Clipping agency business plan: a template you can fill in

What the plan has to settle

A clipping agency takes a brief and a budget from a client, gets a pool of creators posting short-form video against it, reviews every post, and reports what it delivered. The plan only has to settle the nine things below. If you've already read how to start a clipping agency, this is the same thinking laid out as a document.

1. Service

The question: what do you do, in one sentence a client could repeat to their boss?

Worked default: "We run short-form clipping campaigns for [niche]: we brief and manage a roster of creators who post clips of your [content] on their own accounts, review every post, and report verified views and what they cost."

Where it goes wrong: describing the service as "views" or "growth". Views are what the client's budget buys; what you sell is coordination, review and accountability. Write it that way and pricing gets easier later.

2. Niche

The question: which one vertical will your roster know better than anyone else's?

Worked default: one of podcasts, music, apps, games, streamers, ecommerce or events, and within it one content style, such as interview podcasts or indie game trailers. The campaign-type pages under tryshoot.com/clipping-campaigns show what each niche's brief, footage and rate look like.

Where it goes wrong: "any brand that wants clips". An agency that serves everyone re-sources creators for every campaign, so every client costs as much as the first. A niche is what makes the second client cheaper than the first.

3. Customer

The question: who signs the invoice, what are they really buying, and what makes them stay?

Where it goes wrong: planning only for launches. One rolling client is worth three launches for the hours, and it's the base that lets you say no to bad launch briefs.

4. Pricing

The question: what does the client fund, what do you keep, and are they on separate lines?

Worked default: a percentage fee on the working budget for launches and a retainer for rolling clients, with any editing or creative work invoiced separately. Across the agencies that publish anything, fees commonly sit somewhere between a tenth and a third of the budget; the number that matters is the one your first client agrees to. The full model, with a worked example, is in how much does a clipping agency make.

Where it goes wrong: a blended per-view price that hides the fee, and guaranteed view counts. The first makes you impossible to compare; the second is a refund conversation after one bad week.

5. Operation

The question: what happens every week of a live campaign, and who does it?

1. 1

   Set up.

   Write the brief (what to clip, what's off limits, the link and bio rules), upload the footage, set the rate and the per-clip cap, and fund it from the client's payment.

2. 2

   Open and seed.

   Invite your roster first, then open it to the platform's creators. The first forty-eight hours of submissions tell you whether the brief is clear.

3. 3

   Review daily.

   Approve, reject with a reason, and flag anything that looks bought. A launch week produces hundreds of submissions a day; this is the job and the thing that limits how many clients one person can hold.

4. 4

   Refresh weekly.

   New episode, new dates, new footage. A stale campaign is the most common reason a rolling client leaves.

5. 5

   Report.

   Verified views, cost per thousand, the clips that worked and why, and what changes next week. Short, honest, every week.

Worked default for who does it: you, for the first six clients. A part-time reviewer after that. Nobody on payroll for creators, payouts or fraud screening, because those are cheaper to rent from the platform than to build. The tool-by-tool version is in clipping agency tools and software.

6. Roster

The question: where do your creators come from, and why do the good ones stay?

• Start with the platform's creators. A self-serve platform brings creators to an open campaign; you don't need a roster before the first client.
• Keep the ones who follow the brief. After each campaign, note the creators with high approval rates and clean accounts. That list is the agency.
• Invite them first next time. A roster that already knows the niche's rules is what makes your second campaign faster and your approval rate higher.
• Pay on time, every time. Platform payouts on a fixed cycle do this for you. Never put yourself between a creator and their money.

Where it goes wrong: recruiting a roster before you have a campaign. Creators join for live budgets, not promises.

7. Costs

The question: what do you actually spend, per month, before any client pays?

8. Cash flow

The question: who pays whom, when, and can you ever be out of pocket?

Worked default: the client pays the working budget and the fee up front; the budget is funded into the campaign before anything posts; creators are paid by the platform per verified view; your fee is yours the moment the payment clears. The answer to "can you be out of pocket" must be no.

On Shoot, agencies bill clients through payment links for any amount, fund each client's campaign from the balance, and withdraw the fee; campaigns run under the "Powered by Try Shoot" mark and the agency never carries the working budget. Details at tryshoot.com/for-agencies.

9. The first 90 days

1. 1

   Days 1–30: one campaign, your own money or at cost.

   Pick the niche, write the brief, fund a campaign at the minimum (on Shoot, $500) for a client you can get at cost or for something of your own. The goal is a case study with real numbers, not a profit.

2. 2

   Days 31–60: the first paying client.

   Pitch with the case study to the people who already buy in your niche. The two-line proposal, a fee, a start date. How to get clients for a clipping agency has the channels.

3. 3

   Days 61–90: make it rolling.

   Turn the first client into a monthly campaign, land the second from the first's report, and write down the roster. At the end of ninety days you should have two rolling clients, a roster of ten creators you trust, and a plan you've rewritten once.

The one-page version

Copy this, answer every line in a sentence, and you have a business plan a bank wouldn't love and a client would.

Risks worth writing down

• Platform dependence. If your campaigns run on one platform, say so, and keep your roster list and client relationships in your own files.
• A client who won't fund up front. Decline, politely. It's the only risk on this list that can end the business in a month.
• Bought views. Review daily, use the platform's screening, and put a flag window in your proposal so a botted clip is the client's problem to see and yours to catch, not yours to pay for.
• Scope creep. Editing, creative, community management and reporting beyond the campaign are separate invoices, or they eat the fee.
• Key person. For the first year the agency is you. Write the brief templates and the review checklist down so a reviewer can take over the day you need one.