How To Earn Money Through TikTok: Promotions & Monetization

Many leading brands are coming up with innovative TikTok campaigns that not only help them in promotions but also in earning revenues

One of the most engaging video sharing platforms TikTok isn’t just a medium of content consumption. Many leading brands are coming up with innovative TikTok campaigns that not only help them in promotions but also in earning revenues. Rectik ently, itel, an entry-level mobile phone brand from TRANSSION Holdings, initiated a social media campaign on TikTok, clocking over 2 billion views in just three days. All users had to do was to upload videos performing on a song specially composed for itel using relevant tags. Itel is not alone. TikTok has run many more interactive campaigns with brands such as Amazfit, Moov and Bingo and even with movie Bala, to name a few.

With brands focussing on TikTok and its audience, even creators (TikTok users) are looking for ways to monetise the content they create. Unfortunately, unlike YouTube, TikTok does not have a revenue-sharing model for its creators as of now. However, creators are leveraging their TikTok accounts for brand promotions and sponsorships and diverting traffic to their channels and pages to earn revenues. But, all this has to be done on their own as TikTok does not facilitate any tie-ups or promotions.

How To Earn Through TikTok?

1- Brand Sponsorships And Promotions

You need to have an active TikTok account with a huge follower base to start earning revenues. That is one of the key requirements for the brands to approach creators. If you are an influencer, you can hook up with sponsors, who will pay you to promote their product or company on the platform.

“Here, the number game is simple — the more followers you have, the more power you possess towards negotiating and visibility. While you can’t put a number on minimum followers, brands usually show interest in key influencers above a million followers and micro-influencers above 30,000 followers as per the campaigns we have seen take place. In addition to the follower base, engagements play a vital role in defining success for the brand.

However, having a huge follower base doesn’t promise sponsorships. An increasing number of companies also consider the target audience the influencers are catering to. Brands are getting conscious about reaching out to the right target audience instead of approaching a bigger audience, that is, a focus on justified return on investment. Similarly, top creators and influencers are paid by the brands to participate in the hashtag challenges running on TikTok.

For instance, a fitness influencer is likely to be approached by a gym or a fitness wearable brand to promote their products. Whether one should disclose about the promotion is clearly up to them.

“This is like a classic evolutionary cycle. In the starting phase, when a creator is about to become an influencer and gain traction, one might want to take up certain campaigns where they will be paid only in kind. But as one grows up higher and spends more time and effort into making the content, they will automatically want to do it for select brands that would pay them upfront in money. It could be a new theme, a new product launch, a new brand positioning, or whatever the brand’s objective is,” explains Nimesh Shah, Head Maven, Windchimes Communications.

In most cases, brands sign up influencers for creating relevant content for anywhere between three to five posts. Depending on the popularity and the reach of the influencer, he could be paid anywhere between a few thousand to Rs 50,000 or even more.

2- Directing Traffic To Other Revenue-Based Channels

The nature of the app is such that it has a lot of millennials who are super-active on the platform. According to Global Web Index, 41 per cent TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24. And for influencers popular across other social media platforms, TikTok could be a great way to reach out to the untapped millennial audience. A creator can also direct this untapped audience to other platforms including YouTube and Instagram to increase ad revenues. Interestingly, a lot of TikTokers are also uploading their catchy TikTok content on other platforms to cater to the audience who are resisting the TikTok platform but do get access to everything the influencer is posting across platforms.