Tracking Posts
How posts get into a campaign, what ViewsBase tracks on each platform, and how watched accounts work.
ViewsBase tracks posts from creators who are in your campaign. It supports TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts. Every tracked post follows the post lifecycle and counts toward payments and your plan's post total.
Ways a post gets in
| How | Who | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Creator submits on the web | The creator | The campaign page has a box for a post link. The campaign's Post submission link (in Settings → Creator access) is a public page for the same job. |
Discord /submit-post | The creator | The server must be on the campaign's Discord card. See Discord Bot. |
| Add posts | Admins and editors | Paste links in the dialog. See below. |
| Watched account | Automatic | ViewsBase finds new posts from a creator's account. Optional and off by default. |
A post must belong to a creator who is active in the campaign. If the handle is not on the campaign, add the creator first. A paused creator cannot submit new posts.
Add posts
Open Posts and choose Add posts. Paste TikTok, Instagram or YouTube Shorts links, one per line. YouTube links can be youtube.com/shorts/…, youtu.be/… or youtube.com/watch?v=…, and the link must be a Short.
Under Creator, leave Match by post author or pick one creator.
Each row is handled alone, so one bad link does not stop the others. ViewsBase tells you which rows were added, which were skipped because the post is already in the campaign or was pasted twice, and which failed. A post that was added but has no views yet can be retried from the dialog.
What is tracked
- TikTok: views, likes, comments and shares.
- Instagram: views when Instagram shows them, likes and comments. Shares are not tracked.
- YouTube Shorts: views, likes and comments.
ViewsBase also saves the author, thumbnail and caption when the platform gives them. YouTube views refresh once a day. TikTok and Instagram refresh every 24, 12 or 6 hours by plan. See Post Lifecycle.
Instagram posts without public views. Some posts, such as carousels, have no public view count. An admin can enter the views by hand on the post. The post needs an audit note.
Watched accounts
A watched account finds new posts for you. It is optional and off by default. Open a creator on the Creators tab and choose Watch account.
- Choose the creator and enter the handle or profile link.
- Under Add recent posts now, choose None, only new posts or the last 5, 10, 15 or 30 posts.
Imported posts use the creator's offer and follow the normal lifecycle. Instagram watching imports Reels only, because slideshows can lack public views. For YouTube, a channel is watched for new Shorts.
Watched accounts are checked about every 6 hours, and YouTube channels once a day. Each one shows a state:
- Active: included in the checks
- Syncing: being checked now
- Failed: the last check failed, with the error
- Paused: saved, not checked
Pausing a creator pauses their watched account. There is no delete action. Pause an account to stop it.
Duplicates
A post can be in a campaign once. Another campaign can track the same public post on its own.
When tracking fails
A post can fail when it is private, deleted, rate-limited or not available from the platform. The failure shows on that post only. Choose Retry view update in its details. If a post stops updating, it appears in Needs you as Posts that stopped updating.