TikTok has partnered with major publishers, including NBCU, Condé Nast, DotDash Meredith, BuzzFeed, and others, in an effort to rake in more premium ad dollars. On this week’s NewFronts, the video entertainment company announced a new premium ad product that allows marketers, for the first time, to place their branded ads directly behind content from TikTok’s publisher and media partners in more than a dozen categories, including lifestyle, sports, entertainment, education and more.
The ad space, dubbed “Pulse Premiere,” provides a kind of brand-safe space within TikTok’s social video network, as their ads are guaranteed to run immediately after what TikTok calls “eligible TikToks” from premium publishers.
The move could allay potential concerns about ad placement amid user-generated content that have led to disruptions to YouTube’s ad revenue in recent years as bands have had to halt ads over offensive and obscene material ranging from hate speech to trouble. with the safety of children. and more.
With TikTok’s new offering, marketers can be sure of their placement, as content is only featured with trusted publishers. In addition to NBCU, Condé Nast, DotDash Meredith and BuzzFeed, the company is also working with Hearst Magazines, Major League Soccer, UFC, Vox Media and WWE on the new program.
In addition, marketers can use TikTok’s advertising platform to link their campaigns to tentpole events through Pulse Premiere, the company says. Meanwhile, with the new ad spaces, publishers will earn more revenue from their TikTok investments through a revenue sharing agreement.
TikTok declined to share how much the new Pulse Premiere ad placements will cost, saying only that they are “premium ad placements.” It also did not provide details on the revenue share for participating publishers.
“At Condé Nast, the power of our brands enables us to create culture-defining content for 1 billion of the most engaged audiences across many relevant platforms,” said Pam Drucker Mann, global chief revenue officer & president, US Revenue & APAC, Condé Nast, in a statement. “TikTok has become one of our most valuable partners, providing us with a variety of tools to ensure our brands are driving these conversations on their platform. Our advertisers know that culture is the new KPI, and the Pulse Premiere solution finally allows customers to match media purchases with how consumers consume our brands, such as Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair, on TikTok,” she added .
Pulse Premiere is built on TikTok’s first Pulse offering launched last year, which allowed marketers to place their ads next to the top 4% of content on the platform. The program was the first advertising product to offer a revenue share to content creators, TikTok noted at the time. The company says its data indicates that TikTok users are 2.6x more likely to interact with a Pulse ad than with a similar ad on another video platform. It also notes that Pulse campaigns increased brand recall by +9.8% on average and awareness by +6.8%.
However, in follow-up reports from Fortune, Insider, and others, creators reported extremely low revenue from Pulse — in some cases as little as $5. Among creators interviewed by Insider, revenue per 1,000 video views on Pulse, or RPM, was between $6 and $8. It was likened to nothing more than a small bonus for making a video go viral, but it’s clear creators aren’t meant to rely on ad share to fuel their business.
Instead, TikTok offers other monetization tools for creators, such as livestream gifts, subscriptions, and a creator fund, though the latter has also been accused of paying out low amounts. Today, many creators make money through branded ad and sponsored content deals, not the platform’s own monetization tools.
The ad product will roll out to US advertisers in the second half of the year, with other markets to follow.