How TikTokers are making tons of money on Facebook, an often overlooked 'cash cow' for short video

• Some social media users may think Facebook is "dead" and lost its cultural relevance.
• However, several TikTokers Insider spoke with highlighted how financially lucrative the platform is.
• Six creators share how much they've earned and how companies like Jellysmack help them do so.

Here's a secret some content creators are holding close to their chests: Facebook is an overlooked goldmine for cash.

"There's so many ways to make money on Facebook that my manager calls it a cash cow," My Nguyen, the creator behind the viral food and recipe account MyHealthyDish, told Insider. "There's no competition on it. Everyone's looking at short-form video on TikTok and YouTube — and they're not focusing on Facebook." 

For some creators who have incorporated Facebook into their content businesses, the often-forgotten social-media giant has become an opportunity for a handful of these online personalities to bring home thousands of dollars.

Take Morgann Book, a lifestyle influencer with 2.8 million TikTok followers. Between September 2022 and July this year, Book earned over $93,000 from Facebook payments for posting reels to the app. Insider verified this and all other financial information in this story with documentation of each creator's earnings.

"I was like, 'No one uses Facebook, who's on Facebook?' But there are a lot of people who use Facebook," Book said. She's amassed over 214,000 followers on the platform by reposting her TikTok videos.

Meanwhile, Nuseir Yassin of Nas Daily, whose account has 7 million TikTok followers, told Insider in 2022 that his monthly earnings from several Facebook accounts rounded out to between $60,000 and $70,000. 

Like nearly every social media platform since 2020, Facebook has doubled down on its creator monetization tools by expanding qualifications and adding new features.

Here's a quick glance at four ways creators can currently make money from Facebook:

• In-stream ads, a similar program to YouTube's Partner Program, pays creators for ad revenue generated from videos and/or livestreams.
• Ads on reels, a program that gives creators a cut from overlay and post-loop ads on reels 
• Bonuses or incentive programs, such as the Performance Bonus which offers to pay some creators up to $30,000 per month based on the amount of engagement received on Facebook posts outside of reels or stories.
• User-pay tools like stars, Facebook's tipping tool, or subscriptions.

Facebook and Instagram also previously had Reels Play bonus programs, which many creators were making money from for over a year, but those ended abruptly this March.

However, head of Facebook Tom Alison told Insider then that the company was focused on scaling some of its other money-making tools, especially those generating revenue from reels. As a result, many creators are using these programs to create a form of passive income as they focus their content-making efforts on other platforms like TikTok.

How creators are cracking the Facebook algorithm and earning thousands

Wasil Daoud hears many other Gen Z content creators refer to Facebook as "dead," which is why he's been vocal about how much he's made directly from the platform.

"Facebook has a much more diverse audience than a lot of other platforms, it's very worldwide," Daoud said. "It's the main platform in a lot of other countries, so your content reach can be a lot greater." 

With more than 2 billion monthly active users as of March, Facebook is one of the most used social media apps— trumping Meta-owned Instagram and TikTok. 

That means a huge potential untapped audience for creators. Daoud himself has earned $9,380 directly from Facebook since January of this year, compared with TikTok, his main platform with 12 million followers, where he's only earned about $300 during the same time period. Tapping into Facebook has helped increase his income from social media significantly.

"There's room to be the first in your niche on Facebook, and monetize off of that," Daoud said.

He doesn't manage the platform by himself though.

Most creators Insider spoke with for this story said they rely on third-party startups, like Jellysmack and Decked to redistribute their content. These companies support creators in repurposing and adapting TikTok content on platforms like Facebook and Snapchat in exchange for a cut of their earnings.

A Jellysmack representative said the company works with over 120 TikTok creators like Daoud through its creator program for short form to optimize and redistribute Facebook reels.

Daoud's films, edits, and uploads food-related videos to TikTok, but then shares his content with his Jellysmack representative who repurposes it and posts to Facebook. 

Similarly, Rob Clark, who manages the 1.7 million-follower-strong TikTok account That Tall Family, works with Jellysmack to repurpose his content. Those videos bring in more than $2,000 a month on average from ads after Jellysmack takes its cut, although the account used to make more money, up to $12,000 a month, directly from Facebook's reels bonus program before it was slashed in March.

Meanwhile, Cassandra Bankson, who uploads skincare-related content for her 437,000 TikTok followers, uses the company Decked to syndicate her content across Facebook. Since April, she's made $13,000 from in-stream ads played during her videos.

"The platform is under tapped and underutilized," she said. "Creators need to understand that as long as their content gets views, they'll be earning money."

According to Decked CEO Adorian Deck, Facebook is untapped because of its reputation.

"It's not that creator-friendly when it comes to their support teams compared to platforms like YouTube or TikTok," he said, "and you can't really land brand deals from it so a lot of creators just steer away from it in general."

Facebook's audience of Boomers and Gen X can help boost revenue

While third-party startups like Jellysmack can help creators earn on Facebook, some have chosen to manage the social-media platform on their own.

Queen Khamyra, who has 764,000 followers on TikTok, first looked into creating Facebook content in late 2022 after meeting with a Meta representative, who told her Facebook is blowing up and she should make the platform a priority. Since April of this year, she's made $2,863 directly from posting.

She's one of several creators who told Insider the monetization is lucrative because their audiences on Facebook usually skew older, between the ages of 28 and 45.

Logan Nathanson, who runs the TikTok page Our Favorite Finds that recommends tech products, said an older audience on the platform equals more spending power and more willingness to purchase the products he advertises — which in turn generates more revenue for him through affiliate commissions.

"Our ideal target audience would be a 45- to 50-year-old mother that is impulse purchasing on Amazon every week," Nathanson said. "The generation of people on Facebook is helpful because they're definitely one of the top shopping generations."

Here's exactly how much creators have made on Facebook: