If you are reading this, you probably know that TikTok is the hottest property in the social media platforms market right now.
The numbers just confirm it: Half of Gen Z consumers are active on TikTok. The good news is that Gen Z is almost twice as likely to buy something based on influencer recommendations.
If your target audience is Generation Z, TikTok influencers are the sharpest tool you can have in your marketing box. Trust us – you don’t want to be left behind.
It’s okay to be confused if it’s your first time hiring TikTok influencers. But don’t worry, we have developed a comprehensive guide to give you all the answers you can probably ask for.
So, let’s dive in!
Why do brands work with TikTok influencers?
Let’s start from the basics.
Humans trust humans, not ads. This poses the question: what is a better way to tell your story than through a human being?
Why is that? It’s simple. Influencers on social media platforms like TikTok are admired by hundreds, thousands, and even millions of TikTok users. So whatever they say or promote goes directly into the minds of their admirers. Easy as that.
This is why brands nowadays collaborate with influencers to humanize their commercial messages and share their value propositions with their followers, and in return, achieve their business goals.
Though COVID lockdowns and worldwide boredom undoubtedly helped TikTok’s popularity, there is no denying that this platform is here to stay.
Social media influencers and TikTok can be a powerful combination. So if you are not already using the power of TikTok influencers, now is the time to jump on board!
Are you ready?
What are TikTok Influencers?
TikTok influencers are TikTok users with thousands/millions of followers, attracting many brands and companies willing to pay them to promote their product or service via video.
Honestly, anyone can be a TikTok star, thanks to the app’s unique algorithm that helps creators get their TikTok content in front of a global audience and grow their follower base substantially over a short period of time.
To make this easier, TikTok has a partnership called the TikTok Creator Fund, where the app pays creators to create TikTok content. If it sounds familiar, it’s because YouTube has developed a similar platform where you can find YouTube influencers and hire them.
To enroll, creators need to have at least 100K followers and a minimum of 100K video views in the last 30 days.
What is TikTok Influencer Marketing?
Here comes the fun part. Although TikTok influencers are hired to sell a product/service, their video should seem like an ad under no circumstances. TikTok’s youthful demographic has zero tolerance for everything that looks or feels like a traditional ad.
So, what is the solution here?
TikTok influencer marketing campaigns! Or, in other words, working with influencers whose followers match your target market to spread your message.
Don’t get me wrong. You can market on TikTok without applying any creator marketing efforts and only by using the formal ad campaign system, and that’s okay. But if you want to build a sizable audience on TikTok to hear your company’s message, hiring creators may be of more significant help.
Influencer marketing is the most effective form of marketing on TikTok because of these 2 reasons:
- You don’t suffer from the negative implications of TikTok ads;
- You don’t need to worry about spreading your message to your right audience as long as you have the right influencers on your side.
How to choose the right TikTok influencers
Let’s start from the basics.
Before you even get started, ensure that your brand’s target audience uses TikTok. If the answer is NO, don’t waste your time and money. Try other social media platforms like Instagram or Twitter.
If YES, continue reading.
Define your influencer marketing goals
Here are 5 of the most critical TikTok marketing goals your brand should focus on:
- Increase brand awareness with product reviews, brand mentions, contests, or giveaways.
- Boost your website traffic with relevant visitors ready to convert to clients.
- Generate leads, drive sales and profit with affiliate marketing.
- Increase your social network followers and engagement rates with brand takeovers.
- Strengthen your brand image and earn a good reputation among potential customers.
To achieve the goals above, you need the right influencer – macro or micro.
Macro vs. micro-influencers: What is the difference?
Macro-influencers can reach more than 20 times the audience of micro-influencers because they have a huge following network.
Micro-influencers have a lower organic reach, focused on a specific niche – they are often perceived as experts in their particular fields.
But it’s not always about quantity, right? Having more followers as a content creator isn’t always the right way when it comes to TikTok’s main audience.
The Verdict
GenZ is more skeptical of macro-influencers. They expect to listen to authentic voices that resonate in specific markets and communities. So the micro-influencers win the throne.
Studies just confirm this: 3/4 of consumers prefer marketing that comes from micro-influencers.
These are the main reasons:
- micro-influencers can provide unique views,
- they are cheaper to work with,
- can garner higher engagement figures on their posts
The best-case scenario to tap into a specific market is hiring several micro-influencers that can spread their unique voices to your target audiences.
Today, it’s easier than ever to do it. Let’s see how to do it.
How to find and hire Tiktok influencers
You have 2 ways to find and hire TikTok creators: manually or automatically.
Let’s start with the manual part on how to find TikTok influencers.
This is how you can do it:
- Search for industry-relevant and trending hashtags in posts and the people behind them;
- Find people who are interested in a specific topic and shadow their activity;
- Find influencers by city or country if you plan to sell your products or services locally or nationally;
- Search by follower count, engagement rate, and reach (keep in mind that quantity doesn’t always mean quality).
Try this engagement rate calculator if you are unsure how to count your potential TikTok influencer.
If you don’t want to do the finding part the hard way, let’s see how to automate the outreach process to save a lot of manual work (you will thank us later).
How to find and hire TikTok micro-influencers?
What if I tell you that there is an influencer marketing platform where you can find contact information from your ideal TikTok influencers?
In a couple of minutes, your search will be narrowed down based on your specific requirements, and you can receive not just the names of the TikTok influencers, but complete info such as:
- email address;
- username;
- biography;
- phone number;
- category;
- city;
- street address;
- number of followers;
- number of people who they are following;
- number of posts;
- whether they are open for business;
- website link;
- and so much more.
Use the form below to describe the types of TikTok influencers you’re targeting and we’ll reach out to you asap.
In case you want to cut the back-and-forth process you can also book a short call with our team on this link.
How to find and hire TikTok macro-influencers?
On the other hand, if you want to develop viral video content that goes wider than a specific market, we would recommend you try the following influencer marketing agencies/platforms:
- Grin
- Upfluence
- CreatorIQ
- Creator.co
- Tagger
- #paid
- Neoreach
- Aspire IQ
- Fanbytes
- Julius
Please keep in mind that these platforms can do the work, but they may cost you more than you planned.
Don’t close this tab if you don’t have the extra budget to pay for expensive influencer marketing agencies because below, we will show you more affordable options to hire your ideal TikTok influencer.
How to reach out to TikTok influencers
TikTok Influencers are like celebrities, so getting in touch with them might be tricky. The bad news is that TikTok doesn’t allow you to message an account if they are not following you.
The good news is that there are many ways to contact your favorite TikTok creators outside of the direct message feature on the app.
Here are 4 ways you can try your luck:
- Engage with their content and comment on their posts often – you will surely get on their radar.
- Add them on other social media platforms and send them a message (start with Instagram).
- Send them an email – influencers actually prefer receiving a detailed email rather than a direct message.
- Explore TikTok Influencer Marketplace to match with influencers based on data.
Why start with an email outreach?
We are not old-fashioned. Targeted and personalized emails have worked decades ago and still work today with TikTok influencers. So, ensure to include them in your outreach strategies.
You have 2 options here:
- Find the email manually
- Automate the process
Let us guess – you don’t have the time and energy to do this by foot, right?
This is the part where a TikTok email finder can land you a hand giving you hundreds of highly targeted emails of your potential collaborators.
Just add your niche and target audience, and we will deliver emails from your ideal audience in no time. And the price to pay won’t affect your marketing budget. It’s a promise.
So, why not give it a try?
Tiktok Influencer outreach templates
You have the right data and now you can continue with your influencer outreach.
Obviously, developing a super cool outreach template that won’t scare them away.
Here are the things you should pay attention to when writing the email copy:
- Keep it short and sweet (the attention span is disturbingly short nowadays);
- Add something cool you have noticed about their TikTok videos;
- Share how their posts resonate with your brand.
Copy-paste this email template below, and you are ready to go:
Hi [add influencer name],
The team at [company name] loves your TikTok post about [insert description of the post] because we are also committed to [add what you do or your mission].
We would be happy to partner with you on [add your job offer].
We’d love to talk about the details with you if you’re interested!
Thanks![add your name and title]
How much does it cost to hire a TikTok influencer?
Congrats! You are about to hire a creator for your influencer marketing campaign, but did you manage to see their price tag?
Let’s reveal the costs for creating a video based on how popular the TikTok influencer is:
Micro-influencers: $25 – $125 per video
Macro-influencers: $1K – $2K per video
Yes, a high-quality influencer campaign can come with a certain price tag, but it can serve as a great boost for your digital marketing efforts.
Top TikTok Influencers that you can collaborate with
Before we reach the end of this post, we will show you our top TikTok influencers to watch for as you plan your influencer campaigns for 2024.
Please remember that this list isn’t solely focused on the huge followers’ count but mostly on creativity and high-quality content.
Top TikTok Influencers
| username | biography | follower_count | category |
|---|---|---|---|
| crissa_ace | TURN ON POST NOTIFICATIONS ↗️ 13th Woman to play for the HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS 🏀 TIKTOK : 13 milly 🙏🏽☺️ Content Creator Motivational Speaker | 13 million | Athlete |
| markellwashington | •I slay for a living💋 •Tiktok: 👏🏽( 8 MILLION +) •East Coast ✈️ West Coast •📧markellwashington66@gmail.com 👻add me :Markell123 | 8 million | Public figure |
| adamrayokay | 🦋 Twitter: adamrayokay 🦋 TikTok: adamrayokay 🦋 Facebook: adamrayokay | 6.7 million | Public figure |
| leomahalo | Customizing the world! 🌎🌸 TikTok [6.5 Million] NFT project [loading..] 🚀 [clients: Levi’s Chipotle, Converse, Gfuel, Buzzfeed, JustWater, Warner,..] | 6.5 million | Artist |
| josh.otusanya | Stand up Comedian & Life Advice Wizard 📲 ✘ TikTok: 6.4 Million+ Followers ⚡️ ✘ YouTube: 1.07 Million+ Subscribers 📨 ✘ JoshOtusanyaBiz@gmail.com | 6.4 million | Public figure |
| arielfocus | 📍 | Miami FL 🎭 | TikTok👉🏻 arielfocus 2.4M+ ⬇️⬇️ | 2.4 million | Photographer |
| mr.alanij | 🥇World’s Fastest Caricaturist (ISCA 2019) NFT Artist Creator + Collector 1.6M+ TIKTOK *Commissions Open 👇on AlaniJ.com | 1.6 million | Arts & entertainment |
| jera.bean | Transforming how you show up on social media, Creator @thesocialmediasaloon, Speaker + Coach + TikTok Expert, Clients: Esteé Lauder, MAC, Adobe ⬇️Cohort6 | 1.4 million | Entrepreneur |
| watchmaggiepaint | Your Wedding Painter from Atl | I fly anywhere to paint your love 1.1 MILLION✨on tiktok: @watchmaggiepaint 2022 IS FULLY BOOKED, link for 2023 👇🏻 | 1.1 million | Artist |
| ryanbyryanchua | LA-based content creator. Follow me on TikTok: flip4realz | Co-Founder 🍵: @richandpourco | 1.1 million | Personal |
| hazzytrainer | • 📜 Carve-your-Body System • 🔥Transformed 225+ Civilians into Super Saiyans • 🔱 TikTok (805K) | @gymshark 🦈 • 📲 DM me “TRANSFORM” if you’re ready!👇🏽 | 805k | Fitness Trainer |
| overthemoonfaraway | 📍San Diego Fashion | Lifestyle | Laughs | @tiktok 👉🏻 overthemoonfaraway ✉️ erin@shoshalmedia.com | 667k | Digital creator |
| natalijaugrina | 580k TikTok, 230k FB 🏠 Los Angeles 📍Miami | 580k | Fashion Model |
| twaydabae | For the Culture | ☞TikTok | Twitter | Snapchat: Twaydabae ☟New Recipe ☟ | 560k | Chef |
| erekav | Mom, Wife, TV Host, Food Blogger | Sometimes sweet, sometimes savory | Follow for recipes & lifestyle tips #beYOUtiful Tiktok @erekasfood 550K followers | 552k | Personal blog |
To Wrap Up
If you’re marketing to Gen Z and not getting involved with the top TikTok influencers who produce unique content, I hate to break it to you, but you will soon be left behind.
68% of marketers plan on using TikTok for their influencer marketing campaigns in the next year. Are you going to be one of them?
Get in touch with us to scale up your influencer marketing game today!
