Earn More MoneyOctober 5, 2020December 28, 2020

How Much Money Can You Make As A TikTok Influencer?

Over the past few decades, there have been inventions that help society stay in touch. These inventions have evolved over the years. First, there was the telegraph, then the telephone. However, society has evolved to the point where communication, sharing, and gathering information can be done from your mobile phone. From MySpace to Facebook, the world is not a stranger to social media platforms. Once these platforms got big, other social media have been brought to light. Social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. However, not all social media platforms are the same and they serve different functions. For example, Twitter allows people to post short text, short videos, and pictures with/without captions. However, there are platforms such as Linkedin which specializes in connecting people with employers, making it easier to find a job.

This brings us to a social media platform that has been gaining a lot of traction recently, TikTok. TikTok is a social media platform where people can post a short, edited video. If you’re thinking this sounds familiar, that’s because TikTok follows the same basic template as previous platforms. Most notably Vine.

What Is TikTok?

In a nutshell, TikTok is a social media platform. TikTok takes advantage of templates already in place to help users share information and videos. Similar to Vine, TikTok allows users to take short, edited videos and share them. However, it seems that TikTok is growing at a rapid pace. While it is new, Tiktok has surpassed a million users in a relatively short time.

As you can see from the picture above, TikTok has been gradually increasing, breaking the 10,000,000 user threshold as of December in 2018. However, this only accounts for US Adults up to 2019. If you were to take account of users of all ages and countries, the amount would be significantly higher. This fact alone is what makes TikTok an excellent platform to both start new trends and earn money. There are a few ways to earn money through TikTok. Furthermore, since TikTok has a growing userbase, people tend to create new dance/video trends with the intent of it going viral.

For example, Drake released a song called Toosie Slide. The song included a dance with the hopes that it would spark a trend on TikTok. Sure enough, it did. This dance and trend provided as marketing for the song. Although Drake is one of the biggest artists in the world, he would sell units regardless. However, it was still a smart idea to utilize TikTok as a marketing tool.

How To Make Money Through TikTok

Making money on TikTok is still a new concept and there is a lot of unclear information. However, there are a few confirmed facts. First, is that up until recently, earning money directly through TikTok was impossible. This is due to the fact that it is not like YouTube where you can have ad rolls. However, As of September, TikTok released something called a “Creator Fund”. This is a fund created by TikTok with the purpose of paying creators. Some may wonder why TikTok would do this. The answer is simple. To retain and bring in new creators. One of the big problems with Vine was that they didn’t have a way to pay creators. This lead to many creators gradually moving away from Vine and going to YouTube. Having a creator fund mitigates the risk of this happening.

Some of you may be wondering how you can join the TikTok creator fund. At first, I thought that applying would be relatively easy. However, there seems to conflict information. From what I’ve gathered, you need to first switch your account to a “pro account”. After this, you can either apply to it by clicking the “creator” option in your menu or by waiting for a notification from TikTok. Once you are able to apply, you need to make sure you meet a few criteria.

First, you need to reside in a country that has a creator fund. For example, U.S, UK, etc. If you’re unsure whether or not you live in a country that has this option available, it should say which countries are available once you try to apply. Furthermore, if you do not see an option to apply to the creator fund, you may live in a country where this feature is unavailable.

Next, you need to have a certain amount of followers. 10,000 followers to be exact. after this, you need to make sure that you accumulate 10,000 views on your account within the last 30 days. Lastly, your account needs to be in good standing. By good standing, I mean that you can’t have any violations on your account. If you do, you may be denied from applying to the TikTok creator fund.

How Much Money Can You Potentially Earn Through TikTok?

Onto the question that most people are asking themselves, how much money can you earn from TikTok? Well, from what creators around the app are saying, TikTok pays their creators through a CPM. For those who don’t know, CPM means paying creators through views. To be more exact, paying creators per 1,000 views. However, the rate in which creators get paid is $0.02/$0.03 per 1,000 views. Furthermore, creators who’re accepted into the fund will be paid monthly, similar to other affiliate and ad programs.

So how much money can you potentially earn from a video by using these numbers presented? Well, let’s take a look at some of the biggest TikTok stars and their videos. First, we’ll look at Addison Rae. Chances are, if you use TikTok, you’ll know who she is. Looking at her most viral video, she’s accumulated approximately 200,000,000 (two hundred million) views. An astronomical amount of views for any social media platform. Therefore, let’s do some simple math to get an approximate amount.

2,00,000,000 views/1,000cpm = 2,00,000 > 2,00,000 x $0.03 = $6,000. (disclaimer: this amount is based off information found from various sources. The actual amount may vary.)

From the math we’ve done, we can hypothesize that Addison Rae earned $6,000 from that one video. However, TikTok pays creators per video. Since Addison garners over 20/30 million views per video, we can assume that she earns significantly more.

Since most people won’t get 200,000,000 views on a video, let’s work with a more probable number. 500,000.

500,000 views/1,000cpm = 500 > 500 x $0.03 = $15.

As you can see, the difference in income can greatly vary depending on how much views you get. However, you can post multiple videos per day/week/month. This is how many TikTok creators earn a substantial amount of money. They post multiple videos. While $15 on one video may not be much, 10 videos within two weeks do add up. While it still isn’t enough to live off, it is extra money that can be invested or saved. Keep in mind, if you do make quality videos and become famous, you can earn significantly more, as we say from Addison Rae‘s video.

Aside from the creator fund, you could do sponsored videos. Similar to YouTube or Instagram, advertisers will seek out TikTok creators and offer them money in exchange for marketing their product. The amount of money you get paid can vary on a few factors. These factors include but are not limited to the company itself, and the size of your audience.

Shameed Chris Khan

Shameed is just a man on a mission to help those around him gain financial success. Obsessed with writing about all things finance, this GTA native is constantly learning and sharing his experiences with others.