If you think TikTok is just “an app for kids,” you might need to change your stance. TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms, and it has gone beyond being an app for posting dance trends and funny videos.
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While these types of videos still exist on TikTok, many businesses have learned to harness the features of TikTok for their good. One of such ways is by affiliate marketing. This article discusses affiliate marketing on TikTok and the best ways to promote affiliate links.
Affiliate marketing on TikTok
Affiliate marketing is a marketing type in which businesses compensate third parties to generate traffic, leads, or sales for their products or services. The commission fee that the company gives the affiliates (those who generate traffic or leads) motivates them to find ways to promote the business.
One great channel for affiliate marketing is social media platforms, and in this case, TikTok. TikTok launched in 2016 and has grown to be one of the biggest social media networks globally, with about 1.2 billion active monthly users by the end of 2021. Also, in 2020 and 2021, TikTok recorded over 800 million and 600 million downloads, respectively.
The numbers indicate that as a business owner, content creator, influencer, or affiliate partner, using TikTok to promote your products is an excellent decision. However, before choosing TikTok for affiliate marketing, you must first consider your audience. For example, ask yourself, “who is this product for?”
While TikTok has a massive diversity of people with various ages, backgrounds, and geolocations, about 60% of TikTok’s demographic are between the ages of 16 and 24 years. So, if your product is for people within this group, TikTok is a great platform to use. But, if you cater to an older audience, the app is still a good option as more older adults are joining TikTok.
Strategies to boost affiliate marketing on TikTok
When using TikTok for affiliate marketing, these are strategies that are guaranteed to give you the best results.
- Build a strong audience: This is one of the essential actions to make your affiliate marketing efforts a success. If you do not have a relatively huge audience, you can read and research how to get followers on TikTok. Also, keep up with trends, produce great content, use hashtags properly, etc.
- Choose your affiliate products carefully: As mentioned earlier, your products should be acceptable and valuable to the demographic of TikTok users, that is, Generation Z (people born between 1997 and 2012). So, when choosing affiliate products, ensure your followers will be interested in using them.
- Work the affiliate product organically into videos: Your videos must be as natural as possible. This is because TikTokers are more interested in raw content instead of over-polished brand copy. Also, it makes the content seem more relatable, prompting audience engagement.
Five best ways to promote affiliate links on TikTok
TikTok is known for changing its policies on posting links in videos. However, there are ways around promoting affiliate links on the social media platform. Below are the best practices.
- Switch to a business account on TikTok
There are two levels or types of accounts you can open on TikTok: personal and pro. The personal account is standard and does not require analytics or insights. However, you can still enjoy the latest trends and create videos.
But for a more professional TikTok experience, get the pro account. It is divided into TikTok for Business and TikTok for Creators. The latter allows users to have more creative space. However, the main concern for this article is the TikTok for Business account.
It offers small to mid-sized businesses exclusive access to specific specialized resources that helps in improving their content strategies and production. Another benefit of this business account is that you can promote affiliate links or products.
The following are the steps to take when you want to upgrade from a personal account to a business account:
- Open the TikTok app and log in
- Then go to your profile homepage by tapping Me
- After this, open the settings and privacy page by tapping the three dots on the top right corner of the profile page
- From the account model, click on manage account
- Under the account control options, tap switch to pro account
- Next, tap business, under select and account type
- Lastly, select a category that best describes your account and tap next, which completes the process
- Post affiliate links in bio
If you have a personal account, you won’t be able to place a clickable link in your profile. But after following the steps above to switch to a business account, you can post the affiliate links in your bio.
It is common to scroll through your TikTok feed and see the phrase Link in Bio or the hashtag #linkinbio. This suggests that the TikToker has included a link in their biography relating to the video they posted.
So when creating content about an affiliate product, add the clickable link directly on your profile. Then, after uploading the content, add the link’s location in the caption. This directs people to your bio, and once they click the link, they will get redirected to the business’s website.
If you promote just one product, it will be easy to post that one link and track it. However, if you promote more than one, you have to update it every time you post a different affiliate product.
If you fail to do this and your audience gets directed to the wrong product, it can confuse and discourage them from carrying out the desired action. You can post affiliate links on your bio by following these three simple steps:
- Open your TikTok profile
- Tap Edit profile
- Add the link on the website space
- Redirect traffic to other social media profiles
Another great way to promote affiliate links or products on TikTok is by including other social media accounts in your affiliate marketing strategy.
While TikTok restricts you to just one clickable link on your profile, you can redirect your audience to your other social networks. So they can get more information about the product or service you are marketing.
There are dedicated fields on your TikTok profile page to include your Instagram account and YouTube channel. After adding your social profiles, use the TikTok videos to ask people to follow you on IG and subscribe to your YouTube.
Linking other social media accounts to TikTok for affiliate marketing helps to increase your audience across various platforms.
- Use a landing or bridge page link
The major problem with uploading an affiliate link in your bio is that you can only put one URL at a time. If you have more than one affiliate link, switching from one URL to the next could be stressful. Fortunately, you can use a landing or bridge page to solve this problem.
Bridge pages are those websites whose sole purpose is to drive traffic to another website. A great affiliate marketing tool for sharing multiple links at once is Linktree. This platform is perfect for TikTok because even though you have just one link on your profile, it points to the several other affiliate links you promote.
When users click on the Linktree URL, they will automatically land on a page with affiliate links. Then they can select whichever one relates to them.
- Promote coupon codes with videos
Lastly, sharing coupons and discount codes in videos effectively promotes affiliate links on TikTok. Ask the business you’re partnered with to generate a personal discount code for your audience, e.g., JANE105. Then share it in the TikTok videos.
The possibility of a discount motivates your audience to click the affiliate link. Consequently, it drives more traffic and sales and results in increased commission.
Benefits of using TikTok in affiliate marketing
The following are benefits of using TikTok:
- Access to a vast, growing audience
TikTok, being a new and fast-growing platform with a broad audience, gives businesses the exposure it needs. Also, brands can always benefit from TikTok’s diverse and wide range of users. So, it is wise to include TikTok in your marketing strategy to boost brand exposure.
- Boosts video marketing game
Video content is one of the most efficient forms of marketing. It cuts across all social media platforms, and TikTok is no different. Video content significantly boosts marketing strategy success. So, incorporate it into yours.
- Easy engagement with your audience
One key feature TikTok can boast of is easy user engagement. It offers users the chance to comment, react, respond, etc., to content on their page. You can use this feature to increase brand awareness and receive feedback and opinions.
- Increases brand authenticity and reliability
You need to frequently assure your audience of your brand’s dependability and authenticity. The more you connect with users on TikTok, the more they trust your products or services.
Conclusion
TikTok is an excellent platform for affiliate marketing. This article covered the five best ways to promote affiliate links on this platform. So, for your next affiliate marketing strategy, adopt these methods.
Author Bio:
Lydia Iseh is a writer with years of experience in writing SEO content that provides value to the reader. As someone who believes in the power of SEO to transform businesses, she enjoys being part of the process that helps websites rank high on search engines.
Last Updated on August 11, 2023
