Everything You Need to Know About TikTok’s Affiliate Program

Paid marketing strategies don’t always offer the best return on investment; oftentimes, advertising agencies will require that you pay upfront, with no guarantee that you’ll get new customers to purchase your products. Even other schematic plans that are often considered, like cost-per-click advertising, don’t pan out the way you want them to. Why? Because swiping your credit card for clicks could mean that you get a thousand people to view your profile, but it could also mean that you get zero people to view your profile. What are the chances you’ll increase your retail sales with that kind of unstable projection?

This problem that we’re faced with really only points to one feasible solution: Affiliate marketing. With this option easily accessible, you can sign a contract where payouts are directly tied to sales. If you don’t make money, neither does the affiliate network. A rare loss of money sounds better to us than a potential and drastic decline in revenue due to teaming up with the wrong campaign runners, doesn’t it?

Which then brings us to the purpose of this article: To discuss all things related to the TikTok affiliate program. By the end, you’ll know the in’s and out’s. You’ll know why it’s crucial to choose this route of business to obtain maximum reach and grab ahold of additional retail sales. And if you need any additional help with navigating, you can lean on the TikTok promotion service that’s here to help. Influensly is not only a service that provides the best digital marketing techniques, but it also leverages analytics and automated audience targeting. As TikTok users, you can refine audience reach based on location, language, interests, and relevant hashtags. Sounds like a great plan of action to us!

Time to get started…

What is Affiliate Marketing? How Does it Work?

In the introductory paragraphs, we did generally summarize what an average affiliate marketing model would look like: A signed contract between a brand and creator where payouts are directly tied to sales. But we didn’t want to leave the explanation at that basic level; we wanted to give you a little bit more information to persuade you down this correct choice path.

Let’s start here: As soon as a partnership is established between brand and creator, the creator begins promoting the brand’s products via social media with a unique link. [For the sake of this article, we’ll focus on product promotion through TikTok, but encouragement to purchase through other platforms like IG, Facebook, blogging, and email are still valid.] Once a customer clicks the creator’s affiliate product links and buys an item, a portion that’s considered *predetermined commission* is paid by the brand to the creator. A win-win!

Why does this system work? Because brands reach more audience members by pairing up with creators that have a hefty following. Granting a small income to the creator that’s vouching for the credibility of the business is a small sum for a brand to pay to gain customer expansion.

You can also choose to use the TikTok shop affiliate program by yourself, without any outside sources or influencers helping you achieve your goal. Signing up is relatively easy, and we’ll talk in more depth about that later on.

Why Should You Choose Affiliate Marketing on TikTok?

If you’re a TikTok business account owner, you know just how important the viral app is for your popularity track record. Ever since launch, TT has made an immediate name for itself, spanning regions and hitting nations by surprise.

Which brings us to the teamwork between an affiliate marketer and a brand: Both sides beneficially prosper.

If you’re going solo without the outside help of affiliate marketers used to their role in the game, that’s fine, too.

Either way, if you’re looking for reasons to give you that extra push you may need to say ‘yes,’ here are some:

• Engaging in affiliate marketing business offers quick audience growth.
• Signing a solidified contract with an affiliate program can greatly increase engagement rates.
• The potential to become viral is magnified with an affiliate marketer.
• Influencers that you partner up with on a campaign have a substantial impact in customers’ purchasing decisions.
• With all your affiliate links in different areas, you’ll have the capacity to reach diverse audiences nationally and abroad.
• Specifically using affiliate marketing on TikTok grants users creative freedom to generate short-form video content for people to see, mainly showcasing how to use products and their benefits.
• You can easily integrate an e-commerce TikTok business account into the scenario, making it easier for users to buy products directly from the app.

Ways to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing

In this particular section, we’re going to focus on both affiliate marketers promoting products and creators doing their own work to obtain sales. One prioritizes teamwork, the other prioritizes independence. What do they look like?

If you’re a creator promoting others’ products on TikTok…

You can leverage organic traffic.

The best part about naturally steering new followers to your profile is that it’s entirely free. Bonus: The return on investment is typically permanent or long-term at worst.

The trick is that you need to be patient with this avenue of promotion, especially if you’re a newbie seller. Some great ways to go about the process include:

• Add affiliate links to your bio → The major inconvenient roadblock in the TikTok system is this: You can’t directly place a clickable link in a video or comment for followers to access. You can copy and paste a URL into either, but it won’t be highlighted. Meaning users will have to physically type out complex websites in a different tab (we know it’s not a major “ask,” but let’s be honest, TikTok was created for ease of use; no one ‘wants’ to do additional, stressful tasks). So, what do you do in its place? You start by upgrading your personal account to a business account – if you haven’t already done so. Then, you click your icon at the bottom right corner of your screen, click “Edit Profile,” and you’ll automatically see a section that shows “Add Your Website.” Input whatever affiliate link you’d like there. Just remember, only one can be active at a time.
• Add a Linktree to your bio → If you’ve been a TikTok affiliate for a long period of time, chances are you have more than one brand you’re working with. You can’t choose a single business to promote, because they all hold a *special place in your heart.* So, what do you do? Set up a Linktree so that you can toss as many clickable links onto the landing page as you need to. Then, attach the bridge page URL directly to your bio, and you’ll be good to go.
• Connect with social media → Having an account on any social media platform is completely free, offering an extension of TikTok affiliate marketing almost automatically. The instructions to take advantage of this nifty option are the same as adding a clickable link to your bio. Just head on over to the “Me” icon at the bottom right corner of your screen and edit your profile. You’ll see a section dedicated to YouTube, and one dedicated to Instagram. Copy and paste your URLs there and watch as traffic bounces from one platform to another. With this suggestion, you have ample opportunity to make videos and take pictures of the products you’re promoting.
• Offer discount codes → An easy way to get buyers interested in items you’re promoting is this: Give them a coupon or discount code granted to you from the brand. You see, brands understand that the ROI is pretty high when they do this, even though they’re ‘losing’ money by taking some off the grand total price. Why? Because customers are more likely to buy an item for the first time if there’s some type of sale. When given these codes, be sure to mention it in your videos AND add them to your captions.

You can use TikTok’s paid advertising.

If you’re a beginner in the TikTok affiliate marketing niche, paid advertising is the way to go. Why? Because it’s difficult to increase your following exponentially at the start; a little boost will only be beneficial to the success of your campaign – and the business you’re teaming up with.

Just keep in mind that you will have to bid to get your ads to appear on viewers’ screens. But even though you’ll be spending out-of-pocket money, you’ll have the opportunity to be very specific about who sees your content, aligning the correct target audience with the products you’re selling.

If you’re looking to promote your own affiliate program…

There’s a standard process we suggest you follow for the best results. You can implement one of the following three actions, or you can choose to adopt all at the same time:

1. Genuinely craft affiliate offers → This suggestion goes hand-in-hand with the above, meaning you’ll need to find a TikTok affiliate marketing guy or gal to team up with. Prior to signing a contract or establishing negotiations, you’ll need to select commission-worthy products from your line. Remember, you want to make a profit on everything you allow creators to sell. That means you need to carefully select items and persuasively determine rates. From there, you must be willing to let go of revenue – to release as commission with the intent that the process will give you a high ROI down the line. The partnership is mutually beneficial, if you give it time to work.
2. Put thought into establishing your program → First things first: You need to know if you’ll be independently operating or dependently operation. What’s the difference? If you’re independent, you’ll need to learn how to navigate certain internal TikTok tools. If you’re dependent, you can put all the pressure on a TikTok affiliate marketing person or team to get the job done. Less revenue will come in this way, especially at first.
3. Choose the right creators for your brand → Offers are established, and you’ve decided to work with someone else on the advertising portion of your business. Great idea; creators promote brands all the time! And they’re very successful. When choosing, be sure to speak directly to people that align with your brand. For example, if you’re selling workout equipment, the go-to influencer would be a gym trainer. You can also still stick with the independent path; if you’re self-managing, you’ll need to put some extra effort into promoting your program through websites and external social media. Utilizing multiple links will be a great first step to making this route more successful.

How to Get Started with TikTok’s Affiliate Program

If you’re a seller and are planning on doing it solo, check out this quick and easy to do list:

1. Sign up for TikTok Shop —> Register as a seller and you’ll automatically have access to the affiliate program.
2. Learn the Creator Tools → Click the “Creator Tools,” tap on “TikTok for Creators,” and you’ll be let into the Product Marketplace.
3. Sell Products → From there, you’ll be able to choose which products you want to promote. **If you’re a creator instead of a brand, you may want to request samples from the business you’re working with. And get the proper clickable links to add to your profile to earn commissions.
4. Create Content → Solo: Make engaging videos showcasing the products you’re trying to sell. You can tell stories, utilize trends, or zoom in to offer close-up visuals for viewers. The same goes for creators!

General Conclusion: Highlighted Pros & Cons of Affiliate Marketing

You can personally use TikTok shop affiliate marketing, or you can hire creators to promote brands that you’ve established over the years. Both options point to the same conclusion: There are benefits and drawbacks to the promotional business itself.

In this article, we’ve spoken on all things related to adopting an affiliate program. Here, we want to give you a last-minute consensus. What’s great? What’s nothing to brag about? These bulleted points will surely make up your mind.

The Pros…

• TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform, so advertising here will automatically grant you unlimited access to customers across the world.
• With just a handful of quality videos, you can reach higher levels of engagement than traditional marketing ever would, thanks to the algorithm.
• It’s easy to create enjoyable content, you don’t even need experience in filming and editing.
• Short-form video formats make it easy for creators and sellers to showcase product reviews and demonstrations, increasing the brand credibility.
• Many users on the app are able and willing to try new products, especially when suggested by a top-tier influencer.
• Linking to outside social media sites like IG and YouTube is easy, increasing your ability to span audiences.
• Attaching unique affiliate links to your profile as a stand-alone site or a Linktree is incredibly easy.
• Both organic trafficking and paid advertising options are accessible.

The Cons…

• Clickable TikTok shop affiliate links cannot be added to videos or captions.
• Advertising formats, outside of affiliate contracts that you choose to mutually agree on, can be expensive.
• The platform may require experimentation with features, trends, and the algorithm to see consistent performance on content.
• There is a saturation in popular categories like fashion, beauty, lifestyle, cooking, and fitness; competition is high, so you’ll have to create videos that stick in viewers’ minds.
• The general audience on the app is teens and young adults – some middle-aged folks. Promoting products can be difficult if you have items that are geared towards other generations.

And with that, we’ve done our job. We hope all the information above has helped you decide whether or not you should take the next step in promotions. Until next time!