TikTok was born as an app combining Musical.ly and Vine, for recording and posting user-created lip-sync and comedy videos straight from the app. These videos keep appearing in the main feed with no apparent criteria, creating practically endless entertainment.
In just under a year its user base grew exponentially and big companies like Coca-Cola and Nike started investing in advertising there. It has now become the most downloaded social network, with more than 400 million downloads, ahead of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat, and is the go-to app for Gen Z. Fashion, video game and music streaming companies have already made TikTok their main channel for reaching younger audiences.
So, what opportunities does it offer for eCommerce and marketing? In this post we’ll look at how it works, who its target audience is and some tips for starting a marketing and advertising strategy on TikTok.
How does TikTok work?
It’s a free app for iOS and Android that’s very simple to use: just tap the button in the center at the bottom of the screen and start recording short videos of 3 to 15 seconds or longer ones of 30 to 60 seconds. You can add filters, visual effects, stickers or sound effects to these videos to dance or lip-sync to.
To watch other users’ videos, just open the app and the main feed will show you videos based on your interests and previous views. Among the most popular themes are music videos, whether for short dance challenges or Musical.ly-style lip-syncs. Another of the most common themes is comedy sketches, creating your own content with your voice or using a viral sound uploaded by another user or by TikTok itself.
How do I know if I should advertise on TikTok?
To decide whether to advertise on TikTok, you need to consider two things:
- Target audience: 41% of users are young people aged 16 to 24, the well-known Gen Z. 66% of users are under 30, many of whom joined especially since the start of lockdown, and this percentage is expected to grow in the short term. If the user niche you want to reach matches TikTok’s audience, don’t hesitate: start investing time and money in this app to boost your business’s visibility.
- Creativity: advertising on TikTok is completely innovative and very different from what was used on other social networks. The goal here isn’t direct sales, but visibility. Conventional, aggressive advertising doesn’t work; it has to match the style of videos users create: entertaining, original and lighthearted.
How do you start a marketing strategy on TikTok?
The first thing you need to do is create a business profile under Manage account > Switch to PRO account; the process is similar to Instagram’s. Once you have a business profile, you’ll be able to access analytics to improve your account’s performance. Start by exploring the social network, understanding user behavior and analyzing the kind of content other brands create; that way you can build a strategy that fits your user niche’s interests as closely as possible. Once you’ve explored it, keep several things in mind:
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- When to post: the best time to post on TikTok is from 7:00 p.m. to midnight, since that’s when most users are online. Even so, posts in the network’s main feed aren’t shown in chronological order, so a video can go viral some time later. The network’s creators recommend posting five times a week, so the algorithm sees you as an active user and shows you more often in the main feed.
- What to post: TikTok puts marketers’ creativity to the test, leaving behind the ad formats they’ve been using for Social and Google Ads.Using sound effects in your posts is a must on TikTok: adapt to these formats and make fun videos with music to grab users’ attention. Don’t make overly polished videos, TikTok is all about spontaneity and originality. And build community with hashtags to appear alongside other users in the trending section, and join or create your own fun challenges to make your content go viral with your audience.
- Influencers: although it’s still very early to talk about influencers on TikTok, the truth is that the network already has a group of users with huge numbers of followers and views, so it’s a good idea to start collaborating with them. The difference from other social networks is that users here reject traditional advertising, so it has to be done through duets or by creating a fun video that involves your brand.
Online investment in TikTok Ads
TikTok’s creators have built their own platform for managing advertising on the network. To start investing in ads, you need to sign up for their Ads platform to access the four types of ads available:
- Native Ads / Biddable Ads
These are ads similar to Instagram Stories ads: 9- to 15-second videos that appear in the main feed with a button that sends users to your website or app. It’s the option most similar to Instagram and Facebook, since it uses CPC, CPM or CPV bidding and you can target them to reach your specific niche. It’s the most widely used ad, as there’s no minimum spend. - Brand Takeovers
This is one of the most expensive options, as it lets the brand take over the social network for a day with ads when the app opens, custom GIFs or linked videos. Only one brand per day per country can use this ad format. - Hashtag Challenges
This ad is built around a video posted by the brand to promote a challenge through a hashtag. Once it’s posted, you promote it and it’s featured in the trending section for 6 days. - Branded Lenses
This involves creating a filter for users to apply when recording their videos, very similar to those on Instagram Stories or Snapchat. This way you gain visibility every time a user uses your brand’s filter.
So, if your brand fits TikTok’s audience, start exploring the TikTok world and gain visibility by taking on a creative challenge like TikTok advertising.
