How to Submit Your Video on SEMA Rewards: From Your Post to Review

A clip earns on SEMA Rewards once you have posted it on your own account and submitted its link to a campaign. Submitting takes under a minute. What decides whether it goes through is mostly what you did before you pressed the button, so this guide starts there.

Before you start

You need two things:

• A verified account on the platform you post on. A clip can only be submitted from a verified account. If you have not verified yet, How to Create Your SEMA Rewards Account shows how; it takes a minute.
• A campaign that suits you. How to Pick a Campaign covers what to check before you join.

Step 1: Join the campaign and read the brief

Open the campaign and tap Join Campaign. A few campaigns check your account after you join, and you can submit once they approve it.

Then tap Read Brief. The brief and the payout rules tell you:

• What to make, and from which footage. Many campaigns give you their own files to clip from.
• What your post needs: the hashtags, mentions and links your caption must include, and any text your profile bio must include.
• The dates. A clip has to be posted inside the campaign's video window.
• How long you have to submit after posting. 12 hours on most campaigns; the brief shows the campaign's own figure.

Step 2: Make the clip

Make a short vertical clip (9:16), with something in the first three seconds that makes people stay. Any editing app works.

It has to be your own edit. Downloading another creator's clip and posting it again gets rejected, and doing it again can get an account suspended.

Step 3: Post it the right way

Most refused submissions are decided here, not at the submit button. When you post:

1. Post from your verified account, and keep the post public.
2. Paste the caption text before you post. Every hashtag, mention and link the brief asks for, spelled exactly. Some apps do not let you edit a caption afterwards, so it is easier to get it right the first time.
3. Put a required link in the caption itself. A link in your bio does not count for a caption link.
4. Add any required bio text to your profile bio, if the campaign asks for it. That is your profile's bio, not the post's caption.
5. On YouTube, use the description. A Shorts title only holds 100 characters, so put the hashtags, mentions and links in the description.

Step 4: Submit the link, right away

Submit as soon as the post is live. Once the campaign's window has passed (12 hours from posting on most campaigns), the post can no longer be submitted at all, and the only way back is a new clip.

On the campaign page, tap Submit Post:

1. Select Platform. Choose where you posted. If you have no verified account there yet, you are taken to Settings to verify one first.
2. Agree to the rules. When you continue, the brief opens. Tap I Understand and Agree to accept the campaign's payout rules and carry on; closing it keeps you on this step.
3. Select Account. If you have more than one verified account on that platform, choose the one you posted from. With only one, this step is skipped.
4. Check before you submit. A card lists exactly what this campaign checks: the caption text and the bio text, each with a copy button, the submission window, and the minimum followers if there is one. Read it before you press anything.
5. Pick your post, or paste its link. Under Pick from your account, tick the post or posts you want to submit; a post that does not qualify says why, for example "Private" or "Window passed". Just posted and it is not in the list yet? Do not wait: paste the link in the box below. On most platforms a preview appears, so you can check it is the right post.
6. Tap Submit. You see "Post submitted", and the clip shows up under Submissions.

If a submission is refused

A refused submission tells you what to fix. When it says "Not submitted yet. Fix the post, then submit the same link again", nothing was used up: correct the post and submit the same link.

The usual reasons, and what to do:

• Missing a hashtag, mention or link. The message shows exactly what is missing, with a button to copy it. Add it to the caption as shown. If your app cannot edit a posted caption, post the clip again with the text and submit the new link.
• The post is private. Make it public, then submit the same link again.
• Posted more than 12 hours ago (or the campaign's own window). This one cannot be fixed: post a new clip and submit it straight away.
• Posted before or after the campaign's video window. Only clips posted inside the window count.
• We could not read any text on the post. If the caption already has everything, do not change it: ask the campaign team in chat to review it by hand.
• The link is from a different account. It has to come from the verified account you chose.
• The account has too few followers for this campaign's minimum.

Two more rules worth knowing:

• A video goes to a campaign once, even if it was rejected. Post a new clip rather than resubmitting the old one.
• Three refused tries within five minutes pause submitting to that campaign for a few minutes. The message shows when you can try again. Fix the post before you retry, so you do not spend the tries.

After you submit

1. Your clip waits for review. The campaign team checks it against the brief, usually within a few days, and you get a notification either way.
2. An approved clip earns from its views. Its views are read about every 12 hours, and Submissions shows how it is doing against the campaign's minimum. How views turn into money is in How CPM Works in Clipping.
3. A rejected clip comes with the reviewer's reason. Fix it if you can, and use it on the next clip; the link under the reason explains how to avoid it.
4. Keep the post up. Earnings reach your wallet when you claim them, and before a withdrawal is sent we check that the posts the money came from are still public. How to Withdraw Your Earnings covers that part.

A worked example

A campaign asks for #semarewards and @brand in the caption, and allows 12 hours to submit.

1. You post at 7:00 pm from your verified TikTok, but forget @brand.
2. You submit at 7:20 pm. It is refused: "Your caption is missing this mention: @brand". Nothing is used up.
3. You edit the caption, add @brand, and submit the same link at 7:30 pm. It goes through and waits for review.

Had you only noticed the next morning, after 7:00 am, the 12 hours would have passed and the clip could not be submitted at all.

Quick checklist

1. I joined the campaign and read the brief.
2. The clip is my own edit, posted from my verified account, and public.
3. The caption has every hashtag, mention and link the brief asks for, spelled exactly, and my bio has any required text.
4. The post is inside the campaign's dates, and I am submitting within the window.
5. I checked the card before pressing Submit.

Need help?

Ask in the SEMA Rewards Discord, where a free daily class walks you through your first post and the team can look at a refused submission with you.