Affiliate collaboration overview

The Affiliate program gives sellers the opportunity to collaborate with creators, who will then promote your products to drive more sales. With TikTok Shop Affiliate, both the seller and creator help each other to boost and optimize business — sellers can sell more products and creators can earn commission from selling these products.
To get started, we'll review the two approaches: Target Collaboration and Open Collaboration.
If you answered yes to the left question, your affiliate plans fall under Target Collaboration. If your goal leans more to the right question, we recommend you try out Open Collaboration.

Target collaboration

A target collaboration allows sellers to invite certain creators to promote specific products on their behalf. Creators can begin promoting products immediately after accepting your invitation.

• Products: Specifically-selected products
• Visible to: Specifically-selected Creators
• Commission: Can be set for each individual product or for a group of selected products (ranging from 1%-80%)
• Benefits: Allows sellers to invite and work with specific creators who can help promote specific products and generate more sales.

Open collaboration

An open collaboration allows sellers to make their products visible for promotion to all TikTok Shop creators.

• Products: Specifically-selected or all products
• Visible to: All creators (you have the option to turn on require approval mode so only approved creators can participate)
• Commission: Can be set for each individual product, for a group of selected products, or for all products (ranging from 1%-80%)
• Benefits: Allows sellers to make their products visible to all TikTok Shop Creators, increasing the pool of creators who are able to promote products.

What is the relationship between these collaborations? Each product can be set up on multiple collaborations at the same time, but creators will only be paid one commission rate per product. The target collaboration commission rate will always supersede the open collaboration commission rate, so it's recommended to set a higher commission rate for Target collaborations.

How to set up different collaborations

Target collaboration:

Entrance 1: Target collaboration page

Step 1: From the Affiliate Center left navigation bar, click on Collaboration and then Target collaboration.
Step 2: Here you can view all existing target collaborations, as well as create new ones. Target collaborations are shown in the following four tabs:

• Ongoing: Collaborations that are not expiring within 7 days.
• Expiring: Invitations that will expire within 7 days.
• Canceling: Invitations that you're in the process of canceling (cancelations take effect the next day at 00:00)
• Canceled: Invitations that have already expired or been canceled.

Entrance 2: Find Creators

Step 1: In the Find Creators page, click Invite to send a target collaboration to an individual creator.
Step 2: To send a target collaboration to multiple creators in bulk, first add them from Find Creators to the Manage Creators page. From here, you can send creators target invites in batches of 50 creators.

Creating target collaborations

Step 1: In the Invite to collab page, search for specific creators by username or ID in the top search bar, or click Add from Manage creators to choose the creators for this target collaboration.
Step 2: Select or remove creators from your Manage creators list. You can filter for creators based on the Creator tags you've assigned them, based on whether you added them from Find Creators, and based on whether you have not invited them in the past 90 days. You can also filter and sort creators by followers, video views, and live views. Once you click add, you'll see the creators that have been added to this invitation.
Step 3: When selecting creators, press the Recommended creators tab to see creators that TikTok has recommended for this Target Collaboration. You can filter this list based on four different recommendation reasons:

• Creator promoted similar products
• Followers bought similar products
• Followers viewed similar products
• Followers' profile matches customers' profile

From here, you can add creators to the Target Collaboration by selecting them individually or in batches. On the right side, you can see why the creator is recommended for this Target Collaboration.
Step 4: Add products to the target collaboration invite. You can filter products by the product category, and you can sort products by price and items sold.
Keep in mind that when adding products it's important to see how much stock you have. You don't want to miss out on sales by having your creators running out of your stock to sell!Step 5: Once products are added:
You can set commission rates for both the Standard Commission Rate and the Shop Ads Commission Rate. Standard Commission Rates set in Target Collaborations always override the Open Commission Rate, regardless of which is higher. Setting a Shop Ads Commission Rate is optional. If you don’t set one, any orders generated from ads will automatically use the Standard Commission Rate. Similarly, you can still boost Creator Videos without a Shop Ads Commission Rate, and the Creator will receive the Standard Commission Rate for any sales from the boosted video. Please refer to the FAQ section for detailed ads commission priority guide.
Please note: Toggling off the Shop Ads Commission Rate DOES NOT disable Video Shopping Ads for the Creator’s content. To turn off Video Shopping Ads, you must do so directly in TikTok Ads Manager Step 6: Set up free samples by turning on the Free sample available toggle. You'll see two options:

1. Manually approved free sample request
2. Automatically approved free sample request.

If you select manual approval, you'll need to navigate to the Samples Requests page to approve or reject sample requests. If you select automatic approval, sample requests from these creators will be approved immediately for the products in this target collaboration and the orders will be moved to the Ready to Ship tab in the Sample Requests page. You can learn more about free sample functionality in our guide on free sample requests.Step 7: Complete the invitation details by adding the following:

1. Collaboration name.
2. Expiration date for the collaboration.
3. Contact information such as email and Whatsapp number.
4. A message to pitch the opportunity to the creator. Use the Insert creators' ID button to refer to the creator by their username and personalize the message.
5. Choose the Deliverables (i.e. whether you want the creator to create a short video or LIVE).

On the right side of the page, you can see how your edits will be shown to the creator.
Step 8: Once a target collaboration is created, you can duplicate it with the same products and commission rates to send the collaboration to a new set of creators.

Creator Live Flash Sale in Target Invitation

Step 1: Sellers are permitted to establish flash sales exclusively when the Preferred content type is configured as Shoppable LIVE.
Step 2: Creator flash sales can be configured through Target invite, with promotional periods ranging from a minimum of 10 minutes to a maximum of 10 days, which must be encompassed within the target invitation's validity period.
Step 3: Product selection allows for batch deletion or batch editing of selected product commissions, with the caveat that if a product is removed from the target invitation product list in live flash sales, it will also be removed from the flash sales. Creators retain the ability to promote these products in short videos or Live broadcasts, earning the targeted commission.
You can also edit the sale price as a fixed price or percentage off
Step 4: For creator selection, an invitation with a flash sale can only be extended to a single creator, and it is mandatory that the selected creator has access to LIVE streaming capabilities.
Step 5: Once you get your invitation confirmation, you can copy the invite link and share with creators via on or off platforms.
Step 6: You can send the invitation via IM. If creator is logged into their TT app account, the link will directly drive creators to the invite detail page.
Step 7: Sellers can view the creator's flash sales created via target invitations at the seller center

Managing Target Collaborations

Step 1: You can access target collaborations from the Target collaborations tab in the left navigation bar. You can filter collaborations by name, ID, product name, creator username, and whether the collaboration has been responded to.
Step 2: For each target collaboration, you can share, view orders, duplicate, or end the collaboration. You can also click on any target collaboration to view its details page.
Step 3: Within the Target collaboration details page, you can view the collaboration details, creator details, and product details. In creator details, you can view the number of creators who have added products, the number of creators who have posted content, the number of products added to a showcase, and the number of products with posted content. In product details, you can see the status, price, commission rate, and estimated commission for each product. Data related to posting content has a 1-day delay, so a creator's post will be shown here 24 hours after the creator posted the content.
Step 4: When clicking into a specific creator profile, you can view all the collaborations with that creator; including the price of the product, the creator's commission rate, the estimated commission, whether the creator has added the product to showcase, the number of videos the creator has posted with the product, and the number of livestreams the creator has done with the product. You can filter this list by Added to showcase.
Step 5: From the creator details section, you can also click on the Products posted content column to see the videos that have been posted with that product.
Step 6: From the Collaboration Details page, press Edit free sample to edit the sample rules for this target collaboration.
Step 7: If you have existing target collaborations, the next time you try to add a creator you'll see a pop up to add them to existing target collaborations or to create a new one.

Open collaboration:

You can access open collaboration from the Open collaboration tab in the left navigation bar. To start adding products to affiliate, click Add product to affiliate or click on the Not added tab.

Opportunity products

In open collaborations, you can see high opportunity products recommended for open collaborations. These are items you haven't added to an open collaboration, but that have strong potential compared to other products.
Click View All to see all opportunity products, along with more information on why they've been identified as opportunity products.
You can filter opportunity products based on several different metrics and criteria, including top searches, most picked, best-selling, and fastest growing in revenue.

Creating an open collaboration

Step 1: Your products are automatically added to an open collaboration. You can select Auto-add products and this will bring up a panel, where you can turn off this feature or customize your commission rate with two options:

• Automatically add products with optimized commission rates based on the product category: This option allows sellers to set the optimal commission rate automatically based on the top 30% of performing products in your shop and in the product marketplace. The commission rates applied to the product will be viewable in the product list on the Open Collaboration main page. This is the recommended option for optimal performance, especially if the seller sells many different types of products across categories.
• Automatically add products at a flat commission rate for all products: Select this option if you would like to manually choose a commission rate that is the same across all of your products.

Regardless of which option you choose, you can always change the commission rate for an individual product by following step 3. It is recommended to toggle on Auto-add products to maximize Affiliate GMV potential.
Step 2: If you do not have the Auto-add products toggle turned on, you can add your products individually or in a batch by selecting all and clicking Batch add.Step 2: When using Batch add to add all products to an Open collaboration, you will be prompted to do the following:

• Select a commission rate for all the products in the plan. This is the percentage the creators will receive for every product they manage to sell using their Showcase or content. We'll provide suggested percentage for your reference, but ultimately it's up to the seller.
• Select whether you would like to Set up Free Sample for all the selected products. If you turn on the Set up Free Sample toggle, you'll need to select the quantity of free samples available for each product, whether there is an expiration date for requesting the samples, and the threshold of creators who are eligible to apply for free samples (based on number of followers).
  • To learn more about free samples, we recommend reading our feature guide on free samples for sellers.

Step 3: You can edit the commission rate, offer free samples, remove collaboration individually or in batches

Tracking performance

Returning to the open collaboration page, in the Added products tab, you can track how many creators have added the products and how many creators have posted content with the products. Click on the Creator showcase number to view more details.
In Creator details, you can see all the creators who have made content with the product (both video and livestream). Here you can invite creators or add them to Manage Creators, which you can use to create target collaborations. You can also remove creators by clicking the ellipsis. When you click on the Video number, you can also view the videos that each creator has posted with the product.

Setting up free samples

When you select Batch free sample, you have the option to filter creators who are eligible to apply for a batch of free samples by creators' main content category, can number, sales volume, and shoppable content volume.
Select the products you'd like to include in your free sample batch, then select Batch Free sample:
Next, toggle on Set up Free SampleWithin Edit Free Sample, select the desired sample quantity, request period, and creator thresholds. The creator's main category dropdown will enable you to filter for creators associated with selected categories. You can then further filter based on creators' fan number, sales volume, and shoppable content volume.
When you've set up SKU-based inventory alerts in Seller Center and those products are added to Open Collaborations, you'll be able to see those low stock items and navigate to Seller Center to update your inventory.

Product Growth Suggestions

Once you have created an open or target collaboration, you can utilize the growth suggestions module to understand the performance of your products, so you can take necessary actions to ensure your products remain competitive.
Top Selling : Products that received over 1,500 orders from creators' shoppable videos and LIVE videos in the past 30 days.
Potential Top Selling: Products that received 200 to 1,500 orders from creators' shoppable videos and LIVE videos in the past 30 days.
Potential to sell : Products that have more than 20 orders from the Shop tab but no sales via creators in the last 30 days.
Steady Selling : Products that received at least 20 orders each day from creators' shoppable videos and LIVE videos in the past 30 days
Content Gap : This product meets sales requirements and doesn't have many shoppable videos with it. When a creator posts a video with this product, it may reach more viewers.
You can enhance your product visibility by following the given suggestions. For instance, if you see a suggestion about editing your commission rate, consider adjusting it to align with the recommended rates for your category.
If you see a suggestion about adding samples, consider doing so because products that offer relevant free samples are ranked higher when recommended to creators.
Marketing support provides an opportunity for your products to be showcased to creators in the Product Marketplace. Given the limited exposure quotas and the demand for over 10 million products, your products are more likely to be recommended if you follow these suggested actions.

FAQ

1. What happened to Shop Plans?

Shop Plans are no longer available on TikTok Shop. If you wish to have your products be available to creators for affiliate commission, you can toggle on New products Auto-Mode in Open Collaboration. This will automatically add any newly added products to the open plan.

2. How many target collaborations can I send in one day?

You can send up to 1000 target collaborations in 24 hours.

3. How do I delete a creator from a target collaboration?

To delete a creator from a target collaboration, go to Edit Target Collaboration and then use the trash button to delete creators. If you delete a creator, the products in the invitation will expire on the creator's end. Any changes will take effect the next day starting at 00:00.

4. How do I edit or delete products from a target collaboration?

You can edit or delete products in the Edit Target Collaboration page. Here, you can change the commission rates of products. Any changes will take effect the next day starting at 00:00.

5. How do I remove products from an Open Collaboration?

Sellers can remove products from Open Collaboration in multiple ways:

1. Tick the box(es) next to the product(s) you want to remove and scroll to the right. In the last column named "Actions" click the option "Remove from collaboration"
2. At the very top of the Open Collaboration page, click the Bulk edit button and follow the steps. This approach allows you to download a file where you can update the affiliate details of each product, including commission rate, and removal from Open Collaboration

1. Ads Commission Priority Guide

Condition	Commission Priority	Explanation
Affiliate has Ads Commission Set	Target Collaboration Shop Ads Commission Open Collaboration Shop Ads Commission	If a shop ads commission rate is set, the system prioritizes the target collaboration shop ads commission first. If there's no target collaboration, it defaults to the open collaboration shop ads commission.
Affiliate does NOT have Ads Commission Set	Target Collaboration Standard Commission Open Collaboration Standard Commission	If NO ads commission rate is set , the system prioritizes the target collaboration standard commission first. If there's no target collaboration, it defaults to the open collaboration standard commission.