TikTok is a popular social media platform that originated from the creator of Musically, Zhang Yiming. As the platform’s users began to decline the platform was converted to TikTok. TikTok was originally used for dancing, tutorials and connecting with friends.
During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, millions began uploading comical videos to entertain during the lockdown, and from that point forward many people began creating on the platform and billions began to watch to pass the time. And now it’s an integral part of most people’s lives even if they don’t realise it.
Why is TikTok Good for Marketing?
There are a few reasons TikTok has become a great way to advertise:
1. Audiences
It’s estimated that TikTok has 3.7 million active users in the UK. The number of users within the platform allows businesses to reach an exceedingly large amount of demographics, there are many different themes and topics within the platform. When using the FYP (For You Page), the videos a consumer views are based on topics the algorithm believes the user will enjoy or based on other data such as previous likes or searches.
2. Influencers
As the platform grew, the number of content creators began to increase, it’s estimated that there are over 3.1 million creators on the platform. Similarly to other more traditional style platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, businesses will send TikTok Creators free gifts or payments to appear in a video with the product, it can be anything from a skit, get ready with me or review.
3. Paid ads
Although TikTok paid ads are similar to general TikTok videos, there are distinctive differences. Usually, TikTok ad’s have a distinctive upbeat tune with a lot of moving graphics, they are only about 10 seconds long. The main paid ads appear when you first open the app and it disables the ability for you to scroll your FYP for the duration of the short video.
When a creator uses the paid ad feature it gives an array of options, they allow you to specify your demographic meaning you can cheer broad or niche audiences with specific interests. There is an option to add external and internal links to other creators’ pages or websites to purchase products as well as options to add budget and scheduling content.
How to Create Ads on TikTok
There are many steps when beginning to advertise on TikTok, but it’s easy once you know how! Here are simple steps to help you along the way.
The key to creating a great ad campaign is to plan, it’s important to outline all the key elements of your campaign. Deciding on your demographic is essential without an idea of who your audience is, which means it’s not likely to appeal to consumers, ensuring you have an active audience is important, if the audience isn’t engaged with what you are advertising can be detrimental to your business and campaign.
- You need to create an account on the TikTok ads manager and install TikTok Pixel.
- Begin creating your campaign outlining the elements above
- Create a minimum budget of how many consumers you’re aiming to reach, remember Rome wasn’t built in a day!
- Outline the goal, this can be anything from sales to website traffic it depends on your business
- Choose your ad placement, if you choose the “automatic placement” feature then it will place it within the TikTok platform and its partnered newsfeed platform.
- The next step is to choose your desired delivery type whether this be their automatic default setting or their accelerated feature, it’s essential to keep in mind your time schedule but for the best results it should be ongoing.
- Now to the fun bit, designing your graphics should be consistent with your current business branding if you have it, being consistent with fonts, colours and styles can help your brand be easily identifiable.
It’s also important to note that you can use TikTok to boost the engagement and visibility of your existing campaigns if they have already been created and launched within a different platform.
TL;DR
The key element to take away from this post is that TikTok advertisement can be extremely effective if conducted and distributed the right way, due to the high usage rate of the online platform and the number of consumers it has the potential to reach whether that’s worldwide or within your chosen region. It’s also important to note that this is a very new concept, although the app first launched in 2016 it didn’t become overly popular until 2020. There are many different ways you can advertise your product or company on TikTok and that’s what makes it a unique platform.
