Why do Shop Ads orders pay lower commission?

Here's a pattern that confuses a lot of creators: a video suddenly gets a wave of orders, but the commission per order is much lower than usual. Often the reason is that a shop started running its own ads using your video. Those orders count as yours, but they pay a different rate.

How Shop Ads use your videos

Sellers on TikTok Shop can advertise with affiliate creators' videos. When they do, your video appears as an ad to people who might never have seen it otherwise. Orders that come through that ad are credited to you, but at the Shop Ads commission rate, which the seller chooses. It can be the same as your regular rate, but it's often lower.

That's why the rate on a single order can look wrong. It isn't a glitch: it's the ad rate.

Is it good or bad for you?

Honestly, it depends. Ads can reach far more buyers than your video would on its own, so a lower rate on many extra orders can still add up to more money. It can also mean the seller benefits from your work for less than you'd like. The only way to know is to compare:

• How many orders came from ads, and what they paid you in total.
• What your regular orders on the same product pay per sale.
• Whether the ad orders replaced sales you'd have made anyway, or are extra.

The setting that controls it

You decide whether shops can use your affiliate videos in ads. In the TikTok app:

1. Open TikTok Shop Creator Center.
2. Tap the menu in the top right.
3. Go to Settings, then Privacy settings.
4. Find "Authorize sellers to use affiliate videos in Shop Ads".

Turning it off pauses ads that use your posts. You can turn it back on at any time. TikTok's own help page on authorizing affiliate videos for Shop Ads has the details. Settings can move between app versions, so if you don't see it there, search Creator Center for "Shop Ads".

Other things you can do

• Ask the seller. If ads on your video are selling well, that's leverage. Ask whether they'd raise the ad rate.
• Prefer shops that pay fairly on ads. If one shop's ad orders pay much less than another's for the same product, that's worth knowing when you choose which listing to use.
• Keep the setting in mind when you sign up for a product. If you'd rather not have a particular seller advertise with your video, decide before the video takes off, not after.

How Ollexio helps

• Your posts vs shop ads. Earnings splits your commission into orders from your own posts and orders from shop ads, with the effective rate for each, over the last 30 days and the year.
• An alert when a shop starts advertising your post, naming the shop and, when TikTok reports it, the ad rate next to your regular rate.
• Per-shop pay. Each product page shows what each shop has paid you per sale, from ads and from your own posts.

Ollexio doesn't run or buy ads. It shows you what the ads on your videos are actually paying you.