How are influencers compensated?
How much do TikTok influencers earn? Is it possible to make money on TikTok? Business Cool takes a look at the business behind one of the new generation’s favorite social networks and rewards TikTok creators.
TikTok: what is it?
TikTok is a China-based social network owned by ByteDance. It is a video app launched in China in September 2016 under the name Douyin. In just a few years, TikTok has become one of the most popular apps in the world, especially among the younger generation. It is also the most downloaded app in the world in 2022.
TikTok quickly gained popularity for its feature that allows users to synchronize their lyrics with songs, sound clips and humorous videos. Users can also add filters, effects and transitions to improve content quality. ByteDance even released a special social media quick editing app called CapCut.
Over time, TikTok continued to evolve and became popular with new trends such as online challenges. The social network has implemented hashtags and augmented reality functions. Unlike Instagram, the social network’s algorithm favors TikTok creators more than influencers. It doesn’t matter how many followers you have on TikTok: your content can go viral quickly.
Despite its huge popularity, TikTok faces controversies on various topics: user privacy, data security, and political issues. Some people also expressed concern about possible propaganda or disinformation content.
Also read: Influencer salary: how much do pros earn on TikTok, Instagram, Twitch…
How much do you earn on TikTok?
Salary on TikTok
As with YouTube, the salary in the application essentially depends on the number of views on TikTok. A star on TikTok will not earn the same compensation as other TikTokers. But as mentioned, not because you have a million subscribers, you will definitely get a lot of money! TikTok puts creators first over TikTok influencers.
How Much Do TikTok Influencers Get Paid? The social network has changed its reward policy for each TikTok video. It has evolved a lot. We estimate that today we are around $1 per 1000 views, or just under a euro. However, making money with TikTok is not that easy.
Of course, this salary is only what influencers get when they post videos. Some use product placement and have their videos sponsored by brands. Generally, these creators are paid for this advertising partnership, which forces them to create a video in collaboration with a brand that highlights a product, while making sure to offer creative and quality content.
Generally, micro-influencers are considered to earn less money, around $180 per month. For very large creators, those with more than 5 million subscribers, compensation can be up to $5,000 per month. To earn money on TikTok, you need to make videos regularly.
Read also : Salary on Instagram: how much do influencers earn?
TikTok influencer duo Gio_Ilia announced the conditions for making money from videos on TikTok. They also explain that not all opinions are taken into account. It mainly depends on the geographical area from which the review starts, as well as its duration. A view of less than 5 seconds is ignored. Also, the length of the video should be at least one minute. Finally, note that if a user views the same content multiple times on TikTok, only one view counts toward monetization. Thus, several influencers explain that for their videos of 2.5 million views, TikTok saved 963,000 views for the calculation of the reward, with an RPM of about 0.74 euros per 1000 views. In total, the TikTok account for this video shows a salary of about 720 euros.
So, thanks to TikTok, we can hope to earn an interesting salary, but only if we produce a lot of content for the platform. That’s why some content creators decide to quit their jobs to fully join the TikTok social network. The platform will also incentivize content creators with more attractive rewards.
Also read: How to make money with TikTok?
TikTok algorithm
TikTok’s goal is to create a real community around this video platform. The social network will therefore force you to publish many productions that will attract more users to your page. Indeed, to make sure that its content looks good, you need to make sure to use several techniques such as popular music and also videos in several parts. Some micro-influencers excel at this craft, especially with very specific videos that will attract more people and bring in more revenue, especially if they consist of several parts.
TikTok measures the appeal of a video by the interaction it generates: subscriptions, comments, shares, likes, but also by the ability to bring the user back to your profile. Thus, many no longer hesitate to divide their creation into several parts and force people who want to follow the story to go to the user’s profile. This is the best way to get subscribers as well as monetize the platform. Interactive video generally generates more views and therefore more revenue.
Top 10 Highest Paid TikTok Influential People in 2023
Who are the top 10 highest paid influencers on TikTok? It’s easy to make a few hundred thousand dollars in a year if the publishing rate is steady. But there is no secret to this: you need to publish several videos a day!
Rank | Personality | Salary 2022 (in millions of dollars) |
1 | Charlie D’Amelio | 17.5 |
2 | Dixie D’Amelio | 10 |
3 | Addison Rae | 8.5 |
4 | Bella Poarch | 5 |
4 | Josh Richards | 5 |
6 | Chris Collins | 4.75 |
6 | Avani Gregg | 4.75 |
8 | Riyaz Aly | 2 |
The rest of the top 10 is made up of Riyaz Aly, who earned around $35,000 from TikTok. He is also the platform’s biggest star in India. Nisha Guragain is the 9th among the top 10 highest paid influencers on TikTok with $25,000. She is closely followed by Arishfa Khan ($24,000 by TikTok).
Ranking of the biggest TikTok influencers in 2023
As you can imagine, the salary of TikTok influencers is still tied to their popularity. The more subscribers you have, the more likely your videos will be viewed. So, the ranking of the biggest TikTok influencers is reminiscent of the top 10 highest earners on TikTok.
Rank | Personality | Subscribers (in millions) |
1 | Khabane Blade | 154.1 |
2 | Charlie D’Amelio | 149.5 |
3 | Bella Poarch | 92.7 |
4 | Addison Rae | 88.9 |
5 | Will Smith | 73 |
6 | Zach King | 72.5 |
7 | Kimberly Loaise | 71.6 |
8 | MrBeast | 70 |
9 | Burak Ozdemir | 67.1 |
10 | TikTok | 67 |
How much do TikTok employees earn?
The salary of TikTok employees depends on several factors: geographical location, seniority in the company, experience… If they do not earn as much as influencers depending on their work, they receive a fairly attractive reward. However, ByteDance offers its employees quite a good reward, especially in the US. However, it should be noted that the mentioned salary corresponds to a rather high level of seniority and they are expressed in general annual terms.
So, employees of the social network within the marketing department receive 100-150,000 dollars a year, against 140-250 thousand dollars for engineers working in the development of the platform. On the sales side, salaries are very low, they have to count between 90-150 thousand dollars a year.
Salaries are slightly lower in Europe. According to information that can be found on various job boards and public information, salaries in marketing teams range from 50,000 to 80,000 euros per year, against 70,000 to 150,000 euros per year for departmental product. Salaries on the sales side are also between 50-80,000 euros per year.
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