TikTok is splitting its Agency Partner badge into two tiers, adding a new “Premier Agency Partner” designation above its existing Agency Partner badge. According to the company’s announcement, the shift to a two-tier model is meant to distinguish top-performing agencies from the broader pool of certified partners.

The existing Agency Partner badge will continue to recognize agencies that meet TikTok’s core criteria of “Excellence, Experience, and Commitment,” a certification the company says reflects a track record of full-funnel campaign strategy and specialized expertise in TikTok advertising. The new Premier Agency Partner tier sits above it, reserved for a smaller group of agencies that TikTok says demonstrate proven business results, deep platform expertise, and sustained “TikTok-first” marketing work across complex advertiser portfolios.

TikTok introduced the Agency category to its Marketing Partner Program in November 2023, giving agencies their own badge for the first time and citing data that one in three people discovered new products from brand videos on the platform. That category built on TikTok’s original Marketing Partner Program, launched in September 2020 with roughly 20 certified partners split across campaign management, creative development, branded effects, and measurement, before agencies were broken out as a distinct partner type.

The restructuring also arrives as agencies have taken on a larger role in how brands operate on TikTok specifically, and across creator marketing more broadly, often serving as the operational layer that connects brand budgets to creator-made content at the scale platforms now demand.

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