Inside TikTok's new premium ad tier

TikTok is carving out the top 4% of videos on the platform into a new “premium” tier of advertising, dubbed Pulse, as it looks to help brands ride trends that move products off shelves. TikTok also is using Pulse as its first revenue-sharing ad product with creators, meaning they will get a split of money that comes in through the program.

TikTok announced the new video ad product today, which is similar to how Google and Facebook have reserved categories of videos for top-spending brands. TikTok’s announcement came ahead of its first live NewFronts show. “TikTok Pulse, which is our big product announcement, is going to put brands next to the top 4% of all TikTok videos,” Sandie Hawkins, general manager of TikTok North America, said in a phone interview this week. “And that puts them in the heart of all the TikTok communities, right next to all the content that’s driving the conversation and actions.”

Hawkins did not say how much money TikTok would charge brands to participate in Pulse, but the program is the type of advertising offering platforms develop to go after TV advertising budgets, which are up for grabs during NewFronts negotiations. Brands are looking for safer, more curated, video selections to appear next to on social media, especially as there are concerns that some of the user-generated content on the services could reflect poorly on their messages.

Hawkins said TikTok would identify the top-trending videos, and then only run brands beneath those videos. “They’re the most engaging, highly responsive, brand safe video views, that are growing the fastest,” Hawkins said.

The videos available to Pulse advertisers are not necessarily the ones with the most views, but they are ranked according to a formula that measures how much they are “taking off,” Hawkins said. “That this is the content that is building the most engagement and community on the platform,” Hawkins said. “So if you think about those moments where products are selling out, where people are sharing the TikToks, right, with everyone, those are the top 4%.”

TikTok said that the creators that are eligible for Pulse must have 100,000 followers, at least. TikTok also said it would share revenue with those creators. Pulse offers some contextual targeting for the advertisers, because it is broken down by category. TikTok said there will be 12 categories to start, but did not name them all, but they include beauty, fashion, cooking and gaming.

Google, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat have all developed products that reserve an upper echelon of videos for brands to run messages alongside or within those videos. Meta’s Facebook, for instance, has Watch, which is a YouTube-style video hub, where brands can order “in-stream reserve” ads. Reserving the ad space allows brands to better control the content they sponsor and the environment in which they appear. Meta discussed in-stream reserve ads, which it launched in 2019, at its first live NewFronts event on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Google has a premium ad product it calls YouTube Select, reserved for the top 5% of video content on the service.

Amazon’s Twitch discussed more curation of content for advertisers as part of its NewFronts show on Monday.

All platforms are trying to win over advertisers that have been burned by unsuitable content on social media. Chinese-owned TikTok, also needed to come to NewFronts with a message about brand safety, as advertisers are concerned about how teens are affected by social media and online trends that can reflect poorly on advertisers.

In TikTok’s case, associating with fastest-trending videos could also help brands amplify their sales, because the platform has a reputation for helping propel products to popularity. TikTok has led to a number of viral commerce moments for brands that weren’t even expecting attention.

“It is premium in terms of its brand safety,” Hawkins said of TikTok Pulse, “but it is also about the top 4% of TikToks that are taking off.”