Danilo Vicioso · danilojvicioso@gmail.com · danilovicioso.com · Sept 2026
Captions already runs a creator machine on paid: 198 live Meta ads today, 47 of them partnership ads from 42 creator pages, 20 of those launched on Sep 16 alone, nearly all about AI Edit. I’d build the organic side of the same machine: a small roster of creators posting daily from their own accounts, feeding your ad team a steady stream of proven hooks, with a disclosure and claims check on every post.
| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Month | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creators posting | 0 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Creator videos | 0 | 35 | 70 | 70 | 175 |
| Hooks handed to ads | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| What happens | Claims sheet and #ad rules signed off; outreach from the shortlist; test briefs out | First five live after a 24–48h warm-up; Monday report v1 | Ten live; first same-hook, many-creators test | First breakouts to your ad team; replace non-starters | Keep-or-stop gates at day 45, 60, 90 |
Proposed. Roster is the core variable; video volume follows at 7 videos per creator per week. At ten creators that’s 10 drafts a day to review against the claims sheet, one reviewer’s morning at 24-hour turnaround.
I’d love to chat if this makes sense. Grab a time here.
Danilo
Pick an AI Edit style and Captions cuts the scenes, adds B-roll and puts captions on it. Then tweak it by typing, or post it as is.
Claims from captions.ai and the iTunes lookup API, read 29 Sept 2026.
Style names as listed on captions.ai/styles, 29 Sept 2026.
1Record or uploadFilm on your phone with the teleprompter, or drop in a clip you already have.
2Pick a styleAI Edit cuts it, adds B-roll and captions it in the look you chose.
3Tweak and postChange anything by typing in the chat editor, then export to TikTok, Reels or Shorts.
Preview frames of live partnership ads, Meta Ad Library, 29 Sept 2026.
Mirage builds the Captions app, the Mirage foundation models and the Mirage API. It was founded by Gaurav Misra (CEO) and Dwight Churchill (COO), raised a $60M Series C led by Index Ventures in July 2024, and $75M in growth financing from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund in March 2026.
“Distribution and capital efficiency are the new moat.”Captions blog, 24 Mar 2026
mirage.app/about-us and the Captions blog, read 29 Sept 2026.
Mirage press page and Wikipedia, read 29 Sept 2026.
As printed on captions.ai/pricing, 29 Sept 2026: “All prices displayed in USD. Features and prices reflect iOS plans only.” Enterprise is custom-priced.
First lines of live creator partnership ads, verbatim, Meta Ad Library 29 Sept 2026. These are paid partnerships, not reviews. [[ App Store review quotes not pulled ]]
Solutions imagery from captions.ai, 29 Sept 2026.
“It’s free to sign up for Captions, but you’ll want a subscription to access the best features.” The Free plan includes basic editing, the teleprompter, captions in 100+ languages and some AI features.
Max is $24.99 a month for 500 credits. Frontier starts at $69.99 a month. Prices are the iOS plans on captions.ai/pricing.
Yes. Captions is on the App Store, Google Play and in the browser.
You pick a style, and AI cuts the scenes and adds B-roll and captions. You can change anything afterwards, including by typing in the chat editor.
Only with their written consent. Captions’ Terms require it for every identifiable person in what you upload, and prohibit impersonation.
Mirage is SOC 2 compliant and hosts in US Google Cloud, with AI plus human moderation to prevent misuse.
Answers from captions.ai, captions.ai/pricing, mirage.app/legal/captions-terms and mirage.app/safety-and-security, 29 Sept 2026.
Concepts only, not live ads. Any time saved or price shown in a real video is the creator’s own, on screen that day. Each concept names the live Captions ad or feature it builds on (Meta Ad Library and captions.ai, 29 Sept 2026). Imagery belongs to Captions, from captions.ai. Four are meme formats; the third-party templates (Drake, Surprised Pikachu, Always Has Been, Starter pack) need their rights cleared before running as paid. Prices as printed on captions.ai/pricing (iOS), 29 Sept 2026.
One number to protect, and three moves to keep it flat while spend goes up: an organic creator roster that feeds your paid team, creative for more than AI Edit, and one claims sheet across every creator post. Built from outside data only: your site, the App Store, the Meta Ad Library on 29 Sept, press.
Or cost per activated subscriber, whichever you run on. Your March post says “Distribution and capital efficiency are the new moat.” The number that tests that claim is what each new user costs as the budget grows. Here is what pushes it off target, from the outside.
| PROBLEM | EVIDENCE (META AD LIBRARY, 29 SEPT) | FIX (PROPOSED) |
|---|---|---|
| One message | 198 active ads; the own-page set is one line, “Watch as AI edits your videos for you,” in 6 languages. 9 distinct headline texts across 151 ads. | An organic roster that tests ~300 hooks a month before you pay to test them. |
| Winners not yet proven | Oldest active ad is 53 days; 20 creator ads went live on Sep 16 alone. | Same hook on many creators; what breaks out goes to your ad team. |
| Almost all AI Edit | Creator ads are nearly all AI Edit; Clips appears in two. | Creator formats for Clips, translation and avatars. |
| Disclosure and claims | 7 of 47 creator ads show #ad in the copy; “3+ hours” to “2 minutes” style claims; “free” vs paid plans. | One claims sheet, #ad on every post, 24h review. |
| Something else | Attribution, saturation: not visible from outside. | Deep dive, week 1. |
| FEATURE | LIVE CREATIVE TODAY | ROSTER VIDEOS / MONTH (PROPOSED) |
|---|---|---|
| AI Edit | 47 creator ads, nearly all AI Edit; the own-page “Watch as AI edits” set | 120 |
| Clips | 2 creator ads (Nate Flake, SH Creative Dept.), 13 days | 60 |
| Translation | Own-page cuts in Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, French, German; Portuguese creator ads | 45 |
| AI avatars / twin | None found in the creator set | 45 |
| Chat editor, teleprompter | None found as the lead message | 30 |
Live creative from the Meta Ad Library, 29 Sept 2026. The 300-a-month split is a proposed starting mix, rebalanced every Monday on results.
| DISTURBANCE | LIKELIHOOD | IMPACT | OWNER | GATE (PROPOSED) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hook fatigue: one line across 151 own-page ads | High | High | Danilo | 3+ new hook families tested organically each month |
| Young winners: nothing active past 53 days | Medium | High | Your ad team | A hook goes to paid only after 3 of 10 creators break out with it |
| Disclosure: 7 of 47 creator ads show #ad in copy | High | High | Danilo + your legal | #ad and the paid-partnership label on every roster post |
| Time-saved claims (“3+ hours” to “2 minutes”) | Medium | Medium | Danilo | A time on screen only if it is the creator’s own recorded time |
| “Free” language vs paid features | Medium | Medium | Danilo | Every “free” qualified: the best features need a plan |
| Avatar and twin likeness | Low | High | Your legal | Written consent on file before any avatar post, as the Terms require |
| Creator overlap: 4 shortlist handles already post for Captions | Medium | Low | Danilo | Existing deals confirmed with you before outreach |
| Attribution: organic lift is hard to read | High | Medium | Your data team | Judge on cost per 1,000 organic views first; install lift reviewed at day 90 |
Likelihood and impact are my read from outside; every row is re-scored with your data in week 1.
| LINE | VALUE | STATUS |
|---|---|---|
| Max plan | $24.99 / month, 500 credits | FACT · captions.ai/pricing (iOS), 29 Sept 2026 |
| Frontier plans | $69.99–$139.99 / month | FACT · same page |
| Downloads, last 365 days | 3.2M | THIRD PARTY · TechCrunch, 24 Mar 2026, not Captions’ figure |
| In-app revenue, same period | $28.4M, 75% outside the US | THIRD PARTY · TechCrunch, 24 Mar 2026 |
| In-app revenue per download | ≈ $8.88 | DERIVED · $28.4M ÷ 3.2M; a rough ceiling on blended cost per install at one-year payback |
| Your target cost per install | [[ yours ]] | SET TOGETHER IN WEEK 1 |
TechCrunch figures were read from a summary of the article. Web and Android revenue, and enterprise, are not in them.
| WEEK | CREATORS POSTING | CREATOR VIDEOS | HOOKS HANDED TO ADS | WHAT HAPPENS | YOUR CPI TARGET |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Claims sheet and disclosure signed off; outreach from the shortlist; paid test briefs; hook list v1 | [[ ]] |
| 2 | 5 | 35 | 0 | First five live after a 24–48h warm-up; Monday report v1 | [[ ]] |
| 3 | 10 | 70 | 3 | Ten live; first same-hook, many-creators test | [[ ]] |
| 4 | 10 | 70 | 5 | First breakouts handed to your ad team; replace non-starters | [[ ]] |
| Month | 10 | 175 | 8 | Day 45 is the first kill-or-keep gate | [[ ]] |
Proposed. Paid tests of handed-over hooks run on your budget and your team; media buying is out of scope.
At a fixed breakout rate, more videos posted means more hooks proven before a paid dollar goes in. The rate below is the creator engine’s illustrative input until month one replaces it.
| ORGANIC VIDEOS / MONTH | BREAKOUT RATE (ASSUMED) | BREAKOUTS / MONTH | WHAT YOUR AD TEAM GETS |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 · one creator | 8% | ~2 | Anecdotes, not proof |
| 150 · five creators | 8% | ~12 | A few hooks seen on more than one face |
| 300 · ten creators | 8% | ~24 | Enough to run the 3-of-10 rule every week |
| LINE | TYPICAL / MONTH | MOST | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 creator retainers | ~$10,000 | $15,000 | 50%+ US; bands on the Creator engine tab; prorated from first post |
| Creator bonuses | $0–1,000 | Inside caps | Breakouts only; total creator pay never passes $15,000 |
| Paid tests of breakout hooks | Your budget | Yours | Run by your ad team; not part of this plan |
Captions pays creators directly and owns usage rights on every creator video.
| CHANNEL | OPEN WHEN (PROPOSED) | WHY |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok, creators’ own accounts | Week 2 | Where the shortlist was found; @captionsapp is there too |
| Instagram Reels | Week 2 | Same clip, same day |
| YouTube Shorts | Week 3 | The searchable, durable copy of the same clip |
| Meta whitelisting | When 3 of 10 creators break out on one hook | Paid starts from proof, not a guess |
| Portuguese and Spanish creators | Month 2 | Captions already runs ads in both; 75% of in-app revenue is outside the US (TechCrunch) |
An install only pays back if it turns into a subscription. A creator hook that brings cheap installs of people who never leave the free tier can look good and still lose money, so every handed-over hook is judged on subscribers, not installs alone.
| WHEN | KEEPS GOING IF (PROPOSED) | OTHERWISE |
|---|---|---|
| Day 45 | Organic cost per 1,000 views is $5 or better across the roster | The whole program stops |
| Day 60 | $3 or better, and at least one video past 100K organic views | Stops, or drops to the best two creators for one more month |
| Day 90 | $1–2, with breakouts (100K+) every month | Stops |
| EACH CREATOR | REPLACED IF |
|---|---|
| Output | Under 90% of weekly quota for two weeks running |
| Breakouts | No video past 10K organic views by week 6 |
| Claims | Posts without #ad, or an off-sheet claim, twice |
| PIECE | EXISTS TODAY | MISSING | FORCED ORDER |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claims | Pricing page, Terms, safety page | One sheet written for creators | First: week 1, before any brief |
| Creators | 42 paid creator pages; 20 small accounts shortlisted | An organic roster on retainer | Second: live in week 2 |
| Creative | 198 live ads, nearly all AI Edit | Hooks for Clips, translation, avatars | Third: tested organically from week 3 |
| Reporting | [[ your dashboards ]] | Cost per 1,000 organic views, per creator | From the first Monday |
| Attribution | [[ not visible from outside ]] | A read from organic to installs | Deep dive, week 1 |
| FIGURE | SOURCE | TYPE |
|---|---|---|
| 198 active ads: 151 own page, 47 creator partnership | Meta Ad Library, page “Captions: For Talking Videos”, 29 Sept 2026 | Fact |
| Oldest active ad 53 days; 20 creator ads started Sep 16 | Meta Ad Library, start dates | Fact |
| 7 of 47 creator ads with #ad or “AD |” in copy | Meta Ad Library copy; the paid-partnership label is not in the text data | Fact |
| 20M current users, 100+ languages, 100+ caption styles | captions.ai | Fact |
| 4.75 from 38,103 App Store ratings | iTunes lookup API, US | Fact |
| Max $24.99; Frontier $69.99–$139.99 | captions.ai/pricing (iOS) | Fact |
| $75M growth financing, General Catalyst CVF, 24 Mar 2026 | Captions blog | Fact |
| 3.2M downloads, $28.4M in-app revenue, 75% non-US | TechCrunch, 24 Mar 2026 (via summary) | Third party |
| 10 creators, ~300 videos a month, $10K–15K roster | This plan | Proposed |
| 8% breakout rate, 2,000-view median | Creator engine, illustrative inputs | Assumed |
Week one: the claims sheet signed off and the cost-per-install target agreed. Week two: five creators live. Week four: the first breakouts are on your ad team’s desk. Day 45: a keep-or-stop call on the numbers.
Ten creators under 5,000 followers, posting from their own TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts on the formats your own ads already prove. Hooks that break out go to your ad team first. Every number on this page about the program is proposed.
Images: preview frames of live Captions partnership ads (Meta Ad Library) and captions.ai imagery, 29 Sept 2026.
| Creators | 10, each under 5,000 followers; 50%+ US; +1 US and +1 international added each month |
| Output | 7 short videos a week each (10 for faceless), ~300 a month |
| Where | Creators’ own TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts |
| Scripts | From a weekly hook list, adapted to Captions, checked against the claims sheet; drafts reviewed within 24h |
| Pay | $500–1,500 retainer by band; cap $1,000–1,500 including bonus; month to month |
| Disclosure | #ad and the paid-partnership label on every branded post |
| Report | Every Monday: posts, median and best views, cost per 1,000 views, bonus, keep / watch / replace |
| Gates | Day 45 ($5 per 1,000), day 60 ($3), day 90 ($1–2) |
I ran the Tabs creator program across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube: organic views, not paid impressions. Most videos get a few hundred views and a few break out, so steady volume is the strategy.
My work for Tabs: many creator accounts posting about one product act like a wall of organic search results.
A raw talking-head clip goes in; a styled, captioned, B-roll-cut video comes out. That’s a phone-and-screen-recording product, so TikTok and Reels are the hook platforms and YouTube Shorts is the searchable extension of the same clip.
@naomixtabsTabs proof account: a person who likes the product, not a brand channel.
@tabs.monicaSame product, different face and feed. Two of many: that is what makes the wall.For Captions the format stays; the content changes. The hook is a raw clip turning into an edit, and every claim comes off the approved claims sheet.
Illustrative. One channel for everything: briefs out Monday, questions answered in threads, every post reviewed inside a day.
PROGRAMS RUNNING THIS MODELSource: Social Growth Engineers, “The Ultimate TikTok Ambassador Marketing Guide” (June 2025).
UGC only. Converting = 30+ days or 2+ versions. Early signal = real, 13 days, one version. Viral = organic posts on accounts under 5,000 followers, not Captions posts; we can’t tell whether a third party paid for any.
Hooks are verbatim ad copy or captions (Meta Ad Library; TikTok data pull), 29 Sept 2026. Captions’ catalog (DCO) ads and polished multi-language cuts are excluded, except the before/after.
All four stay inside the claims sheet. None invents a time saved or a result.
No lawsuit or regulator action against Captions or Mirage turned up in a web search on 29 Sept 2026 (not proof of absence). The work is claims and disclosure: 7 of 47 partnership ads carry #ad or “AD |” in the copy, time claims like “3+ hours” to “2 minutes” run today, “free” sits next to paid features, and the Terms require written consent from every identifiable person in an upload. FTC endorsement rules apply to every paid creator post.
All TikTok, all under 5,000 followers, counts read from the live profile on 29 Sept 2026. Each does a paid test brief and a trial month. All very TBD.
| BAND | RETAINER / MONTH | VIDEOS / WEEK | CAP INCL. BONUS |
|---|---|---|---|
| US premium | $800–1,500 | 7 | $1,500 |
| US standard | $500–600 | 7 | $1,000 |
| International, on camera | $500 | 7 | $1,000 |
| International, faceless | $500 | 10 | $1,000 |
Missed videos are deducted. 50%+ US; +1 US and +1 international each month. Month to month. Captions pays creators directly and owns usage rights on every creator video.
Target: $1 per 1,000 organic views. The defaults are illustrative, not Captions data: they land at about $2.00, not at target, and the page says so. Move the inputs and the math updates.
Estimate only: views = videos × median, breakouts at ~30× the median (~60K at a 2,000 median), viral at ~500K. Bonuses (~$300 at the defaults) not included.
| TOPIC | THIS PLAN | BENCHMARK |
|---|---|---|
| Volume for the money | 7 videos a week for $500–1,500 | SUSH: 3 a week for $500 |
| Bonus | 2 thresholds: 100K and 1M views | SUSH: $1,000 over 1M organic views |
| Roster size | 10 creators | 16–20+ ambassadors (CoupleJoy, Cheaterbuster) |
| To reach $1 at $10K | ≈ 10M views a month: about 12% breakouts and 4% viral, or a cheaper mix | Why the trial month and scoring exist |
| CREATOR | BAND | POSTS | MEDIAN | BEST | COST / 1,000 | BONUS | STATUS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creator 01 | US premium | 7 | 3,200 | 148,000 | $2.40 | +$50 | Keep |
| Creator 02 | US standard | 7 | 1,100 | 9,800 | $4.60 | none | Watch |
| Creator 03 | International, on camera | 7 | 900 | 5,400 | $5.10 | none | Replace |
| Creator 04 | US standard | 7 | 2,700 | 61,000 | $2.90 | none | Keep |
