The TikTok algorithm isn't some mysterious, complex system designed to keep us from succeeding. In reality, TikTok actually wants its sellers and affiliates to make money—lots of it. When we succeed, so does TikTok; it’s a partnership.
Once you understand how TikTok evaluates both your videos and the products linked to them, getting consistent sales becomes much easier. I've said it before: price isn’t as important as you think, as long as you’re not ridiculously overpriced. If your price is reasonable, whether you mark it up 20%, 30%, or even 60%, it won’t matter much.
Contrary to popular belief, the delivery time—whether it’s 2 days, 7 days, or even 11 days—doesn't play a huge role in determining if your product sells. Sure, these things matter a bit, but what really counts is the demand for the product and the performance of the video showcasing and linking to it.
Each TikTok shop product video has a limited lifespan, ranging from a couple of days to a month or more. Two sellers can list the exact same product, post the same number of videos, price the product the same, and use the same supplier, yet see completely different results.
This happens because TikTok’s algorithm assesses your previous customers, past video viewers, and your audience’s interests and demographics. It constantly matches your product with potential buyers who share similar traits.
Listing trending, high-demand products increases your chances of success, but the quality and initial performance of your video are just as important. Don’t make dull videos simply asking people to buy. Create engaging content that highlights your product's features, benefits, or the problem it solves. If you're lacking creative ideas, look at what’s working for others successfully promoting similar products on TikTok.
At its core, TikTok operates as a suggestion engine. Most sales don’t come from users searching for specific items in the TikTok shop. Instead, people are casually browsing when your video pops up and convinces them to make an impulse purchase. The video persuades them that the product will improve their life, solve a problem, or elevate their status among peers.
TikTok already knows what products we’re interested in and when we’re likely to buy them. It tracks your interests, hobbies, how many kids you have, where you vacation, what sports you play, and more. By agreeing to TikTok’s terms of service, you give them access to your online behavior across apps and websites—not just TikTok. The algorithm uses this data to suggest the most relevant videos and products.
Based on a video's initial performance—click-through rate, conversion rate, engagement, etc... and your products current demand and potential buyer pool—TikTok decides whether to keep promoting it or let it fizzle out. This explains why some of your videos gain traction and lead to sales, while others barely get any views. Even if two sellers list the same product under identical conditions, the outcomes can be vastly different because the initial responses to their videos may vary.
So, what really matters? The product, the video, and your audience all play significant roles. But ultimately, anyone can go viral with the right product and video—if you catch the TikTok wave just right. If one of your videos flops, it’s likely that TikTok tested it but didn’t get a positive response, so they stopped promoting it. On the other hand, videos that do well get shown to the right people, garner positive engagement, clicks, and sales, and TikTok continues to push them further.
This might sound discouraging, but it’s actually a good thing! If your product isn’t selling after a few videos but you know it’s a hot item, don’t give up. Keep the product listed and post multiple videos, tweaking your approach slightly until the algorithm picks it up. The only two variables you should focus on are your product and your video.
If you need help finding hot-selling products, this tutorial will walk you through that process in 10 minutes: https://youtu.be/3jwV0HlZxI4
Then, there are numerous ways to create effective videos that convert TikTok views into purchases, especially during the initial product testing phase.
But the last thing you want to do when testing a product is spend tons of time planning and recording a video, hours editing it to make it perfect, or spending big bucks on a UGC creator, only to find out the product isn't a winner.
Instead, use a minimum viable product approach to test your idea quickly without spending unnecessary time, effort, or money. That’s where Creatify AI comes in. It’s an incredible AI software that creates high-quality videos in seconds, and you don’t even need the product in hand to do it. Crazy, right?
It helps you make professional videos with transitions, voiceovers, captions, and b-roll footage of the product, all faster than you can record a video on your own phone.
Not only that, it writes winning scripts with expert-level quality, and it sounds exactly like a human when it reads the script aloud in your video.
But that’s just the beginning. You can create dozens of videos quickly and upload them to TikTok the same day you choose a product, all without ever needing the product on hand.
The software uses pictures and videos from the listing to create the video for you, or you can upload your own videos, and it’ll pull the best parts as b-roll footage, overlaying them on top of your new script and voiceover—automatically!
This is one of the best ways I know to test products quickly during the initial launch phase to see if they’re winners or not.
If you want to try Creatify AI, you can do so for free here: https://creatify.ai/?via=bryan (Get 15% off with code REFERRAL15)
And if you'd like to see a complete video of it in action, you can watch that here: https://youtu.be/UJlvQ6GW8YQ
Once you’ve got the product and video parts down, it’s all about testing and finding the right combo that works for you. It’s not a matter of "if" anymore—it’s just a matter of "when."
By understanding the algorithm, you can leverage it to your advantage. It’s about tweaking one variable at a time until you find the formula that works.
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