# Creator goals

> Setting per-creator performance goals, understanding compliance tracking, and using the project goals overview.

## What is a goal?

A goal is a per-creator performance target. trackagoat tracks **compliance**: whether a creator is meeting the goal over time, and surfaces non-compliant creators so you can act quickly.

## Creating a goal

Open a creator, go to the **Creator Goals** tab, and click **Add goal**. You'll specify:

- **Goal type**: what metric to measure (posts, views, engagement, followers)
- **Target**: the threshold (e.g. 15 posts/week, 10,000 views/week)
- **Period**: how often to evaluate (daily, weekly, monthly)
- **Applies to**: which of the creator's accounts count toward the goal (see below)

### Applies to: platform & account scope

Because a creator can have accounts on more than one platform, every goal has an **Applies to** scope that controls which accounts contribute to it:

| Scope | Counts |
|-------|--------|
| **All platforms** (default) | Every account the creator has, across all platforms |
| **One platform** | Only accounts on the chosen platform (e.g. only TikTok posts) |
| **One account** | Only the single chosen account |

Use a platform or account scope when a creator posts on several platforms but a goal only applies to one, for example a "15 posts/week" goal that should count only TikTok posts, not Instagram Reels. A creator can have several goals with different scopes at once (e.g. an all-platform followers goal alongside a TikTok-only posting goal).

Compliance is measured **within the scope**: posts, views, engagement, and followers are counted only from the accounts the scope includes. Goals created before Trackagoat 2.0 are scoped to TikTok, so their behavior is unchanged.

Via the API, goals carry `platform_scope` (`all` \| `platform` \| `account`) plus a `platform` or `account_id` when scoped; see `POST /api/v2/creators/{id}/goals`.

> **Note: Which posts count**
>
> Posts and views goals only count a creator's **tracked posts**: videos and photo carousels with status `auto_tracked`, `included`, or `Added Manually` that aren't disabled. Posts still awaiting review in the Tracking Inbox (`pending_review`), excluded posts, and posts whose tracking has been disabled do **not** count toward goal progress.

## Compliance

Each goal has a **compliance status**:

| Status | Meaning |
|--------|---------|
| **On Track** | Creator is projected to meet the target by period end |
| **Behind Pace** | Slightly below projected pace (70 to 99% of target rate) |
| **At Risk** | Significantly behind pace (below 70% of target rate) |
| **Completed** | Period has ended and target was met |
| **Missed** | Period has ended and target was not met |

Compliance is recalculated automatically as new stats are collected.

- **Pace isn't judged at the start of a period.** For the first 15% of a period (about the first day of a week, or the first four days of a month) an unmet goal shows **On Track**, since nobody has had time to post yet.
- **Posts goals count whole posts.** A creator is behind only once a whole post is due. With 3 posts a week, nothing is due until about Wednesday.
- **Followers goals measure growth per account.** Each account is compared with its own follower count at the start of the period. An account added partway through is compared with its first count after it was added, so its existing followers don't count as growth.
- **Goals count full periods only.** See [Which periods count](#which-periods-count) below.
- **Each scope is its own goal.** If a creator has two goals for the same metric and period, both are shown when they cover different accounts, for example a TikTok posting goal and an Instagram posting goal. When two goals cover the same accounts, only the one with the higher target counts.

## Which periods count

Weekly periods run Monday to Sunday. Monthly periods run from the 1st to the last day of the month. Both follow your organization's time zone.

A goal is judged only for **full periods inside its start and end dates**:

- It is first judged in the first period that starts on or after its start date. A weekly goal that starts on a Sunday, or any day after Monday, is first judged the following week. A monthly goal that starts after the 1st is first judged the following month.
- It is last judged in the last period that ends on or before its end date.
- A start date on a period's first day (a Monday, or the 1st), or an end date on its last day, includes that period.
- The partial period at either end is **not judged at all**. It never shows **Missed** or **At Risk**, and it earns no goal-based payout.

Where you see this:

| Place | What it shows |
|-------|---------------|
| Add Goal / Edit Goal | A note under the dates, for example "This goal is first judged for the week of Oct 5 to 11. The partial week before it isn't judged and earns no goal-based payout." or "Last judged week: Sep 21 to 27. The partial week after it isn't judged and earns no goal-based payout." If no full period fits between the dates, the note says the goal is never judged. |
| Creator Goals tab | Under each goal's status, the range it's judged in, for example "Judged Oct 5 to Dec 27". When you pick a week or month the goal isn't judged in, it shows **Not judged this period**; hover it for the reason, for example "Starts mid-week on Sun Oct 4. First judged week: Oct 5 to 11." |
| Project goals overview | **Not judged** in the goal's column, with the same reason on hover and in the creator's detail. |
| Program Health | The **Goal Status** widget counts goals not judged this period separately from On Track, At Risk and Missed. |
| Creator share page | Goals not judged this period, with the reason. |
| Payouts | See [Goals-based payouts and partial periods](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/payouts.md#goals-based-payouts-and-partial-periods). |

## Data advisories

A small amber **⚠ caution icon** appears next to the status badge when a period has recently closed but data may still be processing. Hover it to see the reason.

The icon only appears when a period closed within the **last 48 hours**, the window during which late-period posts may still be working their way through the scrape pipeline. Once 48 hours have elapsed, the icon disappears and the numbers are considered final.

The underlying `advisory` object in the API also tracks `period_in_progress`, `scrape_stale`, and `not_yet_started` as raw flags for programmatic consumers, but only `period_recently_ended` drives the visible indicator in the UI.

## Project goals overview

Go to **Creator Goals** in the sidebar to see compliance across all creators in your project. This gives you a quick at-a-glance view of who's on track and who needs attention.

At-risk and missed creators are sorted to the top. Click any creator to open their detail and understand why they're flagged.

## Goal badges

Creator cards and the goals overview show **compliance badges**: small colored indicators next to each goal. An advisory caution icon appears inline when the data may not be final (see above).

## Using goals with campaigns

Goals are per-creator, not per-campaign, and campaign pages don't show goal compliance. Check compliance on **Creator Goals** or on a creator's **Goals** tab.

To give a campaign its own goal, set a **View Target** and **Target Date** on the campaign. See [View target and target date](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/campaigns.md#view-target-and-target-date).

- [Creators](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/accounts.md): Add creators and their accounts, configure tracking modes, and monitor performance.
- [Campaigns](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/campaigns.md): Group creators and videos into campaigns with aggregate stats.
- [Analytics](https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/analytics.md): Analyze performance trends across your program.

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Source: https://www.trackagoat.com/docs/guides/goals