What vetting checks
Creator vetting is the review a brand runs on a shortlisted creator before offering work. It checks whether their past content shows the filming and speaking skill the brief needs, whether their audience and niche match, what brands they have worked with, whether anything in their history is a brand safety risk, and whether they deliver on time.
It comes after creator sourcing, which builds the long list, and overlaps with brand safety, which is one of its checks rather than the whole job. Many teams turn the checks into a fit score, a weighted total out of 100, so ten candidates can be ranked the same way.
How to vet UGC creators in practice
For UGC, weight the work above the audience. Watch three to five recent videos with the sound on: is the hook clear, is the product visible, is the lighting usable, can they speak naturally to camera. A portfolio shows their best work; their feed shows their normal work.
Then check the rest quickly: scroll back several months for anything off-brand, look for competitor deals that might conflict with exclusivity, and read some comments to see whether the audience is real. The UGC creator screening checklist lists each check, and the fit score calculator turns them into one number.
Example
Two candidates for a meal kit brief. Creator A has a large following but films in poor light with the product off screen. Creator B has a few thousand followers, clean kitchen footage, and a recent paid video for a cookware brand that shows she can follow a brief. B scores higher and gets the job.
A third candidate scores well on content but posted a sponsored video last month for a direct competitor, so she is held for a later campaign once any exclusivity window would have lapsed.
Common mistakes
Vetting only the portfolio. Creators curate portfolios, so check their live feed and recent posts too. The gap between the two tells you what you will actually receive.
Skipping a paid test. A small first order, one video, is the most reliable vetting step there is, because it tests communication, deadlines and revisions as well as the footage.
How it's used
Vetting notes are in the sheet: three pass, two fail on lighting, one on hold because she just did a deal with our main competitor.
Before we offer the retainer, can we run her through vetting properly? One paid test video first.