TikTok Shop Agency RFP Template (2026): 50 Questions, Scoring Matrix and Red Flags

Most brands choose a TikTok Shop agency the same way: three pitch meetings, three polished decks, and a decision made on whoever presented best. That is how brands end up six months into a contract with an agency that never had the creator network, the team or the track record it described.

A proper RFP fixes that. Every agency answers the same questions in writing, against the same brief, and you score them on the same criteria. It takes four to six weeks, and it is the single best protection against an expensive wrong choice.

This guide walks through a complete TikTok Shop agency RFP: what goes in your brief, the 50 questions to ask, how to score the answers, the red flags and a realistic timeline.

Download the free TikTok Shop agency RFP template: an editable Google Doc with the fill-in brief, all 50 questions with what a strong answer looks like, and the scoring matrix ready to use.

Full disclosure: Social Tale is a TikTok Shop agency. We wrote this template the way we would want any brand to run a pitch, including one we are part of. Agencies that can prove what they claim do well under a rigorous RFP. Agencies that cannot, do not.

When You Need a Formal RFP

You do not need a formal RFP for every agency decision. A shorter process works if you are a small brand testing TikTok Shop with a modest budget. A formal RFP is worth it when:

• You are committing a meaningful retainer and ad budget for six months or more
• Several people need to agree on the decision, including procurement or finance
• You are entering a new market, such as the US from the UK or Australia
• You are replacing an agency that did not deliver and cannot afford a second miss

If you are earlier in the process, start with our guide on how to choose a TikTok Shop agency, then come back to this when you have a shortlist.

Part 1: Write the Brief

The brief is the most neglected part of most RFPs. Without your targets and margins, agencies have to guess, and you end up comparing guesses. Every agency should receive the same brief, with the same facts.

Your brief should cover four areas:

About your brand. What you sell, your hero products and price range, your current channels and roughly how much revenue each drives.

Your TikTok Shop position. Whether you are live yet, which markets, your last three months of GMV if you have them (split by affiliate, ads, LIVE and organic), your account health and any existing creator or ad activity.

Goals and economics. GMV targets at 3, 6 and 12 months, your target ROAS or acceptable cost of sale, gross margin on hero SKUs, how you fulfil orders, and your budget range for agency fees, ads and samples.

Scope and process. Which services you need, what stays in-house, who approves creative and pricing, your timeline and how you want agencies to respond.

Sharing margins feels uncomfortable, but it is the information that separates a real plan from a generic one. Commission rates, sample budgets and ad targets all depend on it. Our contribution margin guide shows how agencies should be using it.

Part 2: The 50 Questions

Send the questions with the brief and ask for written answers before any pitch meeting. Written answers are easier to compare and harder to bluff. The full template includes what a strong answer looks like for each question, so whoever scores can judge consistently.

A. Company and Partner Status

1. Are you an official TikTok Shop Partner (TSP)? In which markets?
2. Are you a TikTok Affiliate Partner (TAP)?
3. What share of your revenue comes from TikTok Shop work?
4. How long have you run TikTok Shops, and in which markets?
5. How many TikTok Shop clients do you currently manage?

Partner status is verifiable, so verify it. Also note the difference between a TikTok Shop Partner, which covers commerce operations, and a TikTok Marketing Partner, which covers creative and media. You can check both in TikTok's own Partner directories.

B. Proof and Results

1. Show us two live client shops and their last 90 days of GMV, ROAS and affiliate revenue.
2. What is the largest monthly GMV you have driven for a single client?
3. Share a case study in our category or price band.
4. Tell us about a client that did not succeed. What happened?
5. How long did your last three launches take to reach consistent daily sales?
6. Can we speak to two current clients and one former client?

Question 6 matters more than any other in this template. Case study decks are curated. Live Seller Center data is not. An agency that runs successful shops can show you one.

C. Team and Resourcing

1. Who exactly will work on our account, and what are their roles?
2. How many other accounts does each of those people manage?
3. Who is our day-to-day contact, and how quickly do they respond?
4. What happens if a key team member leaves?
5. Is any of the work outsourced or offshore?

The people in the pitch are often not the people who run your account. Ask for names, and ask how many brands each person manages. Above roughly eight accounts per person, attention gets thin.

D. Strategy and Launch Plan

1. Based on our brief, what would you do in the first 90 days?
2. Which of our products would you lead with, and why?
3. What GMV do you forecast at 3, 6 and 12 months, and what assumptions sit behind it?
4. How will you price and promote without destroying our margin?
5. What would make you tell us TikTok Shop is not right for our brand?

E. Creators and Affiliates

1. How do you find and recruit creators for a brand like ours?
2. Do you have an existing creator community, and how large is the active part of it?
3. How many creators would you activate in month one, and what share do you expect to post?
4. What commission structure would you recommend, and how will it change over time?
5. How do you brief creators and protect our brand?
6. How do you manage samples and stop waste?

Creators drive most TikTok Shop GMV, so this section deserves the most scrutiny after proof. Ask for active creators, not total contacts. Our $100M Club research found that roughly three quarters of recruited creators never post at all, so any agency quoting recruitment numbers without posting rates is quoting noise.

F. Ads and GMV Max

1. How would you structure GMV Max and other TikTok ads for us?
2. How do you decide when to scale, hold or cut spend?
3. Who owns the ad account, and who pays for ad spend?
4. How do you use creator content in ads?

The answer to question 30 should be simple: you own the ad account and pay TikTok directly. For more on what good looks like, see our GMV Max guide.

G. LIVE Shopping

1. Do you run LIVE shopping, and in which markets?
2. Would you recommend LIVE for our brand, and in what format?

H. Operations and Shop Health

1. How do you protect our Account Health Rating?
2. Who handles customer service and returns on TikTok Shop?
3. How do you manage listings, pricing and promotions?
4. How do you handle stock and fulfilment issues?

Operations rarely come up in pitches, but they are where shops get suspended. An agency that cannot explain how it protects your Account Health Rating is a risk, however strong its creative.

I. Reporting and Measurement

1. What will you report, and how often?
2. Do you report contribution margin, or only GMV?
3. How do you measure the effect on Amazon, retail and DTC sales?
4. Will we have direct access to Seller Center and all data?

J. Commercials and Contract

1. What is your fee structure?
2. Do you mark up ad spend, creator payments or samples?
3. What is the minimum term and notice period?
4. What is included and what costs extra?
5. How are performance fees calculated, if any?
6. Who owns the creator relationships, content and data if we part ways?

Our breakdown of how much a TikTok Shop agency costs covers typical fee structures, so you can benchmark the answers.

K. Offboarding

1. What happens to our shop, creators and ad accounts if we end the contract?
2. How long does a handover take?
3. Will you hand over creator contacts and active collaborations?

Ask about the exit before you sign. The answer tells you a lot about how an agency treats clients.

Part 3: Score the Answers

Score each agency from 1 (weak) to 5 (excellent) on each criterion, multiply by the weight, and add it up. Ask two or three people to score independently, then compare, so the best presenter does not automatically win.

Treat partner status and operations as pass or fail checks rather than weighted scores. If an agency is not an official TikTok Shop Partner in your market, or cannot explain how it protects account health, decide whether it stays on the shortlist before you score anything else.

A simple scoring guide keeps everyone consistent:

• 5: Specific, verified evidence that exceeds what you need
• 4: Specific answer with evidence, minor gaps
• 3: Credible answer, but generic or unverified
• 2: Vague answer, little evidence
• 1: No answer, evasive or contradicted by evidence

The template includes the full scoring matrix, laid out to compare three agencies side by side.

Part 4: Red Flags

Any one of these deserves a hard follow-up question. Two or more usually means walk away.

• No live client shop they can show you, only case study decks
• GMV claims without timeframes, or totals that cannot be verified
• The people who pitch are not the people who will run your account
• Account managers running more than eight to ten brands each
• Guaranteed GMV or ROAS numbers before they have seen your margins
• Hidden markups on ad spend, creator fees or samples
• They want to own your ad account, creator relationships or content
• Reporting on GMV and views only, with no margin or profitability view
• Long lock-in contracts with no performance review points
• Creator outreach based on mass messaging rather than a vetted, managed community
• No clear answer on how they protect account health
• Claims of TikTok partnership that do not match TikTok's Partner directory

Part 5: A Realistic Timeline

Most brands can run a thorough RFP in four to six weeks. Moving faster usually means skipping reference checks, which is where most bad agency decisions could have been caught.

Who to Put on Your Shortlist

If you do not have a shortlist yet, our rankings cover the leading agencies by market: the best TikTok Shop agencies, the best TikTok Shop agencies in the UK, the best TikTok Shop agencies in the US and the best TikTok Shop agencies for Australian brands. For larger brands with procurement requirements, see our enterprise TikTok Shop programme.

FAQ

What should a TikTok Shop agency RFP include?

A brief covering your brand, TikTok Shop position, targets, margins, budget and scope; a set of written questions on partner status, proof, team, strategy, creators, ads, operations, reporting, commercials and offboarding; a weighted scoring matrix; and a timeline with response deadlines.

How many agencies should we send an RFP to?

Three to five. Fewer limits your comparison, and more creates a scoring workload that usually leads to shortcuts. Cut to two or three finalists for pitch meetings.

How long does a TikTok Shop agency RFP take?

Four to six weeks from brief to signed contract is realistic for a thorough process, including written responses, pitch meetings and reference calls.

What is the most important question to ask a TikTok Shop agency?

Ask to see two live client shops and their last 90 days of GMV, ROAS and affiliate revenue. Live Seller Center data is the hardest thing for an agency to fake, and the clearest evidence of what it can actually deliver.

Should we share our margins in an RFP?

Yes. Agencies cannot plan commissions, samples or ad targets without them, so without margins you are comparing guesses. Use an NDA if you need to.

Running an agency search? Download the free RFP template, and if you would like Social Tale on your shortlist, we are happy to answer every question in writing and show you live client shops before you decide. Apply here.