Before You Start

You can launch an incentive campaign on your own in just a few minutes using Merkl Studio. However, there are a few prerequisites to complete beforehand.

⚙️ Merkl’s core principles

Before setting up your campaign on Merkl, make sure you have read and understood:

• Merkl’s reward distribution process (reward computation vs. reward update, dispute period, etc.)
• The different incentive mechanisms (campaign types, distribution types, scoring types)
• How to personalize your campaign using customization options
• Merkl forwarding system
• What the configuration of a campaign is
• Additional features that can make your campaign unique
• Our guides: practical walkthroughs to help you launch your first campaign, including:
  • How to size your campaign budget
  • How to test your campaign before going live

Some Merkl features (e.g., new distribution types, campaign types, customization options) may not be directly available in the campaign creation flow. If a required configuration option is not available in the frontend, make sure to check our docs for advanced campaign creation.

📝 Token whitelisting

Before starting your campaign, you need to ensure that the token you want to use as reward with Merkl has been whitelisted.

We usually process token whitelisting requests once a day, and it's a way for us to ensure that we will be able to properly compute APRs and that the token will be safe to use for our users. Campaigns must distribute at least ~$1/hour in total rewards to avoid dusting.

You can check whether your token is already whitelisted by setting it as the reward token in the Merkl studio. If your token is not whitelisted, please submit the reward token’s price source and logo by filling out this whitelisting form.

Campaign launch flow

When creating your first campaign with Merkl, keep in mind that it may take up to 1 hour for the campaign to become visible on the Merkl app.

It's normal for TVLs and APRs to show as 0 when your campaign first appears. In most cases, the Merkl system dynamically fetches and updates these values every 10 minutes, but for complex campaigns, it may require an engine computation cycle (up to 2 hours) to accurately calculate and display TVLs, as described in the technical overview.

It's also expected for your campaign's leaderboard to appear empty right after launch. The Merkl Engine needs time to perform the necessary computations before this data becomes available. The first rewards typically become claimable approximately 8 hours after campaign creation, though pending rewards should appear within 2 hours after they start.

Merkl terms

You must also make sure that you have read and understood Merkl's Terms & Conditions. You will be required to agree to these terms during the campaign setup process.