Work out the actual end date
The term runs from the licence start date, which is frequently not the delivery date. Contracts commonly start the clock at first publication, or at a stated campaign start, and the gap between delivery and first use can be weeks.
If the agreement names a start date, use it. If it says the term runs from first publication, the date the brand first ran the content is your start — ask them, and record the answer. If nothing was written down at all, you do not have a term; you have an open-ended permission. That is worth knowing, and worth fixing on the next deal rather than arguing about on this one.
- Stated start date — Simple. Term runs from the date named in the agreement.
- From first publication — Ask the brand when it went live and record it. Screenshot the first live placement if you can.
- From delivery — The date you handed over the files. The most creator-favourable default and worth asking for.
- Nothing stated — No enforceable term. Treat it as a lesson for the next contract, and raise it at renewal rather than retrospectively.
Duration is only one of four dimensions
A licence can expire in ways that have nothing to do with the calendar. Scope matters as much as term, and it is where the more valuable conversations sit.
Media is the one that catches people out most: a licence for paid social does not cover connected TV, out-of-home, or a national print campaign, and a brand scaling a successful creative into new channels frequently exceeds the grant without realising. Territory works the same way — a licence for one market does not travel when the brand expands.
- Duration — How long. The dimension everyone tracks.
- Media — Which channels. Organic social, paid social, whitelisting, website, email, print, broadcast — each distinct.
- Territory — Which markets. A licence for one country does not cover a regional rollout.
- Exclusivity — Whether you are barred from competitors, and for how long. This one expires too, and when it does you are free to sell to the category again.
Checking whether content is still running
You do not have to guess. The major paid social platforms publish public ad libraries, and anyone can search a brand's page and see the creatives it is currently running along with how long each has been live. It takes a minute.
This is worth doing for two reasons that pull in the same direction. It tells you whether an expired licence is still live, and — more valuably — whether a soon-to-expire one is still running, which means it is performing. A creative a brand has kept live for months is a creative they will want to keep, and that is the entire argument for renewal.
Screenshot before you ask
If you find content running past expiry, capture the live placement with a visible date before raising it. It may come down within hours of your message, which is the outcome you want — but you will have no record of the overrun if you did not capture it first.
Turning expiry into renewal
Time the conversation thirty days before expiry, not after. Renewing is easy while the content is still running and the brand can see it working; it is awkward once it has been pulled, because you are asking them to restart something rather than continue it.
Lead with the performance rather than the paperwork. 'The licence on the two videos ends on the 14th — they have been running since March, so I assume they are working. Happy to extend for another six months at X.' That is a purchase decision framed as continuity, and it converts far better than a notice that a term is ending.
Renewals are the highest-margin income in the business. No shooting, no editing, no pitching — just an agreement to keep running an asset that already exists and is already proven.
When a brand is still using content after expiry
Assume oversight, because it nearly always is. Someone set up a campaign months ago and no one has revisited the creative rotation since. A message that treats it as a legal violation escalates something that a factual note would have resolved in a day.
State the term, state what you have seen, and offer renewal pricing. Most of the time this converts into a paid extension, which is a better outcome than the content coming down. If it is ignored repeatedly, or the use is substantial, that is the point to consider formal advice — but that point is much further away than it feels.
Making this automatic
Whatever you use, the expiry has to surface without you looking for it. A date in a spreadsheet is passive — you will check it when you remember, which is not when it matters. A calendar reminder set at agreement time, with a second one thirty days before, is the minimum viable version and costs nothing.
The better version stores the term and scope on the deal record itself, so that when the reminder arrives you can see what was actually granted rather than going back to the contract. The failure mode you are designing against is a reminder that fires and tells you something is expiring without telling you what it covered.