During the pandemic, TikTok has made a breakthrough in the digital world and has become one of the most popular advertising platforms. The platform's audience is expanding and so are the business opportunities.
TikTok is the future of the entertainment industry and a platform for self-expression. It is not just a new promotion channel, but a brand new advertising format. Many people give it a characteristic of «the new sincerity,» because the content is about real people and real life.
Let’s see what TikTok is in 2021 and what opportunities it gives to companies.
TikTok in the World
- TikTok is officially present in 150+ countries in 75 languages and achieved the number of 1 billion users this year.
- Each user opens TikTok 10 times a day and spends 74 minutes a day in the app on average.
- 144.3 billion video views per month.
- The TikTok app is the number one downloaded on iOS and Android in 2021.
Source: sensortower.com.
The platform is trending toward global audience aging. It has a direct impact on the content of the platform. TikTok is no longer a set of clichés about teenagers lip-syncing and dancing, it has become a space for all types of content.
Recommendations for launching advertising campaigns and content on TikTok
1) Paid formats. TikTok ads are similar to some other social platforms, so it won’t be hard for experienced targeters to adapt to setting up ad campaigns. But to get started with auction buying, you’ll need to get access to the TikTok Ads account — advertising agencies are usually the intermediaries for this issue.
But don’t narrow your audience. TikTok doesn’t yet provide as detailed audience targeting as some other social platforms, like Facebook. Split your audience into clusters with similar interests and test each one separately.
You can set up targeting for three groups of targets:
- Brand Awareness. A brand entering TikTok is recommended to start with the outreach part, aimed at increasing brand awareness and user loyalty.
- Consideration. Here you’ll find both familiar formats like Traffic, App Installs, Video Views, and Engagement, as well as new tools. For example, Lead Generation, which allows users to fill out an order form after viewing an ad.
- Conversion. Leads users to the advertiser’s site to take specific actions.
2) Metrics monitoring. Use tracking tools that track the impact of ads on the site traffic, purchases, and other goals. TikTok Pixel is a good option for this purpose.
3) Adaptability. Since most of TikTok ads traffic comes from mobile, your website or landing page must be adapted to mobile and load fast enough. Use links with UTM tags, they will help you track conversions and evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns.
4) Funnels. Run your ad campaigns gradually. This will help optimize campaigns and reach your goals faster. Introduce people to the brand, then to a specific service or product, and only then — move on to the purchase stage.
TikTok’s paid promotion tools cover the needs at all stages of the purchasing funnel.
5) Content. Native creatives are our everything! As we have already mentioned, TikTok is a «new sincerity» and a unique format of storytelling. There is not so much space for professional production and complex advertising scripts on the platform, as to simple native videos shot with a phone camera. TikTok’s positioning: don’t shoot commercials, shoot tiktoks!
The good news is you can make content literally out of anything! And the best way to create content is to have a team whose members actively use the app and follow trends. These people need to know how to create a video that will be clicked on and watched till the end — these are the two main criteria of an effective tiktok.
A cell phone and daylight for filming, editing videos and overlay music directly in the app — are the best options to achieve the most organic presentation. Here’s a tip: according to our observations, the dynamics of a video are directly related to its outreach. The more dynamic the video, the more likely it is to go viral.
6) Update your creatives frequently. Change, shoot, and test your advertising creatives as often as possible. As easy it is to make content in TikTok, as quickly it burns out. The standard team described above can shoot an average of 15 to 50 creatives a day, providing new content to the profile in time.
7) Music. TikTok provides a huge range of music from the streaming. In the video editor, you can select specific songs or trending music. This can also be used as a separate promotional tool, as users often search for new videos by music.
8) Reserved formats. Try using so-called reserved formats — special media formats. They are not available as an auction purchase (when ads with the highest cost-per-click are displayed, etc.), but are reserved for the advertiser.
The advertiser is not competing for the display of the reserved format, but is paying for a guaranteed display of ads in the app. However, the cost of such ads may be too high for small businesses.
The reserved formats can be short clips played when the app is opened, #challenges, branded masks, etc. TikTok does not stand still and every month it releases updates to its advertising tools, each of which could be described in a separate article.
What content will be censored
TikTok is particularly tough on advertisers in terms of content compared to other social platforms. You may find user-generated disturbing content in the feed by accident. But what you won’t see in the ads:
- Sexual content — the most problematic issue for advertisers, as creatives with even an indirect hint of 18+ are blocked;
- Violence and shock content;
- Acts of bullying and intolerance towards minority groups and communities;
- Actions that threaten the safety of the platform and community;
- Copyright infringement;
- Advertising of criminal organizations and personalities;
- Advertising of illegal goods.
In conclusion
TikTok has become a social platform for business promotion with low advertising costs, high level of audience reach and engagement and unique advertising formats. However, TikTok is not suitable for all companies, so it’s worth conducting a research before launching advertising campaigns.
Let’s discuss what we can do for your business’ presence on TikTok at hi@slonmedia.com
