# TikTok Shop Influencers: How to Source Creators for Your Program Sourcing for TikTok Shop is its own discipline, built around creators who can sell, not just post. Eight operators share how they source sellers. ## Key Takeaways: - **TikTok Shop sourcing optimizes for conversions,** not awareness: GMV history beats follower counts when evaluating creators. - **Beat the cold start problem** by posting consistent organic content first, so creators see a real brand worth partnering with. - **Recruit in volume:** open collaborations plus targeted outreach to proven sellers, since without creators there is no content and no program. ## Sourcing TikTok Shop Creators: A Complete Strategy Guide Sourcing creators is the first order of business when building a successful affiliate program, no matter what platform you’re using. Without creators, you don’t have partnerships. And without partnerships, there’s no content to reach your audience. TikTok Shop collaborations are distinct from regular TikTok partnerships, which are designed to boost overall product and brand awareness. TikTok Shop creator content is geared toward one outcome; conversions. So, what you’re looking for in a successful creator will differ than what we’ve already explored in our [TikTok Sourcing](/content/field-guide/chapter/guide-to-sourcing-tiktok-creators/index.html) chapter. But discovering and sourcing TikTok Shop creators for your affiliate program is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to building your brand’s presence. If you don’t already have robust brand awareness on TikTok Shop, creators may be reluctant to partner with you—a classic catch-22. On TikTok, this is often referred to as the **“cold start problem.”** But don’t worry; there are ways to combat this! ### To start, focus on your organic content creation efforts If your brand doesn’t have a consistent posting schedule on TikTok, it will be very difficult to get the attention of creators. Why? Because even though you have active influencer programs on other channels, TikTok creators have no way to assess what your brand is like to work with. By building out a steady organic schedule on TikTok Shop and seeing what resonates, you can start to identify creators who align with your brand and are most likely to drive success for your affiliate program: > “If your product can cut it on this platform, that's when you can begin to navigate what niche your product falls into and what affiliates or influencers would be interested in promoting that product.” > > > - Amanda Young, Senior TikTok Shop Specialist at Zeroto1. Let’s say you’re a skincare brand. Skincare enthusiasts are your primary audience, but there’s going to be a lot of crossover with other audiences who share similar interests. For example, hormone health, clean beauty, and wellness. This opens up a much larger field of relevant TikTok Shop creators that your brand could partner with. ### How to identify quality creators on TikTok Shop TikTok Shop affiliates shouldn’t just align with your brand; they need to have a proven track record of driving engagement and sales. So, what does a high-performing creator look like on TikTok Shop? TikTok Shop offers robust performance insights into individual TikTok Shop creators. But some numbers matter much more than others. Here’s what Micah Whitehead at Zeroto1, a leading TikTok Shop agency, had to say about their creator sourcing strategy: > “We're looking for creators that are likely to do the job well, which is like 5 to 10,000 followers, high activation rate of content posted, and then have previously made content for other brands.” > > > - Micah Whitehead, CEO and Co-Founder of Zeroto1. While there will be differences in engagement and audience size depending on your niche, this provides a useful shorthand to assess creators. Additionally, Dan from 456 Growth emphasizes the importance of not taking north star metrics like GMV at face value: > ”Look at the granularities and understand what was GMV driven from paid versus organic. Was it one video partnership, or was it 30 that drove the GMV? Was it a high AOV or was it a low AOV? Was it a video that person posted six months ago versus in that current month? All of those variables determine a successful creator.” > > > - Dan Albert, Co-Founder and Partner at 456 Growth. Honing on these indicators will help you to identify creators who are not only experienced at producing content for brands, but are also the most likely to drive long-term revenue. This means you can start to niche down in your sourcing strategy and develop your own set of filters. Aside from traditional measures like engagement rate and posting cadence, TikTok Shop has another metric of note which isn’t found on other social platforms, known as **“content completion rate.”** > “Content completion rate” is how often they create content based on the products they receive. You want to see creators that generate content for more than 80% of the products they receive.” > > > - Pontus, Product Lead at Superfiliate. Product seeding is an expensive undertaking, especially for smaller brands. If you’re committing to a seeding campaign, you want to select creators who offer high odds of creating content based on their experience with your product. In other words, if you’re seeding to creators with a large profile but receiving no content, that inventory is going to waste. They might not have the largest following or the most views, but a creator who actually posts content means that your product is making inroads into the platform and building familiarity with audiences. ### Mastering creator outreach on TikTok Shop You’ve identified a list of creators you want to work with. How do you put your best foot forward and get them excited about the prospect of partnering with you? Given the increasing competition amongst brands to source creators on TikTok Shop, mass outreach has become a necessity for brands who are looking to scale their affiliate programs. Unless you’re reaching out to thousands of creators per day, you’re not going to get ahead.