How To Earn Money With TikTok Affiliate Marketing

Want to reach more people - and make more money - with your online business?

TikTok has been downloaded 3.5 billion times worldwide - and the potential to be successful with affiliate marketing on this social media channel is massive. 

Whether you are a TikTok beginner or have been down the scrolling rabbit hole many times, this guide will prepare you with everything you need to start earning money on one of the most popular social media platforms in 2023.

TikTok is unique in that it has its own style and format. Once you have mastered creating TikTok videos, your traffic will expand and promoting offers will become highly enjoyable - because you will see a significant growth in sales.

Why Should I Start Affiliate Marketing On Tik Tok?

Between iOS and Android, TikTok has 45.23 active daily users. That’s a LOT. 

It is the highest-grossing (non-gaming) app of all time. Lifetime spending on the app hit a whopping $6.3 billion.

But what does this mean for you?

It means that not only can you get access to a big audience, but users are also willing to spend money within TikTok.

Enter affiliate marketing!

Who is Using TikTok?

If you’re wondering who are the most active users on TikTok, it should be no surprise that it’s mostly a young audience. If your target customer is under 39, then TikTok is a very good place to reach them with your content. Almost 70% of users are under 39!

According to Statista, 54% of TikTok users are female. This is great because it gives you the best opportunity to reach your ideal customer, whether they are male or female. 

Is TikTok The Best Social Media Platform?

The short answer: it depends on what you are looking for.

Overall, TikTok is the 6th most popular social media channel.

TikTok has a different appeal and a different audience. Which means it presents unique opportunities for affiliate marketers. If you are interested in creating short-form content, then it’s the best place you can be. 

Why?

It’s only a short-form content platform. Meaning that the users are there specifically looking for one thing. Short videos curated to their tastes. Other social media platforms have multiple uses but TikTok is all about short videos and pretty much nothing else.

TikTok also boasts the highest social media engagement rates per post. Engagement is essential for affiliate marketing. You need to work with your audience to provide them value and get clicks on offers you promote. If you are promoting offers that lend themselves well to short videos, then TikTok is one of the best resources you could have. 

You can use TikTok as one part of your affiliate marketing campaigns, along with other social media and blog sites. In any case, it should definitely be a part of your strategy.

Pros And Cons Of TikTok Affiliate Marketing

Pros

Cons

How Does Tik Tok Work?

TikTok makes it very easy to scroll through the content you like, keeping you on the platform for a long time. Even though videos are short, because of TikTok’s AI algorithm, you often keep watching for long periods. The videos are very well tailored to your interests. 

One of the key systems for this is known as ‘Collaborative Filtering’. This works by finding users similar to you and then recommending videos based on what they have followed or liked. 

TikTok started out as mostly a dance and entertainment platform. Videos could only be 15 seconds long, or multiple clips could be connected for a total of 60 seconds. Then TikTok allowed creators up to 3 minutes, and since February 2022, it’s possible to create a video up to 10 minutes long.

Typically, videos are filmed in portrait mode as the platform is optimized for mobile. This adds to the effectiveness of scrolling through videos on your phone as it appears neatly on your screen.

Does TikTok Allow Affiliate Marketing?

Yes - but there’s a catch! 

You can’t use clickable links in your videos. However, you can have one link on your profile and you can use another cheeky workaround which we will reveal below. 

First, you will need to change your settings to become a business account. We explain how to do this, step-by-step, later in this article. With a business account, you can display one link on your profile. 

But how can I do affiliate marketing with only one link, you ask?

You may only have one link, but it doesn’t have to only go to one website. 

That link can take your audience to multiple places simply by using a service such as Linktree. Then, your one link will offer a list of options to your audience. These can be a selection of landing pages of the offers you’re promoting.

The other workaround is by using discount codes or specific URLs. Instead of one specific tracked link, which you may be used to having as an affiliate, this method is somehow connected with your name. It is not tracked and can be easily typed into the URL bar or used at checkout. This way, you still receive your commission but you don’t need a clickable link in your videos. For this, you will need to contact the offer provider to get a code or specific URL instead of an affiliate link.

Yes!

TikTok is similar to all social media platforms. It’s a great place to access your audience and signpost them to your offers. How you go about doing that is up to you. By using a link in your profile and discount codes, as mentioned above, you can get high traffic to your offers.

Does TikTok work for everyone?

Not really… But, if you’re someone who likes the idea of filming short video content, (that you can even edit and post on your phone) please read on.

1. Switch To A Business Account

The first thing you need to do is create a business account. You can switch your existing personal account to a business one, or create a new account and change it to a business account straight away. 

Here’s how to switch to a TikTok Business Account:

1. Open the app and select Profile at the bottom.
2. Select the Menu button at the top.
3. Select Settings and Privacy.
4. Select Manage account.
5. Then select Switch to Business Account and follow the instructions that appear. 

2. Build Your Link In Bio

Now that you have an account ready to go, you can add a link to your TikTok bio at the top of your profile. If you would like to link to landing pages and other social media profiles you will need a custom link.

You can use any “link in bio” tool for this, the most common being Linktree. With this tool, you can create an attractive page that fits in with your branding and includes multiple links.

3. Link To Landing Pages

How you promote your offers is totally up to you, but most affiliate marketing products would benefit from a landing page. Hopefully, the offers you’re promoting already have nice landing pages. If they don’t, we recommend choosing offers that do have great landers… Bonus points for VSLs.

Why are good landing pages important?

They serve as an opportunity to fully explain the benefits of a product, and the pain points it solves. Your TikTok audience may need more information about the offer you are promoting, so it’s good to have landing pages where they can find out more. You can add these to your TikTok bio through your custom link.

4. Get Discount Codes

As you can’t include clickable links in your TikTok videos, your best option is to get a discount code. This type of brand promotion works by giving you a specific code that your TikTok audience can use to get a special offer, and you receive a commission. 

How do you get a unique code?

You will need to get in touch with the offer owner to ask if they can create a specific promo code for you. Usually, this is available to influencers who already have an audience, however, it is worth discussing the option with the offer owner. If you can’t yet get a discount code, you can use normal affiliate links using the “link in bio” method.

You will just need to ask your audience to click on the link in your profile. 

Focus on building your video content and TikTok traffic, and over time you will grow your audience, and getting unique codes from offer owners will become much easier.

5. Start Making TikTok Content!

Don’t set the bar too high for yourself at the beginning, or you will never get started. Just get to filming and publishing, then worry about the perfecting your content as your audience grows. Later we will explain our TikTok affiliate marketing tips to help you be successful. For now, we’re focusing on creating videos. 

The key things to remember at the start is to film videos with your phone vertically and keep it short. Also, it’s a good idea to keep your content central. With how the platform works, you want the focus of the video to be in the center of the shot. 

TikTok videos are great because you can actually do all the editing on your phone! No expensive editing software is required. The production value of TikTok videos does not need to be high. Getting yourself seen is the most important thing.

So, how does TikTok monetization work? 

It’s different from YouTube, that’s for sure,

You can’t automatically earn once you have enough viewers. This means that affiliate marketing is essential for TikTok users to make money. 

How else can I make money with TikTok?

You may have heard of the Creator Fund which is a program to reward content creators with large audiences. However, there are a few issues. The main problem being you cannot have a business account to be eligible. So, if all of your affiliate offers can come in the form of coupon codes or unique URLs this is an option for you. If you need the link in bio to direct users to your offers then this will not be suitable. 

Currently, the fund is only available to creators in the U.S., UK, Germany, Italy, France, and Spain. You also need 10K authentic followers and have received at least 100k views in the last 30 days. 

Another option is TikTok coins. These are available for users to buy and then donate to creators they like during live streams. Once you have 1k followers you gain access to the live stream feature. If going live is something you are interested in, then this could be an extra way for you to earn income with TikTok. 

The highest-paying product is very difficult to find.

Why?

You could find the affiliate offers with the highest commission, but that doesn’t mean they are the highest paying. A huge commission may come with poor marketing materials and little help from the offer owner. You might find it’s just not a product people are willing to buy. A high commission value does not equal high paying. In fact, you could find a product with a small commission value, that sells really well with great marketing materials, which will make you more money!

The highest-paying affiliate offer is one with a reasonably high commission but that also sells really well. 

If you are interested in finding affiliate offers with high commissions you check out the Digistore24 Marketplace.

We all love free organic traffic. But how do you leverage organic traffic on your TikTok account? First of all, you need to build up your channel to be something genuinely useful or entertaining. Great content is the only way to build organic traffic. It takes time and you need to get the TikTok algorithm on your side. 

Here’s how to hack the TikTok algorithm: 

1. Provide value or entertainment in one specific niche
2. Create short vertical videos 
3. Grab attention in the first few seconds
4. Spend time writing interesting captions
5. Use trending hashtags

As we said, it takes time to build your organic following, but if you are struggling to get there and have disposable income, paid advertising is the way to go. Paid advertising can also be used with your organic traffic to help boost your affiliate marketing. 

Paid advertising on TikTok works very similarly to Facebook and Instagram. You can target specific demographics and you bid to have your ads appear in users’ “For You” feeds. TikTok also has TopView Ads but these are more for highly popular marketers with very large audiences.

However, it is important to note, TikTok advertising is very expensive. So focus on your organic traffic, then, if required, consider investing in TikTok paid ads.

This entirely depends on your niche. The general rule though is to focus on providing value. Be entertaining. Offer new information, tips, and new ideas to get people interested. The best thing you can do is research what other creators are doing in your niche. What is already working for them?

Then, based on that, you can create a formula for your videos. Trial out different styles on your channel and find what works best - then stick to it. TikTok videos from one channel are usually very similar. They have the same format, the same type of editing techniques, and content in the same niche.

1. Grab Your Audience's Attention Immediately

How often do you scroll past something that doesn’t immediately interest you? Most of us are guilty of it. Your audience is exactly the same. If they do happen to find your video but you don’t spark interest, they will scroll past.

So what can you do?

First of all, plan your videos. Even though the content is short, you should still have some form of story flow within your video. If, for any reason, your video is not attention-grabbing straight away, take the most exciting clip from within the video and put it at the start. This acts as a teaser and draws people into watching the whole video. 

2. Send Traffic Between Your Accounts

TikTok affiliate marketing is great, but that doesn’t mean you should stop capitalizing on your free organic traffic on every other social platform. You should leverage free organic traffic on all platforms. Redirect traffic from one platform to another. All your socials and landing pages should follow your branding for your niche and connect to each other. 

Sounds like a lot of work?

Save time by repurposing your content! When you create a video for TikTok, post it on your YouTube account, Instagram and Facebook too. You can even turn videos you make into article topics and use the video in the article. You can easily avoid creating more work for yourself by streamlining your content creation process. Have in mind for each video all the channels you will share it on and how that will look. This way, you can build your TikTok audience faster.

3. Include A Strong CTA

When you create your videos, it is important to have a plan. What action do you want from your audience? Do you want them to follow your link in bio, use a discount code or check out your landing page? Maybe for some videos you just want them to interact with you or check out your other socials. 

Keep this in mind when creating the video. Make sure you either clearly say the action you want them to take, or add text letting them know what to do next. 

4. Hop On The Music Bandwagon

Using trending audio is the best way to improve the visibility of your videos. You can search for content based on the audio used within TikTok, a nice feature! You can see what music is trending on TikTok and add snippets of it to your videos. 

Not sure if your video would suit a trending song?

Never compromise on the quality of your video. Take the time to see what music is trending and think if it could be included in your video somehow. This is also something you can think about at the planning stage: How could your niche fit in with a trending song?

5. Post Consistently And Frequently

Posting regularly is key on TikTok - or any other social media. Posting every day for a week is great, so make sure you keep that up on a regular basis. Try to find a posting pattern that is as frequent as you can manage, without jeopardizing your consistency. 

6. Interact With TikToks In Your Niche

Use the platform yourself! This offers two benefits. It acts as research into what’s trending and working for other creators. It also helps get your name out there more and get better engagement. Comment on other videos and get involved in the conversation. Find out what your audiences are interested in to better shape the content you create!

7. Relevant Challenge

Seen a cool TikTok challenge you want to try? Go for it! Jumping on trends is great for getting more visibility to your channel. The only thing to remember is your branding. Does the challenge fit in with the ethos of your channel? Keep an eye out for challenges that could be related to your niche, as these will always be the best for you to take part in. 

8. Lead Magnets

A lead magnet is a great way to get your followers to click on that all-important link in bio. Offer them something useful: Free content is a great motivator to get your audience more engaged with you, for example. If you can also convince them to sign up for your email list at the same time, then you have even more avenues for your affiliate marketing materials. 

9. Stick To Your Niche

It can be tempting to create videos on every topic you are interested in. There are so many affiliate offers out there targeting multiple niches, makes sense right?

No!

To build up an audience you need to be reliable. Create content in one niche that is relevant to your followers. Multiple topics will muddy the waters and make it difficult to become a resource that TikTik users come back to. If there is more than one niche you are passionate about, consider using a different platform for each niche. 

10. Collaborate with Other Creators

Finally, for the last tip, get involved with other TikTok creators! By collaborating you can combine your audiences and increase the reach of both your channels. Win-win! It also helps you to stay motivated in your content creation when you get the opportunity to work with others. It may even give you new ideas for your own channel. 

TikTok is a booming social media platform.

It’s a great resource for any affiliate marketer who is interested in making video content. As it’s still newer than other social media it is bound to change. New features are always being added and opportunities for affiliate marketers are created. You should view TikTok as an important tool, but not as the only platform you use. TikTok combined with other social media platforms and landing pages will supercharge your affiliate marketing efforts. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed this article!

Do you want to promote affiliate offers from The Digistore24 Marketplace? Simply go here to register for free.