Logo campaigns look like the easiest brief in clipping. Put the logo on, post the clip, collect the views. Then the review comes back rejected, and almost always for a reason that took one second to see and one minute to fix.
This is the quality check we would want every clipper to run before posting on a logo brief. If you are new to how campaigns work in general, read what a clipping campaign is first, and how to find paid campaigns after.
TL;DR: What Gets a Logo Clip Approved
The whole playbook in one screen, for anyone about to export.
- The brief is the spec. Corner, size, opacity and duration are whatever the brief says. Your taste comes second.
- Keep the logo out of the platform's furniture. Captions, buttons and usernames cover the bottom and right edge of every vertical feed. A logo hidden under them counts as missing.
- Legible on a phone, not on your monitor. Check the export on an actual phone at arm's length before you post.
- First frame to last frame. A logo that fades in late or drops out during a zoom fails review on that clip.
- Disclosure is part of QA. Turn on the platform's commercial content setting and add a plain label. The FTC says platform tools alone may not be enough.
- Pick clips the brand can stand next to. A perfectly placed logo on an off-brief clip is still a rejection.
A Reviewer Checks Four Things in Seconds
A logo campaign pays for one outcome: a viewer seeing the brand while watching something they actually chose to watch. Every rule in a logo brief protects that outcome, and a reviewer scanning submissions is checking it in a few seconds per clip, not admiring your edit.
Visibility and legibility are mechanical and cause most rejections. Brand safety is judgment, and it causes the expensive ones, where a brand pulls a clipper from the campaign. The fourth check is simply whether this exact clip has been submitted before, which is covered in the checklist below.
| Rejection reason | What it looks like | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Logo covered | Sits under the caption, the like column or the username once posted. | Place inside the safe area, check the live post. |
| Logo too small | Readable in the editor, a smudge on a phone. | Size up until it reads at arm's length. |
| Logo intermittent | Missing on the first frames, or lost during a punch-in or cut. | Put it on its own top track for the full timeline. |
| Logo distorted | Stretched, recolored, cropped or low resolution. | Use the supplied file, scale proportionally. |
| Off-brief clip | Content category or tone the brief excludes. | Reread the do-not-post list before cutting. |
| No disclosure | Commercial setting off, no label in the clip or caption. | Disclose on every post, every platform. |
Placement: The Feed Covers More of the Frame Than You Think
The single most common logo failure is a logo that was correct in the editor and covered in the feed. TikTok, Reels and Shorts all lay their own interface over the video: the caption and audio line along the bottom, the like, comment and share column down the right, and account details near the bottom left. None of that is visible on your timeline.
The working rule is to treat those strips as unusable and place the logo in the space that stays clear on every platform the brief covers. In practice that usually means an upper corner, inset from the edge, unless the brief names a position.
- Brief position wins. If the brief says top left, it is top left on every clip, even when another corner looks cleaner on a particular shot.
- Inset from the edge. Phones crop and round corners differently, so a logo pressed into the corner can lose a letter on some devices.
- Avoid the face. Never cover the speaker's face or the action. A clip that is worse to watch earns fewer views, and the logo earns nothing then.
- Check the posted version. Open the live post on your phone. The editor preview is not what the reviewer sees.
Some briefs want the logo built into the scene, such as a lower third, instead of a corner overlay. The same check applies: visible for the whole clip, with nothing on top of it.
Sizing: Readable on a Phone, Quiet Enough to Watch Around
There are two ways to get size wrong, and they fail for different reasons. Too small and the reviewer cannot identify the brand, so the clip is rejected. Too big and the clip reads as an advert, viewers swipe, and the views never arrive, so the clip passes review and pays almost nothing.
If the brief gives a size, use it exactly. If it does not, use a test rather than a number. Export, put the file on your phone, hold it at normal viewing distance and glance at it for one second. If you can name the brand in that second, it is large enough. If the logo is the first thing your eye goes to, it is too large.
- Use the supplied file. A logo pulled from a screenshot or a search result arrives blurry, with the wrong colors or a background box. Reviewers notice.
- Scale proportionally. Stretching a logo to fit a space is one of the few things brands reject on sight, every time.
- Solve contrast, do not recolor. A dark logo on dark footage disappears. Use the light version if the brand supplies one, or a subtle backing shape if the brief allows it, rather than inventing a color.
- Keep opacity honest. A logo faded down until it is barely there is the same as a logo that is too small.
Timing: On Screen From the First Frame to the Last
Most logo briefs want the brand visible for the entire clip. The reason is simple: a viewer may swipe away after two seconds, and those two seconds are the impression the brand is paying for. A logo that animates in at second three has missed most of the audience.
The top-track habit solves the most common timing bug. When the logo is applied to the clip itself, every zoom, crop or reframe in your edit moves or scales it too. On its own layer, the logo stays put while the footage underneath does whatever it needs to.
Disclosure Is a QA Step, Not a Caption Afterthought
A logo clip posted for a campaign is paid promotion, and it needs to be disclosed as such. This is the step clippers skip most, partly because the clip does not feel like an advert to the person who made it. To the platforms and to regulators, it is one.
The FTC's guidance for influencers says to disclose any financial relationship with a brand, to put the disclosure in the video itself and not only in the description, and not to assume a platform's disclosure tool is enough on its own. Plain words like "ad" or "sponsored" work. Vague ones like "sp" or "collab" do not.
| Where you post | The platform setting | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok | Turn on "Disclose commercial content" under content disclosure before posting. | TikTok's help center says the label cannot be changed after publishing, so a wrong choice means deleting and reposting. |
| YouTube Shorts | Mark the paid promotion setting in the video details when uploading. | YouTube adds a disclosure label to the start of the video. |
| Instagram Reels | Use the paid partnership label where your account has access to it. | Add an on-screen or caption label as well, per the FTC's advice on tools. |
| X | No dedicated toggle for most accounts. | Put "ad" or "sponsored" in the post text itself, not buried after hashtags. |
Sources for the platform steps: TikTok's commercial content disclosure help article and YouTube's paid product placement policy. Menus move between app versions, so if the brief names a specific disclosure format, follow the brief.
The Clip Under the Logo Is Half the Review
A logo turns whatever it sits on into something the brand appears to endorse. That is why logo briefs carry do-not-post lists, and why a technically perfect logo on the wrong clip is a rejection, sometimes a removal from the campaign.
- Stay inside the brief's categories. If the brief says sports and comedy, a politics clip with a perfect logo is still off-brief.
- No false endorsement. Never cut a clip so a real person appears to recommend the brand. The logo implies a sponsor, the edit must not imply a spokesperson.
- Source rights still apply. A logo does not change who owns the footage. Use cleared sources only, and see our page on whether clipping is legal for the copyright side.
- A logo is not originality. Instagram has said that adding watermarks or borders to reposted footage does not count as an original contribution. Our breakdown of Instagram's unoriginal content policy covers what does.
That last point is the one that caps earnings quietly. The brand's logo gets your clip approved. Your edit, captions and framing get it distributed. A logo clip with nothing added is the content platforms are filtering out.
The Pre-Post Checklist, in Three Passes
Run this every time. It takes a couple of minutes, and it is cheaper than a rejected clip, which costs you the edit, the post and sometimes your standing on the campaign.
Duplicates deserve their own warning. Submitting the same clip twice, or reposting another clipper's cut, is treated as gaming the campaign rather than a mistake. One clip, one post, one submission.
How Logo Campaigns Pay Clippers
Logo campaigns pay the same way most clipping campaigns do: a brand funds a budget, publishes a brief, and pays clippers against the views their approved clips earn. Approval is the gate. Views on a rejected clip are simply not counted.
What clipping campaigns pay per thousand views
Forbes also explained why the categories that lean on logo formats buy clipping at all: ad platforms restrict or ban ads for crypto, many financial products and gambling, and organic clips never enter the ad system. That is also why those briefs are the strictest about disclosure and do-not-post lists, so QA matters most exactly where logo campaigns are most common.
Logo campaigns are a standard format at ClipUp, with every clip reviewed by a person before its views count, and payment on verified views. Our guide to what clippers make walks through the math of rate against volume.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a logo clipping campaign?
A logo clipping campaign is a brief where a brand pays clippers to post short-form clips with its logo visible on screen. The clip itself can be almost anything the brief allows, such as streams, podcasts or entertainment footage. Clippers are paid on the views their approved clips earn, and each clip is reviewed for logo placement, disclosure and content fit.
Where should I put the logo on a TikTok clip?
Wherever the brief says first. If it gives no position, use an upper corner inset from the edge, because TikTok's caption, audio line and button column cover the bottom and right side of the frame. Always open the live post on your phone to confirm nothing sits on top of the logo.
How big should a brand logo be in a clip?
Use the brief's size if it gives one. Otherwise, export the clip, watch it on a phone at normal distance, and glance for one second. If you can name the brand, it is big enough. If the logo is the first thing you notice, it is too big and will cost you views.
Do logo clips need #ad or a paid partnership label?
Yes. A logo clip posted for a paid campaign is a commercial relationship, and the FTC says to disclose it in the video itself, not only in the description. Turn on the platform's commercial content setting, such as TikTok's commercial content disclosure or YouTube's paid promotion setting, and add a plain label like "ad" or "sponsored".
Why was my logo clip rejected?
The common reasons are a logo covered by the platform interface, a logo too small to read on a phone, a logo missing for part of the clip, a stretched or recolored logo, a clip outside the brief's categories, missing disclosure, or a duplicate submission. Check the brief and the live post against each one before resubmitting.
Does adding a logo make a reposted clip original on Instagram?
No. Instagram has said that adding watermarks or borders to someone else's footage does not count as an original contribution. A logo satisfies the brand's brief, not the platform's originality standard. Your edit, captions, commentary and framing are what make the clip eligible for distribution.
Clip for Briefs That Tell You Exactly What Passes
ClipUp runs logo and content campaigns with clear briefs, human review and payment on verified views. If you already clip, your next step is a brief.
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