- TikTok has released a variety of tools to help creators earn money through the app.
- We paid users directly through the Creativity Program, Pulse ads, and previously through the Creator Fund.
- Here's a breakdown of how much creators earn from views on various programs.
TikTok can be a powerful platform for creators looking to build an audience. But can its users actually make money?
This question was a top concern for many influencers who started the app. Some people turn to brand trading as a means of making a living. Some companies are monetizing fans through TikTok's livestream gift and subscription features, or through a new e-commerce affiliate program within the TikTok Shop. Creators whose content doesn't make sense in these formats may look outside of TikTok, join platforms like YouTube or Patreon, or launch newsletters or other lines of business.
However, the easiest way for creators to make money from social media outside of brand deals is to earn a portion of their revenue based on video performance and views generated, and this approach is similar to other companies like YouTube and Facebook. Popular in social entertainment apps.
TikTok has introduced several payment programs related to creator video performance over the past few years, including Creator Fund, Pulse ad revenue sharing program, and Beta Creativity Program.
The Creator Fund, announced in 2020, was a pool of funds set up by the company to reward creators who posted content. The company will discontinue the funds in the US, France, Germany, and UK in December 2023 and instead encouraged users to sign up for a beta version of its creativity program, which encourages people to submit videos of at least one minute. The fund is currently active in Italy and Spain.
While some creators have criticized Creator Fund for offering meager rewards, early participants in the creativity program have found better results.
For example, TikToker couple Devin and Hunter Caudle earned five figures in one month from the program.
“The Creators Fund wasn't paying anything, so I didn't think this was any different,” Hunter Caudle said of the creativity program. “But considering the amount of money we're making, it's a complete 180.”
Read more about what it's like to be a creator like Caudle earn from TikTok creativity program
TikTok's ad revenue sharing program, Pulse, was a relatively small piece of the pie in terms of influencer revenue. His eight creators shared their monthly income, views, and income per 1,000 video plays (RPM) from the 2022 program, which earned him anything from a few pennies to $17.
Click here for details How much TikTokers make from the Pulse advertising program
Here are the details of the TikTok program that pays creators based on views and other video metrics.
1. Creativity program
In early 2023, TikTok began testing a new creator funding option called the Creativity Program. The new program is designed to pay creators “higher average gross revenue” for videos longer than one minute, the company said. Similar to the defunct Creator Fund, in order to participate, a user must have at least 10,000 followers and have received 100,000 video views in the past 30 days.
The initial revenue from the program was much more lucrative than the Creator Fund, and some creators started posting longer videos more frequently.
Read comments from 7 creators TikTok's creativity program is a monthly fee.
2. TikTok pulse
In May 2022, TikTok announced it would be launching a new contextual advertising product that would allow brands to buy ads alongside the “top 4%” of content in various categories such as fashion, food, and beauty. The company has agreed to split half of the revenue with creators whose videos appear before in-feed ads. Only creators with more than 100,000 followers are eligible to participate in the program.
Click here for details Comparing TikTok Pulse to other ad revenue sharing programs For creators
In May 2023, the company announced that it was also testing a version of the Pulse program for traditional media publishers called Pulse Premiere.
Similar to Creator Fund, the initial payments from TikTok Pulse were not overwhelming, creators told Business Insider.
read How much did gaming and lifestyle creators earn from Pulse?
Most creators who shared their payment data with BI perceived Pulse RPMs to be in the $7-$8 range, but one creator reported RPMs closer to $3. Although TikTok Pulse's Creator RPM was competitive compared to other ad revenue solutions such as YouTube's Partner Program for long-form videos, the number of revenue-generating views is relatively low, resulting in fewer than 1,000 views. It was also common.
Betts Waller, a game creator whose TikTok account Forrest Dump has about 397,000 followers, told BI, “I was so excited to be a part of it, and I'm six cents richer today.”
Despite posting videos that received tens, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of views, Mr. Waller received no Pulse earnings during the pay period from September 30, 2022 to October 30, 2022. The target video views were only 8 times.
Other creators have seen a similar pattern, with their monetized views on Pulse significantly lower than their total video views during the payment period.
A company spokesperson told BI that even if a user's video is viewed millions of times, a Pulse ad will not follow each video play. Due to the nature of TikTok's algorithm, some videos contribute more ad impressions than others.
“We continue to work on improving Pulse to better support creators and advertisers, and we look forward to expanding monetization opportunities,” they said.
YouTube launched a similar ad revenue sharing program for its short video feature in early 2023. Her six creators who shared their February 2023 payments to Her BI reported that they made hundreds of dollars on videos that received millions of views. This corresponds to approximately 4 to 2000 effective RPMs. 5 cents.
Read more about how YouTube Shorts ad revenue share compares to TikTok Pulse
3.Creator Fund (ending in December 2023)
TikTok launched the Creator Fund in 2020 and wrote that it expects the fund to reach more than $2 billion worldwide in three years. The program ended in the United States and other countries at the end of 2023. The company declined to say how much it paid from its original promise.
The fund was essentially a large sum of money that TikTok used to pay out some creators with at least 10,000 followers who had 100,000 video views in the past 30 days. TikTok told BI that it considers factors such as video views, video engagement, and where the video was viewed when determining Creator Fund payouts.
6 How much should you read? Creators earn money through Creator Fund
TikTok's $2 billion goal was small compared to YouTube's overall payments to creators. YouTube's CEO wrote in 2021 that the company paid creators, artists, and media companies $30 billion over three years. Also in 2021, it established a $100 million fund aimed at continuing through 2022, specifically for shorts, features like TikTok.
Other platforms like Snapchat pay influencers hundreds of millions of dollars to incentivize them to create short videos. Instagram also previously paid some creators based on the number of views their Reels generated, offering “bonuses” for reaching certain short video playback thresholds, but will pause that effort in early 2023. did. The company's top executives hinted in October 2023 that there would be bonuses for Lille. I might come back on the road.
Influencers who have disclosed their Creator Fund payments publicly or through BI over the past few years report earning just a few cents for every 1,000 views their videos generate. .
For creators with millions of views on their videos, a lower RPM can still bring in more than $1,000 in total revenue. Preston Seo, a personal finance influencer who currently has 2.5 million TikTok followers, earned a total of approximately $1,664 from Creator Fund in the first five months of 2021, according to documents shared with BI.
Other top creators such as MrBeast and Hank Green reported low Creator Fund payouts despite generating huge viewership numbers.
Learn more about how much creators earn through Creator Fund.
