The commission model looks like the easiest income model on this list and behaves like the hardest, for one reason: you are not paid for work, you are paid for attribution. A video can be good, get watched, drive genuine interest, and credit you nothing because the viewer bought in a different session on a different device. Everything about how you work has to bend around that fact.
It bends in a useful direction, though. Because attribution is the product, the whole job collapses into one question — does this video make a specific product's reason-to-buy legible before the viewer's thumb moves? Not memorable. Not beautiful. Legible. That is a much more tractable brief than 'make something viral', and it is why the comparison format keeps winning here.
The payer
Who actually releases the money
Marketplace sellers who publish an open or targeted commission offer
- What they are buying
- Attributed sales. They are not buying your time, your file, or your idea — they are buying a purchase that a platform can trace back to your video.
- Where the money comes from
- There is no budget and no invoice. A commission accrues against a sale, holds through the return window, and is credited afterwards. Nobody approves it; a ledger does it or it doesn't.
- Where they look
- Sellers browse the platform's own creator-facing marketplace and send sample offers. You do not have to be found — you can apply to open offers yourself.
- Who approves it
- Nobody, in the human sense. The seller sets terms once; after that the attribution system is the counterparty.
The brief nobody writes down
What the payer actually wants
One product, one reason
A video that covers five features gives the shopper five things to think about and no reason to act. Sellers with a live commission offer want the single attribute that separates their item from the next one in the feed.
Volume that survives attribution loss
Because a share of genuine interest never gets credited, this model rewards consistent output over occasional excellence. Sellers know that, and they favour creators who publish on a rhythm.
Claims tied to the listing
Anything you say on screen should be checkable on the product page the link goes to. A mismatch between video and listing is the fastest route to a takedown and a lost offer.
Correct disclosure, done the platform's way
The built-in toggle, not a caption. Sellers care because a policy strike on your video removes their distribution too.
Formats that repeat
A comparison structure you can re-run across a seller's catalogue is worth far more to them than a bespoke idea that works once. Reusability is the whole business.
The deliverable
What you hand over
A head-to-head video that makes one product's reason-to-buy legible in the seconds before a viewer decides whether to tap.
Built from a real recipe
11 scenes · 1:28 · VEO 3.1 Fast I2V
Why this shape
The recipe alternates hero and rival across its scenes — a rhythm the viewer can follow without narration doing the work. Comparison is the format that converts on a marketplace, because a shopper on a shopping feed is not deciding whether to care about the category; they are deciding between two things.
The edit you make before it is client-ready
Replace every unverifiable superlative with an attribute a shopper can check on the listing itself. The recipe's comedy beats survive; the claims do not, and a claim you cannot point at the product page for is the one that gets the video taken down.
Handover conventions
- Nothing to hand over — you publish it yourself. That is the structural difference from creative supply, and it is why the platform's disclosure rules land on you rather than on a brand's reviewer.
- The product link attached through the platform's own affiliate mechanism, never a bare URL in the caption.
- The paid-promotion disclosure switched on using the platform's built-in control, not a line of text you typed.
- A saved copy of the seller's terms at the moment you published, since open offers can change under you.
Recipes that fill out the offer
Production
How to build it
- 1
Apply to an open offer before you build
Confirm the product is actually in an active commission programme and that your account is eligible for the category. Building first and checking after is how creators end up with unpublishable footage.
- 2
Read the listing like a shopper, not a marketer
Find the one attribute the listing photos fail to communicate. That gap is the video's job — everything the listing already does well is wasted screen time.
- 3
Build the head-to-head, keep the rival generic
Name nothing you cannot defend. The comparison recipe works because the contrast is structural — hero, rival, hero, rival — not because the rival is identified.
- 4
Rewrite every claim against the product page
Line by line. If the sentence is not supported by the listing the link points to, cut it or change it. This is the step that keeps the account alive.
- 5
Publish with disclosure on and the link attached natively
Use the platform's own controls for both. Then save a copy of the offer terms as they stood, because open programmes change.
Non-negotiable
The rulebook
This page exists because the payer publishes rules. Read them at the source rather than in a summary — including this one, which is a pointer, not an authority.
TikTok
TikTok Branded Content Policy →What it governs
Content posted in exchange for anything of value — which is exactly what a commissioned product video is, whether or not money has changed hands yet.
The clause that bites
Disclosure and prohibited categories. Undisclosed paid promotion is a policy breach on the poster, not on the seller, and some product categories cannot be promoted through branded content at all regardless of how the video is made. Check whether your category is permitted before you build, because a perfect video in a barred category is unpublishable.
Also worth reading
Getting paid
Application, not pitch
Where it happens
The platform's own creator-side marketplace. You browse open offers and request samples; sellers also send targeted offers once you have published in a category.
The opener
Your first videos are the application. A seller reviewing a sample request is looking at whether you have already published in their category, not at a message you wrote.
The proof
Published videos in the same product category, and a fulfilment record — sellers who send samples are watching whether videos actually appear afterwards.
The ask
Request the sample, then publish on the timeline you promised. The relationship is built entirely out of that loop repeating.
The follow-up
After a seller's product performs, ask to be moved from their open offer to a targeted one. That is the only real negotiation available in this model, and it only happens after evidence.
Structure, not rates
How the money is shaped
Rates are not published here. What is generalisable is the shape of the arrangement — which of these you choose changes how the income behaves far more than any number does.
Open commission
Anyone eligible can promote the product on the seller's published terms. No negotiation, no relationship required, and no guarantee the terms stay the same next month.
Targeted commission
A seller invites specific creators on their own terms, usually after seeing published performance in the category. This is the upgrade path, and evidence is the only currency that unlocks it.
Return-window hold
Commission accrues on a sale but is not payable until the buyer's return window closes. Plan around the lag rather than the sale date — this is the single most commonly misunderstood mechanic in the model.
Honest limits
When this does not work
- Your product category is restricted for branded content. No production decision fixes a category ban.
- You are unwilling to disclose paid promotion using the platform's control. Disclosure is not optional and the breach lands on your account.
- You need predictable income this month. Commission plus a return-window hold is structurally the wrong model for a bill with a due date.
- The seller wants claims the listing does not support. Their takedown is your policy strike.
Frequently asked questions
How does affiliate video differ from making ads for a brand?+
The counterparty and the trigger both change. In creative supply you invoice a brand for a file and they run it on their account. Here you publish on your own account and a marketplace credits a commission only when a sale is attributed to you — nobody is paying for the video itself.
Do I need a large following to join a shop affiliate programme?+
Eligibility rules are set by the platform and change, so read the linked policy and the platform's own creator requirements rather than a third-party summary. What is consistent is that open offers exist specifically so sellers can work with creators they have never heard of.
Why is the comparison format used so heavily here?+
Because a shopper in a shopping feed has already decided to care about the category and is choosing between options. A comparison speaks to that decision directly, and its alternating structure keeps the reason-to-buy legible without relying on narration.
When does the commission actually arrive?+
After the buyer's return window closes, not at the moment of sale. The exact window and payout schedule are published by the platform — check them there, and treat the gap as a working-capital fact rather than a surprise.
Can I put the affiliate link in my bio instead?+
Attribution generally depends on using the platform's native linking mechanism, so a link pasted elsewhere can fail to credit you even when it drives the sale. Use the built-in attachment every time.
Other payers, other models
Build it with
What the recipe costs
Primo Protein vs Other Brand runs 1100 credits at preview resolution, 2200 credits for the full-resolution render in Versely. LUMÉE GLOW — Rich Cat Glow-Up Story runs 1092 credits at preview resolution, 2156 credits for the full-resolution render. Costs come from each recipe’s own row and change when the catalogue does — see how credit costs are calculated.
Make the deliverable first
Every payer on this surface responds better to a finished thing than to a proposal. The all-in-one AI studio for creators. 60+ models for video, image, voice, music and lipsync in a single app.