What is TikTok?
Although TikTok existed for three years before its 2018 integration with Musical.ly, it wasn’t until recently that the app rapidly grew in popularity. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
TikTok is an Asian social media app that focuses on sharing music videos. It allows you to create, edit, and upload 15 second “music video selfies”, where you can apply various effects and add a musical background. It also has some AI (artificial intelligence) functions, including striking special effects, filters, and augmented reality features.
The video-based social media app was almost unknown in the West, but has exploded in popularity during recent months. The app attracts mostly young audiences, which makes it ideal for any brand that targets teenagers. At this point, TikTok is finally realizing its potential to take a cut and has introduced a formal advertising platform.
How Can We Market on TikTok?
1. Start by making your own account. Share content and build yourself an audience (the principles are similar to Instagram, but not exactly the same). Keep in mind that this is going to be slightly more difficult to build a community here than on more traditional platforms. You must take a long look at the types of content that your target audience prefers and make/share similar types of video clips.
2. As an alternative, TikTok has an option to create an ad account. Once you make your own account, you will be able to choose the action “Create an Ad on the TikTok Ads home page” during the set-up process. This option asks existing advertisers to log in to their accounts or takes new advertisers through the process of setting up an account. One of the best features is that you can clearly define the target audience for specific Ad Groups.
3. As with most of social media, you now have the option to pay for ads on TikTok. Take advantage of this new formal advertising program that enables brands to create paid ads, making use of demographics and other segmentation tools that can increase the success of your campaigns. But again, you must be sharp – this app’s users are going to be harder to please than those on most other social media platforms.
4. Invite Influencers. Working with them is crucial for success. TikTok is perfect for working with influential people as they already have established fan bases and built in audiences, things that will help get your message in front of more people. There are many beloved celebrities on the platform and working with them can help you create your own community.
5. Shoppable Videos. Currently, the app is still testing this feature, but if the initiative proceeds it would be very similar to what is available on Instagram. For now, the access is somewhat restricted, so only a few, select influencers are able to apply this option on their accounts, where they can also add shopping site URLs to their posts. Keeping track of whether or not TikTok allows more widespread access to this feature will allow you to take advantage of this tool and benefit from it.
The rise in popularity of TikTok is obvious, but more importantly: TikTok is profitable. So, as marketers, it is relevant for us to know how to advertise on this platform. Get started and be creative: the sky’s the limit!
