To get into the TikTok affiliate program properly, you need 5,000 followers, and honestly, that’s the biggest barrier for most people.
Technically, it doesn’t break TikTok Shop TOS to use TikTok’s own Ads Manager to run follower campaigns. Seemingly being the keyword here. It doesn’t always work. They can still reject your application even if you didn’t use any third-party tools. No one really knows why… most people suspect the AI flags accounts that hit 5k followers too fast.
I’ve even seen people who grew organically over two weeks get rejected.
Speaking from my own experience: I used paid TikTok ads to hit around 6,000 followers for about $40. Still got rejected. From what I’ve seen, TikTok seems to “trust” accounts more if:
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The account is at least a year old, or
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You grow to 5k followers slowly, like over a month or longer
Not guaranteed, just patterns I’ve noticed watching a lot of people try to get in.