Shop Ads Commission on TikTok Shop: Paying Affiliates When You Boost Their Videos

An affiliate posts a video about your product and it takes off. The obvious next move is to put ad money behind it.

Then comes the awkward question: when that ad sells something, what does the affiliate get? The same 15% they earn on their own traffic, even though you paid for the views?

TikTok's answer is a second, optional rate. Here is how it works.

Two rates, two kinds of order#

Your standard commission rate is what an affiliate earns on orders from their own content.

The Shop Ads Commission Rate is a separate rate for orders that come from ads you run using that affiliate's short video. TikTok's guide describes it in the context of GMV Max ads. You can set it lower than the standard rate, since your budget is doing part of the work.

It is optional. If you never set it, boosted orders simply pay the standard rate.

Which rate does the affiliate earn?#

TikTok gives four scenarios. The standard rate in each is 15%.

The affiliate gets one rate per order, never both.

Where to set it#

In Open Collaboration, the Shop Ads Commission Rate section appears when you add or edit a product. It shows up even if you haven't set up a Shop Ads account yet.

In Target Collaboration, you set it when creating or editing the invitation. A Shop Ads rate on a Target Collaboration overrides the Shop Ads rate you set for the same product in Open Collaboration, for that affiliate.

For seller campaigns, TikTok asks for a whole number between 1% and 80%.

Two warnings from TikTok's guide are worth repeating. Turning off the Shop Ads rate does not turn off the ad; you stop ads in Ads Manager. And the commission is charged through the affiliate program, so it comes on top of your ad budget, not out of it.

Getting permission to use the video#

You can't run an ad with a video just because it features your product. The affiliate has to switch on authorisation in the app first.

Once they do, the product row in Seller Center shows a number under Videos authorized for Shop Ads. Click it to see the videos, then Create Ads to jump to Ads Manager.

How one brand handles it#

One skincare brand we work with keeps this simple. Each month its team picks the top 10 to 20 affiliates by performance and boosts their content. It doesn't try to boost everything, and it doesn't wait for a video to go viral on its own first.

We like that as a default, for two reasons. It gives affiliates a reason to do well beyond commission: the best ones get your ad money behind their face. And it keeps the decision small. Twenty videos a month is a list a person can actually review.

On the rate itself, our view is to be careful about going much lower than your standard rate. The affiliate still made the video that is selling for you. A big gap between the two rates is the kind of thing affiliates talk about in group chats.

Finding the videos worth boosting#

Before you can boost your best videos you have to know which ones they are.

In ShopSlayer, every video an affiliate submits to your campaign lands in one list with its views and engagement, ranked. On the Pro plan and above, you can request an ad code from the affiliate right there, without opening a chat.