Everything about Creator Scout, answered.

Creator Scout is an India-first influencer marketplace where brands hire creators for paid collaborations and creators manage every brand deal through one dashboard. Verified audience data, escrow on every payment, automated TDS at 0.1%, dispute resolution — all built in.

An agency takes 15-30% commission on every creator deal plus a monthly retainer, and inserts an account manager between the brand and the creator. Creator Scout is a self-serve platform with a transparent per-transaction fee and direct brand-creator communication — no middle layer, no retainer.

Creator Scout differs from older Indian influencer platforms on three things: verified Instagram audience data on every profile (not screenshot media kits), escrow plus a 72-hour SLA on every collaboration (not "trust the brand"), and 0.1% TDS handled in-platform (not 10% manual deduction).

Creator Scout is built for two audiences in India: brands that need to find, book, and manage influencer collaborations end-to-end (D2C, SaaS, retail, services), and creators on Instagram or YouTube who want to monetise their audience through paid brand deals without losing money to agencies or chasing payments.

Sign up, complete a 3-step onboarding (company details, GSTIN, niche focus), then either search creators with filters and reach out directly, or post a campaign brief and have matching creators apply to you. Pay into escrow, approve milestones, get content + analytics + GST invoice.

Sign up, complete a 7-step onboarding (Instagram connection, rates, portfolio, FAQ), get approved within 24 hours, and start appearing in brand search. Apply to campaign briefs that match your niche, or wait for brands to send you direct collaboration requests. Get paid on delivery via escrow.

Creator Scout is India-first — built for Indian brands hiring Indian creators, with INR payments via Razorpay, Indian tax compliance (TDS, GST, 26Q), and English-language support. International expansion isn't on the immediate roadmap, but creators with significant Indian audiences are welcome regardless of where they live.

Creator Scout currently supports Instagram (most thoroughly — audience data, post analytics, engagement tracking via the Meta Graph API) and YouTube (channel data, video analytics via YouTube Data API). Other platforms — LinkedIn, X, Pinterest, podcasts — aren't on the current roadmap.

A brand DM on Instagram has no escrow, no agreement, no proof of follower data, and no recourse if the creator disappears. Creator Scout collapses brief, payment, content delivery, approvals, and analytics into one workflow — with verified audience data and escrow on every deal.

12% per completed deal, inclusive of 18% GST. On a ₹10,000 package the creator nets ₹8,800 after our fee (then TDS comes off that — 0.1% with PAN, 5% without). There are no listing fees, no subscription, no charge for receiving brand applications or applying to briefs.

Creator Scout charges creators a 12% platform fee per completed deal (inclusive of 18% GST). Brands pay nothing extra — they pay the creator's listed price flat. The fee covers infrastructure, escrow operations, support, dispute resolution, and tax compliance.

Creator Scout was founded in April 2026 by Shubh Agrawal under the company SCOUTIQ TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD. The platform was built to fix the workflow gap in the Indian creator economy — brands paying agencies 15-30% commissions for spreadsheet-based discovery, creators chasing payments for months, and both sides accepting screenshot media kits as audience truth.

Creator Scout is the brand name for SCOUTIQ TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD, a privately held Indian company. It is bootstrapped — no external investors at this time. Payment flows go through Razorpay Route (RBI-regulated payment aggregator), TDS is filed under Section 194-O with the Indian Income Tax Department, and creator data is handled in line with India's DPDP Act.

Zero. Brands pay exactly the creator's listed price — no platform fee, no GST line, no markup at checkout. The platform fee is deducted from the creator's payout, not added to the brand's bill.

12% of the completed deal value, inclusive of 18% GST. The creator pays it out of their listed price — the brand pays nothing on top. The fee drops to 3.5% (or 0% on the first sub-₹50K deal) when a creator brought the brand to the platform via their invite link, for 6 months from that brand's signup.

No — the brand never sees GST on a platform fee, because the brand doesn't pay a platform fee. The 12% creator fee is inclusive of 18% GST (we remit the GST out of that 12%). The brand's invoice shows only the creator's package price.

Right now during our launch period, every Creator Scout feature is open to all brands regardless of plan — including campaign brief posting. Once subscription enforcement turns on, the Free plan will not include campaign brief posting (it's a Growth/Pro feature); you'd need a paid plan to post briefs or save creators.

All brand plans pay zero platform fees on the brand side — you only pay the creator's listed price. Plans differ in workflow capability: Free is browse-only. Growth unlocks up to 10 saved creators, 3 briefs/month, advanced filters, and CSV export. Pro adds unlimited briefs and saves, creator comparison, CRM, analytics (12 months), live post tracking, and priority support. Enterprise: Pro plus account management and custom contracts.

Yes — 12% per completed deal, inclusive of 18% GST. On a ₹50,000 booking the creator receives ₹50,000 minus our 12% fee (₹6,000, GST embedded inside) and 0.1% TDS, netting ₹43,950. The brand pays the listed ₹50,000 flat — no markup, no GST on their side.

Rates depend on follower count, engagement rate, niche, and content type. Rough India-2025 ranges run from ₹3,000 for a nano post to ₹15,00,000+ for a top macro creator's Reel package. Engagement rate moves the number more than follower count — a 5K creator with 8% engagement often charges more than a 50K creator with 1%.

Per Instagram post in India (2025): nano (1K-10K) ₹3,000-15,000; micro (10K-100K) ₹10,000-75,000; mid-tier (100K-500K) ₹40,000-2,00,000; macro (500K+) ₹1,50,000-15,00,000+. Engagement rate, niche, and audience demographic match move these significantly within each tier.

Compare the creator's quote to four signals: their tier (use the Free Price Calculator at /tools/price-calculator), their engagement rate (high engagement justifies a premium), their niche (tech and finance command 20-40% premiums), and similar creators on the platform. If a quote is 30%+ above the calculator range without obvious justification, ask the creator what's driving it.

Start with the Free Price Calculator at /tools/price-calculator using your follower count, engagement rate, niche, and deliverable type — that gives you a baseline range. Adjust up for niche premium (tech, finance, B2B), audience quality (Tier-1 city, 18-34 female, parents), and bundle structure. Update your rates as your audience and engagement change.

Traditional influencer marketing agencies in India charge a 15-30% commission on every creator deal plus a monthly retainer. Creator Scout charges a transparent 12% on the creator side (inclusive of 18% GST, dropping to 3.5% or 0% on creator-invited brand deals) and ZERO on the brand side — no retainer, no markup, no middle layer.

For most D2C categories — beauty, food, fashion, fitness, parenting, lifestyle, home — influencer marketing in India delivers measurable performance when executed against engagement-quality creators, not just reach. It works less well for commodity categories, low-consideration purchases, and B2B. The most common mistake is judging it by macro-creator vanity metrics rather than mid-tail engagement.

The five most common causes, in order: wrong creator-audience match, creator picked for reach not engagement, no call-to-action or trackable link in the content, posted at the wrong time or cadence for the audience, and brand product or landing page not yet ready for influencer-led conversion. Most are diagnosable in a post-mortem.

For the same budget, 20 nano influencers usually deliver more total engagement, more authentic UGC for repurposing, and more audience diversification than 1 macro. A single macro is the better call when you need a unified creative narrative or rapid mass awareness — but for performance-driven D2C campaigns the nano-portfolio approach wins more often.

Realistic ROAS varies enormously by category and creator quality, but most working Indian D2C campaigns hit 1.5x to 4x ROAS on the influencer portion when measured on attributed sales over a 30-day window. Beauty and food can run higher; commodity categories run lower. Single-creator campaigns are noisy; portfolios of 10+ creators stabilise the average.

No — 2,000 followers with 5%+ engagement, a clear niche, and consistent content is exactly when paid brand deals start. Many Indian brands now actively prefer nano creators for authenticity, audience targeting, and budget efficiency. The platform has no follower minimum; some of the most-booked creators on Creator Scout are under 5,000 followers.

Full-time creator income in India varies hugely by follower size, niche, and how aggressively you treat it as a business. Realistic ranges for a creator earning primarily through brand deals: micro creator (10K-50K) ₹50,000-2,50,000/month; mid-tier (50K-200K) ₹1,50,000-7,00,000/month; macro (200K+) ₹5,00,000-20,00,000+/month.

When a brand books a collaboration, the creator's listed price is charged flat via Razorpay and held in escrow. No platform fee or GST line is added at checkout. As the creator completes the agreed deliverables and the brand approves, the consolidated payment releases to the creator. The brand sees a tax invoice within 24 hours of booking showing the single brand-payment line.

Escrow means the brand's payment is held by Creator Scout, not the creator, until each milestone is delivered and approved. Funds are released stage by stage as work is approved. Neither side carries the risk of the other disappearing mid-collaboration.

The brand pays upfront into escrow at booking, and the creator receives a single consolidated payout after the final stage is approved (or auto-approved past the 72-hour SLA). The agreement allocates percentages across stages — those percentages drive dispute outcomes and partial-release logic, but they aren't paid out discretely.

If a creator misses the agreed deadline by 7 days without communication, you can open a non-delivery dispute through the order page. Funds in escrow stay locked for the duration of the dispute. If the dispute resolves in your favour, the full escrow amount refunds to your original payment method within 5-7 business days. Refund policy at /refund.

Once your order completes (final stage approved by the brand or auto-approved past the 72-hour SLA), payment releases within 1-2 business days to your linked bank account. TDS at 0.1% is deducted at the time of release. There's no manual processing or weekly batched payouts — releases happen per-order as orders complete.

No — once you've delivered and the brand has approved (or the 72-hour SLA window has expired without response), that payment is released to your account and the brand has no ability to claw it back. The only exception is a successful dispute filed before approval, which would require the brand to demonstrate non-delivery or material breach to support.

Yes, under defined circumstances spelled out in /refund. Full refunds apply when a creator non-delivers, when content materially breaches the agreement, or when a dispute resolves in the brand's favour. Partial refunds apply when some work was delivered and approved. No refunds apply once a milestone is approved without flagging a concern.

Brands can pay through any method Razorpay supports: UPI, all major Indian debit and credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, RuPay, Amex), net banking from 50+ Indian banks, popular wallets (Paytm, PhonePe, Amazon Pay), and EMI on eligible credit cards. Creator payouts land in any Indian bank account linked at onboarding.

Yes. Every collaboration generates a tax invoice within 24 hours of booking, showing the brand's GSTIN (if provided), Creator Scout's GSTIN, and the brand-payment line — the creator's listed package price. The platform fee is invoiced separately to the creator (not the brand), so the brand sees only the package amount.

Yes. For each collaboration where you've completed deliverables, Creator Scout generates a service invoice on your behalf reflecting the brand as the buyer and you as the service provider — with TDS deduction visible. Your invoice ID, gross amount, TDS deducted, and net payout are all recorded and available in your dashboard.

Not currently. Creator Scout operates in INR through Razorpay and Razorpay Route. Brands need to pay in INR from an Indian bank or card, and creator payouts go only to Indian bank accounts. International payment expansion isn't on the immediate roadmap.

No. Creator Scout is a registered Section 194-O e-commerce operator, so we deduct, deposit, and file TDS on creator payments routed through the platform at the on-platform rate of 0.1% — not the 10% you'd otherwise deduct under Section 194-J. The brand doesn't deduct, doesn't file 26Q for those creator payments, and doesn't collect PAN per creator.

Both sections apply depending on payment route. Direct brand-to-creator bank payments fall under Section 194-J at 10% TDS. Payments routed through a registered e-commerce operator like Creator Scout fall under Section 194-O at 0.1%. The section is decided by who handles the transaction, not by what the payment is for.

Creator Scout is a registered e-commerce operator under Section 194-O, so the TDS rate on every creator payment routed through the platform is 0.1% — not the 10% Section 194-J rate that applies when a brand pays a creator directly. The deduction is automated, so brands don't deduct themselves and creators see only 0.1% withheld instead of 10%.

0.1% if you've submitted your PAN at onboarding, 5% if you haven't. The 0.1% rate is the standard Section 194-O on-platform e-commerce rate. The higher 5% applies under Section 206AA for creators without PAN — significantly lower than the 20% Section 206AA rate that applies in direct-payment situations.

Yes. Without a PAN, Section 206AA kicks in and TDS is deducted at 5% on every creator payment instead of the standard 0.1% rate. PAN is also required to file an income tax return and reclaim any excess TDS at year-end, so getting one is non-optional if you're earning regularly from brand deals in India.

Yes. Creator Scout files the quarterly TDS return (Form 26Q) with the Income Tax Department covering every creator paid through the platform, and generates Form 16A for each creator showing total TDS deducted across all brand deals. Form 16A is issued quarterly and downloadable directly from your dashboard.

Your Creator Scout TDS dashboard at /tds shows a running total of TDS deducted across every brand deal, broken down by quarter and brand. Total annual TDS, total earnings, and downloadable Form 16A for each quarter are all in one place — your CA can pull everything needed for ITR filing in under five minutes.

No. Creator payments routed through Creator Scout fall under Section 194-O, and we file Form 26Q quarterly under our TAN covering every creator paid through the platform. The brand doesn't file 26Q for those creator payments and doesn't need to issue Form 16A to those creators directly — Creator Scout handles both.

GST on creator earnings depends on the creator's GST registration status. Creators with annual brand income above ₹20 lakh (₹10 lakh in some states) must be GST-registered. Below the threshold, registration is optional. The 18% GST on the 12% platform fee is embedded inside the 12% (we calculate floor(fee × 18/118) and remit) — you don't see it as a separate line.

Yes. Income from brand collaborations is taxable in India as either business income or income from profession. You file it under "income from business or profession" in your annual ITR, deduct legitimate business expenses (equipment, software, travel for shoots, internet bills, depreciation), and pay tax on the net at your applicable slab rate.

Only if your annual brand income crosses the GST registration threshold — ₹20 lakh in most Indian states, ₹10 lakh in northeastern and special-category states. Below that, GST registration is optional. Creator Scout works for both registered and unregistered creators; you set your status at onboarding and invoices reflect it.

Yes. Influencer marketing payments made through Creator Scout are a fully deductible business expense for any Indian registered business. The brand's invoice shows a single line — the creator's package amount — that your CA records against marketing, advertising, or promotion expense.

Sign up at creatorscout.in/signup, choose "creator," verify your email with OTP, then complete the 7-step onboarding wizard — connect Instagram via Meta's official OAuth, set your rates per deliverable, upload your portfolio, set your FAQ. Profile goes into review and usually goes live within 24 hours.

Creator Scout fetches your audience data directly from Instagram's Graph API after you connect your account — follower count, engagement rate, age, gender, and location breakdown, all unedited and automatically refreshed. Brands see real numbers, not a screenshot you sent.

Every creator on Creator Scout connects their Instagram via Meta's official Graph API at onboarding. Follower count, engagement rate over the trailing 30 days, audience demographics (age, gender, location), and post-level analytics come directly from Instagram — not from a screenshot media kit or self-declaration. Refreshed daily, displayed on every profile.

Fake follower detection runs across two signals: audience composition pulled from the Instagram Graph API (sudden geographic anomalies, suspicious age distributions, high inactive-follower percentage) and a free public tool at /tools/fake-follower-checker that anyone can run on a creator's handle. Creators with patterns suggesting purchased followers are flagged in the vetting process.

You need to connect your Instagram once via Meta's official OAuth flow during onboarding — but it's strictly read-only. Creator Scout can never post, message, follow, or change anything on your account. We only read your follower count, engagement, audience demographics, and post-level analytics that you'd see in Instagram Insights yourself.

Every Creator Scout profile shows verified audience age distribution (18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45+), gender split, top geographic locations (city and country), and language demographics — all pulled from Instagram's Graph API. Combine with the marketplace filters to find creators whose audience matches your customer profile before you ever send a collaboration request.

Yes, in most cases. Your Creator Scout profile shows everything a brand looks at in a media kit — verified follower count and engagement rate, audience demographics, rates per deliverable, portfolio of past work, your FAQ — plus things a PDF can't do, like automatic refresh as your audience grows. Most brands accept the live profile in place of a static media kit.

Profile data refreshes automatically once per day from Instagram's Graph API. Follower count, engagement rate (calculated over a trailing 30-day window), audience demographics, and post-level analytics all update on the same daily cycle. You can also trigger a manual refresh from your dashboard at any time.

Yes. Every Creator Scout profile has a portfolio section where creators upload examples of their best work — both organic high-performing content and past paid brand collaborations. Completed collaborations done through Creator Scout itself appear automatically with metrics. You see both: their best showcase plus their actual track record on the platform.

Yes. Every creator profile goes through a manual review before appearing in marketplace search. The review checks for genuine Instagram connection, real follower base (no obvious fake followers), legitimate Indian creator identity, and a complete profile (rates, portfolio, FAQ). Approval usually takes under 24 hours.

Creator Scout has every vetted Indian creator on the platform in one searchable database. Filter by niche, city, follower range, engagement rate, audience age/gender/location, past brand experience, and content style — all simultaneously. Shortlist, save creators, and post a campaign brief to receive applications, or reach out individually.

Yes. Creator Scout's marketplace filters include city-level location across every major Indian metro and tier-2 city — Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, and more. Filter by where the creator is based and (separately) by where their audience is located.

Yes. Creator Scout supports niche filtering across every major content category in India — fashion, food, beauty, fitness, tech, travel, lifestyle, parenting, finance, education, gaming, automotive, home decor, comedy, and more. Each creator declares their primary and secondary niches at onboarding, refined during vetting.

Yes. Audience filters include age band (standard Instagram bands of 18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55+), gender split (filter for, say, 60%+ female audience), and geographic distribution (top-city or top-state percentage thresholds). All pulled from verified Instagram Graph API data, not declared.

Yes — nano (1K-10K followers) and micro (10K-100K) creators are well-represented on Creator Scout, and engagement-rate filters often push them to the top of search results. There's no follower minimum to list on the platform. For performance-driven Indian D2C campaigns, brands typically book more nano-micro creators than macros.

Three discovery paths: brands search the marketplace using filters (niche, city, follower range, engagement, audience demographics) and your profile matches; brands post campaign briefs and you apply; brands save you to a shortlist and reach out directly. Your profile completeness, engagement rate, and response time drive how often you surface in search.

Nano creators get a genuinely fair shot on Creator Scout — and for many brand campaigns are actively preferred. Search results aren't follower-count-sorted by default; brands filtering for engagement rate, audience match, or budget efficiency often have nano creators at the top of their shortlists. Some of the most-booked creators on the platform are under 10,000 followers.

Five things move you up in Creator Scout's marketplace ranking: keep your Instagram connected so audience data stays fresh, complete every section of your profile (rates, portfolio, FAQ), respond to brand messages within 24 hours, deliver well on collaborations (the platform tracks your completion rate), and maintain a healthy engagement rate. Each one is a signal the ranker uses.

An influencer marketing agency is a service: you brief them, they staff creators against the brief, they manage the campaign, they invoice you. An influencer marketplace is software: you search creators yourself, book directly, manage the campaign through the platform. Agencies typically charge 15-30% commission plus retainer; marketplaces charge a transparent platform fee per transaction.

Open the Creator Scout marketplace, filter by niche = food, creator city = Bangalore, and (optionally) audience city = Bangalore for hyperlocal targeting. Add engagement rate threshold (4%+ is strong for food content) and follower range based on your budget. You'll see Bangalore-based food creators ranked by engagement and platform quality signals — typically dozens of options to shortlist from.

Yes — exactly this filter combination. Niche = beauty/skincare, audience gender = 60%+ female, audience age = 60%+ in the 18-24 band. Add city or engagement thresholds to refine. Creator Scout's filters work simultaneously, so a tightly specified search like this returns a focused shortlist of matched skincare creators in seconds.

Yes. Every Creator Scout collaboration done through the platform is tagged with the brand and category. You can filter creators by past brand category (e.g. "has worked with fashion brands"), past brand name (search for a specific brand they've collaborated with), or completed-collaboration count to find creators with track record in your category.

Go to /post-campaign in your dashboard. Fill in the brief: campaign title, deliverables (post, reel, story, video), niche focus, target audience demographics, budget range, deadline, and creative direction. Publish. Matching creators get notified and start applying within 24-72 hours. Posting is currently open to every brand during launch.

Both paths are available. If you post a campaign brief, matching creators apply to you proactively — you review applications and shortlist. If you'd rather not post a brief, you can search the marketplace yourself and send direct collaboration requests with a custom offer to specific creators. Most active brands use both.

Yes — multi-creator campaigns are the default workflow on Creator Scout. Post one brief, receive applications, shortlist and book multiple creators against the same brief. Each creator gets their own order, agreement, and milestone tracking, but they're grouped under one campaign dashboard so you can see progress across all of them at once.

Three paths to brand deals on Creator Scout: browse the Campaigns marketplace and apply to briefs that match your niche; receive direct collaboration requests from brands who found you through search; complete your profile thoroughly so you surface higher in brand search results. A complete profile with strong engagement typically receives both direct requests and matched brief notifications.

Find a matching brief on the Campaigns feed at /campaigns, click "Apply," and submit your application — a short pitch about why you fit, your proposed rate for the deliverables specified, and your proposed timeline. The brand reviews applications and shortlists; you'll be notified if you're moved to discussion or directly booked.

Yes. When applying to a brief or accepting a direct collaboration request, you propose the timeline that works for you — factoring in your workload, production time, and any review cycles. The brand can accept your proposed timeline or negotiate. No brand can impose an arbitrary deadline you haven't agreed to in the final order.

Most active creators see new briefs within hours of posting and respond within 24-72 hours. Expect to receive 20-100 applications in the first three days for a typical brief, depending on budget level and niche supply. Higher-budget briefs and well-defined audience targets attract faster, better-fit responses.

When a creator submits a milestone for approval, the brand has 72 hours to respond — approve, request revisions, or flag a concern. If the window passes without response, the platform escalates: the creator's project doesn't stall, and brands with repeat misses face downstream consequences in their account standing.

Yes. Creator Scout's marketplace lets you save creators to a shortlist as you browse — useful when you want to research and identify good fits before formally publishing a brief or sending direct outreach. Saved creators appear in your dashboard, can be tagged, and can be invited directly to apply when you publish a brief.

Five elements make a brief work: a clear budget range (don't say "flexible" or "negotiable"), a specific audience target (age, gender, location), a focused niche (specific is better than broad), concrete deliverables (1 reel + 3 stories vs "social content"), and creative direction with brand context. Specific briefs attract focused applications.

Off-platform brand deals on Instagram DMs have no escrow, no agreement, no record of what was promised, and no recourse if things break. Most failure modes — payment delays, scope creep, unclear usage rights, ghosted approvals — disappear on Creator Scout because the platform structures every collaboration into agreements, milestones, and escrow before work starts.

The standard Creator Scout agreement includes two rounds of revisions per deliverable, with the scope of each round defined upfront (creative direction tweaks, edits within the brief). Brands and creators can negotiate more revisions at booking — they're added as a paid add-on, and the count locks before work starts.

Additional revisions beyond the agreed count are available as paid add-ons through the platform. Open the order, request an extra revision, and the creator either accepts the add-on rate (transparent, set during their onboarding) or declines. The brand pays the add-on into escrow, the creator delivers the revision, and the standard approval flow applies.

Every Creator Scout agreement defines exactly what usage rights the brand receives: which platforms (organic social, paid ads, brand website, OOH), for how long, and whether whitelisting or paid amplification is included. Defaults are conservative — the brand pays extra to extend rights — and everything is logged in the brand's Rights Library.

Whitelisting is when a creator grants the brand permission to run paid ads through the creator's own Instagram or Meta account. The ads look like organic creator content because they're posted from the creator's handle. Creator Scout supports whitelisting as a defined paid add-on at booking — the rights, duration, and ad spend cap are all explicit in the agreement.

Every collaboration on Creator Scout includes a defined usage rights clause specifying where the brand can use your content (organic social only, paid ads, brand website, OOH, in perpetuity, etc.), for how long, and on what platforms. Defaults are conservative — brands pay extra to extend rights — and expiry triggers automated reminders to renew or stop.

The Rights Library is the brand-side dashboard that tracks every usage right granted to that brand across every creator collaboration — what content, what usage type, when rights expire, and what's pending renewal. On the creator side, you see which brands have rights to which of your content and when those rights expire automatically.

All deliverables — drafts, revisions, and the final live post — live in the campaign's content library inside your dashboard. Original files (full resolution, no compression) are stored permanently and downloadable as long as your account is active. No expiring Google Drive links, no auto-delete WhatsApp media.

Yes. Every deliverable from every collaboration done through Creator Scout stays in your brand content library indefinitely. Download at full resolution any time, organised by campaign and tagged with creator name and deliverable type. Bulk download is available for entire campaigns.

Yes. Every paid collaboration on Creator Scout has post-campaign analytics tracking enabled by default. Reach, impressions, video views, engagement rate, saves, and shares are pulled daily from the creator's Instagram or YouTube via the official APIs and visible in your campaign dashboard. No chasing the creator for a screenshot.

Your Creator Scout profile includes a FAQ section answered during onboarding with three default questions: what kind of brands you love working with, what categories or brands you'll never accept, and what brands should know before pitching you. Plus, two optional custom questions. Brands read this before sending collaboration requests.

Every collaboration on Creator Scout generates a digital agreement at booking — pre-filled with the deliverables, revisions, usage rights, timeline, and rates both sides agreed to. Both parties sign electronically through the platform; the signed agreement is permanently archived against the order and accessible to both sides in two clicks.

If a creator misses the agreed deadline by 7 days without communication, you can open a non-delivery dispute through the order page. Funds in escrow stay locked, the creator's account is flagged, and support reviews within 5 business days. Resolution is usually full refund to your original payment method, plus a strike issued against the creator.

The 72-hour brand response SLA means a brand who doesn't approve your milestone within 72 hours triggers automatic escalation — the milestone auto-approves and your payment releases. Scope creep beyond the agreed agreement is a dispute you can open. Either way, escrow has already protected your earnings on the agreed work.

When a collaboration goes sideways, either side opens a dispute ticket inside the order. Creator Scout's support team reviews the full agreement, the order timeline, every submitted file, and the communication trail — then issues a structured resolution. Escrow protects the funds throughout, so no one is paying for nothing or working for free.

Escrow eliminates the "I paid first / I delivered first" trust problem that scams exploit. The brand's payment is held by Creator Scout from booking until the creator delivers — neither side can move the money. A scammer can't take cash and run because the cash isn't there; a brand can't withhold payment after delivery because the platform releases automatically past the 72-hour SLA.

No. Creator Scout never shares your personal phone number with brands. All communication — briefs, messages, file submissions, approvals — happens inside the platform. If a brand asks for your WhatsApp directly, that's a flag the brand may be planning to route the deal off-platform (which removes all your protections).

Yes. The 72-hour brand response SLA applies at every milestone. When a creator submits work for approval, the brand has 72 hours to respond — approve, request revisions, or flag a concern. After 72 hours of no response, the milestone auto-approves and payment releases. Repeat misses affect the brand's account standing.

Yes. Open the order page and use "Report creator" to flag unprofessional conduct — non-responsiveness, missed deadlines, off-brief deliverables, harassment, or any other concern. Support reviews within 5 business days. Outcomes range from a creator warning to a strike on their account to account suspension for serious or repeated violations.

Yes. The order page has a "Report brand" action. Flag scope creep beyond the agreement, harassment, missed approval SLA, off-platform payment requests, or any other concern. Support reviews within 5 business days and the brand faces consequences ranging from warnings to account suspension.

Creator Scout operates a strikes system equally for brands and creators. A first violation typically results in a warning; second and third strikes are formally recorded; three strikes triggers account suspension. Severe or repeated misconduct can result in permanent ban. The system is symmetric — both brand and creator misconduct face the same consequences.

Yes. Creator Scout operates in line with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDP) 2023. Your personal data — PAN, bank details, audience demographics, contact information — is encrypted at rest and in transit, stored on Indian servers, never sold to third parties, and accessible only by you and the support team handling your account.

No — and it's almost always a red flag. Off-platform collaborations void every protection Creator Scout offers: no escrow on payment, no signed agreement, no dispute resolution, no 0.1% TDS handling, no usage rights enforcement, no recourse if anything breaks. Brands who ask to route off-platform are usually trying to avoid one of those things.

Off-platform collaborations carry no Creator Scout protections — we can't enforce an agreement, mediate a dispute, or track usage rights for work done outside the platform. Your rights are governed by whatever (if anything) you agreed to in writing with the brand directly, and Indian contract law generally. Going forward, route everything through Creator Scout.

Every brand on Creator Scout goes through KYC verification at signup — company registration documents (Pvt Ltd certificate, GSTIN), authorised signatory ID, and bank account verification. Brand accounts can't post briefs or book creators until KYC passes. Combined with the escrow requirement (no booking without funds deposited), scam brands structurally can't operate on the platform.

If a creator stops responding after the initial brief but hasn't accepted an order yet, you can simply move on — message another creator, accept another applicant. If they accepted but haven't started work, you can cancel the order and get a full refund within 5 business days. If they accepted and started work, the regular non-delivery dispute process applies after the 7-day deadline buffer.

First, point them to the agreement — the deliverables and revision count are locked in writing. If they insist on additional changes, decline and offer them the option of buying an additional revision through the platform as a paid add-on. If they refuse the add-on and keep pushing, open a scope-creep dispute and support will rule based on the original agreement.

Don't approve the milestone. Request a revision through the order page, specifying what's off-brief and what needs to change — the creator does the revision within their included revision allowance. If the content is so far off the agreed brief that revisions can't fix it, open a brief-deviation dispute and support reviews against the signed agreement.

Sign up at creatorscout.in/signup. You choose whether you're a brand or a creator, enter your email, and verify with an OTP. From there you complete a short onboarding wizard — 3 steps for brands, 7 for creators — and your account is ready. Most people are signed up in under 15 minutes.

Brand signup requires: your company's Certificate of Incorporation (Pvt Ltd or LLP) or proprietorship registration, your business GSTIN (optional but strongly recommended for input tax credit on the platform fee), authorised signatory's PAN and government photo ID, and bank account details for refunds. KYC review completes within 24-48 hours.

Creator signup requires: your PAN (required for the 0.1% TDS rate — without PAN it's 5%), a government photo ID (Aadhaar, passport, or driving licence), your bank account details with IFSC for receiving payouts, and your Instagram account connection through Meta's official OAuth. Optional but recommended: GSTIN if you're GST-registered.

Email {SUPPORT_EMAIL} for any issue — general questions, account problems, payment queries, bug reports, feature requests. Typical response is under 24 hours. For active order or payment issues, the in-app support button on every order page routes your message with full order context attached so the team can respond faster.

Account deletion is a self-serve option in your account settings under "Account → Delete Account." If you have active orders, those must be resolved first (completed, cancelled, or transferred). Personal data is deleted within 30 days per DPDP Act requirements. Tax records (invoices, TDS filings) are retained per Indian tax law (typically 7 years) but anonymised.

No — one email maps to one account on Creator Scout, and an account is either brand or creator (not both). If you're both a brand operator and a creator yourself, use separate emails for each — most common pattern is your business email for the brand account and your personal email for the creator account.

You can't delete your account while orders are active — the platform requires those to be resolved first (completed, cancelled, or refunded). If you temporarily deactivate (different from deletion), active orders continue running normally with the platform managing the workflow on your behalf — you can re-activate anytime to pick up where you left off.

Creator Scout works as an installable Progressive Web App (PWA) on both iOS and Android — same experience as a native app (home screen icon, push notifications, offline support) without going through the App Store or Play Store. Native iOS and Android apps aren't on the immediate roadmap; the PWA covers what native apps would.

Email {SUPPORT_EMAIL} with a clear description of the bug (steps to reproduce, what you expected, what happened) or the feature you'd like. Bugs are triaged within 24 hours; feature requests are reviewed weekly and shape the platform roadmap. Significant bug reports often get a personal reply from the founder.

All policy documents are linked in the footer of every Creator Scout page and accessible directly: Terms of Service at /terms, Privacy Policy at /privacy, Refund Policy at /refund, Referral Terms at /referral-terms, and a Content Rights overview at /content-rights covering usage rights mechanics across the platform.