Unlock Reports:
Industry-wide studies on consumer behavior from the Cohley Insights team.
TikTok is the hottest social media platform in the business right now. Their user base is rapidly growing and consumes content at an unprecedented rate. TikTok has one of the most popular platforms around which makes it a fruitful territory to market your brand. Since TikTok’s popularity is still relatively new, brands likely have questions about how best to advertise their products on the app. If your company is looking to dip its toes in TikTok marketing for the first time or has questions about how to reach a more diverse audience, you’ve come to the right place!
TikTok has over 1 billion users, with 49% reporting that they buy from brands they see on the app. This makes it one of the most effective social media platforms for marketing. By now, it’s well understood that promoting your brand on TikTok is one of the best ways to get a lot of eyes on your content fast, but why is it so successful?
To give you an idea of how TikTok videos are consumed, research shows that the average TikTok user spends 52 minutes per day on the app. This gives it the second highest daily usage time among social media platforms behind Facebook. Given that the average TikTok video is only 15 seconds long, users are consuming massive amounts of content on the app everyday.
TikTok uses machine learning to determine what videos users are most likely to enjoy and engage with. This makes it highly effective at identifying core demographics and is one of the functions of the app that makes it so desirable to companies hoping to grow their brand.
TikTok understands its value as a great space for marketing and in the last few years has invested heavily in making its platform more advertiser-friendly. Here's how you can set up a TikTok for your business.
TikTok’s business page provides an easy and comprehensive walk-through of how to set up a business account and design your ads. Identify the type of business you are and set your promotional goals. You can then use the Campaign Set-up tool to learn how to use TikTok Ads Manager.
Once you’ve taken a look around what TikTok Ads Manager has to offer just choose your goal, select your audience, set your budget and design your ad!
Perhaps the most important step in creating your TikTok marketing strategy is understanding the types of content on TikTok. TikTok is a short form video app that incentivizes quick, engaging content. But one of the most fundamental aspects of the app is its creation and reliance on trends.
There are always an array of trends happening on the app, whether it be a viral dance or a new meme format. This creates a sense of community and encourages user engagement. To promote your brand successfully, you should maintain a constant awareness of what the latest trend is.
This is also a great way to get user-generated content. TikTok’s stitch feature allows users to easily respond to content that they enjoy. Creating quality content that relates to a trending topic will make users want to stitch your videos, providing UGC for your brand.
Not all advertising has to be paid. Organic content is anything that users can find naturally without paid intervention to bring content to the top of their feed.
Come up with content that highlights the strengths of your business. Make a video that details something unique about your products that prompts users to engage using the Stitch or Duet features.
In-feed ads are sponsored content that appear alongside other videos in a user's feed. These ads are accompanied with a tag that shows they’re sponsored, but mesh seamlessly with other content.
Ads for managed brands are short and to the point, directing users to internal and external landing pages.
Topview ads are paid ads that TikTok puts at the top of a user's feed.
Some marketing techniques you may be familiar with from promotions on other social media platforms work just as well on TikTok. Influencer marketing has become an essential tool in a digital marketers tool belt. But it’s not just for Instagram! TikTok is full of influencers and creators that your company can partner with to introduce your product to a built in audience. At its best, influencer/creator marketing can be a mutually beneficial relationship with companies and prominent social media users.
Get familiar with TikTok
Start by taking a look at what TikTok has to offer. Spend some time scrolling through your feed and liking videos that interest you. This will give you a sense of the kinds of content that are popular on TikTok. Liking interesting videos will also help you understand how TikTok's algorithm works.
Define your target audience and determine if it's a TikTok fit
After you’ve gotten familiar with the platform, think about what kind of audience you want to target. You should have a solid understanding of who you’d like to promote your brand to and what they like to see.
Ask yourself if your target audience is on TikTok! The app has been associated with Gen-Z since its creation - as of 2019, it was reported that 60% of TikTok users were aged 16-24 - but this is changing.
TikTok now has a relatively diverse user base that is growing to broader demographics. Millennials flocked to the app in 2020, accounting for the majority of its growth that year. While it was once thought of as being only for viral dance trends, you can now find everything from cooking tutorials to financial advice.
This growth creates exciting promotion opportunities to get even more people excited about your brand. TikTok marketing is essential to reaching a younger audience but is becoming a more viable promotional space for all ages.
Are your competitors on TikTok? What are they posting? What's their SWOT analysis?
Take a look at what your competitors are putting out on TikTok. You should understand how their content measures up and how to make your content even more appealing.
Set Goals for TikTok success
What do you want to gain from your promotional content? How many users would you like to reach?
Post regularly and with your preferred method
It’s crucial to post regularly. TikTok’s algorithm is designed to prioritize new and noteworthy content. Content is cycled through at an extremely fast rate so you’ll need to post often to keep users interested. However, the motto is still quality over quantity. Aim for one great video a day!
The high demand for quality posts can seem daunting, but don’t be afraid to experiment! TikTok is always changing and it’s useful to have a wide breadth of content to gauge your audiences’ attention.
In 2020, Cohley became one of TikTok’s preferred partners, as part of their marketing partner program for advertisers. The TikTok Business Marketing Partner Program is built to give advertisers access to proven tech providers that can help their business find their audience on TikTok.
Cohley serves as an excellent partner in finding success for your brand, with a variety of tools and connections to guide you through the world of TikTok. Not only do we have access to TikTok’s team and resources but also a library of content creators that will elevate your promotional videos.
We can connect you with the best up and coming influencers and our creative team to develop engaging content that will capture your target audience.
Don’t know where to start? Check out our Ultimate TikTok Creative Brief Template. This template will give your team direction and guidance on creative requirements and compensation, as well as specifications on what and what not to include at every stage of your creative brief.
Also, be sure to check out the first episode of Cohley’s new podcast where TikTok's Manager of Strategic Partnerships, Oliver Silver, discusses how brands can best approach them.