How to Sponsor a Video on TikTok

Putting money behind a TikTok video is one of the fastest ways to get your brand, product, or message in front of a massive, engaged audience. This guide walks you through the three main ways to sponsor content on the platform, from the super-simple Promote button to full-blown influencer campaigns.

First, Let's Get Clear: What Does "Sponsor a Video" Mean?

On TikTok, "sponsoring a video" can mean a few different things, and people often use the term interchangeably. Knowing the difference is important because each method serves a different purpose and has a different price tag.

• Boosting Your Own Video (Using Promote): This is when you take one of your own existing TikToks and pay to show it to more people. It’s the simplest form of paid advertising on the platform, handled directly within the app. You're paying for reach.
• Sponsoring a Creator's Video (Influencer Marketing): This is the classic sponsorship. You pay a creator to make a video that features or talks about your brand. You're paying for their creative talent, authenticity, and the trust they've built with their audience.
• Running In-Feed Ads (Using TikTok Ads Manager): This is the most advanced approach. You use TikTok's powerful advertising platform to run a full campaign with precise targeting, specific objectives, and detailed analytics. Your video appears as an "In-Feed Ad" in users' For You pages.

Let's go over how to do each one, step-by-step.

Method 1: The Quick and Easy Way with TikTok Promote

TikTok Promote is the platform’s entry-level tool for amplifying your own content. It's perfect for business owners, artists, or creators who want a straightforward way to get more eyes on a video that’s already performing well organically. You don't need a business account, and everything is done right from your phone.

When to Use Promote:

• You have a video that is starting to gain traction, and you want to give it an extra push.
• Your goal is simple: more video views, website clicks, or profile followers.
• You want to get started with paid ads without the complexity of the full Ads Manager.

How to Sponsor a Video with Promote: Step-by-Step

Sponsoring your video with Promote takes just a couple of minutes.

1. Choose the Right Video: Don't waste money promoting a dud. Scroll through your profile and find a video that already has good engagement (likes, comments, shares). This is a strong signal that the content resonates with people, and more viewers are likely to enjoy it too.
2. Access the Promote Tool:
   • Go to the video you want to boost.
   • Tap the three dots (...) on the right side of the screen.
   • In the menu that appears, tap the "Promote" icon (it looks like a little flame). If you don't see it, go to your profile, tap the three lines in the top right, select "Creator tools," and then tap "Promote".
3. Choose Your Goal: TikTok will ask what you want to achieve. The options are generally straightforward:
   • More video views: The best option if your goal is pure brand awareness.
   • More website visits: If you want to drive traffic to your online store, blog, or landing page. You’ll add your URL and select a call-to-action button (like "Shop Now" or "Learn More").
   • More followers: A good choice if you're focused on building your community on TikTok.
4. Select Your Audience: You have two choices here.
   • Default (Automatic): TikTok will show your video to users it thinks will be interested. This is a great, hands-off option to start with.
   • Custom: You can select specific genders, age ranges, and interests. If you know your target customer really well (e.g., women aged 25-34 interested in skincare), this will give you more control.
5. Set Your Budget and Duration: Decide how much you want to spend per day and for how many days the promotion will run. You can start with as little as a few dollars a day. TikTok will give you an estimated number of video views your budget will get you.
6. Review and Pay: Lastly, you’ll review your promotion settings and add your payment information. Once you hit "Start Promotion," your video will be reviewed by TikTok, and if approved, it will start being shown to a wider audience. You can track its performance in the Promote settings.

Method 2: Working with Creators for Authentic Reach

If you want to tap into the power of word-of-mouth marketing, sponsoring a TikTok creator is the way to go. Instead of your brand talking about itself, you have a trusted voice in a community doing it for you. This often feels less like an ad and more like a genuine recommendation.

Finding the Right Creator for Your Brand

Finding a creator who aligns with your brand is the most important part of this process.

• Use the TikTok Creator Marketplace: This is TikTok’s official platform for connecting brands with creators. You can search based on topic, audience size, demographics, and more. It provides verified analytics, which takes a lot of the guesswork out of the equation.
• Search Manually: Look through hashtags related to your industry (#skintips, #smallbusinessowner, #homedecor). See who is creating popular content and whose vibe matches your brand. Check hashtags like #ad and #sponsored to see which creators are already working with other brands.
• Check Who Your Competitors Are Sponsoring: Who are other brands in your space collaborating with? This can give you a great list of potential partners who already understand your market.

What to Look for Before You Reach Out

• Engagement Rate > Follower Count: A creator with 10,000 engaged followers is far more valuable than one with 100,000 silent ones. Look for a healthy ratio of likes and, more importantly, comments on their videos. Are people having conversations in their comment section?
• Brand Alignment: Does their content style, tone, and overall message fit with your brand? If you're a sustainable fashion brand, partnering with a fast-fashion haul creator makes no sense. The partnership needs to feel natural to their audience.
• Audience Demographics: Ask creators for their audience stats (age, gender, location). Their audience should be your target audience. The Creator Marketplace shows this information upfront.

How to Pitch a Sponsorship

Once you've found a few creators you'd like to work with, it's time to reach out.

1. Find Their Contact Info: Most serious creators have a business email in their bio. Avoid DMing them on TikTok unless they specifically ask you to, DMs are often flooded and can look unprofessional.
2. Write a Clear, Personalized Email:
   • Start by saying who you are and why you love their content (mention a specific video you enjoyed!).
   • Clearly state what you're proposing: "We'd like to sponsor one TikTok video to promote our new line of coffee beans."
   • Be upfront about your budget if you can. It saves everyone time. You can state a flat fee or ask for their rates.
   • Outline the basic requirements (e.g., must include a link in bio, mention a specific feature) but give them creative freedom.
3. Negotiate and Get It in Writing: Once they respond, you'll discuss specifics: the timeline for posting, how many videos, usage rights (can you use their video on your website?), and payment. Always create a simple contract that outlines everything you agreed upon.
4. Remember Disclosure: The creator must disclose that the video is sponsored. This is typically done with #ad, #sponsored, or using TikTok's branded content toggle, which adds a "Paid partnership" label. This is required by law in many countries (like the FTC in the U.S.) and is vital for maintaining audience trust.

Method 3: Go Pro with the TikTok Ads Manager

For businesses ready to scale their advertising, the TikTok Ads Manager is the ultimate tool. It's a robust dashboard (similar to Facebook Ads Manager) that gives you maximum control over every aspect of your campaigns.

When to Use Ads Manager:

• You have specific conversion goals, like leading purchases, app installs, or lead generation.
• You want access to advanced targeting options, including Lookalike audiences and retargeting people who've visited your website.
• You need detailed analytics to measure your return on ad spend (ROAS) and optimize your campaigns.
• You want to use different ad formats, like Spark Ads (which let you boost a creator's post from your ad account) or TopView ads.

A Quick Overview of Setting Up a Campaign

Getting started in Ads Manager is more involved but gives you much more power.

1. Create a TikTok for Business Account: First, you’ll need to set this up and create your ad account. This is separate from your personal TikTok profile.
2. Install the TikTok Pixel: This is a small snippet of code you place on your website. It tracks things like page views, "add to cart" actions, and purchases, allowing you to measure your campaign's effectiveness and create retargeting audiences.
3. Create a New Campaign: You'll start by choosing an objective (Awareness, Traffic, Conversions, etc.). Your objective tells TikTok's algorithm what you want to achieve.
4. Build Your Ad Group: This is where you set your targeting. You can target based on demographics, interests, behaviors (like users who have watched videos in a certain category to the end), and device type. You can also upload your own customer lists to create Lookalike audiences.
5. Design Your Ad Creative: You can upload your own video here. The best ads on TikTok don't look like ads - they feel like native TikTok content. Use trending audio, on-screen text, and a vertical format. Keep it short and engaging, with a clear hook in the first three seconds.

Final Thoughts

Sponsoring a video on TikTok is a powerful way to grow, whether you're just starting out or running a multimillion-dollar brand. Start with what feels manageable - promoting one of your own videos with a small budget is a great first step. As you get more comfortable, you can start collaborating with creators and eventually scale your efforts with the Ads Manager.

No matter which method you choose, a clear plan is everything. At Postbase, we built our visual calendar to help you see your entire content strategy at a glance, blending your organic posts and planned sponsorships in one simple view. Once you see which paid videos drive results from your TikTok analytics, we make it easy to plan more of what works, schedule it reliably across all your platforms, and keep your content consistent without the mess of spreadsheets.