Ad usage licenses
An ad usage license is what you pay a creator for the right to run their content as ads. That might be from the creator’s own handle (whitelisting, Meta Partnership Ads or TikTok Spark Ads), or re-posted from your brand’s handle. Creator Jam tracks each license’s cost, term and scope, and warns you before one runs out, so you don’t keep running an ad you no longer have the rights to.
Licenses live on the Ad Usage Licenses page, under Spend in the sidebar.
The Ad Usage Licenses page for this year, with one license about to run out.
- The date range sets Spend in range, the chart and the In range column. The page opens on this calendar year.
- New License opens the license form.
- Filter the table by status. All creators narrows the whole page to one creator.
- On a row, the two circling arrows renew the license, the pencil edits it and the bin deletes it.
Add a license
Section titled “Add a license”-
Go to Ad Usage Licenses and click New License.
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Pick the Creator, then fill in the cost, start date and term.
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Add the content it covers, the conversation it came from, and the usage scope, if you want to track them.
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Click Add license.
You can also add a license from the Ad Usage Licenses card on a creator’s channel panel or on a conversation. The creator is then fixed, and on a conversation, that conversation is already selected.
Form fields
Section titled “Form fields”| Section | Field | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Creator & content | Creator | Required. |
| Content covered | Optional. Tick every video or post the license covers. If they all come from one deal, Creator Jam fills in Conversation for you. | |
| Conversation | Optional. The deal the license came out of. If that deal is part of a retainer, the retainer is filled in too. | |
| Retainer | Optional. Only shown when the creator has a retainer. | |
| Cost & term | Cost (USD) | Required. The total for the whole term. $0 is allowed. |
| Start date | Required. Starts as today. | |
| Term | 1 mo, 3 mo, 6 mo or 12 mo, any number of months from 1 to 120, or Perpetual. The form shows the end date and the monthly cost. | |
| Usage scope | Where it can run | Any of Meta, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat, Website, Email and Other. |
| Runs from | Creator’s handle (whitelisting, Partnership Ads or Spark Ads), Brand’s handle (re-posted as your own ad) or Both handles. | |
| Exclusive | Turn on if the creator can’t work with competitors during the term. | |
| Ad & asset | Meta ad name or ID | Optional. A note of which ads use this content. |
| Asset link | Optional. Where the raw files live, such as Dropbox or Google Drive. | |
| Payment | Paid, Paid on | Turn on Paid and pick the date once you’ve paid. |
| Invoice link | Optional. | |
| Notes | Contract terms, territory, anything else worth remembering. |
The content, conversation and retainer must all belong to the license’s creator.
A license’s end date is its start date plus the term, in months. If that day doesn’t exist in the end month, it ends on the month’s last day, so a 1-month license from January 31 ends on the last day of February.
License statuses
Section titled “License statuses”Creator Jam works out each license’s status from its dates:
| Status | When |
|---|---|
| Upcoming | The start date is still ahead. |
| Active | It’s running and more than 30 days from its end, it’s perpetual, or it has already been renewed. |
| Expiring soon | It ends within 30 days and hasn’t been renewed. |
| Expired | Its end date has arrived and it wasn’t renewed. |
| Renewed | Its end date has arrived and a renewal took over. |
A license runs up to its end date, not through it, so it shows as Expired on the end date itself. That errs on the safe side: running an ad past its license is the risk this page is there to catch.
Renew a license
Section titled “Renew a license”-
On the Ad Usage Licenses page, click the Renew icon (two circling arrows) on the license’s row.
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Check the new license. It starts on the old one’s end date, with the same term, cost, content and scope. Payment, invoice and notes start blank, because a renewal is a new bill.
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Click Create renewal.
The creator can’t be changed on a renewal. Only licenses with a term can be renewed, and each license can be renewed once. Once renewed, the old license no longer shows as Expiring soon, and when it ends it shows as Renewed.
How a license’s cost is spread over its term
Section titled “How a license’s cost is spread over its term”A license’s cost doesn’t land all at once. It’s spread evenly over the term, so each month of the license carries an equal share:
- A 3-month, $3,000 license from Sam Builds Stuff starting January 1 counts $1,000 in each of January, February and March.
- When a date range cuts through a license month, that month’s share is split by day. A 1-month, $1,000 license starting January 15 counts about $548 in January and $452 in February.
- A Perpetual license has no term to spread over, so its whole cost counts on its start date.
On the page, the Cost column shows the total and the monthly cost (or “one-time” for a perpetual license). The In range column shows how much falls in your chosen date range.
Read the Ad Usage Licenses page
Section titled “Read the Ad Usage Licenses page”- Date range: the page opens on this calendar year. Change it with the date button at the top, then click Apply.
- Spend in range: license spend that falls in the date range.
- Running now: how many licenses are running today, and their combined monthly cost.
- Expiring in 30 days: how many are about to lapse, and which one is next.
- Unpaid: the total cost of licenses not yet marked paid.
- License spend per month: a bar per month. Months after this one are shown lighter, because they’re what running licenses have already committed. Hover over a bar to see its amount, labelled Spent or Scheduled.
Below the chart, filter the table with the status tabs (All, Active, Expiring soon, Upcoming, Expired, Renewed) and, once you have licenses with more than one creator, the All creators menu. Click a row to edit it. To delete a license, click its bin icon and confirm with Delete. If it had been renewed, the renewal stays.
Why license spend isn’t on the ROI page
Section titled “Why license spend isn’t on the ROI page”License costs count toward your monthly budget on Home, as the blue Usage rights part of each bar. They’re deliberately kept out of the ROI page, Conversations → Monthly Overview, a creator’s Channel Performance, and the spend Creator Jam sends to Northbeam.
That’s because a deal’s rate sometimes already includes usage rights. Adding the license on top would count the same money twice.
Where else licenses appear
Section titled “Where else licenses appear”- Channel panel: the Ad Usage Licenses card lists the creator’s licenses with their status, cost and dates. Use New License to add one, or the edit icon to change one. All licenses opens the full page.
- Conversation panel: the same card, showing the licenses linked to that deal.
- Home: the budget chart’s Usage rights segment. See Budget and targets.
If you’ve connected Claude, it can list your licenses, report license spend, and add, update or delete licenses for you. See Claude and AI assistants.