Getting Started with Cruva

New to Cruva? Start here. This walks you from a fresh account to your first live campaign.

First-run checklist

Do these in order:

1. Connect your TikTok Shop. This is the foundation — most surfaces are empty until it's linked. After connecting, data syncs in the background (it can take a while on a new shop).

2. Add / confirm your products. Cruva syncs your shop's products. You'll target campaigns and samples against these.

3. Build a list or group of creators. Use Affiliate CRM to segment creators, or import a list. Lists are the target of outreach.

4. Launch your first campaign. Start with an Outreach Automation to DM/invite creators, or a Creator Community campaign to reward posting.

5. Read your dashboard. Check your Analytics and My Affiliates to see GMV, orders, and creator activity flowing in.

One account can hold multiple TikTok Shops, but each shop needs its own subscription and its data (creators, lists, CRM history, automations) is isolated per shop. You manage them all from one login. Accounts start as a single shop; add more whenever you need them.

Is my account fully set up? If your shop is connected, products are syncing, and you can see creators under My Affiliates, you're ready to run outreach. If My Affiliates is empty, the sync is likely still catching up or the shop isn't fully linked.

Where things live (nav map)

The sidebar is grouped by workflow:

• Outreach — What's inside: Automations, Auto Replies, Email Campaigns, Lists
• Affiliate CRM — What's inside: My Affiliates, Groups, Sample Requests, Tag Manager, Reports
• Content — What's inside: Videos, LIVEs, Creator Briefs, Moderation, Halo Effect, Insights
• Ads — What's inside: Usage Rights, Licensed Content, Spark Ads, Automations, GMV Max
• Social Intelligence — What's inside: Brands, Products, Videos, Creators — market research
• Creator Community — What's inside: Brand Hub, Campaigns, Retainers, Payments, Content, Creators, Discord — paid creator programs

Frequently hunted-for spots:

• Billing, invoices, plan, cancel → account menu (top right) → Billing & Plans.
• Competitor Insights → Social Intelligence → Brands.
• Pay a creator → Creator Community → Campaigns → the campaign → Pay button per creator (after the campaign completes).
• Your creators' data (GMV, samples) → Affiliate CRM → My Affiliates.
• Help / docs → /dashboard/help and /dashboard/docs.

Jargon glossary

• GMV — Gross Merchandise Value. The total sales value of products sold, before fees/refunds. Cruva's headline performance number.
• Automation — sends DMs and collab invites to creators on TikTok on your behalf, on a schedule and within caps. (You may still hear these called "bots".)
• Invite vs DM — an invite (collab card) is TikTok's formal invitation to collaborate; a DM is a direct message with your own text. An "invite + DM" sends both — the card plus a real message.
• TC — Target Collab (targeted collaboration), TikTok's invite mechanism for reaching specific creators. (Related: Open Collab, where creators come to you.)
• Flywheel — the compounding loop where outreach → samples → posts → GMV → more creators wanting in, each stage feeding the next.
• Creator levels (L1–L7) — a GMV-based tier for each creator (L1 lowest, L7 highest), shown in the CRM. It reflects the creator's total GMV across all shops — a market-wide size signal for the creator, not a measure of their activity with your shop specifically.
• Sample — a free product sent to a creator (via TikTok's sample/collab flow) so they can post about it.
• Halo Effect — off-TikTok sales lift (Amazon/Shopify) attributed to your TikTok creator activity.

Book onboarding & training

• Included onboarding call. Every account includes a 30-minute onboarding call. Book it from the in-app booking link.
• Missed the onboarding during signup? You can still book it any time from the in-app booking link.
• Cruva Academy / learning center. Video tutorials and training live in the help area.
• Self-serve help. Browse the help center at /dashboard/help and docs at /dashboard/docs any time.

Common first-week questions

Where do I get the app? Cruva is a web app — there's no separate download. Log in at cruva.com/dashboard.

Can I connect more than one shop? Yes — add each shop (each is billed separately) and switch between them with the shop selector at the top. Data doesn't carry across shops.

Can a specialist set it up for me? The included onboarding call covers setup guidance; hands-on paid setup help may be available.