Every business owner wants to reach as many people as possible to make their company valuable and prosperous. However, it is not an easy task, and there is always a need to look for some solutions that will help reach these goals. TikTok is one of the most trendy social platforms, with over one billion active users. And that is why many affiliate marketers consider this platform the perfect place to promote business online and reach the desired results.
In this in-depth article, we will provide you with the ultimate guide to affiliate marketing on TikTok in 2024 and share with you the proven ways to make money with the help of this influential social media and affiliate marketing. But firstly, let us explain why you should consider TikTok for the aforementioned purposes.
Why TikTok?
Every good marketer knows that the only way to get ahead of the competition is to develop marketing strategies proactively. Using TikTok for your business is a well-thought-out decision, not a bold assumption.
The early adopters of Instagram and Facebook have proven that if you recognize and use a social media platform early in its existence, you can quickly become an opinion leader and get the most out of marketing.
TikTok is a relatively new social platform launched in early 2017. Even though the platform has been operating in the market for almost five years, it has reached insane popularity. Over one billion people use this social media for different purposes, mainly for entertainment. And in 2021, TikTok has become the most downloadable application globally with over 656 million new downloads, overrunning such social giants as Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp (the detailed data is displayed in the table below).
It is evident that this social media has tremendous potential in terms of business promotion with the help of affiliate marketing.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process by which businesses solicit the help of affiliates to sell their products or services in exchange for rewards (usually, money rewards). Typically, companies encourage affiliates to promote their product by giving them a percentage of sales from their affiliate link, as in other reward programs.
Affiliate marketing should not be confused with a referral marketing program (which works with loyal customers) because affiliates do not have to be existing customers. However, even if affiliates are not customers, they must have an audience that includes the company’s target market.
Using affiliate marketing, an affiliate displays their personal link as an advertisement on their blog or uses it in a piece of content. For example, a blogger might provide a link to a product in their review or article.
In most cases, affiliates sign up for the company’s affiliate program. But sometimes, a company may ask trendy bloggers and online celebrities to link to specific products and the like (similar to an influencer program). Regardless of how the person became an affiliate, there is one thing in common: the affiliate link that the affiliate promotes to their subscribers.
How does affiliate marketing on TikTok work?
Affiliate marketing involves the seller paying the affiliate to attract more consumers. The process comes full circle in affiliate marketing:
- The seller pays the affiliate.
- The affiliate attracts the consumer.
- The consumer buys from the seller.
Affiliate marketing involves performance, compensation, and revenue sharing. Typically, affiliates do not need to sell the product directly. Instead, they are engaged in promoting the product, for which they receive a commission. An affiliate will get paid when promoting a certain product leads to a transaction. Using affiliate marketing involves these steps:
- Step 1: Vendors identify affiliates in their niche.
More often than not, affiliate marketing is appropriate for affiliates who have some knowledge in a particular niche. An example might be a natural cosmetics brand that teams up with a beauty blogger. Or a book publisher has the opportunity to partner with a book critic or expert.
- Step 2: Vendors provide their affiliate link to the affiliate.
Affiliate Marketing uses cookies and pixel tracking to calculate affiliate effectiveness. This affiliate link helps determine the effectiveness of their interaction with their audience.
- Step 3: Affiliates are compensated for effective performance.
Most affiliates get paid for displaying their affiliate link when using affiliate marketing. Payment terms may vary, but the most common is to pay a percentage of each sale.
What can you do on TikTok?
TikTok can drag on for a long time – all thanks to the unique capabilities of the application. So what can you do on this social network?
Record and edit videos. Everything works in the same way as on Instagram – you shoot a video with a round red button in the center of the screen. Tip: It is best to upload videos shot vertically. You can edit it using the built-in TikTok tools when the material is ready. Videos can be divided into several parts, add audio tracks, and record answers to other users’ videos.
Participate in challenges. If you are watching a dozen similar videos of the same subject, you most likely came across one of the many thousands of challenges that are the leading entertainment for Tiktokers. Check the hashtags under the video – most likely, you will find the name of the challenge there. For example, Jimmy Fallon’s popular hashtag #tumbleweedchallenge. Such actions encourage users to record more videos with the appropriate hashtag to gain more views and followers, which is a great way to promote a novice account.
Like, share, and comment. You can send the video you like to a friend, leave a comment under him, or like your favorite TikToker. This algorithm is very similar to those you can see on many other photos and video platforms on social networks, such as Instagram or YouTube.
Why does TikTok matter for business growth?
Over one billion downloads, a young, solvent audience with new views, ease of interaction with it, instant response, and an almost complete lack of competition – all this sounds very tempting for a business that is going to advertise its product on TikTok.
The main advantage of TikTok is the ability to collect several million subscribers in just one or two months. There are many such examples. One of them is 15-year-old Charlie Damelio. The girl managed 70 million subscribers, which brought her a weekly profit of a million dollars. Thus, what celebrities spend more than a year on can now be obtained in one week, thanks to TikTok.
Another advantage of TikTok is its incubator of viral trends, hashtags, and challenges. You can be sure – if a song or challenge goes viral on TikTok, you will soon see and hear them in every corner of the world, and it does not matter whether it will be in a small cafe or a children’s center. This is a great way to gain popularity for your brand if it can potentially become viral.
Before you launch a marketing campaign on TikTok, you should realize that your advertising should not be too intricate or fancy. This application is designed for entertainment content. The most incredible popularity is gained by those commercials that intrigue, encourage action and force the viewer to watch the video to the end. There is no competition on this stage now – Generation Z appreciates powerful and familiar brands.
Here you will not be able to sell your products, but you can imagine your company and help it become a brand in the eyes of Tiktokers.
Before launching a marketing campaign on TikTok, you should consider a simple rule: fewer technical components and more ideas and creativity. A marketing strategy in TikTok can be an effective method of promotion if:
- You know how to present goods and services;
- Your brand has no strict restrictions in expressing its position;
- You know how to describe a product or service in 15 seconds.
Creativity, cooking, fashion, makeup, courses (for example, foreign languages), etc. – these topics will fit perfectly into the TikTok format. It will also be appropriate to discuss other videos from the platform so that you know how to express your point of view about any trendy content directly or indirectly related to the scope of your business.
There are three primary ways to work with TikTok marketing tools:
- You can create your channel and upload the related videos.
- You can work with influencers to distribute content to a broader range of users.
- You can buy advertising on TikTok. It is worth noting that it is too early to talk about it. The TikTok market is still very far from the YouTube market in this regard.
Many brands combine maintaining their channels and collaborations with influencers to distribute content to a broader audience. You can try out some of the ideas listed below on your channel or collaborate with influencers to create and distribute such content.
Advertising possibilities on TikTok
As on other platforms, TikTok has two ways to get traffic – organic and paid. First of all, let us talk about ways to get organic traffic. First, the brand needs to create its channel on the platform so that users have a place to go and get more information. Ideally, your first step in the new territory should be made with the support of well-known influencers or brands already known on TikTok.
A considerable advantage of TikTok as a marketing platform is the built-in feature that the developers have intentionally added to the application, which allows you to share video content outside TikTok. Thus, you will be able to upload your videos to Facebook or Youtube, distributing unique content more and more according to your TikTok marketing strategy.
If you are interested in paid TikTok advertising, the price will directly depend on the method of promotion. There are only four of them in TikTok advertising:
Brand banner. This full-screen banner appears when you log in to the application. It is implemented in static advertising lasting up to 3 seconds or in the video up to 5 seconds. The procurement model is CPM and CPT. This format allows you to bring users to a third-party site, App Store/Google Play, or TikTok internal page. The average price of CPM is $6. The daily entrance threshold from the site is $6,000.
Video advertising is built into the feed. This method is a pop-up advertisement in the feed and appears when users view the content. This can be compared to promotional posts on other social networks. This type of advertising is implemented in the format of video recording lasting up to 15 seconds. The procurement model is CPM and CPT. The average cost of CPM is $6, with an entrance threshold of $7,800. It is allowed to promote a business account in the application, add a CTA to a third-party site, and apply interactive mechanics to publication.
Hashtag challenge. A banner appears in the search section and announces new activities. This format is used by popular Tiktokers, integrating branded hashtags and music jingles into their videos. Thus, other users will find out about a particular challenge. The cost of launching the challenge is $60,000.
Augmented reality. You have the opportunity to promote your brand with masks, stickers, lenses, and other creative elements of the application. There is an option to add 2D and 3D elements.
How does the TikTok algorithm work?
It should be clarified that TikTok and other social networks do not disclose their algorithms. Also, the algorithms are periodically changed to improve the work in the interests of the audience. This makes it very difficult for TikTok’s users who want to get noticed in recommendations. But many people are now in the business of tracking and defining algorithms as accurately as possible because understanding the system will help gain more views and subscribers. Below are a few common assumptions that all Influencers use.
Algorithms update quickly
The system is set up to identify and rebuild for the last some time on the site; quickly notice that trends are changing rapidly, and you need to keep up with them. In the same way, trends affect the algorithms that determine the popularity potential of the published video. If a video was shot on a popular trend a month ago, it will likely not make it to the top.
How does TikTok promote videos?
Live review can only be done when there are complaints. When it comes to recommendations, promotion in the social network is entirely dependent on robots and automatic algorithms. Checking such a large number of videos by live people is simply unrealistic.
TikTok is more loyal to newcomers
Algorithms allow new users to become popular. After creating an account on TikTok and publishing the first few videos with the addition of hashtags, the blogger will likely end up on the recommendation list. Here you can discover the first catch – videos from the new account get into recommendations precisely to determine the level of quality of the channel.
A creative approach always wins
If the content does not attract enough attention, it will not be easy to be at the top again in the future. To avoid being in a similar situation, you need to make trending videos of high quality initially. If all the actions are performed correctly, and the algorithms notice the presence of positive user interest in the account, then later publications will appear in recommendations much more often.
How to promote your TikTok account and make money from it?
To promote your account, it is crucial to follow these basic rules:
- the more videos, the more traffic – publish content at least once a day;
- do not spam, or dilute commercial video stickers with other videos. For example, participate in Challenges, watch trending videos and create similar content (entertainment niche has the most views: pranks, dances, uploads);
- interact with the content of other users in a similar niche – the TikTok algorithm will reward you with more views;
- use hashtags;
- invite audiences from other social networks.
Targeting on TikTok is perfect. The system automatically selects recommendations based on subscriptions, recent views, likes, and geolocation. So if you correctly identify the subject matter, the content will reach its target. But it is essential at the sign-up stage to correctly fill in information about yourself and choose the type of activity (a niche).
Pros and cons of TikTok affiliate marketing
As advertising and promoting on TikTok is something new, there is a need to learn all pros and cons of this social platform in terms of affiliate marketing, and how you can benefit from the platform itself.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
| Huge, fast-growing audience; | The length of video clips is limited (15 to 60 seconds); |
| Viral content is above all; | It is impossible to add an interactive link under the link; |
| Hashtags work well, which makes it easier to reach the audience; | For some niches, the paid advertising is too expensive; |
| Easy to create nice content thanks to the inner video editors; | The audience is mainly between 16-25. |
| The platform is well promoted among regular users, but it is almost never used by marketers and affiliates; | |
| Native advertising is available. |
Conclusion
In 2022, all TikTok algorithms aim to attract attention to accounts that users like. The primary task of every affiliate and marketer is to draw the viewer’s attention and keep it with the help of the frequent creation of quality ads. It is worth remembering that the way TikTok algorithms work now can change at any moment. There is no time to lose, and you should start conquering TikTok now.
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