For sellers
What each affiliate plan does, and when a brand should use which.
An open collaboration lets any eligible creator promote your product at one commission rate. A target collaboration is an invitation to creators you choose, usually at a higher rate. A match-up is a campaign run by an affiliate partner that brings suitable creators to your products at scale. A brand can run all three side by side.
The names of TikTok Shop affiliate plans differ by market and change over time. Some markets and older guides say “open plan” and “targeted plan”; TikTok’s US Seller University uses “open collaboration” and “target collaboration”. The mechanics below are the same either way, but check the labels in your own Seller Center.
This guide draws mainly on TikTok’s US documentation and practitioner reports; check the exact labels and rules in your UK or EU Seller Center. TikTok Shop is not open locally in the UAE, Saudi Arabia or Türkiye.
An open collaboration is your always-on offer. You set one commission rate for a product or a group of products. Any eligible creator in the Product Marketplace can add it to their content straight away, without asking you. In the US, you can turn on approval, so only creators you approve take part; TikTok’s UK guide says creators are approved automatically.
Good for: getting many creators to try your product, and finding creators you did not know about. Superfiliate calls open collaborations your inbound channel, because they bring new creators to you.
Watch out for: without approval you do not choose who promotes you, and creators skip a low rate. One practitioner, Mike Begg, reports that products below about 10% struggle to attract creators.
Example. At a 10% rate, a £30 order pays the creator £3. These are illustrative numbers, not typical earnings.
Check what your margin allows before you set the rate.
A target collaboration is an invitation. You pick specific creators and offer them a rate you set for them. That rate can be higher than your open rate, and it can come with a free sample and a brief.
Good for: launches, priority products and creators who already sell well in your category.
Watch out for: it takes work. You find the creators, send the invitations, follow up and manage samples. Superfiliate calls this your outbound channel.
A match-up is a campaign run by a TikTok Shop affiliate partner (TAP). The partner matches your products with creators from its own network or from the marketplace. In TikTok’s US partner campaigns, the seller sets one total commission for the partner and its creators, and the partner decides how to split it. In TikTok’s Partner Center the partner category for this work is called “Seller and Scalable Creator Match-Up”. Names and mechanics differ by market.
Good for: brands that want scale without building an in-house creator team.
Watch out for: ask how much of the commission the partner keeps and how much reaches creators, and who keeps the creator relationships when the campaign ends.
TikTok’s US affiliate policy also lists a further collaboration type, Shop Collaboration, where a qualified shop sets one commission rate for all its affiliate products. Check its current terms in your Seller Center before you use it.
| Situation | Start with |
|---|---|
| You just opened your shop | An open collaboration at a competitive rate, plus a few target invitations to test |
| You are launching a hero product | Target collaborations with samples and a short brief |
| You want volume across many creators | A match-up campaign with a partner, next to your open offer |
| A creator already sells your product well | Move them to a target collaboration with a better rate |
They can. If you run ads using creators’ videos, you can set a separate, usually lower, Shop Ads commission for sales that come from those ads. TikTok’s Ads help center, which says the feature is open to invited sellers, gives the example of a 10% standard rate and a 5% Shop Ads rate. Creators who find a lower ad rate they were not told about may stop promoting the product. TikTok Shop Ads commission rate explains how to set it openly.
Set every rate, including the Shop Ads rate, before you start, and tell creators what they are. How to sell on TikTok Shop puts these steps in order.
Rules change. Plan names and rules differ by market and change over time.
Look at what similar products in your category pay, because creators compare offers side by side. One practitioner, Mike Begg, reports that products below about 10% struggle to attract creators. Treat that as one data point, not a rule, and check your margin before you raise it: How to sell on TikTok Shop shows how the referral fee and the creator commission add up.
In the US, yes: you can turn on approval, so only creators you approve take part. TikTok’s UK guide says creators in an open collaboration are approved automatically. A target collaboration is the way to choose: you invite specific creators at a rate you set for them, which can come with a free sample and a brief.
Yes, but not at once for creators who already promote the product. In an open collaboration, TikTok’s UK, Netherlands and US guides say those creators keep the old rate for 30 days, while new creators get the new rate straight away. A US target collaboration applies a new rate much sooner, and the UK Shop Ads rate changes immediately, so tell creators before you change any rate: TikTok Shop Ads commission rate explains it.
Yes, for a match-up. It is run by a TikTok Shop affiliate partner, an agency registered in TikTok’s Partner Center for this service. You can run open and target collaborations yourself in Seller Center; a match-up is the option for brands that want a partner’s creator network and campaign work. Ask how much of the commission the partner keeps, and who keeps the creator relationships when the campaign ends.
