Becoming a TikTok influencer can be a great way to earn money in your spare time. If not, potentially make yourself a small fortune – as already done by thousands of TikTok stars. But exactly how much do TikTokers get paid simply for shooting and publishing videos?
What kind of ad revenue and other forms of income can TikTok videos generate as an established influencer? TikTok is one of the world’s most popular and influential social media platforms by a clear mile. All of which makes it the ultimate influencer marketing platform, playing right into the pockets of popular TikTok creators.
With more than 1 billion active TikTok accounts opened to date, it’s a platform with immense money-making potential. That is if you know how to appeal to TikTok users in numbers big enough to start generating revenues.
How Much Do Creators Make on TikTok?
A successful TikToker can earn almost any amount of money imaginable. On average, TikTok creators with 100,000 followers can make from $500 to $5,000 a month. Increase this to a million users, and you could be looking at significantly more.
There’s no golden rule to how much a TikToker can earn, as it depends entirely on their influence and audience size. It’s not unheard of for a single sponsored post from a famous face to pull in more than $1 million.
In any case, those short video clips you’re publishing could be worth more than you think. It’s simply a case of establishing yourself as an authority in what you do and getting as many engaged followers on board as possible.
How Much Do TikTokers Make Per View?
The TikTok Creator Fund enables popular publishers to earn money based on video views. Though there’s no denying that on the surface, the numbers sound pretty modest. In order to qualify for the TikTok Creator Fund, you need to have at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the last 30 days.
At which point, you’ll start earning between 2¢ and 4¢ per thousand views. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it does mean $20 to $40 for every 1 million views. Hence, if you start stacking up millions of views with every video you publish, you could earn a decent amount. Still, this isn’t the way the most successful TikTok creators have amassed their personal fortunes.
How Much Do TikTokers Make With 1 Million Followers?
Increase your audience size to 1 million followers, and you’re headed for the big time. With this many followers, you could make anything from $1,000 to $10,000 per sponsored post. Your job is to convince sponsors you’re the influencer they need, after which the big bucks start rolling in.
But this is still a pretty short time when compared to how much the most successful TikTok influencers earn. Make yourself a known authority in your field, and charging $50,000 to $100,000 per post is perfectly possible.
Not that any of the above is easy – building an audience of a million followers is a mammoth task. In fact, fewer than one in every 100 influences on TikTok has this many followers.
Do TikTokers Get Paid for Likes?
Contrary to what you may have heard, TikTokers do not actually get paid for likes. However, likes are an important indicator of engagement, which in turn determines how much you can charge for your services. A sponsored post that pulls in millions of likes is clearly hitting home with its target audience.
By contrast, a post that generates no engagement or interaction isn’t worth paying for. When looking to get sponsors on board, they’ll be interested in two things – the size of your audience and your engagement rate. So, while you don’t actually get paid for likes, engagement holds the key to making money.
How Do TikTokers Make Money?
Successful publishers on TikTok can make money in a variety of ways. The six most popular methods for generating revenues on TikTok are as follows:
1. TikTok Creator Fund
As already touched upon, this is the program that enables creators to make money based on views. You need to have at least 10,000 followers and have at least 100,000 views in the last 30 days to join the scheme and be at least 18 years of age.
But as TikTok (literally) pays just a few pennies per 1,000 views, it’s not particularly lucrative. Certainly not enough for most creators to create a viable income stream.
2. TikTok Live Gifts
Virtual gifts can be sent to TikTok creators hosting live streams. Coins can be purchased through the TikTok app, which can then be sent to those broadcasting as gifts.
After which, these coins can be transformed back into real money by the broadcaster. Anyone with at least 1,000 followers can broadcast live on TikTok and can withdraw a maximum of $1,000 per week in the form of gifts.
3. Sponsored Posts
Brand deals are where big money lies on TikTok. This is basically where you convince a company or brand to pay you to promote them. You could recommend their products and services to your followers or simply be seen using their products in your videos. In some instances, it could be as simple as displaying their brand logo in your content.
Depending on the size of your audience and your engagement rate, a single sponsored post could earn you anything from $1,000 to $10,000+. Or if you become genuinely TikTok famous, $100,000 or more.
4. Selling Merchandise
There’s also the option of selling Merchandise on TikTok as a way to supplement your income. Publishers can set up their own online store or sell Merchandise via Etsy. If you have a truly engaged and loyal audience, they can buy your Merchandise as a show of support to boost your earnings.
5. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is as simple as including links to third-party brands, businesses, and products in your content. Each time somebody clicks one of these links, you earn a commission based on the action they take.
For example, you could earn 5% on every product they purchase from the third party in question. Most affiliate marketing strategies are free of charge to participate in and are therefore 100% risk-free.
6. Song Promotions
If you can convince promoters and record labels to use your videos to showcase their songs, you’re golden. It’s a popular tactic adopted by those looking to make their copyrighted music go viral.
Again, it’s the size of your audience and your engagement rate that will determine how much you can charge. But even with as few as 10,000 to 50,000 followers, you could earn up to $200 per post with song promotions.
Who are the Highest Earning TikTokers?
The highest-earning TikTokers in the world continue to showcase the platform’s insane money-making potential. As things stand right now, this is how much TikTok’s top earners are adding to their bankrolls each year:
- Addison Rae: $5 million, 86.4M followers
- Charli D’Amelio: $4 million, 125M followers
- Dixie D’Amelio: $2.9 million, 55.1M followers
- Loren Gray: $2.6 million, 54.1M followers
- Josh Richards: $1.5 million, 25.5M followers
What’s interesting is how there’s no direct correlation between audience size and earnings. Making money on TikTok is about more than just the numbers – engagement is what matters most. Here’s how things look on TikTok in terms of the influencers with the largest audiences:
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- Charli D’Amelio – 125.0M followers
- Khabar Lame – 113.2M followers
- Addison Rae – 86.4M followers
- Bella Poarch – 82.7M followers
- Zach King – 65.1M followers
- Will Smith – 62.1M followers
- TikTok – 57.0M followers
- Dixie D’Amelio – 55.1M followers
- Spencer X – 54.8M followers
- Loren Gray – 54.1M followers
Impressive numbers, but most are still firmly out of the top-five rankings based on annual earnings.
How to Grow Your TikTok Account?
Building an active and engaged audience on TikTok takes time, effort, and patience. Knowing how to get followers can be tricky, but there are really just four things you need to do to get your TikTok game in order starting right now:
1. Understand Your Audience
The first thing you need to do is choose the right audience for your content and learn everything there is to know about it. Focus on one specific niche or content type – something you are good at and passionate about. Avoid the temptation to spread yourself too thinly across too many types of content.
2. Post Videos Regularly
It is absolutely essential to post on a regular basis and to do so with consistency. Your job is to do whatever it takes to keep your target audience coming back for more. Be as active as you possibly can and take every opportunity to interact and engage with your followers. Plan your posts in advance and keep things fresh with a steady stream of quality content.
3. Use Hashtags
Hashtags make your content easy to find by those with interest in what you do. However, hashtags are only effective when they are of genuine relevance to your content. Don’t make the mistake of overusing trending hashtags in a vain attempt to jump on every bandwagon. Unless they are of genuine relevance to your content, don’t use them.
4. Cross-Promote Your Content
Last up, using your other social media accounts to your advantage is a no-brainer. Each time you publish something on TikTok, let your other social audiences know about it.
Showcase your best videos, post links to your TikTok profile, and promote yourself aggressively via every channel at your disposal. For more detailed insights on how to grow your TikTok account, check out our in-depth guide here.
Conclusion
The truth is, it’s perfectly possible to make money on TikTok without millions of followers. Focusing too intently on how much TikTokers get paid can be counterproductive. How much other creators get paid is irrelevant – what matters is how much money you can make.
However, you approach the whole thing, be mindful of the fact that audience size isn’t everything. It’s engagement that determines how much money you can make on TikTok – not your follower count. You’ll need an audience of a decent size to make things happen, but you don’t need to go to extremes to start generating decent revenues.
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