TikTok’s advertising rush
What exactly is TikTok?
The platform essentially allows users to share short videos (under a minute long) which are then augmented with the help of music samples, filters, stickers, quick cuts, and more.
TikTok has around 800 million monthly active users according to a leaked internal marketing document obtained by AdAge back in late 2019. The average user opens the app 8 times a day, spending a total daily average of 52 minutes on the platform.
Marketers are quickly flocking to TikTok—and rightly so. The app is an attractive marketing tool due to three main reasons.
The size of its audience
The primary demographic
Its (supposed) authenticity
During the COVID-19 pandemic—when people suddenly had more time on their hands (due to furloughs and layoffs) and were seeking forms of escapism—TikTik exploded.
The app added 52.2 million users worldwide in March 2020 alone. Not only that, but the time spent on it also increased. In the US, for example, the average user spent 8 hours on TikTik throughout March—a 10.8% increase from January.
Not only does TikTok have a burgeoning audience, but it also attracts some of society’s younger generations. For example, it’s estimated that Gen Z accounts for 60% of all TikTok users.
Young people are happy to give their attention away to platforms—however, they expect a quick return on their investment. They won’t wait around for things to get interesting; they’ll make a snap judgement in a few seconds.
Tips to developing your brand’s TikTok strategy.
Understand your target audience
Like every other successful social media platform, TikTok leverages the power of community to bring people together.
By researching your target community, you can gain critical insights into the way they communicate, the hashtags they use, the content they respond well to, and more. This research may well demonstrate if your brand needs to adopt a slightly different angle than before.
Create your own organic content
With your target audience’s preferences, you can now begin to create content tailored to that specific community. This will then have a snowball effect.
The more content you produce, the better a grasp you’ll gain on your community’s preferences.
Potential strategies:
- Branded Effect: With branded effects, brands can create their very own effects (like filters or augmented reality objects) that users can then add to their own videos.
- Hashtag Challenge: If you want to quickly leverage the power of community, come up with a hashtag challenge. Create your very own video with an accompanying hashtag and encourage users to do the same thing.
- Hashtag Challenge Plus: This is essentially a combination of the two previous strategies, integrating branded effects with Hashtag Challenges to form powerful brand-specific movements.
Set up your TikTok ads
- Create a TikTok Ads Account
- Create a campaign
- Define the placements and targeting
- Control the details (such as ad spend, duration, and goals)
- Make your Ad using their video creation kit
- Publish it to the masses
