FAQ

The differences show up in four places.

The network: Cohley creators are screened before admission and carry first-party data and brand ratings, rather than an open, anyone-can-list marketplace.

The rights: perpetual, universal usage rights come standard, with no expirations or re-licensing fees.

The workflow: approval stages, Content Non-Negotiables, and the Collaboration Suite give legal and brand teams real control.

The intelligence: Finn learns from every brief and on-platform interaction, improving at matching creators and drafting briefs over time.

For side-by-side breakdowns against specific platforms, see Cohley's comparison pages or the guide to the best UGC platforms.

Brands start by building a Creative Brief in the Cohley platform that outlines the content they need: creative guidelines, deliverables, and creator compensation. Once the brief is live, creators actively apply to participate. There's no cold outreach, no rate negotiating, and no individual contracting.

Finn vets applicants against your criteria and organizes them for review. Brands review applicants based on portfolios, social analytics, and past brand reviews, then select who they want to work with. All communication, content submission, feedback, and approvals happen directly within Cohley, and Finn AI Asset Analysis checks every submission against your brief's non-negotiables before it reaches your queue.

Payments are processed automatically, and every approved asset lands in a central Content Library, ready to activate across paid social, organic social, email, ecom platforms, retailer pages, and more. Every piece of content comes with perpetual, universal usage rights.

The brands that get the most out of Cohley are typically in CPG, beauty, fashion, food and beverage, health and wellness, home goods, or retail. They’re usually dealing with at least one of these challenges: underperforming paid ads, thin content on brand-owned and retailer ecom pages, driving in-store sales, a new product launch that needs product reviews fast, or a social strategy that demands more volume than an in-house team can produce. Another common challenge that Cohley addresses is maintaining brand safety, compliance and quality with scale.

Cohley also works well for agencies managing multiple brand clients who, in addition to solving for the challenges listed above, need multi-account infrastructure and the Collaboration Suite for client approvals.

If your content needs are one-off, or if you sell a service or app rather than a physical product, there may be a better fit for you. The clearest signal Cohley is right for you: you need quality content, at scale, across more than one channel, on an ongoing basis.

Still not sure? Try the platform recommendation tool or scheduling a demo. We'll give you an honest recommendation, whether it's us or one of the many great content platforms in the market.

The common thread across Cohley's best customers is that they sell tangible products and have real, ongoing content demands across more than one channel–whether that's paid social, organic social, retailer pages, or DTC. Brands like Burt's Bees, LG Electronics, and CVS have all worked with Cohley to generate content at a scale their in-house teams couldn't match alone.

Cohley tends to deliver the most value for brands in these situations:

• Launching a new product that needs content and product reviews fast
• Running paid ads and looking for fresh creative to test
• Managing an ecom or retail presence that needs stronger product page content
• Maintaining a consistent social presence without draining the internal team

Mid-market and enterprise brands (generally doing $10M+ in annual revenue) get the most out of the platform because they have the content volume needs and multi-channel complexity that Cohley is built to address. Agencies managing multiple brand clients are also a natural fit, particularly those who need multi-account infrastructure and the Collaboration Suite for client approvals.

Cohley isn’t a great fit for service businesses, app-based brands, or companies with highly seasonal, one-off content needs. The platform is optimized around physical products and ongoing content operations, not one-time campaigns.

Cohley is built for mid-market and enterprise brands that sell physical products in the United States and Canada, and the agencies that service them. Instead of chasing creators through cold outreach or managing four separate content vendors, brands post a Creative Brief and vetted creators apply to work with them.

Three things define the platform: creators are pre-vetted, every asset includes perpetual usage rights, and Finn runs the operations, from vetting applicants to processing payments. The result is agency-quality content at a fraction of agency cost, with the brand safety and compliance controls enterprise teams require.

Most brands come to Cohley with one specific need in mind and quickly realize they can consolidate several of their core marketing activities with one platform. Here’s what the platform supports:

Social Content: UGC photos and videos for Instagram and TikTok, Influencer Partnership Briefs, ambassador programs, and branded content for organic posting. Cohley also supports Boosting (sometimes called whitelisting), so brands can run paid ads directly through a creator's social handle via TikTok Spark Ads and Instagram Partnership Ads for more authentic performance.

Paid Media Creative: Ad creative for paid social channels, including emerging platforms like TikTok. Brands use Cohley to generate a high volume of diverse creative assets to test, optimize, and scale without relying on expensive production shoots.

Product Reviews: Text, photo, and video reviews from real consumers for use on brand websites and retailer PDPs like Target.com and Walmart.com. Cohley integrates with major review platforms including Bazaarvoice, PowerReviews, and Yotpo, and can recruit reviewers directly from a brand's community through Ambassador Pages.

Professional Photography and Video: For brands that need polished, studio-quality assets alongside authentic creator content, Cohley facilitates professional photo and video shoots.

Every asset, regardless of type, lives in Cohley’s Content Library with perpetual, universal usage rights included, so brands can repurpose content across any channel, anytime.

When a creator delivers content through Cohley and you approve it, ownership transfers to your brand. There are no expiration dates, no channel restrictions, and no additional licensing fees down the road. Whether you want to run it as a paid ad today or repurpose it on your website two years from now, the rights are yours to use however you see fit.

This is meaningfully different from how many other platforms handle rights, where licenses may be campaign-specific, time-limited, or restricted to certain channels. With Cohley, you never have to go back to a creator to renegotiate usage.

The bottom line: the content you generate through Cohley is a long-term brand asset, not a short-term campaign deliverable.

Ecommerce: Shopify If you're on Shopify, Cohley connects directly to your store so that product shipping to creators is fully automated. Rather than manually tracking and fulfilling shipments, a creator clicks a button in the platform, Cohley pings your store, and the product is on its way with tracking information sent automatically.

Reviews: Bazaarvoice, PowerReviews, and Yotpo Cohley integrates directly with all three major review syndication platforms. Once a review is approved, it pushes automatically to your brand site and retailer PDPs without any manual export or upload required.

Social and Paid: TikTok and Meta Creators authenticate their TikTok and Instagram accounts directly in Cohley, giving brands access to real first-party analytics during the vetting process. For paid activation, Cohley streamlines Boosting: TikTok Spark Ad and Instagram Partnership Ad codes are collected directly in the creator's upload flow, so your media team gets everything needed to run creator content as paid, with no chasing codes through DMs. And approved assets can be activated in TikTok directly from the Content Library, no downloading and re-uploading files required.

Google Drive Cohley's Google Drive integration allows brands to automatically send content from their Cohley Content Library directly to their Google Drive, rather than downloading assets to their computer and manually uploading them elsewhere.

If you’re using a tool not listed here, it’s worth a conversation with Cohley’s team. The integrations list continues to grow, and in many cases an export or API connection can bridge the gap.

Show, don't just tell. The Style Guide section of your brief lets you upload examples of content you love and content you don't, with a short note explaining why. Creators are visual by nature, and a strong set of reference examples does more to align their output than written instructions alone. These examples don't have to come from your own brand. A competitor's post, a creator you spotted on TikTok, or an aesthetic you admire all work just as well.

Set hard rules with Content Non-Negotiables. This section functions as your brand safety layer. If there are claims you can't make, competitor products that can't appear on screen, specific product angles required, or environments you never want to see in your content, you spell it out here. If a creator violates a non-negotiable, they're required to reshoot before receiving payment.

Go deeper with Brand Materials. For brands with detailed visual guidelines or a comprehensive brand book, those documents can be uploaded directly into your Cohley account and linked from within any brief. Creators who want to do great work will use them.

AI does the first pass. Finn AI Asset Analysis reviews submitted content against your non-negotiables before it reaches your queue. Rather than manually screening every submission, your team focuses only on the assets that have already cleared the initial check.

Every creator agrees to your brief terms before they’re selected, which means brand alignment isn’t left to chance or good intentions.

The Style Guide is where you show creators exactly what you’re looking for, visually. You upload examples of content you love and content you don’t. These examples don’t have to come from your own brand: a competitor’s post, a creator you spotted on TikTok, or even just an aesthetic you admire all work. Creators are visual by nature, and a strong style guide does more to align their output than a paragraph of written instructions ever could.

Content Non-Negotiables are the rules of engagement. This section of the brief functions as your brand safety and compliance layer. If you have a do-not-claims list, specific product pronunciation requirements, or things you simply never want to see in your content (a cluttered background, a competitor’s product on screen, a specific type of video format), this is where you spell it out. If a creator violates a non-negotiable, they’re required to reshoot before receiving payment.

Brand Materials let you go further. You can upload your full brand book, visual guidelines, or a detailed style deck directly into your Cohley account and link to it from within any brief. Brands with highly specific visual identities, like particular product angles or specific ways of displaying product labeling, use this to give creators the full picture.

Finn Agent adds another layer of consistency at scale. Finn AI Asset Analysis reviews submitted content against your non-negotiables and flags anything that doesn't comply before you even open the review queue. Rather than manually screening every submission, your team can focus on the assets that have already passed the initial check.

Finn also learns your brand guidelines and sharpens its understanding of brand preference over time. Every Brand Material you upload, every change request you send, and every approval you make sharpens how Finn drafts your next brief and which creators it matches you with. The longer you’re on the platform, the more consistently on-brand the output gets. Your Finn is not the same as another brand’s Finn.

Start with the numbers leadership already cares about. The most compelling ROI story isn’t about content volume, it’s about what that content did. Did it lower your cost per acquisition on paid social? Did it improve conversion on your PDPs? Did it drive traffic to your retailer listings? Those are the outcomes that content generated on the Cohley platform are meant to improve.

Performance Metrics — Content gives you the operational story. It shows how many briefs you've launched, total creator compensation spent, cost per asset, number of unique creators you've worked with, and a demographic breakdown of your creator pool.

Performance Metrics — Social gives you the reach story. For Influencer Partnership Briefs, Cohley pulls performance data directly from TikTok and Instagram via API, so the numbers generated and displayed are straight from the source. You can see reach, impressions, views, engagement rate, saves, and shares at both the campaign level and per individual post.

Earned Media Value gives you an ROI story. Every influencer post in Cohley's reporting includes an Earned Media Value (EMV) calculation, which translates organic impressions and engagement into an estimated dollar value. It's a language leadership understands, and it's useful for benchmarking against what that reach would have cost in paid media.

All of it is downloadable. Every report in Cohley can be exported and shared with anyone who needs to see it, no platform login required. Your CSM can also help you build a brief wrap-up summary that tells the full story of a campaign in a format built for stakeholder presentations.

For enterprise teams, a content platform has to clear security, legal, and procurement before it’s put in play. Cohley is built with that in mind.

SOC 2 compliance is the baseline. Cohley has been through security reviews with major enterprise brands and is equipped to support your team’s vendor assessment process, including security questionnaires.

Beyond the certification itself, several parts of the platform matter to security and compliance stakeholders:

Role-based access. Teams can share specific views, like creator applicants or submitted content, via shared URLs without granting full platform access to external stakeholders.

A documented approval trail. Every piece of content moves through defined stages from submission to acceptance, and the Collaboration Suite lets legal and compliance teams review content with timestamped feedback, no login required.

Payment and tax compliance. Cohley facilitates all creator payments within the platform, so brands are absolved of the need to manage end-of-year tax document obligations like 1099s, and a full transaction ledger is viewable in the platform at any time.

Content owned in perpetuity. Every asset lives in your Content Library, searchable and downloadable, serving as a long-term record of everything produced.

If your security team has a questionnaire or vendor review process, share it with the Cohley team early. It’s a process the Cohley team is very familiar with.

The targeting happens at two levels: the brief and the applicant review stage.

At the brief level, you define the creator profile you’re looking for: platform (TikTok, Instagram, or both), minimum follower requirements if relevant, content niche, and any specific demographic or geographic criteria. Creators who don’t match those baseline requirements won’t see your brief.

At the applicant review stage, you see each creator’s full profile: authenticated follower count and engagement rate pulled directly from TikTok and Instagram, their portfolio of past work, and their brand ratings from previous Cohley campaigns.

For UGC briefs, follower count often matters less than content quality, because UGC is brand-owned and used in paid and owned channels rather than posted organically by the creator. For Influencer Partnership Briefs, reach and engagement metrics matter more, and Cohley’s analytics help you evaluate both before you commit.

Creators find Cohley through organic search, social media, creator community referrals, and Cohley’s own outbound recruiting efforts. From there, they complete a structured application process: submitting a portfolio, connecting their social accounts (which pulls authenticated analytics), agreeing to Cohley’s creator terms and policies, and providing payment information.

Cohley’s team reviews applications before creators are approved. Not everyone who applies gets in. The vetting criteria include content quality, portfolio strength, policy compliance, and basic professionalism indicators.

Once approved, creators are discoverable in Cohley’s network and can apply to active briefs. Brands don’t browse through creators to recruit them. Instead, creators see briefs that match their profile and actively apply, so the pool of applicants you review is already self-selected for interest and relevance.

Brands also have the option to build a direct creator roster through Ambassador Pages. When a brand has a community it wants to source directly from, a custom Ambassador Page lets those creators apply to the network and brief directly, bypassing the broader Cohley network.

Pre-admission vetting: Before a creator is accepted into Cohley’s network, they submit a portfolio, connect their social accounts, agree to creator terms and policies, and provide payment information. Cohley’s team reviews every application before approval. Not everyone who applies gets in.

Brand-level vetting: When a brief is live and creators apply, brands review applicants using authenticated social data pulled directly from TikTok and Instagram, not self-reported numbers. Brands also see each creator’s portfolio and their brand ratings from previous Cohley campaigns.

Post-selection enforcement: Once a creator is selected, Finn AI Asset Analysis reviews their submitted content against your brief’s Content Non-Negotiables before it reaches your queue. If content violates a non-negotiable, it’s flagged and the creator is required to revise and resubmit before payment is processed.

The result is a three-layer vetting system: Cohley screens before admission, brands screen before selection, and AI screens before approval.

The network is pre-vetted. When you source creators through Instagram DMs or a freelance marketplace, you’re starting from zero. Cohley creators have been screened before admission, carry brand ratings from real campaigns, and have authenticated social analytics, not self-reported numbers.

The brief structures the relationship. A Cohley Creative Brief outlines deliverables, compensation, timelines, and non-negotiables clearly upfront. Creators agree to those terms before they’re selected. There’s no negotiating rates, no back-and-forth over what’s included, and no surprises on either side.

Rights are standardized and comprehensive. Every asset generated through Cohley comes with perpetual, universal usage rights included. No renegotiation, no expiration dates.

The platform handles the operational overhead. Contracts, communication, content review, payment processing, and tax documentation are all managed within Cohley. Finn handles most of the operational lift.

Video: Vertical video (9:16) for TikTok and Instagram Reels is the most common request. Brands also commission horizontal (16:9) for YouTube pre-roll, connected TV, and display ads. Shorter cut-downs for paid social (6-15 seconds) can be requested as a deliverable alongside a longer hero video.

Photo: Lifestyle photography, product-on-white, product-in-use, unboxing, and before-and-after are all supported. Brands specify the aspect ratios, settings, and scenarios they need.

Professional production: For brands that want polished, studio-quality assets alongside creator content, Cohley can facilitate professional photo and video shoots through its network.

All content is delivered in high resolution, and every format you receive comes with perpetual usage rights, so you can cut, resize, or repurpose any asset for any channel without going back to the creator.

The brief type determines how content is activated. Brands set this in the brief before creators apply, so everyone knows what they’re agreeing to upfront.

UGC briefs: Creators produce content, submit it through Cohley, and it goes directly to the brand’s Content Library. The creator doesn’t post it. The brand owns it with full perpetual rights.

Influencer Partnership Briefs: Creators post content to their own TikTok or Instagram accounts. The brand also receives the asset and usage rights. For brands that want to amplify that organic post through paid, Cohley’s Boosting workflow collects Spark Ad and Partnership Ad codes from the creator at upload, so your media team can run paid directly through the creator’s handle.

Many brands run both brief types simultaneously, using UGC briefs to build their paid creative library and Influencer Partnership Briefs to drive organic reach and awareness.

This is built into every Cohley agreement. When a creator accepts a brief and produces content, the brand receives perpetual, universal usage rights to that content upon approval. There are no time limits, no channel restrictions, and no need to renegotiate down the road.

For brands running Boosting (Spark Ads on TikTok or Partnership Ads on Instagram), Cohley also collects the authorization codes that allow brands to run ads directly through the creator’s handle. This is separate from content usage rights and is managed within the Cohley workflow so your media team gets what they need without chasing it.

The practical result: influencer content generated on Cohley lives in your Content Library alongside your UGC, and you can activate it wherever and whenever you want.

UGC on Cohley: Creators produce content to your brief, ship it to you, and it's yours to use anywhere. The creator doesn't post it to their channel. You own it from day one with perpetual, universal usage rights. Follower count typically matters less here — content quality matters most.

Influencer Partnerships on Cohley: The creator posts content to their own TikTok or Instagram channel. You're paying for their reach and influence over their audience. You also receive the content for your own use with the same perpetual rights included. Follower count, engagement rate, and audience demographics matter more here.

Many brands run both in parallel through Cohley: UGC briefs to generate a high volume of creative assets for paid and owned channels, and Influencer Partnership Briefs to build brand awareness through creator audiences.

Photo reviews can be submitted alongside a written review or as a standalone image of the product in use. They’re particularly effective for beauty, food and beverage, and home goods categories where visual proof of the product’s quality matters to the buyer.

Video reviews are the most versatile format. A single video review can anchor a product page, run as a paid ad, and be repurposed across social and email, all from one piece of content. Cohley’s review workflow supports video submission natively, and the resulting assets live in your Content Library alongside everything else.

Photo and video reviews also push through Cohley’s syndication integrations, so if a reviewer submits a photo alongside their written review, that photo can appear on a retailer PDP, not just on your brand site.

These integrations handle the review content, star ratings, and required disclosure metadata, so what lands on your product pages and retailer listings is complete and compliant. Cohley’s team manages the integration setup as part of onboarding.

If you’re not currently on a syndication platform, Cohley can still generate and deliver reviews directly. You’d receive the review content to publish independently on your brand site. The integration just automates and extends the distribution.

Authenticity starts with how reviewers are sourced. Cohley recruits reviewers who receive the product and genuinely use it before submitting a review. The content of those reviews is not scripted or pre-approved by the brand. Reviewers submit their honest experience.

Compliance is built into the workflow. The review submission process includes the disclosures and acknowledgments required to meet FTC guidelines. This is handled at the platform level, so brands don’t have to manage it manually or worry about whether the right language was included.

Syndication platforms have their own standards. Cohley’s review output meets the content and compliance requirements of Bazaarvoice, PowerReviews, and Yotpo, the platforms most enterprise brands use to publish and syndicate reviews to retailer PDPs. This matters because those platforms reject reviews that don’t meet their standards, and Cohley is built so the reviews that come out of it pass through without issue.

The Platform License covers your ability to run review campaigns as part of your overall Cohley subscription. There are no per-brief fees and no limits on the number of review campaigns you can run.

Creator compensation for reviews is set by you in the brief and paid directly to reviewers through Cohley. Cohley does not mark it up. Typical reviewer compensation for a text review starts lower than for video or photo-plus-review deliverables, since the ask is different. Your CSM can provide current guidance on typical rates based on the type of review content you need.

Volume matters for reviews more than almost any other content type. A product page with 10 reviews performs better than one with 2. Cohley’s briefing model lets you run review campaigns at scale without the cost spiraling, because the platform infrastructure is fixed and the creator compensation is variable and set by you.

Brand site and DTC: Reviews can be published directly on your product pages through Bazaarvoice, PowerReviews, or Yotpo, or managed independently if you’re not using a syndication platform.

Retailer PDPs: Cohley’s review platform integrations push reviews directly to retailer product pages, including Target.com, Walmart.com, and others in the Bazaarvoice, PowerReviews, and Yotpo syndication networks.

Marketing channels: Review content (text, photos, and video) lives in your Cohley Content Library and can be pulled into email, social, and paid ad creative just like any other asset.

Photo and video reviews are especially versatile. A video review submitted through Cohley can anchor a product page, run as a paid ad, get featured in an email campaign, and be repurposed for organic social, all from a single piece of content.

Brands use Cohley UGC in paid ads across TikTok, Meta (Instagram and Facebook), YouTube, display, and connected TV. The content you generate in a single brief cycle, typically 10 to 20 pieces of content, gives your media team a meaningful creative pool to test, rather than running the same ad until performance drops.

Cohley also supports Boosting (Spark Ads on TikTok and Partnership Ads on Meta), where brands run paid directly through a creator’s social handle rather than their brand account. This format performs differently than standard brand ads because it appears as organic content in the feed. Cohley’s workflow collects the required authorization codes from creators at the time of upload, so your media team has everything they need.

From a logistics standpoint, assets can be downloaded directly from your Cohley Content Library in the format your ad platform requires. TikTok integrations also let you push assets directly to TikTok’s ad manager without re-uploading.

Creative fatigue is the enemy of paid performance. Ads that stop performing usually stop because they’ve been seen too many times, not because the product or offer stopped being compelling. The solution is a consistent pipeline of fresh creative, and that’s exactly what Cohley is built to provide.

For TikTok: Vertical UGC videos produced through Cohley are the native format for TikTok's feed. Cohley also supports TikTok Spark Ads (Boosting), where brands run paid directly through a creator's handle using content the creator already posted, giving ads the feel of organic content rather than a brand ad.

For Meta: Cohley supports Instagram Partnership Ads, which work the same way as Spark Ads but on Meta's platform. Cohley's workflow collects the authorization code from the creator at the time of content submission, so your media team gets what they need to run the ad without any back-and-forth.

Testing at scale: Because Cohley lets you generate 10 to 20 pieces of content per brief cycle at a predictable cost, brands can run genuine creative testing across hooks, formats, and styles rather than guessing which one will work.

TikTok: Vertical video (9:16) is the primary format. Because TikTok’s algorithm rewards content that feels native to the platform, most brands ask creators to produce in a natural, direct-to-camera or lifestyle style rather than a polished, branded look. Cohley also supports TikTok Spark Ads, which allow brands to run creator-posted content as paid, keeping that native feel in a paid placement.

Instagram and Meta: Cohley supports vertical for Reels and Stories, square for feed, and horizontal where needed. For paid on Meta, Cohley’s Boosting workflow (Partnership Ads) collects the authorization code directly from creators at upload, so no separate process is required.

YouTube: Horizontal (16:9) is the standard format for YouTube and is also used for connected TV ads and display placements. Cohley can brief horizontal video specifically, and brands use this format for longer-form product storytelling that doesn’t fit a 15-30 second TikTok.

Multiple deliverables per creator: Brands can ask creators to produce more than one format in a single brief. A creator might deliver a vertical cut for TikTok and a horizontal cut for YouTube from the same content session, increasing the yield per brief cycle.

The biggest organic social challenge for most brands isn’t strategy. It’s supply. Coming up with enough content to post consistently, across multiple platforms, without it looking repetitive or low quality is an operational problem as much as a creative one. Cohley solves it by giving you a scalable system for sourcing creator content rather than producing everything in-house.

UGC briefs generate brand-owned content you can post natively on your own channels. Vertical videos from real creators, lifestyle photos, product-in-use content, and unboxing clips all perform well in feeds and stories without looking like brand advertising.

Influencer Partnership Briefs extend your organic reach by putting your brand in front of the creator’s audience. For TikTok and Instagram, having creators post about your brand generates earned reach that supplements what you can drive from your own account.

Because all content lives in your Content Library with perpetual usage rights, you can repurpose the same asset across platforms without going back to the creator. A vertical video produced for TikTok can be used on Instagram Reels, cut down for Stories, and adapted for other formats over time.

A single Cohley brief, at a typical compensation rate, generates 10 to 20 pieces of content. Run one brief per month and you have enough content to post daily without repeating yourself, with assets left over for paid creative and email.

Brands with higher volume needs or multiple product lines often run two to four briefs per month. The platform has no per-brief fees, so running more briefs doesn’t change your platform cost. Creator compensation scales with volume, but the infrastructure cost stays flat.

Because assets come with perpetual usage rights, every piece of content you generate through Cohley stays usable. Content produced in January can be repurposed in March for a seasonal campaign or a new paid test without any additional cost or creator re-engagement.

DTC brands typically need two distinct types of imagery: lifestyle content that tells the brand story and product imagery that drives conversion. Cohley supports both.

Lifestyle photography: Creators shoot the product in real environments, in real use, in the settings and aesthetics you define in your brief. You get a range of genuine, in-context images that look nothing like stock photography and perform better for exactly that reason.

Product imagery: For clean product-on-white or product-on-surface shots that meet DTC and retailer standards, Cohley can facilitate professional photography through its network. These assets are designed to meet retailer image style guide requirements while still giving you high-resolution images you own outright.

All imagery lives in your Content Library with perpetual rights. Resize it, crop it, repurpose it across your site, email campaigns, and retailer listings without returning to the creator or paying additional licensing fees.

Visual content drives engagement and time on page. Lifestyle imagery and video from real people outperform studio photography across most product categories when tested on PDPs. Shoppers spend more time on pages with video and are more likely to add to cart when they can see a product being used.

Reviews drive the final push to purchase. The data on this is consistent: products with more reviews convert at higher rates than products with fewer, regardless of category. Review velocity (the rate at which new reviews come in) also affects algorithmic ranking on retailer sites.

Recency matters as much as volume. Shoppers filter for recent reviews, and retailer algorithms favor products with recent activity. A product with 200 reviews, all from three years ago, is at a disadvantage compared to a competitor with 100 reviews and a steady trickle of new ones.

The strongest PDPs combine both. Visual content and reviews are not substitutes for each other — they do different jobs. A high-converting PDP typically has rich lifestyle imagery and video in the gallery, a strong review count with recent activity, and ideally video reviews embedded in the review section.

Reviews on retailer PDPs. Most retailers rely on a handful of review syndication platforms, and Cohley integrates directly with Bazaarvoice, PowerReviews, and Yotpo. Reviews generated through Cohley push automatically to your brand site and to major retailer product pages like Target.com and Walmart.com. A product with more recent, detailed reviews outperforms one with fewer on both algorithmic ranking and shopper confidence.

Content for retailer product pages. Many retailers now accept brand-supplied content on PDPs, including videos and enhanced imagery. UGC produced through Cohley can be used on retailer pages to give shoppers a better product experience and to differentiate your listing from competitors with only a single studio shot.

Influencer content that drives in-store trial. For retail brands, influencer campaigns can be specifically directed at driving in-store purchase by featuring the product in a retail context, highlighting in-store availability, or running campaigns around a specific regional retailer rollout. Cohley tracks performance data from influencer posts, including reach and engagement, so you can see the impact of that activity.

The brands that use Cohley most effectively for retail treat it as an ongoing content operation rather than a one-time project. A consistent cadence of new reviews and fresh content compounds over time on retailer pages, improving your ranking and conversion rate as volume builds.

Yes. Finn is Cohley's AI agent, built directly into the platform. It handles the operational work that slows teams down: vetting creator applicants, reviewing submissions for compliance with your brief, processing payments, and flagging anything that needs your attention.

Finn AI Applicant Vetting: When creators apply to your brief, Finn reviews their profiles against your defined criteria and organizes applicants for your review, so your team isn’t starting from a raw, unorganized list.

Finn AI Asset Analysis: When creators submit content, Finn checks it against your brief’s Content Non-Negotiables before it enters your review queue. Content that violates a non-negotiable is flagged automatically, so your team only reviews assets that have already cleared the initial check.

Finn Brief Builder: Finn assists in drafting Creative Briefs based on your past briefs, your brand guidelines, and the context you provide. The more you use the platform, the more Finn understands your brand’s preferences and the less manual work brief creation requires.

Brand learning: Finn learns from every brand interaction on the platform. Every approval, every change request, every brief you run, and every Brand Material you upload informs how Finn operates for your account specifically. Your Finn is not the same as another brand’s Finn.

Every brief you run, every approval you make, every change request you send, and every Brand Material you upload informs how Finn operates for your account. Over time, Finn gets better at matching creators, drafting briefs, and applying your brand standards, because it’s been trained on your specific patterns and preferences, not just a generic content marketing model.

That learning serves your account. Your Finn is not the same as another brand’s Finn.

For the full details on how Cohley handles your data, review Cohley's Privacy Policy.

Content Non-Negotiables are the brand safety and compliance rules you define in your Creative Brief. They might include things like: don’t make specific health claims, don’t show a competitor’s product on screen, always show the product label facing forward, don’t use a specific word or phrase.

When a creator submits content, Finn AI Asset Analysis reviews it against those rules automatically. If a non-negotiable is violated, Finn flags the submission, notifies the creator, and the asset doesn’t enter your queue until the creator resubmits a compliant version. Creators don’t receive payment until compliant content is approved.

For enterprise brands with legal or compliance requirements around content, this is particularly valuable. Rather than manually screening every submission for regulatory language or brand violations, your team reviews a pre-filtered queue. Finn does the first pass.

Finn’s understanding of your brand’s compliance requirements sharpens over time as you add Brand Materials and run more briefs. The longer you use the platform, the more accurately Finn can interpret content against your standards.

The Pilot is a three-month commitment paid upfront. It includes everything in the annual plan: unlimited briefs, all platform integrations, perpetual content rights, and CSM-guided onboarding. Nothing is restricted or watered down. The only difference is the commitment length.

Three months is enough time to run two to three brief cycles, build a real creator roster, generate a meaningful volume of content, and have genuine performance data to evaluate. Most brands that start on a Pilot have a clear picture of their ROI well before the three months are up.

For teams without the internal bandwidth to run briefs themselves, Cohley also offers Managed Services. Cohley's team runs your briefs on your behalf, from strategy through delivery and reporting, while you guide the direction.

The honest answer is that most brands who try Cohley continue with it because the content compounds over time. But starting with a Pilot is a reasonable way to prove that out before making a bigger commitment, and a 30-minute demo is the fastest way to see whether it’s a fit.

The Platform License covers everything you need to run. Your Cohley package includes unlimited briefs, the Platform License and integrations, perpetual content rights for every asset you generate, and CSM-guided onboarding. There are no per-brief fees, no seat limits, and no hidden add-ons baked into the platform cost.

Cohley offers two commitment structures. A Pilot package runs for three months, designed for brands that want to test the platform before making a longer commitment. The Annual package runs 12 months and includes a $6,000 creator compensation bonus to put toward paying creators. Brands that commit annually also save significantly compared to running at the monthly rate for a full year.

Creator compensation is separate and set by you. Creator compensation is a variable cost determined by the rates you set in each brief. Cohley provides guidance on typical rates: UGC videos start at around $250 and UGC photos start at around $50. Most brands budget $2,500 to $3,000 per brief in creator compensation, which typically yields 10 to 20 pieces of content per brief cycle.

For brands with more complex needs, including multi-brand or enterprise requirements, Cohley offers custom pricing tailored to your scale and use cases.

The process runs in five stages, typically completing in six to eight weeks from kickoff to final assets.

1. Kick Off (1 week): Align on KPIs, creative strategy, timelines, and creator vetting criteria
2. Creator Selection (1 week): Cohley recruits and vets creators for your approval, handles contracts, and coordinates product shipments
3. Creator Briefing (2-3 days): Cohley hosts a mandatory briefing session with selected creators and reviews their submitted concepts
4. Content Completion (2-3 weeks): Creators film and submit first drafts; Cohley manages one round of edits
5. Reporting and Insights (2-5 weeks): Wrap-up call, results analysis, and creative recommendations for what to run next

Brands set the compensation rate directly in their Creative Brief, and creators apply knowing exactly what the rate is before they commit. There’s no negotiating and no rate surprises. Creators only get paid once content has been approved, so brands never pay for assets they didn’t receive.

On average, brands budget around $250 per UGC video, with influencer rates varying based on follower count and content ask. With a typical brief involving 10-15 creators, most brands budget roughly $2,500-$3,000 per brief as a starting point.

All payments flow through Cohley directly to creators, which means your accounting team never has to issue 1099s or manage tax documents for individual creators. Brands can preload a creator compensation bank, be invoiced per brief, or pay via ACH or credit card. Creator compensation is never marked up by Cohley.

The Platform is the right fit for most teams. Your team writes the briefs, approves the creators, and reviews the content, all with CSM-guided onboarding to get you running and Finn handling the operational work in between. It’s the highest-volume, most cost-efficient way to use Cohley.

Managed Services is built for teams without the internal bandwidth to run briefs themselves. Whether that’s a lean team stretched across channels or an enterprise team that wants to offload a specific channel entirely, Cohley’s team of expert Campaign Coordinators runs the work. You guide the direction and approve at the key decision points.

The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Some brands run most briefs in-platform and layer Managed Services on top for a specific channel or a high-stakes launch.

Managed Services is designed for brands that want the output of a high-performing content operation without the internal lift of running one. Your dedicated Cohley team acts as an extension of your marketing team, handling every step of the process.

Campaign Strategy and Ideation: Creative strategy conceptualization, campaign budgeting, deliverable recommendations, and full creative brief creation

• Creator Communication: Creator recruiting, vetting, contracts, communication, troubleshooting, and payment
• Campaign Reporting and Wrap-Up: Wrap-up decks, debriefs, real-time performance data, and creative recommendations for future briefs
• Full licensing rights to all assets in perpetuity
• Full licensing rights to all assets in perpetuity

Managed Services is priced separately from the Platform License. It’s well suited for teams that want hands-on strategy and execution support layered on top of the platform, or for enterprise teams that want to offload a channel entirely.

Cohley’s onboarding process is designed to move fast without skipping the important steps. Here’s what the typical timeline looks like:

Week 1: Kickoff and Setup. After signing, you’re introduced to your Customer Success Manager (CSM) and scheduled for a kickoff call. Your CSM comes in already briefed on your brand and goals. The conversation focuses on aligning on KPIs, content strategy, and what your first brief will look like. Your account is active from day one.

Weeks 1-2: Build and Launch Your First Brief. Your CSM walks you through the brief builder and helps you get your first brief live. If you have Shopify, the integration gets connected during this window as well. Most brands have their first brief live and accepting applications within the first two weeks.

Week 2-3: Creator Applications Roll In. Once your brief is live, creators begin applying. A typical brief receives applications within the first 24 to 48 hours. You review applicants, select who you want to work with, and ship product.

Week 5+: Content Starts Arriving. Depending on product shipping time and content type, brands typically start seeing their first assets arrive around week five. From there, the cadence compounds as you build your creator roster and launch additional briefs.

The onboarding phase typically spans about a month in total. After that, your CSM transitions to an ongoing support role and your team takes the wheel with confidence. Most brands find that by brief two or three, the process feels second nature.

You start with a CSM from day one. After signing, your account is handed off from the sales team to a Customer Success Manager who guides your onboarding from there. CSMs at Cohley come with deep platform experience; many of them joined from Cohley’s Managed Services team where they ran full campaigns for brands, so they’re not just teaching you how to click around. They know the strategy.

Onboarding is hands-on. The first few weeks are a guided onboarding experience. Your CSM walks you through the platform, helps you build and launch your first brief, and is there alongside you through the full process until you’re up and running confidently. You’re not handed a login and left to figure things out.

Ongoing support is always accessible. After onboarding, your primary support channel on Standard packages is email, with fast response times. Enterprise packages include a Dedicated CSM who remains available for strategic calls and platform guidance on an ongoing basis.

A Dedicated CSM is a strategic partner, not just a help desk. This is one of the things Enterprise brands consistently call out as different about Cohley. A Dedicated CSM isn’t someone who teaches you the platform and moves on. They review retailer scorecards with you, help plan your content calendar, suggest brief strategies, and bring ideas proactively based on what’s working across the broader Cohley client base.