- What affiliate marketing on TikTok looks like day to day
- The three ways to do it
- Setting it up: the actual steps
- The numbers people don't tell you
- The uncomfortable bit nobody wants to say out loud
- What makes people click the link
- Do you need a following, a website, or fancy kit first
- How to know if it's working
- A quick real example
- Where this fits with everything else you're doing
- Frequently asked questions
- Primary sources
The short version: you join the TikTok Shop affiliate programme or apply directly to brands, get your unique tracking link, make content that doesn't look like an advert, and put the link in your bio or TikTok Shop showcase because TikTok still won't let most accounts post clickable links in captions. It takes roughly 20 to 30 videos before you see a pattern in what converts, and most people quit around video 8, which is exactly when it starts working.
What affiliate marketing on TikTok looks like day to day
I started testing this in early 2025 with a client's skincare brand, and again on my own with a project management tool I'd used for two years. Both times the pattern was the same: film something that looks like you talking to a mate, not a shop advert, and the affiliate bit sits quietly in the background doing its job.
If you want the maths done for you, try the TikTok money calculator.
I've gone deeper on this in How Much Does TikTok Pay In The UK Per 1000 Views.
Here's the mechanics. You are not selling directly inside the video. You are creating a reason for someone to tap through, either via a link in your bio, a link stuck to your profile through TikTok's own Shop feature, or a product tagged directly in the video if you're accepted into TikTok Shop. The video does the persuading. The link does the converting. Confuse those two jobs and your videos will feel like adverts, and TikTok's algorithm quietly punishes anything that smells like a hard sell by showing it to fewer people.
The three ways to do it
- TikTok Shop Affiliate Programme: you apply through TikTok Shop, browse the "Affiliate Center" for products with commission rates set by the seller (often 5% to 20%, sometimes higher on beauty and supplements), request a sample or buy one yourself, then tag it directly in your videos and lives. TikTok handles the checkout without anyone leaving the app, which is a massive part of why conversion rates here beat almost every other platform.
- Direct affiliate links from networks: Amazon Associates, ShareASale, Impact, or a brand's own affiliate scheme. You get a unique URL, put it in your bio (TikTok gives you one clickable link slot on a personal profile, more if you have a business account with a "link" feature enabled), and drive people there.
- Brand deals with affiliate terms baked in: a brand pays you a flat fee plus a commission on top, tracked through a code like "LILACH15" rather than a link. This is common with software and courses because typing a code feels more natural on camera than reading out a URL.
Setting it up: the actual steps
- Switch to a TikTok Business or Creator account (Settings, then Manage Account) so you unlock the bio link and analytics.
- If you want TikTok Shop specifically, you generally need 1,000 followers minimum in most regions, though TikTok has run promotions letting smaller creators in with as few as 5,000 views on recent content instead.
- Apply to the Affiliate Center inside TikTok Shop, or apply directly on a brand's website for their affiliate scheme (search "[brand name] affiliate program" and half the time it's a five minute sign-up).
- Get your link or code and put it somewhere it can be clicked: bio, pinned comment mentioning "link in bio," or the product showcase tab.
- Film content that shows the product being used, not described. Demonstration beats explanation on this platform every time.
- Disclose it. A simple "#ad" or "affiliate link, I earn a small commission" on screen, said out loud too if you can, keeps you inside advertising standards rules and TikTok's own policy.
The numbers people don't tell you
A mid-sized TikTok creator with 40,000 followers posting affiliate content three times a week can expect click-through rates on a bio link of somewhere between 0.5% and 2% of video views, not followers. If a video does 20,000 views, that's 100 to 400 clicks. Of those, a realistic conversion rate on a cold click is 1% to 3%. So from one decent video you might get 3 to 12 sales. On a £30 product with a 15% commission, that's £13.50 to £54 from a single video.
That sounds small until you post daily for three months and one video does 400,000 views instead of 20,000, which happens more on TikTok than anywhere else because the algorithm doesn't care how many followers you have when it decides who to show your content to. I've had client videos with 8,000 followers outperform their 90,000-follower competitor purely because the hook in the first two seconds was better.
The uncomfortable bit nobody wants to say out loud
Most affiliate marketing advice for TikTok tells you to "just be authentic and post consistently." That's not wrong, it's just incomplete, and it lets people avoid the actual work. The truth is that TikTok affiliate income is overwhelmingly concentrated in a small number of niches where the product is cheap enough for impulse buying and visual enough to demonstrate in eight seconds: skincare, kitchen gadgets, phone accessories, cleaning products, budget fashion. If your affiliate product is a £400 software subscription or a financial service, TikTok is a far harder platform than YouTube or a well-written blog, because the entire feed is built for impulse, not consideration.
I learned this the expensive way testing a B2B tool: gorgeous videos, decent views, almost no clicks converting to paid sign-ups, because nobody scrolling TikTok on their sofa at 9pm is in a buying mindset for a business decision that needs a demo call. Match your product to the platform's actual mood, or you're wasting your time.
What makes people click the link
Three things separate videos that convert from videos that just get views:
- A specific, personal reason, not "this is great," but "I used this after my flight got cancelled and it saved my back." Specificity reads as honesty, and TikTok viewers have a very sharp radar for scripted-sounding endorsements.
- Showing the actual moment of use, not a studio shot of the box. If it's a skincare product, show it going on. If it's a gadget, show the annoying problem it solves, in real time, in your kitchen or car.
- A soft, spoken call to action rather than a hard sell: "I've linked it if you want to try it" beats "BUY NOW LINK IN BIO" every single time in my experience, because the second one triggers the same skip reflex as a TV advert.
This is also where good video marketing fundamentals matter more than affiliate-specific tricks. A well-shot, well-paced video with no affiliate link at all will outperform a badly shot one with a perfect link every time, because the platform rewards watch time first and everything else second.
Do you need a following, a website, or fancy kit first
No to all three, technically, though each helps at a different stage. You can start affiliate marketing using just your phone, and most of my highest-performing client content in the last year was shot that way, natural light, no ring light, no gimbal. A website is not required either, unlike with SEO-based affiliate marketing where you generally need somewhere for the links to live; TikTok's own infrastructure (bio link, Shop tab, pinned comments) replaces that entirely, which I've written about in more detail in this piece on whether you need a website to start affiliate marketing.
Following does matter for TikTok Shop eligibility thresholds, but for straightforward bio-link affiliate marketing you can start today with zero followers. Your first ten videos simply won't be seen by many people, and that's fine, that's the testing phase, not the failure phase.
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How to know if it's working
Don't just watch views. Watch three numbers weekly: click-through rate on your bio link (TikTok analytics shows this if you're on a business account and using the Shop or link feature), conversion rate from your affiliate dashboard, and average order value if you're promoting several products. If views are climbing but clicks are flat, your hook is working but your call to action or product fit is off. If clicks are climbing but sales aren't, the product page or your affiliate landing page is the problem, not your video.
This is the same discipline I use when clients ask me how to measure the success of influencer marketing more broadly. Vanity metrics feel good and mean nothing without a conversion number attached to them.
A quick real example
One creator I advised in late 2025, roughly 12,000 followers, promoted a £24 kitchen gadget through TikTok Shop at a 12% commission. Her third video, filmed in her actual kitchen showing a annoying chopping problem being solved in real time, hit 260,000 views over ten days. That single video produced 340 sales through the TikTok Shop tag, roughly £980 in commission, more than she'd made from four months of Instagram affiliate posts combined. The difference wasn't the product. It was that TikTok Shop lets people buy without leaving the app, cutting the drop-off that kills most affiliate links elsewhere.
Where this fits with everything else you're doing
If you're building this as a proper income stream rather than a side experiment, it sits naturally alongside broader influencer marketing work, since the same content often gets repurposed for Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts with the link swapped for the platform's native version. And if you want a channel that doesn't depend on any one algorithm's mood, pairing TikTok with something like Telegram affiliate campaigns gives you a direct line to buyers that no platform update can quietly throttle.
Related: affiliate marketing: guidelines and how to pitch.
Related: writing for us on video marketing.
If you write about film, TV or celebrities, see my live-checked list of entertainment blogs that accept guest posts.
Related: my beauty blogs that accept guest posts page.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need 1,000 followers to do affiliate marketing on TikTok?
No, not for basic affiliate links in your bio using networks like Amazon Associates or a brand's own scheme. The 1,000 follower rule (sometimes lower during promotions) applies specifically to joining TikTok Shop's affiliate programme so you can tag products directly in videos and let people check out inside the app.
How much can you make from TikTok affiliate marketing?
It ranges enormously, from a few pounds a month for someone posting occasionally to £900 to £1,500 from a single viral video with a strong commission rate. Consistent mid-tier creators with 20,000 to 50,000 followers posting affiliate content several times a week typically see £200 to £800 monthly once they've found products that fit their niche.
What's the biggest mistake people make with TikTok affiliate marketing?
Picking a product that doesn't suit an impulse-scroll platform, expensive software, financial products, or anything needing a considered decision tends to underperform badly on TikTok compared with cheap, visual, demonstrable products, no matter how good the video is.
Can I do TikTok affiliate marketing without showing my face?
Yes, plenty of successful accounts use hands-only demonstration shots, screen recordings, or voiceover with product footage. It slightly limits the personal trust factor that drives clicks, but it works well for gadget, tech, and beauty niches where the product itself is the star.
