Key Insights
- TikTok launched a Creator Rewards Program incentivizing longer, high-quality videos optimized for search queries.
- The program aims to boost lengthy, educational content by compensating creators based on watch time, originality, and search alignment.
- TikTok also released a Search Insights tool to guide creators on popular topics, likely driving more explainer and how-to videos.
BEIJING (MarketsXplora) – TikTok unveiled a new monetization program on Tuesday rewarding creators for producing high-quality, longer videos optimized for search queries, as the hit short-video app looks to spur more lengthy, viewer-engaging content.
The Creator Rewards Program, after beta testing, will compensate TikTok creators based on metrics like video originality, watch time, audience engagement and alignment with popular search terms.
TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, is aiming to incentivize more prolonged storytelling versus ultra-brief clips to keep users watching longer, boosting critical engagement metrics for advertisers.
“We’re excited to share that the Creativity Program is out of beta,” TikTok said. “The Creator Rewards Program will continue to reward high-quality, original content that is over a minute long.”
To guide creators on topics searchers want, TikTok also launched a Search Insights tool providing data on trending queries across the platform’s billion-plus monthly users.
Requirements for TikTok rewards program
Eligibility requires creators be over 18 with accounts in good standing, at least 10,000 followers and more than 100,000 video views in the prior 30 days.
Those who qualify will earn rewards based on a formula weighting originality of their content, overall watch time, search value matching popular queries, and audience metrics like likes and comments.
Since expanding its 60-second video length cap in 2022, TikTok said engagement with longer videos has soared to 50% of total user watch-time.
The new incentives build on TikTok’s broader creator monetization efforts through ads, tipping and e-commerce to court top digital talent amid stiffening competition from rivals YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat.
They also come as a growing number of users turn to TikTok as a search engine, alongside its core function as a video-sharing and entertainment platform.
TikTok’s dedicated search insights tool “can help creators better understand what topics are popular” with viewers, likely guiding more educational, how-to and explainer videos in a bid to capture search traffic.
“Search value is a metric assigned to content based on popular search terms,” TikTok told creators in program guidance viewed by MarketsXplora.
Rewarding search-friendly videos could lure more creators to hone longer content marketing skills while also driving consumption of ads, which typically offer higher payouts than views alone.
It could also help ByteDance’s TikTok counter criticisms the platform spreads misinformation by amplifying authoritative expertise across entertainment and educational topics.