# Core concepts

> Understand how organizations, projects, creators, accounts, videos, campaigns, and goals fit together in trackagoat.

## Data model

trackagoat is **multi-platform**. A creator is a person or brand; each creator owns one or more **accounts**, where an account is a single presence on a platform (TikTok or Instagram). **Accounts sit between creators and videos**: videos are discovered from, and hang off: an account, and the tracking configuration and raw follower/engagement stats live on the account, not the creator.

```text
Organization
  └── Project(s)
        ├── Creator(s)              : a person or brand (owns 1..n accounts)
        │     └── Account(s)        : one platform presence, tiktok | instagram
        │           └── Video(s)    : videos/posts discovered from that account
        ├── Video(s)                : standalone videos added by URL (carry a platform + account)
        ├── Content Group(s)        : link the same content across platforms
        └── Campaign(s)             : named groupings of creators, videos, and sub-campaigns
```

> **Note:**
>
> If you tracked TikTok creators before Trackagoat 2.0, nothing changed for you: each creator was migrated to have one TikTok account, and all history, videos, campaigns, goals, and payouts carried over. You only see a difference once you add an Instagram account to a creator. See [Creators and accounts](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/accounts.md).

### Organization

An **organization** is the root of your workspace. All creators, projects, campaigns, and API keys belong to an org. Your subscription tier (Free / Starter / Ultra) is set per org and determines your limits.

You can belong to multiple orgs. Roles within an org are **admin** (can manage members, settings, and API keys) or **member**.

### Project

A **project** groups creators and campaigns for a specific program or time period. Examples: `Q1 Brand Program`, `Holiday Campaign 2026`, `Always-On Ambassadors`.

Each project has:
- A **creators list**: the people/brands tracked in this project
- An **accounts list**: every platform account across those creators (the things that actually get scraped)
- A **videos list**: individual videos tracked in this project (discovered automatically or added manually)
- **Campaigns**: named groupings you can analyze together
- **Creator Goals**: per-project goal overview
- An **inbox**: videos in `pending_review` status waiting for your approval

### Creator

A **creator** is a person or brand you track. A creator **owns one or more accounts**: even more than one on the same platform, and its page defaults to the **combined** performance across all of them. Each creator has:
- A **stats history**: snapshots of follower count, total likes, and video count over time (summed across the creator's accounts)
- A **goals list**: per-creator performance targets, each with a platform scope (all accounts, one platform, or one account)
- A **change log**: automatic events when notable things happen (follower milestones, goal compliance changes)
- A **notes** field (`readme`): free-form markdown for your team's context. If the notes change while you're editing them (a teammate or an agent saved first), saving stops and asks you to reload, and your unsaved draft is kept so you can copy it back in

Creator-level stats (followers, likes, video count) are the **sum across the creator's accounts**. Add an Instagram account and the creator's follower total grows to include it.

### Account

An **account** is one of a creator's presences on a single platform (TikTok or Instagram). Accounts are where tracking actually happens: discovery, stats snapshots, and scraping all operate per account. Each account has:
- A **platform** and **handle**
- A **tracking mode** (**Auto**, **Selective**, or **Hashtag**) that controls how newly discovered videos enter the system, different accounts on the same creator can use different modes
- Its own **follower/following/likes/video** snapshot and **scrape-freshness** (`last_scraped_at`)
- The list of **videos** discovered for it

Because a creator on its own incurs no tracking cost, [plan limits](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/limits.md) count **accounts**: the thing that gets scraped: not creators. The **Accounts** tab (under *Tracking*) lists every account across all your creators in one place. See [Creators and accounts](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/accounts.md).

### Video

A **video** is an individual post that belongs to an account (and thus to that account's creator and platform). Each video has:
- A **platform** (`tiktok` / `instagram` / `youtube`) and a **media type** (`video` or `photo`)
- An **account** it was discovered from (`account_id`)
- Stats: `view_count`, `like_count`, `comment_count`, `share_count`
- A **tracking status** that controls whether it's included in campaign and project stats

#### Tracking statuses

| Status | Meaning |
|--------|---------|
| `auto_tracked` | Discovered automatically; included in all stats |
| `pending_review` | Discovered but waiting for manual review (Selective mode, or a non-matching/caption-less video in Hashtag mode) |
| `included` | Manually approved; included in stats |
| `excluded` | Excluded from stats, either manually, or automatically in Hashtag mode when "send non-matching to inbox" is off |
| `direct_add` (shown as **Added Manually**) | Added directly by URL; always included |

### Conversion

A **conversion** is an outcome your creators drove: a signup, a trial, a purchase. Each one references a **conversion event** (a project-scoped definition carrying a stable `key`, a default value, and a fixed currency) and is attributed to a creator, an account, or a video.

Attribution **rolls up**: a conversion recorded on a video also counts toward that video's account and creator, so you can attribute at whatever precision your data supports and still report at any level. The rollup is computed when the conversion arrives and is not rewritten if the video later moves.

Conversions arrive through the [v2 API](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/api-reference/conversions.md) from your own backend. There is no in-app form for recording one. See [Conversions](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/conversions.md).

### Campaign

A **campaign** is a named grouping of creators, videos, and/or other campaigns. It has **aggregate stats** that recursively sum across all items: you don't need to manually aggregate sub-campaigns.

> **Tip:**
>
> Campaigns can nest: a campaign can contain sub-campaigns. trackagoat resolves the full tree when computing stats, and prevents circular references.

Common uses:
- A brand partnership that groups several creators
- A monthly drop that groups specific videos
- A nested hierarchy like `2026 Program → Q1 → January Launch`

### Goal

A **goal** is a per-creator performance target. Examples:
- Post at least 3 videos per week
- Maintain a minimum view count per video
- Hit a follower count milestone

trackagoat tracks **compliance**: whether a creator is meeting the goal, and surfaces non-compliant creators in the goals overview.

### API key

API keys give programmatic read access to your org's data. Keys are scoped to the organization of the user who created them. A key is shown once at creation and cannot be recovered.

See [API keys](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/api-reference/authentication.md) and the [API reference](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/api-reference/overview.md) for details.

## Next steps

- [Quickstart](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/quickstart.md): Get your first creator tracked in minutes.
- [Creators and accounts](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/accounts.md): How creators own accounts across TikTok and Instagram.
- [API reference](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/api-reference/overview.md): Read-only API for programmatic access to your org's data.

---
Source: https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/concepts