracked metrics, not a number typed in by the creator. A views leaderboard sums qualifying content; it is not automatically based on the creator's best individual video.

Brand-disqualified posts stop contributing to progress and rewards. A creator can be approved to participate while an individual post is disqualified; these are separate statuses.

Troubleshoot a missing or rejected post

If the content remains missing after the expected availability window, give support the campaign link, creator handle, direct TikTok link, posting date/time and timezone, period, linked product IDs, and exact error or missing metric. That makes it possible to distinguish a TikTok delay from an eligibility problem.