Integrations
Meta, Shopify and Stripe: what each one connects, what it can see, and what it is allowed to change.
Overview
Hotline connects to three services today. Each one is optional except Meta, which the core loop depends on. Growth and Agency also come with a private Slack channel, covered below.
Meta
Publish approved videos into your ad account and read their performance.
Shopify
Mirror your catalogue so creators can request free product.
Stripe
Pay creators into accounts they own.
All three are connected from Settings, not during onboarding, and in whatever order you like. See Settings for what else lives on that tab.
Meta
The one integration the product does not work without. It publishes your approved videos and reads back what they did.
What it can do
Hotline creates ads in your ad account paused. Nothing it publishes can spend money until a person turns it on in Meta.
It reads spend, impressions, clicks, reach, video plays, purchases and purchase value for the ads it created, every two hours, and attaches them to the video and creator behind each ad.
Permissions requested
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
ads_read | Read performance for the ads Hotline created |
ads_management | Create the ad, its creative and its adset |
business_management | Resolve which ad accounts you have access to |
pages_read_engagement, pages_show_list | Identify the Page an ad runs from |
instagram_basic | Read the linked Instagram account |
instagram_branded_content_ads_brand | Run partnership ads under a creator's handle, when enabled |
Your ad account, pixel and audiences stay yours. Hotline never sets a budget, never changes a bid, and never turns an ad on.
Connecting
Open Settings
Find the Meta card in Settings.
Authorise
Sign in to Meta and grant access. Revoking access later leaves ads already published running; they simply stop reporting back into Hotline.
Choose the ad account
Pick the ad account this workspace publishes into and reads from.
Shopify
Connect a store and Hotline mirrors your product catalogue, so creators can ask for the products they need to film with.
What it can do
Hotline writes to your store. It creates a draft order at a 100% discount and completes it, which is how a gift reaches a creator. That is the only order it ever creates, and no payment method is used.
| Scope | Why |
|---|---|
read_products | Mirror the catalogue creators choose from |
read_inventory | Avoid offering something out of stock |
read_orders, read_fulfillments | Track a gift parcel through to delivery |
write_draft_orders | Create the gift order itself |
Hotline does not read your customer records and stores no Shopify customer identifier. A creator's name, email and shipping address are supplied by the creator and passed to Shopify only so the order can be shipped to them.
Connecting
Install Hotline UGC from the Shopify App Store onto your store, then link it to your workspace when the app prompts you. Once linked, sync your products from the app's setup section and the catalogue appears under Content.
Gifting
What creators can request, the limits you can set, and how a parcel is tracked.
Stripe
Creator payouts run on Stripe Connect.
Creators onboard to Stripe themselves, so the money lands in an account they own and control. Hotline never holds creator funds: a pay run charges the brand first and pays creators only once that payment settles.
Connect the workspace
Open the Stripe card in Settings and connect your account.
Creators onboard
Each creator completes Stripe onboarding from their own Earnings page. Until they do, a balance can accrue but cannot be paid out.
Run a pay run
From Payouts, pay everyone whose balance has cleared its hold period and reached the minimum, or put pay runs on a schedule and let them charge a saved payment method.
Royalties and payouts
Both kinds of pay run, and how a creator cashes out.
Slack
Growth and Agency include a private Slack channel with the Hotline team, and that channel is also where your workspace's updates are posted.
| Posted to the channel | When it updates |
|---|---|
| New uploads | Again when you approve one or ask for changes |
| Creator messages | One thread per conversation |
| Pay runs | From waiting for payment through to complete |
It is not an app you install in your own Slack. Hotline's bot posts into the channel the plan includes, which is why there is nothing to authorise.
Find the invite
Slack emails the invite to the billing owner. The Support card on Settings, then Integrations, shows where it went.
Join
Once you have accepted, the card's button becomes Open in Slack.
Starter does not include a channel. Support for Starter is hello@hotlineugc.com, which is a real inbox either way.
Not available yet
Klaviyo appears in Settings as a placeholder so you can see what is coming. It does nothing today.
Klaviyo
Planned: send your best performing creator content into campaigns, show creator attributed revenue beside your email and SMS numbers, and sync creators as profiles.
Connecting your own tools
Beyond the three above, a workspace on Growth or Agency can read its own data directly.