Spreadsheets, note apps, notebooks, DMs and emails
Five places, none of which talk to each other.
Two brands owe you. One deadline has passed.
Owed to you
$2,750
In your pipeline
$1,950
AdidasInvoice sent$1,200
Glossier3 Videos · 1 Reel$1,550
Worth settling first
- No usage window is stated
- Exclusivity is not mentioned
- Payment terms are not given
Glossier
glossier.com
- Link createdReady to send11:59
- OpenedLondon, GB12:14
- Portfolio clickedWent through to your site12:19
Licence ends
in 12 days
Invoice total
$720.00
NegotiatingSentPaid
A demo account. Real rates vary. Nothing here is a typical result.
The problem
It should not live in your head
Right now it is in four places at once, and the one that matters is always in the place you did not check.
The brands pitched to
Who you contacted, when, and whether anything came back.
Deliverables agreed
What you owe them, and by when.
Usage rights
How long they may run it, and what happens when that ends.
01 Research
Where do you even start?
Kept holds a searchable brand library. Keep notes on brand fit, niche and who to contact. So a pitch is aimed rather than sprayed at whoever you found on a list.
Research once. Pitch with purpose.
How UGC creators find brands
02 Pitch
Did the brand actually open it?
Kept gives you a tracked link to send from your own inbox. You see the moment a brand opens your email, which videos they watched, and whether they clicked through to your site.
A brand who has opened your pitch three times this week is not a dead lead. It is the one to follow up today.
How tracked pitches work
03 The deal
What did the brand agree to?
Paste the brand's email or message. Kept reads it, drafts the deal with the fee, deliverables and deadline, then lists what the email left out. No guessed numbers. Just the gaps you need to close before you sign.
Every deal, from first message to paid, in one place.
Notion, a spreadsheet, or Kept
04 Get paid
How much will you get paid?
Kept generates an invoice from the deal you already tracked. What it says is recorded the moment you issue it, so correcting a rate next month can be easy.
It goes to the brand from you, not from a tool. Then Kept holds the usage window and tells you when their licence to run your content has ended.
How to follow up without being annoyingWhere Kept is
Small, and real
51
creators in our beta
803
brands discovered
Questions
The usual questions
What is UGC and how does it work?
UGC stands for user-generated content: short video or photo content that brands use in their own advertising, usually filmed by independent creators rather than agencies. A creator films a product at home, sends the file to the brand, and the brand runs it as a paid ad. The creator keeps their own channel and charges for the content itself, not for reach. Kept is built for exactly this, tracking the pitch, the deal, the invoice and the usage licence from one place.
How do UGC creators find brands to work with?
Most creators start with brands they already buy from, then expand to cold pitching by email or DM, creator marketplaces, and inbound interest once their portfolio is visible. The challenge is not finding brands. It is staying organised across the ones you are actively pitching. Kept includes a brand research library where you keep notes on brand fit, niche and contact details, so every pitch you send is deliberate.
What tools do UGC creators use to manage their business?
Most creators piece together a spreadsheet, a note-taking app and a reminder system, which works until you have four deals running at once and one falls through the cracks. Kept is the dedicated tool for this: tracked pitch links, a deal parser that reads a brand's email and surfaces what it does not say, numbered invoices, and a usage-rights monitor. Everything from first message to paid, in one place.
How do I pitch a brand as a UGC creator?
A strong pitch is short, specific, and includes a portfolio link the brand can open immediately. Find the right contact, usually a brand partnerships or marketing address, reference something specific about their product, state your rate and deliverables clearly, and follow up once if you do not hear back in a week. Kept gives you a tracked link to include, so instead of guessing whether your email was read you see the moment they open it, which videos they watched, and whether they clicked through.
How do I know if a brand opened my pitch?
The standard way is to wait and hope, which tells you nothing. Email open pixels are blocked by most clients, so they are wrong in both directions. Kept works differently: instead of attaching a PDF or sharing a plain portfolio link, you send a Kept tracked link. When the brand opens that page, Kept records the visit, how far through each video they got, and which links they clicked. It counts conservatively and undercounts rather than guesses.
