FAQ

Everything you need to know about Cohley. Can’t find the answer you’re looking for? Get in touch with us.

Getting Started

Basics to get up and running.

Can I add briefs or adjust our content needs mid-contract?: Yes! Typically we actually recommend that our customers start small with us and build up as content needs evolve throughout the course of our annual or 24 month agreement.
Can I migrate briefs from another vendor?: Yes! As long as you have the Brief in a PDF format, Cohley can upload that Brief directly into the platform and format it properly. This is one of many unique differentiating features of the Cohley platform.
Can I schedule a demo of the Cohley platform?: For sure. Set up a time with our sales team to get to know more about Cohley.
Can agencies work with Cohley?: Yes. Cohley works with lots of agency clients. The platform is built to be self-service, giving you full rights to the assets created and making reporting a breeze. Whether you're tweaking content with a brand's agency or creating new creative assets, Cohley makes communication smooth and helps you scale easily.
Can you share any success stories or examples from other clients?: Absolutely. Check out how some of the top consumer brands have tackled their challenges with Cohley.
Do I need to pay extra for content usage rights?: Absolutely not. Cohley secures rights in perpetuity for its customers by default, and that value is baked into associated Creator compensation.
How do I get started?: Start with a 3-month paid pilot of the platform or managed services, or opt for an annual agreement at a discounted rate. Alongside a dedicated customer success manager, see value fast and confidently chart your long-term path with Cohley.
How does Cohley ensure top-notch content?: Cohley has a network of over 100,000+ Creators who join the platform and keep curated portfolios. We provide great tools to help you pick the best Creators, like their portfolios, social accounts, and ratings from other brands. Plus, we’ve got a reshoot policy in place if the content doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Is Cohley SOC2 compliant?: Yes, Cohley is SOC2 compliant and Pentest certified.
What kinds of brands use Cohley?: Cohley teams up with all sorts of brands, from disruptors like Imperfect Foods and TOMS to well-known names like CVS and Henkel. Generally, brands that focus on eCommerce, have $10M+ in annual revenue, and offer 15+ products are a solid match, though there are always exceptions.

Product

Can I run influencer and UGC campaigns simultaneously?: Absolutely, so long as your package includes sufficient Briefs you can run them simultaneously (and many customers do!).
Does Cohley offer a fully managed solution?: Yes. Cohley's Managed Services team is here to provide you with strategic guidance and hands-on support at an additional cost. You can tap into our team's expertise, steer the process without getting bogged down in daily tasks, and achieve those ambitious digital marketing goals.
Does Cohley offer analytics and reporting tools?: Absolutely. You can track engagement metrics and audience demographics with Performance Metrics. Check out content performance metrics like earned media value, Instagram and TikTok engagement, and product review health.
How can I access the content I create with Cohley?: All of your accepted content is automatically saved in your Content Library, organized by Brief, Product, or Creator, and it’s yours to keep for good. You can share assets with your wider organization directly from the Library, send files to an external email, or download them straight to your device. If you need to transfer files to an outside source regularly, our product team is here to help.
How do I generate reviews on Cohley and get them on my website? What about syndication capabilities?: Cohley works with partners like BazaarVoice, Yotpo, Okendo, Stamped.io, and Power Reviews. Just let us know which partner is displaying your reviews, and if you're using another service for syndicating to retailers, and we’ll align with your current flow. Your Customer Success Manager (CSM) will make sure we have the right credentials before you get started. If you ever decide to switch vendors, you own those reviews and can easily download them to upload to a new platform whenever you want.
How does Cohley help our teams collaborate better?: With Cohley’s Collaboration Suite, team members are able to collaborate much more effectively throughout the content creation process. It’s a beautiful solution for big teams, brands that need legal approvals, and/or brands that have a decision making hierarchy to adhere to. Cohley enables teams to share Creative Briefs, vet applicants and content, and keep everyone aligned to speed up approval cycles.
How does Cohley stack up against Billo, Minisocial, and others?: While each of these companies has its own strengths, Cohley really stands out with a few key differences. First off, we offer strategic support through a dedicated Customer Success Manager—it's a core part of our service. Our team is made up of experts who know their stuff, bringing you content best practices, innovative activation ideas, and strategic tips to get the most out of every piece of content, so you can maximize your investment. Cohley helps brands create a wider range of content than anyone else in the industry. Whether it’s short-form UGC, influencer activations, product reviews, professional photography, or consumer insights, we've got you covered. Brands come to Cohley to consolidate vendors and address their collective need for UGC, product reviews, and influencer solutions. Our platform integrates seamlessly into mid-market and enterprise tech stacks, making it easy for customers to activate their assets across their digital marketing efforts. Cohley’s platform supports enterprise workflows, approvals, and payments—ensuring that you and your team can operate at peak efficiency. Creators love our platform too. Over 3,000 Creators join Cohley every month via word of mouth alone. Happy Creators mean a better customer experience and higher-quality content for you. And the best part? All content generated on the Cohley platform is owned by the customer forever, so you don’t have to worry about usage rights—seriously.
How does Cohley work?: Cohley enables consumer brands to generate high-quality content that boosts performance every step of the customer journey. With our Creative Briefs, brands can easily outline the assets they need and pick the right Creators through our Creator Vetting process. Our platform makes it easy for brands and Creators to work together, offering tools that improve efficiency and simplify payments. Plus, brands can easily share their content across different channels and track its performance, giving them a well-rounded approach to content marketing.
How long does it take to receive content from creators?: You can start generating content as quickly as four weeks after launching a Brief, but we can adjust the timelines to align with your needs.
How many assets can I generate?: You’re able to generate as many assets as you need. Cohley doesn’t put a cap on the number of Creators you can collaborate with or the assets you can create for each Brief. Just make sure your Creator compensation budget matches the number of assets you're requesting.
Is Cohley an influencer platform?: Cohley is first and foremost a content generation platform, but we also offer influencer features and solutions similar to influencer platforms like GRIN and Mavrck. If your sole objective is to ramp up influencer efforts, you might find better options elsewhere.
What kinds of content can I generate on the Cohley platform?: Cohley makes it easy for brands to generate photos, short videos, and product reviews. The platform supports both user-generated content and polished branded material that's perfect for retail sites like Amazon, Walmart, Target, and social media, emails, websites, and more. Plus, you’ll have ongoing rights to use the content.
What makes Cohley different from a Creator agency or network?: Cohley is a visual content generation platform that doubles as an all-in-one Creator management solution. It takes care of payments, chat, content creation, and licensing all in one place. Whether you're looking for content for brand storytelling or ads, Cohley connects you with a variety of Creators who are ready to add value to your brand. Cohley also powers influencer activations.
What’s a “Creative Brief” on Cohley?: A Creative Brief helps you connect with the right Creators for your needs through a smooth workflow. Here’s what a Brief unlocks for customers:
Outline the products and content types you need
Set content requirements, deadlines, and rates
Target Creators based on specific demographics
Vet Creators with handy filters and reviews
Chat directly with Creators
Approve and manage assets easily
Handle payments without a hitch

Creators

Can I choose the Creators I want to work with?: Absolutely. Once Creators apply to your Brief, you can use a variety of filters to help you narrow down the applicants. From there, you’ll select your favorite Creators. Each Creator shows off their previous work, social media presences, reviews from other brands on the platform, and they’ll share details about why they’re enthusiastic about collaborating with you on the Brief they’re applying to. The platform also has a built-in recommendations engine based on both demonstrated preference and performance, and it gets smarter with time as it starts to understand your criteria.
Can I filter creators based on demographics, aesthetics, or follower count?: Absolutely, this is very common for brands utilizing the Cohley platform. You can sort through applicants in your new Briefs by “Previously worked with” OR you can create custom lists of your favorite Creators. With those lists, housed in Creator Hub, you can either invite them to your live Briefs or invite them to Private Briefs that are only visible to those exclusive lists that you yourself have curated.
Do I have to manage the Creator outreach, or does Cohley handle that?: Cohley handles the Creator outreach via the platform. Here’s how it works: Craft your Brief, specify your target Creator(s), and the platform will surface your Brief to the correct cohorts of Creators within our network of 120,000 Creators. From there, Creators will read and process the Brief, and then they’ll decide if they’d like to apply based on all of the details you’ve included in the Brief. Creators come to you on your terms vs. the other way around.
Does Cohley take a cut of payments to Creators?: No, Cohley doesn’t take a cut from what Creators earn. This way, brands can better plan their content budgets and Creators get fair pay. There are no hidden fees, even for allow-listing—your costs only cover the license fee and payments to Creators.
How do I ship products to Creators?: With Cohley’s Shopify integration, you can easily automate your product shipments and tracking, so you don’t have to worry about a thing. If you’re not on Shopify, no problem! You can export Creator addresses from the Cohley platform and take care of the shipments yourselves, or you’re able to have Creators purchase products in-store and reimburse them within the platform.
How does Cohley vet and select creators?: Cohley’s Creator network is constantly growing and evolving, ensuring that we’re able to meet customers’ varying content needs with top-tier talent. All Creators on the platform maintain their own first-party portfolios that feature examples of their work, details about their experience and unique attributes, and reviews from other brands on the platform. Additionally, whenever Creators apply to Briefs, brands will generally ask them to submit sample content that highlights what they have in mind creative wise. Brands can also have them answer gated questions, e.g. “Do you have a kid (or kids) under the age of 5?” Creators are very well vetted, and everything we’ve built into the platform leads to high quality content output.
How many Creators does Cohley have?: Cohley has more than 100,000+ pre-vetted Creators, and we’re adding thousands more each month. Creators reach out to work with you, so you can skip the hassle of recruitment and outreach. On average, a Cohley Brief gets over 100 Creator applicants, and Cohley organically adds over 2,500 per month.
How much should I pay each Creator?: For User Generated Content (UGC), Cohley suggests kicking things off at around $200 per video and $40 per photo, with at least $200 for each Creator. For Professional Photography, aim for about $75 per edited photo, with a minimum of $750 per Creator. When it comes to professional videography, pricing is custom and can be chatted about with your Cohley CSM. Just a heads up: for Product Review Sampling, the FTC doesn’t allow cash payments for text reviews, so it has to be a product exchange instead.
What first-party data does Cohley gather on Creators?: Cohley Creator profiles have info like age, gender, ethnicity, hair type, interests, location, kids, pets, and video skills. Creators maintain their profiles on the platform and curate portfolios to put their best foot forward. You can also ask questions to collect customized 1st party data on Creators who apply to your Creative Briefs.
What happens if a creator doesn't follow brand guidelines?: If the Creator delivers content for approval that doesn’t align with a requirement listed in the Brief, the customer has the ability to request edits. The payment to the Creators works like an escrow system – you’re not obligated to pay Creators until they complete their agreed upon deliverables.

UGC

How do I get started with UGC?: Begin by identifying your specific goals: Which channel are you focused on, who’s your desired audience, and what key messages do you want to hone in on? From there you can kick off the process of creating a campaign to facilitate content creation. To get started, schedule a demo with Cohley to see how they can help you harness the power of UGC.
What are best practices for UGC?: To make the most of user generated content, encourage authenticity, engage and interact with users, provide clear guidelines, always credit the content creators, and monitor and moderate content to ensure it aligns with your brand values.
What are some examples of the best UGC?: For examples of exceptional user generated content, visit Cohley's Explore Videos page, showcasing UGC from top brands across various platforms and industries.
What are the different types of UGC?: UGC can take many forms, including customer reviews and testimonials, social media posts, blogs and articles written by users, videos on platforms like YouTube or TikTok, and discussions and comments on forums and websites. Specific to Cohley, UGC means photos, videos, and product reviews.
What exactly is UGC?: User-generated content (UGC) is any form of media—photos, videos, reviews, testimonials—created by real people rather than by the brand itself. Think selfies with your product, unboxing videos, or social media posts that show everyday folks enjoying what you sell. UGC unlocks the power of authenticity in marketing, driving results for consumer brands.
What is a UGC platform?: A UGC (User-Generated Content) platform streamlines the entire process of sourcing, managing, and deploying authentic, customer-created media—like photos, videos, and reviews—across all your marketing channels. UGC platforms offer key features such as:
Content variety: Text review, video, and photo content optimized for multiple platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Amazon
Creator matching: A large network of diverse and vetted Creators to partner with your ongoing content needs
Collaboration tools (for Enterprise): Streamlined workflows across internal teams and creators, speeding up content approvals
Payment management: In-platform managed payments to Creators
Usage Rights: Rights-secured content in perpetuity
Compliance (for Enterprise): SOC2 and Pentest compliance

Content Creation

Is Cohley a content creation company?: Yes, Cohley is a content creation platform that helps brands generate authentic, high-quality user generated content. Cohley can also power influencer campaigns.
What should I look for in a content creation partner?: When choosing a content creation partner, look for quality, authenticity, experience and reputation in your industry, flexibility to adapt to your brand’s needs and goals, cost-effectiveness, and strong support and collaboration throughout the process.

Influencer

What are the different types of influencer marketing?: Influencer marketing includes sponsored content where influencers create posts featuring the brand, product reviews and recommendations, and can include longer-term brand ambassador partnerships.
What is influencer marketing?: Influencer marketing involves partnering with individuals who have a large and engaged following to promote products or services. Influencers create content that showcases the brand to their audience, leveraging their credibility and reach.

Influencer Gifting

What kind of content can I expect from influencer gifting?: Most content takes the form of authentic testimonials, unboxing experiences, or lifestyle posts featuring your product. Because influencers choose how to showcase the product, the content feels natural and resonates with their audience. You can both enable creators to post content on their feeds, or push content through yours – in both organic and paid social.

TikTok

What are best practices for TikTok content?: To create successful TikTok content, stay trendy by keeping up with current challenges, be authentic, engage viewers quickly within the first few seconds, use relevant hashtags to increase visibility, and interact with other users through comments and collaborations.
What are the different types of UGC on TikTok?: UGC on TikTok includes challenges, dance videos, lip-sync videos, DIY and how-to videos, as well as reviews and testimonials from users.
What is user generated content (UGC) on TikTok?: On TikTok, UGC includes videos created by users, often featuring challenges, trends, reviews, and personal stories. This content is highly engaging and frequently goes viral due to TikTok’s algorithm.

Instagram

What are the best practices for Instagram content?: For Instagram, focus on posting high-quality, visually appealing images and videos, maintain a consistent posting schedule and aesthetic, engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages, use relevant hashtags to reach a wider audience, and utilize features like Reels for more engagement.

FAQ

Getting Started

Product

Creators

UGC

Content Creation

Social Media

Influencer

Influencer Gifting

TikTok

Instagram