TikTok has updated its Creator Marketplace to include a Talent Manager Portal. The new functionality will allow talent managers to monitor, execute, and analyze the brand possibilities and campaigns offered to their clients. With the update, it’s now easier for companies to work with TikTok’s “superstar” creators. 

 Talent managers now have access to the Creator Marketplace with creator authorization to manage deal flow, negotiate contracts on behalf of their clients, handle creative criticism, and study numerous statistics and metrics about campaigns’ performance. 

With this growth, TikTok can now cater to the demands of both “celebrity-level” creators and those with tens or hundreds of thousands of followers.

Current Status of the Talent Manager Portal

According to TikTok, the new portal is currently undergoing alpha testing. Numerous agencies have already joined up for the free service, but TikTok is currently unable to disclose the names of testers.

Additionally, talent managers will only be able to access their clients’ Marketplace accounts and not their actual TikTok accounts.

The system intends to supplement the Creator Marketplace’s current services for businesses who wish to benefit from creator-led advertising’s effectiveness, which TikTok claims results in higher ad recall for 71% of brands assessed.

The role of Tiktok Creator Marketplace 

TikTok Creator Marketplace, which was first introduced in 2019, is similar to the many platforms provided by Facebook, Instagram, Snap, and YouTube that help creators build relationships in the influencer marketing industry. It plays a significant role in the emerging ecosystem for creator monetization. The Creator Marketplace, in addition to being a destination debuted an API in 2021 that enables marketing firms like Captiv8 and Influential to use its first-party data within their systems.

Previously, finding top creators to collaborate with required more manual labor on the part of brands. They had to sift through apps or use search terms to find artists, and they couldn’t narrow down their searchers’ criteria. The TikTok Creator Marketplace gives them access to more resources by letting businesses pick creators based on keywords, the material being shared, and filters based on audience size and demographics.

Brands have two options for collaborating with talent: they can contact out directly through direct invitation or use application campaigns, in which they’ll develop a brief, and creators will pitch the opportunity to them. The marketplace’s match tool further automates the process by using AI and natural language processing to match contributors to the brief based on the content they are submitting.

The new Talent Manager Portal will give Tiktok a competitive edge

According to TikTok, brands who collaborate with creators experience increases of 26% in brand favorability and 22% in brand referrals. Additionally, according to 71% of TikTok users, a creator’s genuineness is what now inspires them to buy from a brand.

In light of the fierce competition from other tech heavyweights like Meta, Snap, and YouTube,  overcoming challenges surrounding creator monetization is crucial to retaining top talent on TikTok’s app. 

Some of the top TikTok artists are making tens of thousands of dollars, and in some cases even hundreds of thousands, through brand campaigns on the Creator Marketplace. Smaller-scale campaigns might only offer gifting as a payment option, for example.

TikTok is yet to specify how long the alpha testing phase of its new Talent Manager Portal would last for the tool to become more widely available.