Are you hesitant to implement a marketing strategy on TikTok? Find out why you should advertise on TikTok.
TikTok is currently experiencing a period of exponential growth, which means there is a huge audience ready to be tapped by creative and innovative brands.
This new competitor to Meta therefore represents a great opportunity for advertisers.
Noticing this, we decided to give you five good reasons to advertise on TikTok.
TikTok’s progress in terms of ads
The meteoric rise of TikTok
Today TikTok is one of the most downloaded mobile applications and is experiencing growing popularity among both young and old. The platform mobilizes several million users and displays an engagement rate higher than most other social networks.
Thanks to the TikTok Ads advertising network, it is possible to carry out an effective campaign with a successful return on investment while considerably improving your presence on the web.
On Tiktok the number of users continues to climb. The short video platform had 55 million users in January 2018. This figure increased to over 271 million in December 2018, then 507 million in December 2019. As of July 2020, the company had almost 700 million active users . In 2022, TikTok surpassed the one billion active user mark and the app has more than 3 billion downloads.
Optimizations for brands are emerging
Faced with the growing number of users on the platform, TikTok has recently focused on a new type of strategic profile for them: advertisers. TikTok users correspond to a young target, at least a target offering modern and up-to-date content, and this is precisely the target that many companies have difficulty reaching.
To help brands who covet this difficult to access target, ByteDance has developed new options to create impactful and precise advertisements. The brands have decided to play the game by trusting these new products. Many then launched videos with more humor or even by launching challenges with influencers.
New opportunities are emerging on TikTok
By following this strategy which seems to be paying off, TikTok has chosen to continue on this path because the network today lacks an essential element for its development: a well-developed e-commerce part.
Other social networks have also made “social commerce” their priority since 2020. Instagram, for example, launched its Shopping function to encourage brands to sell directly to social network users, who include a large part of their target audience.
In recent months, the application has announced developments. The TikTok Shopping option has been worked on and announced. The difference with its competitor Instagram is that this option will allow businesses using Shopify (TikTok has been in partnership with it since October 2020) to quickly create an online store on the social network and redirect potential buyers to the seller’s e-commerce site. This is therefore excellent news for brands who wish to advertise to a broad target audience.
The popularity of TikTok is constantly increasing
The social network continues to attract users and brands, regularly developing new features. The platform really wants to establish itself among advertisers to enable them to fulfill all types of objectives: sales, notoriety, traffic, conversions, etc.
Add in significant user engagement and TikTok becomes a superb tool for increasing your brand exposure.
TikTok has revolutionized the way we consume content on social networks. The platform pushes marketers to be more creative to conquer their audience. No matter your target, TikTok Ads can be part of your marketing. As always, don’t hesitate to carry out tests and then analyze your campaigns. You will quickly know if the social network is a successful channel for your business!
Today, few companies communicate using TikTok Ads, the majority of marketing strategies being focused on Facebook Ads or even Instagram Ads. However, video is a format that offers a higher engagement rate from audiences and therefore a better conversion rate than a publication with text and images. Whether promoting a brand, a product or even a mobile application, TikTok Ads is full of levers to generate traffic and distribute advertising intended to expand your audience.
Remember that so few communicate on TikTok because there is a place to take because the competition is still weak.
Thanks to its different advertising formats, TikTok Ads allows you to create relevant paid campaigns and offers the possibility of targeting new potential customers while generating loyalty. Investing in TikTok Ads advertising is a great way to achieve your sales goals.
TikTok is very effective in giving visibility to your brand
At first glance, you might think that teenagers are present en masse on this social network.
However, Generation Z (16 to 24 years old) represents only 41% of users.
The audience is therefore very large, contrary to many people’s assumptions. Which makes TikTok Ads a viable option for a wide range of products and brands.
According to data extracted from the Byte Dance 2022 report, here are some key figures on the target audience of the TikTok platform to know before creating an advertisement for your website.
TikTok France has 17.5 million users over 18 years old. Please note, it is possible to target 13-18 year olds, but the audience data is hidden.
TikTok reaches more than a third of those aged over 18 and over in France
The audience is made up of 56% women and 44% men
66% of users are between 18 and 34 years old, 16% between 35 and 54 years old
It is therefore possible today, with ads, to target different audiences via TikTok sponsored content, by launching video advertising campaigns at a lower cost.
TikTok offers real potential to advertisers who wish to increase their notoriety among audience groups that are difficult to capture via other social networks.
You might be thinking, can you just do video marketing on Facebook or Instagram? Well, the answer is yes, but since TikTok’s medium is video only, advertisers have the opportunity to connect with users through the use of audio.
With Facebook and Instagram, advertisers are typically limited to static images or short videos, and the average user is less likely to turn on audio when watching an ad on these platforms. You should use popular songs or sounds that are trending on TikTok, so that the ad seems native to the viewer.
Influencers aren’t the only ones who can dictate trends. Anyone can participate in trends and have the opportunity to feature their video on the FYP hashtag, including your brand! Running video ads based on daily trends increases their relevance and likelihood of appearing in someone’s feed because it allows for frequent content pacing, instant relevance, and continued discovery.
On TikTok, your chances of making one of your videos go viral are much greater than with competitors. The algorithm makes sure we see content from creators we don’t follow by highlighting videos in a random feed. So the number of views is quickly very high on this social network.
An algorithm based on Artificial Intelligence
If TikTok has become so popular, it is thanks to its algorithm based on artificial intelligence. While other platforms integrate artificial intelligence into their system as a simple feature, TikTok’s search engine is entirely AI-driven. This means that its approach to users is more natural and that users are constantly entertained because they only watch content that interests them. This situation is very beneficial for companies because it will allow them to reach qualified prospects.
Well-made videos are more likely to be seen and liked by other TikTok users. They will also be more tempted to share them with other people. Upload at least one video per day. Your videos are more likely to be viewed and shared if you stay active on TikTok.
But that’s if you create organic content on TikTok.
In advertising, the objective remains to make your creations as simple as possible by ensuring that they respect the platform’s codes as much as possible. This is to ensure that users do not understand that it is an advertisement and therefore increase the chances that the user will stay viewing your ad for as long as possible.
The perfect example of creative TikTok Ads that works (on trend) is UGC (User Generated Content) directly featuring a user of your products so that they give their sincere and natural opinion on video.
TikTok consumers trust someone they have seen before when talking about a product and are therefore more likely to buy, or click on the ad. Especially since customer reviews play a large part in the decision-making process before purchasing.
So if you want to sell your products on TikTok, UGC is a good way to authentically convince your potential customers.
The content to be produced on TikTok Ads is accessible
One of the main advantages of TikTok is its editing tool. Editing a YouTube video is not for everyone as it often requires developed skills. On TikTok, on the other hand, users are used to seeing quick content with little editing, effects or cutting. The majority of TikTok videos are simple. And if they are simple to consume, they are also simple to set up for creators! So, as a brand, don’t worry about your editing skills.
Instead, use TikTok as a free network without having to make content that requires a lot of thought. Choose a video with text and music, a little humor too but without taking the hassle: the most natural and authentic content often works much better.
This is where TikTok stands out. Advertising on TikTok is all about spontaneity and authenticity. On this social network it is difficult to hide the truth or improve it. The door is open to raw and humanized content.
No need to have professional equipment or call on a team of videographers to create your videos. A simple smartphone is enough to launch an effective campaign!
With TikTok, you can amplify your marketing reach quite easily. A video can go from zero to hundreds of thousands of likes overnight thanks to sponsorship. No other social network allows you to achieve this level of virality or expand your reach so quickly and easily.
How is it possible ?
Being short and punchy, TikTok video ads are extremely addictive. Many of them go viral within hours because there is little competition.
It is therefore clear that TikTok is also one of the best platforms on which to create organic content: which we advise you to do. But in terms of paid content, the videos to be set up should not be more complicated to set up because TikTok advertising resembles organic content: which is a good thing.
So if videos shot with a phone are as effective as with another device, keep it as simple as possible. This is a big advantage for brands because this type of content costs less.
In terms of creativity, TikTok is very talented. The number of creators is very numerous, creators making high quality content (which requires a lot of time) as well as simple content of a few seconds.
Among all social networks, it remains classified as one of the most creative. We find all types of content there, on all possible subjects. But the main thing to remember remains the simplicity of creation, implying a low cost for brands. Plus, if the content is quick, easy, and inexpensive to make, that means it’s easier to make several per week. On the other hand, by advertising there, the advantage of this simplicity is that you can invest a larger budget because the creation of content costs little: you still have to pay for the campaigns and only the campaigns!
TikTok Ads is ideal for influencer marketing
TikTok is gradually becoming essential for brands. As seen previously, it is ideal for showcasing your brand and its behind the scenes on the social network. Thanks to its vertical format and its pronounced interactivity on the part of users, TikTok Ads is a lever to test to strengthen your online marketing strategy and diversify the points of contact with your brand.
Influencer marketing can also be a great opportunity for your brand. It all depends on your budget, but you are still guaranteed to find creators aligned with your brand.
Two options are available to you. Either you consider this strategy essential and you have a substantial budget to sell your products thanks to content creators. In this case, collaborating with content creators with a large number of subscribers, likes and other statistics will be the best choice. In the case this time where your brand’s budget is limited, many companies choose to mainly contact “micro-influencers” in order to provide them with products in exchange for visibility.
Collaborating with TikTok “influencers” (content creators) is a powerful form of influencer marketing, allowing you to promote your brand through content that has the highest reach potential, behind Facebook and Instagram.
These personalities (influencers, celebrities, bloggers and athletes) use TikTok to share their views, recipes, families, dance moves and other aspects of their daily lives. But unlike Instagram which uses heavy editing, professional studio lighting, makeup and camera work, the idea on TikTok is to share experiences in their raw state. This makes for more authentic content.
TikTok users are savvy, they know when they’re encountering commercialized content, so make smart decisions about who you partner with and how you distribute your promotions. Work directly with content creators to align on a message and format that will resonate with your fans and their fans, while delivering real business results. TikTok helps create these partnerships through their data by matching brands with the best possible influencers.
TikTok advertising cost is lower than competitors
A relatively reasonable advertising budget
As competition is, for the moment, lower than on Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads, TikTok Ads offers a relatively low cost per thousand (CPM) compared to other social acquisition campaigns. Advertising pressure is also less strong there.
With Facebook Ads, CPMs rarely fall below €5 for conversion campaigns. Whereas with TikTok for the same objective, it is common to be below €2 per CPM. Which means that with the same budget as on Facebook, you will be able to broadcast your advertisements twice on TikTok Ads.
As an advertiser or professional, it is therefore really interesting and profitable for you to advertise there.
This is the opportunity to build awareness of your brand at a relatively reasonable cost (for the moment).
But a profitable advertising campaign must be analyzed and optimized over time. This is why you need to integrate analytics and optimization into the marketing process. By tracking and correctly interpreting the performance indicators of your TikTok ads, you can be sure to make your ads profitable and optimized.
In addition to taking little risk, you can easily analyze the return on investment of your advertising expenses.
TikTok includes measurement tools and a dashboard that allow you to track the performance of your ads.
You will therefore be able to know if your efforts are bringing you positive results and if so, you will be able to invest more.
If your returns are not good, you can stop without spending more money.
The different TikTok Ads formats make engagement easier
With an average engagement rate of 8%, TikTok far surpasses Facebook and Instagram which have 3.39 & 3.48% respectively.
90% of TikTok users visit the app more than once a day. Furthermore, the social network generates an engagement rate of more than 70% per month. It is enormous ! However, despite the popularity of the platform, many marketers are hesitant to integrate TikTok into their advertising strategy.
For many, the often-heard misconception is that TikTok is just another app that takes up more screen time. The upside to this increased screen time is that TikTok usage is on the rise, presenting a solid opportunity for advertisers to reach an engaged group of consumers.
Thanks to the variety of content on TikTok, there is something for everyone. Whether you are a clothing brand, an app, a service, a transportation company, a restaurant, in the music industry, or anyone who wants to increase the visibility of your products and services, there is a place for you on TikTok. Advertisers have endless trends to exploit to reach the masses, like daily, dynamic TikTok trends, popular music, hashtag challenges, trending dances, and even duets.
There are many ad formats on TikTok, which you can use and adapt to suit your brand image.
Top View: launched 5 seconds after the user opened the application, they can last 60 seconds. Displayed in full screen with sound, it’s hard to miss…
Brand Take Over: this format offers a strong visual impact. Like TopView, it is displayed very prominently with no option to ignore it. The best practice is to use it in addition to other advertising to boost awareness and visibility of your brand.
In-feed advertising: this involves sponsoring your videos in users’ news feed. Which encourages likes, shares and comments.
Hashtags challenge: this format gives users the opportunity to participate and create content around the theme of your campaign.
Spark ads: advertisers can sponsor a TikToker’s video. If you see a video that is relevant to your brand, you can contact the user to arrange an affiliation. The video will therefore go into “Sponsored” mode and can be broadcast In-Feed or TopView.
So remember that the different TikTok advertising formats make engagement easier. Users are very involved and on TikTok the interaction is “easy”, at least the likes and subscriptions are easily usable thanks to the user experience: users elsewhere do not hesitate to like unlike TikTok’s competitors.
For advertising, engagement works just as well because the platform favors hiding advertisements in users’ feeds. The format of an advertisement is similar to the format of a classic, free video. If you use TikTok codes while filming your videos, then your ads will go unnoticed.
TikTok ad placements
TikTok offers two types of ad placement:
Automatic placements: your advertising is broadcast on all available locations and the algorithm gradually refines your advertising performance. This feature is the recommended choice.
Manual placements: you select the target locations by hand. These can be in-feed ads, broadcast on the “for You” page or news feed ads, available on the TikTok information page.
TikTok Ads meets many marketing objectives
TikTok is a real phenomenon not only among young people, but also in the marketing strategies of small and large businesses. So, take advantage of this positive wave of TikTok and increase your brand engagement, mainly through video content creation. As the videos are not limited to the app alone, they reach other social networks and gain more views than they had already received on the platform.
This can be an opportunity to create quality content on your social networks, attract more people and use them to drive traffic to your sales channels.
As with any other strategy, using TikTok for business requires good planning, establishing a publishing schedule and constantly analyzing the results generated. This will give you the opportunity to improve your strategy and obtain increasingly relevant figures.
84% of consumers have already purchased a product or service after watching a brand’s video. That’s good, TikTok only allows video ads! Moreover, it is this format that users are looking for, unlike other social networks like Facebook or Instagram.
Therefore, your video campaigns are much more likely to achieve your objective, since the audience is totally interested in this type of format.
In addition, TikTok Ads fit perfectly into a sales funnel logic.
Here are the stages of the tunnel in detail:
Awareness: This is the top of the tunnel and this is when we seek to attract attention to a product or service.
TikTok Ads allow you to promote your brand to new people. TikTok largely helps to raise awareness, that is to say, to reach new prospects because the content is viewed randomly.
Consideration: This is the step during which we will seek to create an interaction between the target audience and the brand (for example: visiting your website, watching your video, or downloading your application).
Advertising on TikTok gives you the opportunity to re-engage people who interact with you, who are interested in your brand, your product or service.
Conversion: This is the decision stage. This is when we transform the prospect into a customer.
TikTok Ads allow you to promote your products and services to new people, users who interact with you and even to your existing customers. In other words, advertising on TikTok helps you generate sales.
In addition to meeting various marketing objectives, advertising on TikTok allows you to support your other marketing levers.
For example: capture your prospects on Instagram and re-engage them on TikTok.
Advertising on TikTok ultimately makes it possible to meet these marketing objectives
The advertising network of the social network TikTok offers advertisers 3 types of objectives for their promotional campaign:
Increase traffic to the brand’s website
Increase the volume of conversions
Download the mobile app
Conclusion
Advertising on TikTok is taking an increasingly important place in digital marketing.
The reality is that TikTok will only grow from here. With the new updates to their site, TikTok has taken over traditional forms of social media and created a new wave of creativity among people of all ages.
We hope this article helps dispel some of the common myths surrounding this new and growing platform, and inspires you to start showing off your brand and creativity by advertising on TikTok!
Clearly, TikTok is not a tool to ignore. And don’t think that only big companies use the app. Indeed, small and medium-sized brands also invest in content production and use the most used hashtags to make themselves known.
Like these brands, you can also use TikTok as a business marketing strategy. It’s time to understand how you can use this very beneficial social network.