TikTok Launches Creator Marketplace API to Facilitate More Brand Collaboration Opportunities

TikTok is looking to help facilitate more brand/influencer partnerships by making its Creator Marketplace API available to outside developers, which will enable a range of third-party companies to integrate TikTok’s creator listings into their platforms.

TikTok first launched its Creator Marketplace back in 2019, providing a way for brands to search through registered TikTok creators that they can then pitch with campaign collaboration ideas.

The platform is a key element in TikTok’s broader monetization push, which is critical to its ongoing growth strategy – because right now, TikTok creators can earn a lot more money on YouTube and Facebook’s platforms instead, via the established ad revenue programs in each respective app.

Short-form content doesn’t provide the same opportunities, without mid and pre-roll promotions directly linked to each clip, so for TikTok, it needs brand partnerships and eCommerce integrations to provide comparable compensation – and if it can’t get this element right, you can bet that, eventually, its top stars will indeed migrate elsewhere, taking their large audiences along with them.

Vine found this out the hard way, and now, through this expansion of its Creator Marketplace API, TikTok will be hoping to generate more exposure for its brand partnership options, providing more revenue potential for platform stars, and a more effective way for brands to tap into key platform behaviors and trends.

As reported by TechCrunch:

“The new Creator Marketplace API allows partnered marketing companies to access TikTok’s first-party data about audience demographics, growth trends, best-performing videos, and real-time campaign reporting (e.g. views, likes, shares, comments, engagement, etc.) for the first time.They can then bring this data back into their own platforms, to augment the insights they’re already providing to their own customer base.”

Initial launch partners include creator database platform Capitv8 and influencer marketing company Influential, each of which is already offering the new insights to their clients and partners.

The additional reach of these established platforms will help bring more awareness to TikTok’s creator connection tools, and with interest in the app’s marketing options set to reach new highs this coming holiday period, it could provide a great opportunity for TikTok to showcase what it can offer in this respect, helping to build its business offerings.

And definitely, given the unique creative approach required for effective TikTok campaigns, using the knowledge and expertise of established influencers can be a more effective way to go, especially for big brands with larger budgets. And maybe, if those campaigns drive results, that could see TikTok becoming an even bigger consideration moving forward, which could be another element that sees it eat into Facebook’s dominant market share, further irritating those at Menlo Park HQ.  

TechCrunch says that TikTok will officially announce and fully launch the Creator Marketplace API next month.