TikTok makes it easy for brands and agencies to work with the influencers who use its service. The company is introducing a new “TikTok Creator Marketplace API” that enables marketing companies to integrate more directly into TikTok’s Creator Marketplace, the video app’s internal influencer marketing platform.
Launched in late 2019, the Creator Marketplace website allowed marketers to discover top TikTok personalities for their brand campaigns, create and manage these campaigns, and track their performance.
Meanwhile, the new API enables marketing partners to access TikTok’s first-party data on audience demographics, growth trends, top performing videos and real-time campaign reports (e.g. views, likes, shares, comments, engagement, etc.). for the first time.
They can then bring that data back to their own platforms to augment the insights they are already providing to their own customer base.
TikTok won’t officially announce the API until later in September, but will allow its Alpha Partners to discuss their early work.
One of these partners is Capitv8, which tested the API with an NRF Top 50 retailer in one of their first TikTok campaigns. The retailer wanted to find a diverse and inclusive group of TikTok creators to work with on a new collaboration and wanted help launching their own TikTok channel. Captiv8 says the branded content received nearly 10 million views, and the campaign resulted in a “significant increase” in several key metrics that are roughly in line with the Nielsen average. These included familiarity (+ 4% above average), affinity (+ 6%), purchase intention (+ 7%) and intention to recommend (+ 9%).
Credit: TikTok Creator Marketplace website
Capitv8 is now working with TikTok’s API to capture audience demographics, centralize influencer offers and activations, and provide tools to grow branded content and monitor campaign performance. On that final front, the API allows the company to pull real-time metrics from the TikTok Creator Marketplace API – meaning Capitv8 is now one of only a few third-party providers with access to TikTok first-party data.
Another early alpha partner is Influential, which also uses the API to access first-party insights on audience demographics, growth trends, top performing videos, and more to help their Fortune 1000 brand customer base find the right YouTubers both native and paid advertising campaigns.
One partner it worked with was DoorDash, which, with the help of Influential, launched several campaigns on TikTok. There are also plans to partner with McDonald’s USA on several new campaigns that will run this year, including those focused on the chain’s new Crispy Chicken Sandwich and the return of Spicy McNuggets.
Other early alpha partners are Whalar and INCA. The latter is currently only available in the UK and its integration comes from TikTok’s larger global partnership with WPP, which was announced in February. Among other things, this deal gave WPP agencies early access to new Marketing API integrations for advertising products and new AR offerings.
Creator marketplaces are now common on social media platforms with large influencer communities as it has become a standard way of advertising to online consumers, especially the younger generation. Facebook today offers its Brands Collabs Manager for both Facebook and Instagram; YouTube has BrandConnect; while Snapchat recently announced a marketplace to connect brands with Lens makers. These types of in-house platforms make it easier for marketers to partner with the broader influencer community by offering trusted data on metrics that matter to brands’ own ROI, rather than relying on self-reported data from influencers or data that you have to enter manually collect yourself. And while the campaigns are running, marketers can compare how well their YouTubers are with partners in delivering results for their future collaboration.
TikTok is currently not making a formal announcement about its new API and is informing TechCrunch that the technology is still in the pilot phase for the time being.
“Creators are the lifeblood of our platform, and we’re always thinking of new ways to make it easier for them to connect and collaborate with brands. We’re excited to be working with an elite group of trusted partners to help brands discover and work with different creators who can authentically share their message, “said Melissa Yang, Head of Ecosystem Partnerships at TikTok. in a statement to select partner of the marketing company.