Influencer marketing guide
Product seeding: what it is, how to run it, and what it looks like on TikTok
· Nolyn research team
This guide is for brands, e-commerce sellers and agencies deciding whether to send free product to creators and how to do it well. It explains what product seeding is and how it differs from gifting and paid posts, how to run a campaign step by step, what seeding looks like on TikTok in real data, the TikTok Shop sample programs, and the disclosure rules. The figures come from TikTok search results stored by Nolyn research runs between October 15 and 22, 2026, recounted on October 24; the rules come from the TikTok, TikTok Shop and FTC pages listed at the end. We do not publish creators' handles.
What is product seeding?
Product seeding is sending your product free to creators, with no payment and usually no obligation to post, so that the ones who like it talk about it. On TikTok it now runs mostly through TikTok Shop samples tied to affiliate commission: of 263 US product videos returned by TikTok searches in our research runs (October 15–22, 2026), 119 (45%) carried TikTok's "Creator earns commission" label and only 5 (2%) a "Paid partnership" label.
What is product seeding?
Product seeding (also called influencer seeding or gifting) means sending products to a selected group of creators for free, without a fee and usually without a contractual obligation to post. The bet is that some of them will like the product and show it in their own words, which reads as more credible than a paid ad and costs only the product and shipping.
It sits between two other ways of working with creators. A paid post buys a guaranteed deliverable for a fee. An affiliate deal pays a commission on the sales a creator drives. Seeding guarantees nothing, so it works best with many small creators and a product that is easy to show on camera; it is often the first step that tells you which creators to pay or sign up as affiliates later.
What seeding looks like on TikTok: 263 product videos
TikTok attaches a label to commercial videos: "Paid partnership" when a creator promotes another business's product, "Promotional content" when they promote their own, and "Creator earns commission" on videos linked to TikTok Shop products they sell as affiliates. Nolyn's research runs stored those labels with every video TikTok returned. We recounted the 263 videos registered in the US that our product searches (kitchen gadgets, cleaning tools, pet products and others) returned between October 15 and 22, 2026:
Almost half of the product videos were affiliate content, and most of it came from small accounts: 106 of the 119 commission-labelled videos were by creators with under 100,000 followers (median 11,902). Paid partnerships were rare and big: 4 of the 5 were by accounts above 100,000 followers. Only 1 of the 263 captions used #ad, #sponsored, "gifted" or a similar tag. The sample comes from product searches, which rank shoppable videos highly, so it overstates affiliate content compared with TikTok as a whole.
| TikTok label | Videos | Author under 10K | 10K–100K | Over 100K | Median followers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creator earns commission (TikTok Shop affiliate) | 119 (45%) | 46 | 60 | 13 | 11,902 |
| Paid partnership | 5 (2%) | 1 | 0 | 4 | 488,171 |
| Promotional content (own business) | 3 (1%) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| No label | 136 (52%) | 65 | 33 | 38 | 12,017 |
263 US-registered TikTok videos from TikTok video searches in Nolyn research runs, 2026-10-15 to 10-22. Label as TikTok returned it. Followers of the video's author when fetched.
TikTok Shop samples: seeding with a built-in deal
On TikTok Shop, seeding is a product feature. TikTok Shop's US guide (updated September 24, 2026) describes two kinds of samples for affiliate creators:
- Free samples: creators who have generated TikTok Shop sales in the last 120 days request a product, the seller approves or rejects the request, and the creator keeps the product. They are expected to post a public video or a 10-minute LIVE with the product link within 14 days of receiving it; creators with a low posting rate temporarily lose access to free samples.
- Refundable samples: any eligible creator buys the product, posts with the product link, and gets a full refund, including shipping and tax, once their content drives the seller's sales goal within 120 days. TikTok says sellers usually require 1 to 3 orders. No seller approval is needed.
- Either way the creator earns their affiliate commission on sales, which is why their videos carry the "Creator earns commission" label rather than "Paid partnership".
Product seeding examples from the sample
Five commission-labelled videos from small creators in the same searches show what seeded affiliate content can do. Search results favour videos that already performed, so these are the upside, not the typical result:
| Creator | Linked product | Followers | Videos in results | Views per video |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Cordless vacuum cleaner | 21,075 | 1 | 57,926,252 |
| B | Portable car vacuum | 12,321 | 1 | 8,725,569 |
| C | Heated ice cream scoop | 10,851 | 3 | 1,165,971 / 320,675 / 14,289 |
| D | Vacuum sealer and bags (same brand) | 7,584 | 5 | 5,296 / 1,014 / 705 / 639 / 531 |
| E | Dog paw cleaner | 31,142 | 1 | 442,037 |
Creators shown by letter; product as the video's caption or TikTok Shop link names it; views as TikTok returned them when fetched (2026-10-15 to 10-19). All five creators' videos carry the "Creator earns commission" label.
Seeding outside TikTok Shop: PR packages and gifting
If you do not sell on TikTok Shop, or you seed on Instagram or YouTube, seeding is a classic PR package: you pick creators, ask before you ship, send the product with a short note, and hope for a post. It has no built-in tracking, so give each creator a discount code or link to see who drove sales.
The labels matter here too. TikTok says creators must turn on the content disclosure setting when they promote a third-party brand "in exchange for payment or any other incentive", and such posts are labelled "Paid partnership". The FTC says free products count as a relationship that must be disclosed in the post. In our sample only 5 of 263 videos used the Paid partnership label and 1 caption used an ad tag, so many gifted posts are probably not labelled; under the FTC's guidance that is partly the brand's problem.
Disclosure: what brands must do when they seed
The FTC's answers for advertisers say that when a company gives creators free products it should tell them how to disclose the gift, ask them to tag the brand, check what they post and act if a post is not disclosed. Brands are also responsible for false claims creators make about the product, so tell creators what they can and cannot claim ("cures", "clinically proven" and similar). Put this in the note that ships with the product, not only in an email.
On TikTok, ask creators to use the content disclosure setting and tag your brand as Brand Partner: TikTok says tagged videos show up for the brand in its Content Suite, where they can be authorised as Spark Ads.
How to run a product seeding campaign in 7 steps
Pick a product that shows well on camera
Seeding works best for products with a visible result or a surprise (a tool, a gadget, a texture), at a cost you can give away 20–50 times.
Choose the channel
If you sell on TikTok Shop, open free or refundable samples to affiliates. Otherwise plan a PR-package list with a code or link per creator.
Build the list from creators already posting in your category
Search your product category on TikTok and Instagram and keep creators with 10K–100K followers who post regularly. Creators who already show commission or brand labels understand the deal.
Ask before you ship
Send a short message that names one of their posts and offers the product with no obligation. Asking first avoids shipping to creators who do not want it and gets you a confirmed address.
Ship with a note
Include how to use the product, what not to claim, how to disclose the gift and your handle to tag.
Track who posts
Follow tagged posts, codes and TikTok Shop sample status for 2–4 weeks. On TikTok Shop, free-sample creators are expected to post within 14 days.
Pay the ones that worked
Offer paid posts, higher commission or Spark Ads usage to the creators whose videos drove views or sales; that is where seeding pays back.
Questions
What is the difference between product seeding and influencer marketing?
Product seeding is one form of influencer marketing: you send product free with no guaranteed post. Paid influencer marketing buys a specific post for a fee, and affiliate marketing pays a commission on sales.
Do influencers have to post about seeded products?
Not in classic seeding, which has no obligation. On TikTok Shop, creators who request free samples are expected to post a video or a 10-minute LIVE with the product link within 14 days of receiving it; a low posting rate temporarily removes their access to free samples.
Do gifted posts have to be disclosed?
Yes. The FTC says free products are a relationship creators must disclose in the post, and TikTok requires the content disclosure setting when a creator promotes a brand in exchange for payment or any other incentive. In our sample of 263 US product videos, only 5 used the Paid partnership label.
How many creators should I seed?
There is no standard number. Size it by what you can give away, including shipping, and keep the first batch small enough to follow up with each creator by hand, for example 20–50 creators in one niche.
What are TikTok Shop refundable samples?
A TikTok Shop option where a creator buys your product, posts with the product link and gets a full refund, including shipping and tax, once their content drives your sales goal within 120 days; TikTok says sellers usually require 1 to 3 orders.
Can Nolyn find creators to seed?
Yes. Nolyn's influencer search finds creators in your category on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube from public data and checks their recent posts, including which videos already carry commission or paid-partnership labels, so you can see who already works with brands.
Sources
- Nolyn: TikTok commercial labels on 263 US product videos returned by TikTok video searches in Nolyn research runs, 2026-10-15 to 10-22, recounted from the stored data responses · checked October 24, 2026
- TikTok Support: Promoting a brand, product, or service (content disclosure setting, Promotional content and Paid partnership labels) · checked October 24, 2026
- TikTok Shop Academy (US): Guide to Samples: Free and Refundable (updated 09/24/2026) · checked October 24, 2026
- FTC: Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers · checked October 24, 2026
- FTC: FTC's Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking (brands giving free products to influencers) · checked October 24, 2026
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