In 2021, TikTok beat out Google and Facebook as the most visited website online. Although initially famous for its lip-syncing and dance challenge videos, TikTok has also created an ideal digital marketing platform for businesses to engage with audiences and boost brand exposure. A huge number of brands, Alo Yoga, Gymshark, and Douloingo have achieved immense success through the app. And you can too.
If you’re in the marketing game, you cannot ignore the power and potential of TikTok. With numerous types of TikTok ads in addition to viral trends, you can join other brands on TikTok to engage your community.
Check out what your brand stands to gain from capitalizing on TikTok marketing.
1. TikTok is one of the world's most popular social media platforms
TikTok hit the global market in 2017 where it gained popularity faster than any other social media platform to date. Since 2019, TikTok has ranked the most downloaded app on Apple’s app store, with over 2 billion downloads.
It’s a common misconception that teenagers dominate TikTok’s user base. However, stats show that 59% of their users are over 24 years old. This means that a wide range of demographics is represented, so TikTok can help your business reach a vast and diverse audience by exposing your content to its 689 million active users worldwide.
2. Advertising on TikTok is budget-friendly
You don’t need a large budget to create TikTok ads, as the platform caters to raw, unedited videos made on mobile phones. TikTok thrives on authentic and unpolished videos and doesn’t require expensive camera equipment to produce good content. This is why sharing user-generated content (UGC) from your customer community on your brand’s TikTok helps get more eyeballs on your videos; people don’t immediately perceive UGC to be an ad when it looks like the other videos on their feed.
Customers may already be valuable UGC on TikTok related to your brand like these unboxing videos for DMC, Alo Yoga, and Tile. It’s in your best interest to tap this cost-efficient avenue of content collection. Pixlee TurnTo allows brands to collect, curate, and publish TikTok content from their fan communities across a variety of marketing channels beyond just TikTok.
TikTok offers flexible budgets by allowing users to choose how much money they want to spend, and adjusting the adverts reach accordingly. TikTok ads start at $10 per 1000 views but require you to spend a minimum budget of $500. This makes marketing on TikTok accessible and increases its popularity as a marketing channel.
3. TikTok trends maximize exposure potential
Following TikTok trends will help your ad to seem relevant to the app's algorithm and increase the chance of it showing up on someone’s “For You” feed.
Anyone, including brands, can start trends and go viral on TikTok. Businesses can make use of branded hashtag challenges and brand takeovers to encourage participation and enjoy a wider reach. Relatively smaller clothing brand Jolyn reached 10 thousand followers on TikTok by leaning into trendy videos like the #FreezeFramePhoto challenge.
The variety of niche content and unique communities found on TikTok allow for brands to look up keywords and hashtags to reach their target audience more effectively.
4. TikTok formats ads to facilitate engagement
When creating a TikTok ad, there are various formats that you can choose from to help generate ad traffic. Recent data has found TikTok to be more engaging with even its micro-influencers having an average of 17.96% engagement compared to Instagram’s 3.86%
Topview ads capture viewers’ attention immediately by appearing as the first video when the user opens their feed. In-feed ads appear naturally as users scroll and allow users to like, comment, share, and follow. Both of these formats enable users to engage with brands directly and build connection and brand loyalty.
5. It’s easy to advertise on TikTok
Anyone with a mobile phone can use TikTok for marketing purposes. The idea of the platform is not to create slick, scripted videos. This characteristic has paved the way for new creators to emerge on the app constantly, building their own unique audiences and appearing repeatedly on the “For You” page.
Creating a TikTok can take as little as a minute to make and post a video, depending on your content. TikTok has a huge volume of effects and sounds, but they can be filtered, liked to save for later, and the app even suggests audio clips for your video. This makes it easier to navigate than platforms like Instagram. You can simply choose from popular sounds or trending songs on TikTok, or you can record your own voiceovers and add them to your videos.
Following the tradition of Vine, TikTok is about the here and now and posting bite-sized chunks of content that get people’s attention. All you need is a mobile phone and an account and you’re good to go.
Brands in very diverse industries have the potential to find a community on TikTok and harness valuable UGC that can provide social proof on and off social media.
Apart from providing affordable marketing options, TikTok has a comprehensive blog where they post advice and tips to help users produce TikTok-friendly content. The app also provides a Creator Tools feature that provides businesses with analytics and articles to help them increase engagement and following.
6. Trending videos are an effective way to make sales
TikTok users love product reviews that are genuine and use a recommendation system that has provided major successes for brands.
The success of sales through TikTok can be seen in its popular hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt. A study conducted in 2020 on TikTok audiences found that 67% of TikTok users were inspired by the app to buy products at times when they weren’t intending to buy anything.
This statistic shows how effective marketing on TikTok is in initiating sales in unsuspecting consumers. The study also found that 73% of TikTok users felt more connected to brands they discovered on TikTok than on other social media platforms.
Embroidery and knit brand DMC takes this element a step further by using Pixlee TurnTo to feature the brand’s own TikToks in a dedicated website page complete with opportunities to purchase products featured in the videos.
7. Collaborating with TikTok content creators boosts engagement
Advertising on TikTok through branded collaborations with creators is an easy option for companies as it leaves the effort of production and all other elements up to the creator. These are more engaging and provide at least a 112% increase in viewer rates as they capture the attention of the creator’s community. This increase in views also provides a 27% higher ad recall for brands taking advantage of influencer marketing on TikTok.
A common creator trend on TikTok is the unboxing video (also known as a “haul”), where the user showcases a variety of products from one brand. Many brands on TikTok take advantage of this by sending creators free items for them to review in addition to or instead of paying them in cash.
Like many other trendy brands on TikTok, Boohoo sends free clothing to influencers in their brand community to showcase to their followers.
As a relatively new business platform in comparison to other apps, and with added eCommerce facilities and an upward sales projection, TikTok is the place to be right now. It’s time you started using it for marketing!
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on pixlee.com. Any statistics or statements included in this article were current at the time of original publication.
