What is TikTok Pulse? New ads and monetization for creators

Calum Patterson
TikTok pulse

TikTok has announced a new program called ‘Pulse’ – and it’s all about advertising for brands. But how will this affect users and creators? Here’s what TikTok Pulse is all about.

TikTok describes Pulse as “a new contextual advertising solution” – a new way for the app to monetize some of the most popular content, that it feeds to users browsing through their For You Page.

Currently, ads are fairly limited on TikTok. Often you will see a video ad when you first open the For You Page, and then as you scroll, you might see a handful of sponsored posts pop up now and again, but they’re fairly unobtrusive.

TikTok Pulse could mean that you see more ads as you scroll and watch content. Brands who use the program will be featured “next to” the top 4% of most popular posts.

How TikTok Pulse works

TikTok Pulse “lets advertisers place their brand next to the top content in the For You Feed.” Specifically, TikTok highlights the top 4% of posts, and these are split into 12 categories.

The categories include some of the more common trends and subgenres of TikTok content, such as beauty, fashion, cooking, and gaming: “This creates an unparalleled opportunity to engage with the communities that matter most to brands.”

TikTok pulse ad
Branded TikToks will be featured next to the most popular videos.

Can you join TikTok Pulse?

TikTok Pulse isn’t just good news for brands trying to advertise on the app, however. TikTok has also announced that they will “will begin exploring our first advertising revenue share program with creators, public figures, and media publishers.”

To be eligible for the revenue share program, creators and publishers will need to have at least 100,000 followers.

“We’re focused on developing monetization solutions in available markets so that creators feel valued and rewarded on TikTok,” the company explained.

Before TikTok Pulse, there were limited ways for creators to monetize their content. TikTok launched the creator fund back in 2020, which is planned to grow to $1 billion, but other than this, creators typically only made money through sponsored video posts, which can be very lucrative for the top accounts.