TikTok Shop's growth has produced a wave of new agencies, and plenty are social media agencies that added TikTok Shop to the menu recently. The difference shows up in your GMV six months later. Here are the seven checks that separate operators from the rest, and how we answer each one ourselves.
1. Ask for GMV, not case study views
Views are easy on TikTok. Revenue is not. Any agency worth hiring can tell you how much GMV they have generated, for how many brands, and show real results to back it up. Ours: £7M+ in TikTok Shop GMV across 50+ brands, with case studies such as ManiLife selling out a limited edition in two days with £0 paid spend.
2. Check they are an official TikTok Shop Partner
TikTok runs an official partner programme with rankings. Partner status means platform training, early access to features and a direct line to TikTok, and the rankings are based on performance. Ask where they rank. BeaSocial is an official TikTok Shop Partner, ranked a Top Live TSP by TikTok Shop in Q4 2025.
3. Look at the creator network
Affiliate content is how buyers discover products on TikTok Shop, and volume matters. Ask how many creators posted for their last three clients, not how many are "in the network". We run a community of 10,000+ creators on Discord, and for Dr. Will's that meant 200+ affiliates creating content and 425% GMV growth.
4. Ask who runs the LIVEs
Live selling is one of the highest-converting levers on the platform, and it needs trained hosts, moderators and someone running the stream. If the answer is "we partner with hosts", the capability is rented and your schedule depends on someone else's diary. We run LIVEs ourselves and have delivered more than 5,000 hours of them.
5. Interrogate the reporting
Ask to see a real report. It should lead with GMV, conversion rate, ROAS and profit. If it leads with impressions and engagement rate, the agency is measuring the wrong business.
6. Check operational depth
Ask what happens when a LIVE clears your stock in a night, or when shipping slips and the shop's health score drops. Agencies that have scaled brands have answers involving fulfilment partners and stock planning. When Lipton's Ice Tea range sold out during its opening LIVE, that planning is what kept the shop healthy afterwards.
7. Make sure incentives align
The pricing structure matters less than the alignment. An agency confident it can grow you will accept meaningful performance-linked pay; ours combines a retainer with a commission on GMV. Read our breakdown of agency pricing models before negotiating.
A bonus check: do they use it themselves?
Ask whether the agency has built a brand of its own on TikTok Shop. Bezzie is ours. We built it with the same playbook we use for clients, and it became the #1 best-selling toy on TikTok Shop within two months.
If you want to run these checks against us, the evidence is on our TikTok Shop agency page, and we will show you the rest on a call.
Shortlisting agencies? Put us on the list and run the checklist against us on a call.
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