It’s no secret that affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to create passive revenue without breaking the bank. Many businesses have kicked off with Meta, gaining affiliates through Facebook and Instagram, while TikTok remains more of a mystery. Here’s why branching out to TikTok is going to take your affiliate program to the next level.
Affiliate marketing is a partnership strategy between a brand and an influencer, with the goal of driving revenue for both parties. The brand creates an agreement in which the influencer (“affiliate,” once signed on) promotes the brand’s products or services with a unique affiliate link on their primary social platforms.
Each time someone from the influencer’s audience uses that unique link to make a purchase, the influencer gets a small commission from the sale. This drives revenue and saves the brand money on paid advertising. The influencer also earns money, and customers receive the products they want. It’s win-win-win.
If you’ve been living under a social media rock, you may not know that TikTok’s millions of users bring a median engagement rate of 2.63% to the platform. This means there’s an astronomical opportunity for brands and creators alike to build audiences and boost their revenue. By blending audience targeting, content creation, and smart performance tracking, anyone can learn the ins and outs of the algorithm to gain attention and sell products.
TikTok is also a unique platform, as its algorithm is also largely based on new discovery. Yes, users can see their favorite influencers again and again, but it’s easy for brands to catch the attention of new audiences compared to more siloed apps like Instagram. By understanding that TikTok’s ecosystem caters to organic viewers and repeat fans, brands can double-dip with engagement.
On TikTok, influencers can upload videos directing their audience to dedicated URLs, as well as promote links in video captions. They can also use paid TikTok ads to boost their reach and encourage more clicks. Those with over 10,000 followers can also enable clickable links to their TikTok stories. The platform suits both creators and brands well.
Linkpop and Linktree are great free link-in-bio tools that allow TikTok influencers to consolidate their affiliate links into one simple page. TikTok profile bios only allow one URL by default, so by encouraging your affiliates to use a link-in-bio tool, you get the chance for your company to be readily accessible to their audience of thousands.
Encourage your affiliates to add links to video descriptions, the first comment, and the link-in-bio tool. Tools like TinyURL and Bitly will also track the conversion and click-through rate of each link, so brands and creators can track where their links are performing best. If the affiliate has enough followers, you should also encourage them to post stories with their links added. Story links have proven to be effective at driving traffic across both TikTok and Meta apps.
Yes, there are going to be thousands of eyes on your affiliate’s post. But you can drive some of that traffic to your business page as well by reposting and commenting as often as you can. Viewers will think of your brand more favorably if you uplift and support the same influencers they do. Plus, if there are potential customers who aren’t entirely sold on your product from the TikTok itself, having a space where they can learn more about your brand just might win them over.
As we mentioned earlier, TikTok is not only great for building a loyal following but also for reaching new audiences. Try reposting your affiliate posts and using new hashtags to attract a fresh crowd.
For example, if your business sells oversized mugs, and one of your affiliates shows off your products as a small planter, you could use #planttok to grow your audience from just warm-beverage-lovers to the wider plant community.
If you’ve got the budget for it, TikTok paid ads are great for growing your affiliate marketing program. TikTok offers TopView ads, In-Feed Ads, Spark Ads, Branded Mission ads, and TikTok Promote. These ads leverage TikTok’s robust targeting capabilities in different ways, including demographic and behavioural targeting.
You could use TikTok paid ads to promote your affiliate program and streamline recruiting. You could showcase your current affiliates and highlight the flexible agreements and free products they’ll receive. You could also use some ad spend on your top-performing affiliates to boost their reach and your revenue in tandem.
Do be mindful, however, that TikTok’s ad costs are often prohibitive for individuals and smaller brands. Minimum campaign spends usually start around $500, and CPM rates start at $10. So, more often than not, small and mid-sized brands opt for as much organic reach as they can before investing in paid advertising to boost their programs.
It’s easy to get excited about TikTok’s potential. And the TikTok Shop in particular makes it easy to run your program and pay affiliates right from that platform. It sounds convenient, but here are a few reasons why you should think twice about running your program in TikTok Shop:
Like in almost every element of investing, it’s smart to diversify your efforts. Don’t put all of your eggs in the TikTok basket. Especially when it could be at risk of emptying one day.
For managing your program across any social media platform, keep things simple with Simple Affiliate. We offer comprehensive dashboards, automated payouts, KPI tracking, and easy affiliate management.
Book a demo with the team today, and watch your affiliate marketing program grow tomorrow.
