Creator outreach & sample budget calculator
Start from the GMV you want from affiliate creators and work back to how many creators to invite, how many free samples to send, and what each order really costs you.
What it takes
Where the funnel leaks
The number of creators you need to contact is the goal divided down through every step of the funnel, so a small change at any step moves it a lot. The table shows how many invites the same goal needs at different invite-to-sample rates.
| Invite → sample | Invites needed | Samples | Sample budget |
|---|
Better targeting — inviting creators whose audience already buys your category — usually lifts both the invite and the posting rate. Personalised first messages help too; see the outreach templates. If samples go out but videos don't come back, read why TikTok Shop samples don't get posted and how to fix it. For a worked example in pounds and a test-then-scale plan, see how many samples to send.
How it's calculated
Example: to make $20,000 a month from creators with a $25.00 product, the default funnel needs 800 invites and 80 free samples ($1,000), and creators cost you $5.00 per order once commission is added.
Once creators are posting, rank them by profit rather than GMV with the creator ROI calculator — and send your next samples to look-alikes of the winners.
Questions
How many creators should I reach out to on TikTok Shop?
Work backwards from your GMV goal: divide it by your price to get orders, then by orders per video, videos per creator, your sample-to-video rate and your invite-to-sample rate. The calculator does this for you — with a 10% invite-to-sample rate, every sample you need means ten invites.
How much should I budget for free samples?
Samples × (product cost + shipping). Because only some creators post after receiving a sample, the budget depends heavily on your sample-to-video rate — improving it from 50% to 70% cuts the samples you need by almost a third.
What is a good sample-to-video rate?
It varies widely by category, product and how carefully creators are chosen. Use your own numbers from Seller Center's affiliate analytics; the calculator's defaults are placeholders, not benchmarks.
How do I lower my creator cost per order?
Target creators whose audience already buys your category, stop sending samples to creators who don't post, and put higher commission behind the creators whose videos actually convert. The creator ROI calculator shows who those are.