What export settings and formats do brands expect?

The edit is approved and the finish line is one export away. The spec that covers almost every brief: a 9:16 vertical MP4, H.264 codec, 1080×1920, exported straight from your editing app at full quality. Anything different will be written in the brief — check it before you export.

The settings worth getting right:

  • Resolution: 1080×1920. Ship 4K only if you shot in 4K and the brief asks; on a phone screen it buys nothing.
  • Frame rate: match what you shot, usually 30 fps — upscaling to 60 on export adds nothing.
  • Codec: H.264 in an MP4 opens everywhere — Ads Manager, TikTok, the marketing lead's aging laptop. An iPhone .mov usually works; MP4 removes the doubt.
  • Bitrate: your editor's high-quality default is fine; if a slider forces a number, 10–16 Mbps at 1080p is plenty.

One rule has no exceptions: never deliver the file you re-downloaded from TikTok. The platform has already compressed it, a watermark often rides along, and a media buyer spots both instantly. Export the master from your editing app — same video, twice the quality.

Do brands need both clean and captioned versions?

Yes — unless the brief says otherwise, every deliverable ships twice: one captioned version, one clean version with no burned-in text. Double the export queue, worth every minute.

The clean file is the one brands quietly value most. Burned-in captions can never be removed; a clean master can be re-captioned in brand fonts, translated, or run with a platform's auto-captions. When a media buyer wants to test a different opening line, the clean version is the file they can work with.

Two rules that ride along:

  • Hook variants are complete videos — each hook cut onto the full body, one file per variant, not three-second clips of the hooks alone.
  • Music must be cleared for commercial use or supplied by the brand — a trending sound from your personal TikTok can't legally run in an ad and gets the file bounced back.

One boundary: clean means a caption-free export of the approved edit, not raw footage — sending raw footage is a separate asset and its own decision.

How should you name your files so brands can find them later?

Pick one pattern and put it on every file: brand_product_variant_version — as in glowlab_serum_hook2_clean_v1.mp4. Lowercase, underscores instead of spaces, a version number instead of the word "final."

This looks like trivia until you see where your files live. Your videos land in a shared Drive beside a dozen other creators' work, and months later someone searches that folder for the serum video that performed — winners get re-cut, relicensed, rebooked. I've seen this from the brand side: the creator whose files are searchable gets found again; the folder of IMG_2847.mov and export (1).mp4 gets skipped.

The pattern, unpacked:

  • Brand and product first, so your files sort together.
  • Variant says what the file is: hook1, hook2, clean, captioned, 4x5.
  • Version climbs with each revision — v1, v2 — and your delivery note names the current one.

"Final" is banned for a practical reason: the moment a revision request lands, final becomes a lie and final_final_v3 becomes your reputation. The filename is the part of your work a brand sees longest — the video gets watched this week; the name gets searched all year.

What's the best way to send large video files?

One link to one cloud folder — Google Drive or Dropbox — with downloads enabled. Not email attachments, and not five separate transfer links.

Attachments fail on size: email tops out around 25 MB and a full-quality 60-second vertical runs a few hundred. Free transfer links fail more quietly — many expire within days, so the brand opens your delivery in week three and hits a dead link. Resending is a small ask; friction is what gets remembered when the next campaign is cast.

Set the folder up so nobody has to think:

  • Flip sharing to "anyone with the link," confirm downloads are allowed, then test it in an incognito window.
  • Add subfolders only when the delivery is big — /clean and /captioned, or one folder per concept.
  • Keep the link alive at least as long as the usage window — a six-month license means a six-month folder, minimum.

Keep your own archive of finals too — it covers you when a brand loses files, and where your contract allows, those finals become the brand work you can show later.

What goes in the delivery email?

Three things, three short lines: what's in the folder, the usage terms you agreed, and the invoice. After weeks of filming, this email feels like an afterthought — it's actually the record your whole deal rests on.

A version to adapt:

Hi Maya — final files for the GlowLab serum videos: [folder link]. Inside: 3 videos as clean + captioned, plus the 2 extra hooks we scoped — 10 files, 9:16 1080p MP4. Usage as agreed: organic on GlowLab's TikTok and Instagram for 6 months, no paid. Invoice 014 attached, due in 14 days. One revision round is included — reply with timestamps if anything needs a tweak. I'd love to make the next batch when you're ready.

The usage line is doing quiet legal work: restating the license beside the files — platforms, duration, organic or paid — leaves a dated record attached to the delivery itself. If your video surfaces in paid ads at month eight, the conversation starts from that email instead of memory — and from your usage-rights terms, agreed up front. The invoice rides along so deliverables and payment terms sit in one place — nothing for finance to lose.

Specs that drop straight into Ads Manager, names that survive a crowded Drive, a link that won't die, terms in writing — none of it is creative work, and it decides rebookings as much as the creative does. Brands rehire the person who made their week easier. Your next deal is being decided in this one's last email.

FAQ

Do brands want 4K UGC videos? Rarely. 1080×1920 is the working standard for vertical placements. If you shot in 4K, archive the project so you can re-export if a brief ever asks.

Should I send the editable project file? Not by default. Deliverables are finished videos; a project file and the clips inside it are a separate asset with their own price. A brand that wants to re-cut freely is asking for raw footage and a license, not a courtesy.

How long should I keep delivered files? At minimum through the usage window; ideally a year or more. Storage is cheap, and "we lost the files, can you resend?" is a relicensing conversation you want to say yes to.

What if a brand asks for a different format after delivery? A re-export of the approved edit — a 4:5 crop, a clean version you didn't ship — is a five-minute favor that buys real goodwill. A new hook, new cut, or added scenes is a new deliverable; quote it as one.