# How we rank

The Alpha Score ranks each campaign by what the same clip, made with the same effort, earns after the minimum views, the cap, the platform fee, approval odds, the budget's runway and the payout record, from 0 to 100 against campaigns of the same type.

As of 10:31 UTC on 27 Oct 2026. Page: https://clippingalpha.com/how-we-rank

The Alpha Score compares what the same clip earns on every campaign, ranked from 0 to 100.

1. 2,500 views
   **One typical clip**
   Every campaign is priced for the same clipper: one TikTok account, a typical clip at 2,500 views, 30 minutes to make it. A campaign that does not pay on TikTok is priced on its best payer among Instagram, YouTube and X.
2. 10% fee
   **What the clip pays**
   The rate per 1K views, nothing under the minimum views, stopped at the cap, less the platform's fee. A platform that states no fee is counted at 10%. The same math prices what one clip earns at 10K views, in each card's Alpha explainer.
3. 85% approved
   **What gets in the way**
   Approval odds: open campaigns 100%, one-tap requests 80%, full applications 50%, and 85% of clips approved until a platform shows its own counts. Then the share of views paid before the budget ends, and the platform's payout record.
4. 2,000 runs
   **Same effort, compared**
   What is left is what the same clip, made with the same effort, earns on each campaign. We run it 2,000 times over the odds and rank on the cautious case, the lower quarter, so a campaign with shaky numbers never ranks on its best day.
5. 80 top 10%
   **The score**
   Each campaign is ranked against live campaigns of its own type, clipping, UGC, logo or music, never another type. The top 10% score 80 to 100, and at most 10% of campaigns are ALPHA. A campaign that pays little for the work stops at 79, 59, 39 or lower, however it ranks.

## Four tiers

- Alpha Score 91 of 100, tier ALPHA
  80 to 100
- Alpha Score 72 of 100, tier SOLID
  60 to 79
- Alpha Score 51 of 100, tier FAIR
  40 to 59
- Alpha Score 28 of 100, tier LOW
  0 to 39

## Budget pace

- +3 New in the last 3 days
- -4 Budget stalled past its own rhythm while clippers keep joining or submitting
- -2 Each more stalled day, at most -20. Back the run after spend resumes

A campaign too new to price, a contest, a CPM auction, or one with no public rate shows SCORING until it has the numbers. Tap any score on a card to see its own breakdown.

## Source videos

- ×2 Clip Potential 75: the views of twice the typical clip
- ×0.5 Clip Potential 25: half
- 30m A clip from ready clips
- 70m A clip from a raw VOD with few good moments

Every video a brief links is analysed: its words, its keyframes and its best moments. Clip Potential, from 0 to 100, weighs the best moments, how many good ones an hour, how lively the audio is, how well the picture fits 9:16 and how ready the footage is, with the kind of content as a 12% prior. A short brand ad counts by how it is made: a creator's own UGC promo starts like good native content, a polished scripted ad lower, because TikTok buries it and it needs a native hook cut from it. It sets the views a clip can expect. Source readiness and the time to find a moment set the minutes a clip takes: 30 for ready clips, up to 50 to cut a raw VOD plus up to 20 to find each moment. A video longer than 15 minutes is read for its first 15, and its Clip Potential counts as less certain. A famous brand or franchise behind the campaign lifts the views a clip can expect a little more, never counted twice with a famous guest.

The footage also caps the score. A clipping campaign whose Clip Potential is under 45 stops at 59, and one whose footage we have not analysed yet stops at 79, so it is never ALPHA before we have seen it. A campaign that only gives a few seconds of ad, logo or end card to drop into your own content stops at 59, whatever its type. UGC campaigns are otherwise exempt: you make the content.

## Who can join

An election campaign is one paid for by or promoting a candidate, a party, a PAC, a ballot measure or a get-out-the-vote effort in the US. A podcast or show that talks about politics is not one, unless it is tied to a candidate, an election or a PAC.

Election campaigns are usually open only to US citizens and green card holders, since US federal law bars foreign nationals from spending on or directing US election activity. Their cards say US citizens only.

They are never in Top picks, Biggest budgets or Easiest to earn, and lists show them after every other campaign. Alerts never send one to a clipper outside the US.

A new version of the score, tested next to the live one before it replaces it, counts an election campaign's earnings for the share of clippers who can join it, 25%, never less than 20%.

It is the same rule for every election campaign, whatever its party or side.

[Political campaign rules](https://clippingalpha.com/learn/political-campaigns)

## Easiest to earn

Easiest to earn in Top picks is the campaign whose budget is being paid out to clippers fastest right now: the most money paid in the last 24 hours, the same figure as SPENT A DAY on its page.

The pace counts once we have watched the budget for a day and seen it move at least 3 times, and only while it is still moving: in the last 6 hours, or in at least 2 of the last four 6 hour stretches for a platform that approves clips in batches. A batch of approvals that landed once never wins it.

The budget must last at least 2 more days by our forecast, so a new clipper still has time to earn. The campaign must be open to join with no account rules, have payout rules with nothing beyond the views, and be SOLID or ALPHA. Its payouts must be real: $500 paid out on the platform, a good payout record, or $250 a day or more leaving the budget at the pace we trust. Footage we analysed as LOW never wins.

A tie goes to the higher pay per 1K views after the platform fee, then the higher Alpha Score. When no campaign qualifies, the slot shows the highest approval rate instead.

Easiest to earn opens Top picks. A Top choice, our own pick labelled on its card, comes next, then the other picks. We pick each Top choice by hand from live campaigns, and it never changes a score or a rank.

[See the top campaigns](https://clippingalpha.com/)