TikTok was born out of an app originally called Musical.ly which was created back in 2014. The music sharing app quickly became popular and was among the top 100 downloaded apps in both 2014 and 2015 respectively. Back then Musical.ly users posted a whopping average of 13 million videos per day.
When it was bought out by Chinese tech firm, Bytedance in 2018, the app was renamed TikTok and it’s active user base grew by almost 800%! As a result, marketers saw this impressive figure, showed a keen interest and realised that TikTok was a platform worth advertising on. The creators of TikTok recently came to the same conclusion and launched a new, related platform called TikTok For Business to make it easier for businesses to advertise.
What is TikTok for business?
It’s a mostly automated, all in one advertising tool especially designed for businesses. The tool eliminates the need to come up with carefully devised marketing strategies. Targeting the right audience at the right time and helping businesses through the entire process of creating advertisements, setting budgets and analysing the data.
TikTok has even gone a step further and released an e-learning service that encourages and guides businesses through the process of creating advertisements, using TikTok For Business.
Ad formats
For now, TikTok specialises in video advertisements. The TikTok For Business platform helps businesses to create these types of advertisements by offering five different video formats.
TopView ads
TopView ads are ads that appear once a day on TikTok, straight after the user opens the app for the first time. This type of ad can be up to 60 seconds long, making it ideal for businesses who wish to advertise products and services that require a long explanation or run time. These ads are very similar to ads found on TV.
In-Feed ads
In-Feed ads appear on the “For You” page which is similar to a discovery page. It’s where users land when they open up the app and are given the opportunity to explore new videos that the TikTok algorithm decides are of interest to them based on previous activity. These ads pop up every 4th video as the user scrolls through their feed. In-Feed ads are very useful for driving sales conversions because they feature a call-to-action (CTA).
Brands sometimes choose to partner with influencers in a similar way and promote their products and services as an alternative to In-Feed ads.
Branded hashtags
Branded hashtags are used to inspire TikTok creators to create content relating to that hashtag in order to boost brand awareness and sales for a business. Unlike other social platforms, branded hashtags are paid for by businesses and become exclusive to the brand that pays for them. But they come at a hefty price tag with costs averaging around $150,000 USD per hashtag for six days! This type of ad is unique to TikTok.
Branded hashtag challenges are often featured on the “For You” (discovery) page. Users exploring the TikTok “For You” page can discover new TikTok creators thanks to businesses’ trending branded hashtags.
Brand takeovers
This particular ad offering involves all 3 ads mentioned above at once (TopView, In-Feed and Branded Hashtags). Businesses have the option to choose between, videos, gifs or still images to create ads. TikTok exclusively features the business who pays for this option, for the whole day! Costs for this type of advertising start at around $50,000 USD per day.
Branded effects
This involves brands creating filters or stickers that are either 2D or 3D of their products that can be easily added to users TikTok videos. These stickers and filters encourage engagement and brand awareness and can be earned by playing brand-specific games.
Should your business be using TikTok to advertise?
The decision really depends on your business’ overall goals and marketing campaign outcomes. To help you make an informed decision, let’s weigh up the pros and cons, shall we?
Pros
- TikTok For Business will help you reach new audiences.
- The platform allows you to select target audiences that are similar to the ones you already have.
- TikTok has a huge audience with 689 million monthly active users and is available in 155 different countries.
- TikTok offers a completely new demographic.
- TikTok allows for a mobile-focused marketing strategy.
- You can run your ad campaigns from your pocket.
- If you are a small brand, you are guaranteed to have an engaging audience.
Cons
- TikTok’s demographic doesn’t represent all groups.
- Advertising on TikTok means significantly younger audiences.
- These audiences may not understand the need for your product or service.
- TikTok requires fun and exciting niche content, not sales-focused content.
- You can’t link your website easily.
Choosing TikTok as a platform to market your business can be a valuable tool for growth, it just depends on if you are willing to diversify and create niche types of content for new audiences in order to market your product or service.
