TikTok rolled out a new way for creators to make money – but there’s a catch

TikTok’s platform has enabled creators to build large followings from short, vertical videos they post. As a result, brands are willing to pay creators a good amount of money for brand exposure to their audiences.

TikTok’s new feature, TikTok Creative Challenge, is reimagining how these collaborations take place and making it easier to connect creators with brands to create ads and earn money. 

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The in-app feature allows creators to browse different brand ad postings, known as challenges, and submit their original video ad for the posting they choose.  

After the submission process, the creator will be pinged with revisions if necessary, which the creator can appeal. Once approved, the ad won’t be posted on the creator’s profile. Instead, it will run as ads on TikTok’s For You Feed. 

The pay is a little less straightforward. 

The “rewards” or payments on the video depend on several metrics including qualified video views and conversions. This means that even after working on and submitting a high-quality video, you may not get much of a payment at all. 

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Another concern is how long the brand can run the ad. Although this aspect is not mentioned in the release, this is an important piece of information because, for many influencers, it could mean losing money. 

For example, an influencer’s rate can change depending on the number of followers they have, and what may seem like a good payment now could be different if the influencer blows up in followers overnight, making their image and likeness worth more. 

Another factor is that the longer an ad runs, the more an influencer can typically charge for the content they are creating. 

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This campaign minimizes the amount of time a creator has to spend looking for and negotiating with brands, but it also reduces the amount of autonomy a creator has around the fees they charge. 

To participate in the challenge, creators must be at least 18 years old, have a US-based account, and have at least 50,000 followers, according to the guidelines.