Clipping glossary: the terms every clipper should know
Plain definitions of clipping terms: campaigns, briefs, CPM, verified views, payout windows, hooks, retention and safe zones.
- Clipping
- Cutting short vertical clips from longer content or brand footage and posting them on your own accounts, usually for pay per view.
- Clipper
- A creator who makes and posts clips for clipping campaigns.
- Campaign
- A paid brief from a brand or creator that sets the source, rules, platforms and pay rate for clips.
- Brief
- The document that explains what a campaign wants: source footage, length, platforms, watermark and banned content.
- CPM
- Cost per mille: the price for 1,000 views. In clipping, the rate a campaign pays per 1,000 verified views.
- Verified views
- Views a campaign has checked are real and from eligible accounts and regions.
- Payout window
- The number of days after posting during which a clip's views count toward payment.
- Hook
- The first one to three seconds of a clip, designed to stop people from scrolling.
- Retention
- How much of a clip people watch, often shown as average watch time or the share who reach the end.
- Safe zone
- The part of a 9:16 frame that app buttons and captions do not cover.
- Watermark
- A brand logo placed on a clip, often required by campaigns for the whole clip.
- 9:16
- The vertical video shape used by TikTok, Reels and Shorts, usually 1080 by 1920 pixels.
- Loop
- An ending that flows back into the start, so people rewatch without noticing.