TikTok connects brands to user-generated ads with new feature

TikTok is now allowing brands to request video submissions from creators to run as in-feed ads—and for creators to earn a cut of the revenue from those submitted videos. 

The “TikTok Creative Challenge” enables brands to publish “challenges,” which are essentially creative briefs, consisting of an overview of the brand, talking points and brand assets to potentially include in the video, as well as information about the brand’s target audience.

Qualified creators—or those who have at least 50,000 followers, are based in the U.S. and are at least 18 years old—can scroll through these briefs on the Creative Challenge landing page and submit a video to any brand for them to review.

Unlike the platform’s “Branded Mission” tool that enables brands to solicit user-submitted videos to put paid support behind, the videos shared with brands through the Creative Challenge feature appear only as in-feed ads, rather than being posted to the brand’s or the creator’s account.

The new feature comes as marketers increasingly look to creators to help them meet their rising short-form video needs. It could provide brands with a steady flow of the user-generated, lo-fi content that resonates with consumers on TikTok. After posting a challenge, brands can receive up to 30 of these creator-submitted videos over the span of 10 days, according to a TikTok press release. For creators, this feature offers a new monetization opportunity without the fear of alienating their followers with a slew of sponsored posts.

Unlike traditional brand deals, marketers don’t pay an upfront fee to creators through the Creative Challenge feature. Instead, creators’ incomes through this program are performance-based, including views, clicks and conversions, among other factors. According to a February post on TikTok’s website, this payment model is designed to “incentivize” creators to “create quality video ads.” 

“The better the ad performs, the higher the rewards,” the website reads. The page also cites marketers' “creative fatigue” as a motivating factor for the creation of the program.

The Creative Challenge feature is currently available in beta and limited to a select group of advertisers, but is open to all adult U.S. creators who meet the program’s 50,000-follower threshold. It appears TikTok began piloting the program as early as last October, when creators such as Kristen Bousquet began sharing details about their involvement in the program. A TikTok representative also cited @alluredbeauty, @dayneo and @sydneyonsocials as creators with “early access” to the Creative Challenge feature.

Over 200 brands were involved in the early piloting of the program, including TikTok’s sister app CapCut, plus-size dating app WooPlus and mobile game “Lords Mobile: Tower Defense,” according to Bousquet’s video. Screenshots shared in her video also show creators can earn bonuses from TikTok through the Creative Challenge feature for meeting certain requirements. For example, creators earn a $20 “newcomer bonus” for their first approved video submission through the program. 

Additional bonuses are based on their ads’ collective performance, such as the “guaranteed bonus,” which grants a creator $200 if they have four brand-approved videos that generate at least $10 in revenue for the creator. 

“Are we not going to talk about the fact that they’re literally asking people to create ads for free?” Bousquet says in the video uploaded in October. In an email to Ad Age, Bousquet said she hasn’t participated in the program because brands are automatically given perpetual usage rights to any user-submitted videos, which “is not something [she’s] comfortable with, personally,” she said. 

Other creators, though, have taken part in the program. Creator Sydney McDonald told Ad Age that she has earned about $16,000 per month since she began using the Creative Challenge feature in February. In an email, McDonald said she has created videos for brands such as Uber Eats, Rocket Money and AI chatbot Genie through the program

In a video earlier this month, creator @nessaweight said that she has earned roughly $10,000 per month making ads for video games such as Fortnite and “Genshin Impact” through the program.