TikTok Affiliate Marketing: A Lucrative Opportunity
TikTok has launched a new feature that allows users to shop directly from its app. TikTok affiliate marketing is a massive opportunity on one of the most disruptive platforms of the past decade, and now with the newest, most lucrative feature that TikTok has launched, affiliate marketing has become more possible than ever. This is a huge opportunity, and while we don’t know if it’s going to be short-lived or enduring, right now there is a big opportunity to make a lot of money on TikTok. In this video, I’m going to talk about three ways you can monetize TikTok with affiliate marketing, starting with the biggest and probably the most obvious one, which is through TikTok Shop.
Monetization Method One: TikTok Shop and Tagging Products
Since TikTok launched TikTok Shop several months ago, they’ve been making millions of dollars, and sellers have been making millions as well. This is obviously a very lucrative strategy for TikTok, and what they want is for creators to promote these products. That’s the best way to get these shared in front of viewers, and to do that, they’re pushing an affiliate program. We’ve seen this before on many other platforms; whenever a platform is incentivizing a new program, there’s so much opportunity. So now is a great time to get started with TikTok affiliate marketing.
How to Get Started with TikTok Affiliate Marketing
Method number one in this video is going to be tagging products from TikTok Shop. If we just go on TikTok right here, you can find any TikTok that has a little link on the bottom, which is a very common thing these days, and that is actually an affiliate link. So if I tap on that link, as a viewer, I can check out on TikTok and make the purchase. When I make that purchase, the creator of the video that I first saw when I clicked on that link is going to get a commission. Sometimes it’s $5, sometimes it’s $10, but whatever it is, you can imagine how, with massive viewership which TikTok definitely allows you to reach, you can scale this substantially and make a lot of money as more people buy those $5 or $10 products. Think about it; if you make one video and that video gets several million views, and you’re able to get 1,000 people to go through that link, you just made $5,000 off of one video.
Access to Free Product Samples
Unlike a lot of other platforms that may require you to buy a lot of products and have overhead costs to create content about those products, TikTok is now allowing you to get free samples of these products that you can then promote. It’s very easy within the platform; you can get free samples of all types of different products, make content about them, and then earn affiliate commissions. Plus, you get the added bonus of receiving a free product in the first place.
Criteria and Steps to Begin
There are three main criteria to get started with this. Firstly, you have to be at least 18 years old. Secondly, always comply with FTC guidelines. FTC compliance is very important. Thirdly, TikTok wants you to have 5,000 followers to enable this. However, you can actually set this up with fewer than 5,000 followers at the time of filming this video, and I’m going to show you how to do that.
Link Setup: Becoming a TikTok Seller
Now, on TikTok, go to the hamburger menu on the top right, tap on “My QR Code,” and then tap on the scanner on the top right. This will allow you to scan the barcode that pops up on your desktop. If you have 5,000 subscribers, this will bring you into the program. If you don’t have 5,000 followers, it’ll tell you that you are not eligible.
Alternative Path for Ineligibility
That brings us to the next step in this article for anybody who is not eligible. It’s really simple; we just have a couple of extra steps. Essentially, you need to become a TikTok seller. You don’t have to sell anything, but you need to be registered as a TikTok seller, and then you’ll be able to be a TikTok affiliate marketer regardless of how many followers you have.
Creating Your Seller Account
Link number two allows you to set up your TikTok Shop. Click on “Get Started,” and then scroll down to “Learn More.” Click on “Learn More,” and that’ll bring you to this page. Now you can either sign up with your TikTok account or make a new one. I’m going to make a new seller account with just my email. Then we type in the verification code and create a password.
Account Setup and Verification
It’s going to ask us a couple of quick questions. If you are an individual, that’s great; it’s a sole proprietorship. If you’ve filed for a business, like if you’re an LLC, for example, you’d go down here. I’m just going to say “individual” for now and use a US driver’s licence.
Finalizing Your Shop Setup
Now you can create a shop name; this doesn’t actually matter. For primary products, don’t do anything regulated like supplements or food. I would go with something like household appliances as an easy one. This will bring you to this page; it may take a minute to get reviewed. You can add your tax information.
Integration with TikTok
Once you get the green check mark, click on the top right, then “My Account,” and then “Linked Account.” Then on TikTok, go back to the menu, go to “My QR Code,” tap on the scanner, and click on “Link Official Account.” Scan the QR code, and then you’ll be able to tag products on TikTok Shop.
Selecting and Promoting Products
Now that we’re all on the same page, regardless of your account size, we want to make some content, tag some products, or request some free samples that we can use in upcoming article. To do this, go to the top right, tap on the menu icon, tap on “Creator Tools,” and then tap on “TikTok Shop for Creators.” This is the Creator Centre I was talking about. Tap on “Go to Product Marketplace.”
Product Selection and Content Creation
Here, you’ll see a ton of products that you can promote. You can search for products based on what you’ve found successful for other people or within a specific category. For example, if you have a tech review channel, you might check out electronics and scroll through the options. Some products may be more suitable for promotion than others.
Requesting Free Samples
For instance, if you find a product like this air purifier, which costs $171 and offers a $25.65 commission per sale, you can request a free sample if you have some following. You just need to select what you want, request the free sample, fill out the form, and they’ll send it to you.
Content Creation and Disclosure
To promote a product, you can either add it to your showcase for people to find on your profile or create a shoppable video. Simply name the product, film a video showcasing it, and publish it with appropriate metadata like hashtags and a caption.
Compliance and Trust Building
Additionally, you can tap on the shop icon in the middle of your account page to add products to your showcase or view messages and proposals from potential sellers.It’s crucial to follow FTC guidelines and disclose your affiliate links transparently in your videos. This builds trust with your audience and may increase the likelihood of them using your links.
