Contests: tiers, automatic assignment, winner limits, and budgets

A Contest rewards creators who meet configured tier requirements. It normally assigns tiers automatically from tracked campaign activity. Turn automatic assignment off when the brand needs to assign each creator's tier manually.

Set tier requirements and rewards

Choose the content types the contest counts, such as videos, LIVE, or photo carousels, and the eligible products. For each reward tier, set one or more requirements:

• Qualifying GMV.
• Qualifying post/content count.
• Qualifying views.

All configured requirements on a tier must be met. A tier requiring five posts, $1,000 GMV, and 10,000 views requires all three, not any one of them. Leaving an optional requirement unset does not add that requirement.

When several supported content types are selected, their qualifying activity is combined for the corresponding metrics. Make the chosen content types explicit in the brief so creators know what to produce.

Tiers can offer cash, physical prizes, or both. Mixed rewards can vary between tiers. Give prizes clear titles and images so creators can identify what they would receive.

Set optional limits on individual tiers

The Winner limit field is inside each tier's reward card. It can differ between tiers: for example, 20 winners at the first level, five at the next, and one at the highest. A blank cap means unlimited winners for that tier; clearing it does not remove the tier's requirements. Zero clears the optional cap rather than creating a zero-winner tier.

Each card also selects Cash, Prize, or Both, and the contest/leaderboard reward editor supports up to two named prizes on a card. Switching to cash-only removes its prize rows; switching to prize-only clears its cash amount. Requirements and reward type are separate controls.

See Reward limits reference for capped/unlimited combinations, fallback examples, and how these fields differ from leaderboard winner counts.

Do tier rewards stack?

A creator receives one qualifying/assigned tier's reward for the period, rather than adding every tier together. For ordinary automatic cash tiers, the highest qualifying payout is used. With constrained winner allocation, the creator receives the best qualifying tier still available under the allocation rules.

Example: meeting a $50 tier and a $150 tier does not mean a $200 payout. It normally means the $150 reward, subject to winner limits and available budget.

Automatic versus manual tier assignment

Automatic assignment on: Cruva evaluates qualifying activity and assigns rewards from the configured requirements. This is the default contest behavior.

Automatic assignment off: the brand sets each creator's tier from the participants table. A creator with no assigned tier has no tier reward even if their displayed metrics exceed a threshold. This setting can support brand review or judged competitions, but it must be chosen deliberately.

Approving an application and assigning a reward tier are different actions. Approval lets a creator participate; it does not select their tier. Assigning a tier does not transfer money.

Winner limit per tier

A tier's optional Winner limit caps how many creators can receive that tier. Leave it blank for unlimited winners at that tier.

For automatic allocation, spots go to the earliest qualifiers using qualifying content's posting timeline and the available metrics. A creator whose best tier is full can fall back to the best lower qualifying tier with an open spot. They do not automatically receive the full higher-tier reward anyway.

This is not the order in which people joined or clicked the upload button. TikTok delays and later metric updates can affect allocation while the data is still settling. Check the final assigned tier, not only whether a progress bar passed a threshold.

Total campaign budget

Enable Set Campaign Budget to limit cash funding. Qualifying for a tier does not guarantee funding once the configured budget is allocated. The allocation considers qualification order, tier availability, and remaining money.

Budget exhaustion can automatically pause a campaign. Resuming it without increasing the exhausted budget can cause it to pause again on the next check. Review the allocation and funding before reopening it.

Hide the budget from creators hides the spend/budget display. It does not remove the cap, change qualification order, or prevent automatic pausing. A campaign's reward budget is also separate from the actual balance you add to pay creators.

Fixed and recurring contests

A fixed contest has one shared date window. A recurring contest repeats weekly or monthly from its configured start, with an optional maximum number of periods. Requirements, progress, tier assignments, and payment records must be reviewed in the correct period; a previous period's results are not automatically the next period's results.

Recurring contests have no grace period in the current builder; their periods run contiguously. The three-day default for fixed campaigns does not apply to each recurring contest period.

Once a creator has joined, the schedule type, recurrence cadence, and start-date anchor are locked when saved. The maximum period setting remains editable. Contests do not use the deal-driven dynamic retainer schedule.

Why a creator hit a target but has no payout

Check every requirement on the tier, participation approval, disqualified content, the current period, manual versus automatic assignment, winner spots, budget allocation, and whether that reward is cash or a physical prize. Then check payout availability separately.

See Content tracking and date rules and Creator payouts.