What have you heard about TikTok Affiliate Marketing? Before we go into that, please permit me to welcome you to our website. My name is Nsikak Ekikor. I am a seasoned writer, not an affiliate marketer. My experience in social media marketing and influencing places me in a better position to address you today on the subject of TikTok Affiliate Marketing.

To introduce you to TikTok Affiliate Marketing, you need to know what the subject really means. TikTok affiliate marketing is essentially the process of creating content to promote products and share affiliate links, then earning a commission when users make a purchase through those links.

Makers can sign up for an affiliate program that is relevant to their content, funnel traffic through the affiliate links and receive a cut for each sale.

How Does TikTok Affiliate Marketing Work?

As a standard affiliate marketing program, TikTok affiliate marketing enables retailers to boost brand recognition and engage with targeted audiences. It’s a central component for many brands’ TikTok marketing strategies.

TikTok users aren’t allowed to insert clickable links in their videos, but anyone with a TikTok business account can use their TikTok profile page to direct visitors to the most relevant affiliate offer or even to drive traffic to profiles on other platforms with friendlier policies around links.

They can also upload TikTok videos that send people to a specific URL, or include discount codes in the video caption, as well as paid TikTok adverts to drive more viewers and clicks to increase commission income.

Users with more than 10,000 followers can also add clickable links to TikTok Stories features, 15-second videos that live on a user’s profile page and disappear 24 hours after they were posted.

Ways to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing on TikTok

Given that TikTok has a large user base and a median engagement rate of 2.63% in 2024, there is ample opportunity for creators and brands who want to tap into affiliate marketing on the platform. With the right mix of content, audience and performance, your brand can make some serious money, whether you’re selling handbags or headphones.

Driven by TikTok’s push with its algorithm for content discovery, affiliate marketers have this unique opportunity to be discovered in organic search by a new audience.

On the paying side, TikTok has a burgeoning advertising infrastructure that brands and creators can play around with, too. When you understand TikTok’s ecosystem, keep an eye on known user behaviour patterns and capitalise on what is trending right now, the risks are low, and the upside is huge.

1. Utilising Organic Traffic

With over 1.58 billion monthly active users and an average time spent every day per user sitting at 58.4 minutes, TikTok has a large and engaged audience that allows your affiliate products to get good coverage.

Rather than heavily surfacing content related to a user’s network of connections, such as on other platforms, the For You page surfaces for a user content that is targeted and entertaining to the user based on the user’s interaction with content.

This novel TikTok algorithm makes it so that users are as likely to see “viral” TikTok videos from a major TikTok creator with millions of followers as they are to see a TikTok from an account with only a hundred or thousands of followers. This democratized content circulation is putting businesses and brands on an equal footing with creators of all levels and sizes.

Certainly, the potential of TikTok would have to be matched by effective execution. Your vertical videos must be able to grab interest in the first couple of seconds and provide something valuable within a short span to avoid your audience scrolling past. Leverage trending sounds, hashtags, and challenges in general to extend your organic reach.

2. Use TikTok Paid Advertising

Ad formats on TikTok include In-Feed Ads, TopView, Branded Mission, Spark Ads, and TikTok Promote. These ads tap into TikTok’s strengths in targeting, whether that’s interest-based, behavioural or demographic targeting.

The downside is that TikTok can be somewhat cost-prohibitive for small brands and individual affiliates, often with minimum campaign spends starting at around $500 and CPM rates starting around $10, about the same as Facebook or Instagram typically. These higher fees can be prohibitive to businesses and creators who have modest budgets.

To help them, smaller brands and creators might concentrate on growing organic reach initially, then reinvest any proceeds to fund paid efforts. Experiment with TikTok’s lower-cost options, including In-Feed Ads and working with nano-influencers on Spark Ads, which increase the reach of high-performing organic content.

“Creators can also partner with brands, the brand would give them a Spark Ad code and the brand is authorized to use their video in TikTok ads,” influencer and affiliate marketing consultant Viviana Viale says.

“The creator will continue receiving a commission for every sale made through TikTok Shop. It’s a great chance to get hands-on with brands, understanding what their objectives are and to craft content around that to support their marketing goals.”

Allow for in-depth analytics and statistics to help guide your content strategy and optimise your targeting to maximise your ROI. This will eventually reduce the cost of paid advertising as campaigns become more efficient.

How Content Creators Can Get Started with TikTok Affiliate Marketing

Being a TikTok affiliate marketer is a low-risk way to gain a creator revenue stream and add it to your portfolio. Once you’re up and going, it can also be a source of passive income. You may refer only as long as your links are alive, and earn from clicks and sales.

Here’s how to get up and running as an affiliate marketer on the TikTok platform:

1. Define Your Niche

The first thing you need to do is segment your niche — the topics you’ll be covering and the wants and needs of your audience.

If you’ve built up a large audience on TikTok, you may already have a niche. If not, then think about the kinds of TikTok content you’d like to post and the type of product or marketing niches that might interest you.

For example, if you are knowledgeable about fly fishing and camping, you may want to consider focusing your niche on outdoor skills and gear.

2. Create a TikTok Business Account

In order to share all your affiliate links on your TikTok account, you’ll need to convert your personal TikTok account to a free TikTok business account.

Here’s how to make the switch to a TikTok business account:

Open the TikTok app and click Profile.
Select Menu, then Settings and Privacy.
Select Manage account.
Select Switch to Business Account.

3. Join Affiliate Marketing Programs

The next step is to find affiliate marketing programs in your niche. You can sign up for an affiliate network, research individual companies on a directory like the Shopify affiliate program, or reach out to brands directly to learn if they have an affiliate program.

Creators can earn commissions through TikTok Shop by participating in the platform’s official creator marketplace or through direct partnerships with brands using the shop feature.

“In TikTok Shop, requesting a sample directly from brands is easy,” says Viviana. “I recommend messaging the brand through the TikTok Shop messaging system, explaining why they’ve requested the sample and how they plan to promote the product.”

4. Maintain Open Lines of Communication with Brands

When selecting affiliate partnerships, creators should prioritise brands and affiliate products that genuinely align with their content and audience values, as authenticity fosters trust and long-term success.

“Sometimes, a content creator might not like the product and may not want to create a video about it,” says Viviana. “In such cases, I recommend reaching out to the brand with honest feedback instead of ghosting or tagging products in live streams without actually talking about them. It might seem like common sense, but creators who actively communicate with brands are a rare and valuable asset. If you are among that 1%, know that you are amazing!”

5. Add affiliate URLs to your TikTok Bio

Once you’ve identified affiliate programs, it’s time to start distributing your links. To add a link to your bio, click

Edit your profile and paste the relevant link. If you have multiple links, you can also create a landing page using a free link-in-bio tool like LinkPop to provide access to multiple URLs at once.

6. Create Quality TikTok Content

To maximise sales, create engaging videos that promote affiliate products and direct users to your unique affiliate links. You can also use relevant hashtags to boost organic traffic or invest in paid ads to reach a wider audience.

“Creators should promote products they genuinely use and believe in, as authenticity resonates with audiences and drives conversions. They can be as creative as they want, using engaging content formats such as tutorials, unboxings, reviews, or aesthetic content,” says Viviana. “Focus on demonstrating the benefits and unique features of the product in an entertaining and relatable way.”

As younger demographics can be more allergic to advertising, authenticity is key on TikTok. Viviana recommends taking a more organic approach to promotion. “Avoid using phrases like ‘I’ve been sent this product by TikTok Shop,’ as it can undermine the creator’s authenticity and the brand they are promoting,” she adds.