TikTok is an app where users can edit and share a 15-second video with built-in filters, effects, and music.
TikTok's audience is more than 500 million active users worldwide, and the platform has surpassed Twitter and Snapchat in popularity. TikTok has a huge potential for advertisers, but it is not overloaded with ads.
Is TikTok for You
To start with, you need to decide if TikTok is suitable for your particular business. 66% of TikTok's global audience is younger than 30, and 41% are users aged 16-24. TikTok is an excellent platform for promoting a brand aimed at young people, but it is unlikely to be suitable for businesses aimed at a more mature audience. But don’t stop reading this article right now! It can be assumed that in the future, older generations will also catch up. The audience of other social networks also developed along this path.
So even if your target audience doesn't match TikTok's audience right now, you should gradually look at this platform to get ahead of your competitors at the right time.
Do you have a TickTock account?
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Who Can Advertise on TikTok
One of the main questions relates to your budget. Advertising in TikTok is rare and has appeared recently, so the prices correspond more to the premium segment — the average CPM is about $10, and the total budget of advertising campaigns can reach up to $300,000. Moreover, the minimum budget for launching a campaign is $500, so TikTok is not the best option for a business that needs affordable advertising with predictable results.
How to Create an Advertisement
But if you are ready to advertise on TikTok, here is the guide for you.
- Create an advertising account in TikTok Ads. To create do this, go to the TikTok Ads page and click ‘Create an Ad’. After clicking the ‘Create an Ad’ button, you will see a popup with a request for the data needed to launch the account. After sending the information, a representative of TikTok Ads will contact you to configure TikTok Ads. It may take up to 48 hours to activate your account.
- Your next step is the creation of TikTok Ads campaign. In the TikTok Ads dashboard, select the Campaign tab at the top of the page and click Create. Then select a campaign goal. Now you can choose from three options: Traffic, Conversions, and App Install.
- To set the campaign budget, select Daily Budget or Total Budget in the settings. The minimum budget of $500 applies to both the total budget and daily budget settings.
- After that, you will need to create an Ad group for a campaign, selecting placement locations, and setting up targeting. One of the key features of the TikTok Ads dashboard is the ability to select specific platforms on which you want to place ads. In addition to TikTok itself, ads can be placed in the entire group of apps: Vigo Video (India only), BuzzVideo, News Republic, and others. There is also an automatic placement option, which allows TikTok to select the best sites for your ads. After you select your ad placement, add the necessary information to launch your ad campaign, including relevant URLs, display names, images, and categories.
- Configure Ad Spend, Duration, and Goals. In the Budget & Schedule section, you can select the daily budget (money that you will spend during the day) or the total budget (money that you plan to spend over the entire period of your ad campaign). Please note that at the ad group level, the minimum daily budget must be at least $20.
- Also, determine the impression schedule (start and end dates). The Dayparting option allows you to select specific days of the week or time of day when the ad will be displayed.
- Choose the Optimization Goal. If you select conversions as your goal, your ads will be served to users who are more likely to make a conversion. To track conversions, create events in the Library → Conversions section.
Types of Ads
It’s time to focus on Advertising itself! Today TikTok has three advertising formats: brand takers, ads in the feed, and hashtag challenges.
In this case, the ad appears immediately after opening the app. The link can be internal (lead to another TikTok video) or external (to another site or app). Currently, only one brand per day can place ads in this format.
These native promotional videos appear either under usual TikTok videos or directly in the feed, depending on the type of product. Links in this ad may also lead to the advertiser's website or app. The average cost is $10 per CPM, which makes the format more affordable than brand takers.
The launch of the hashtag challenge takes place in close collaboration with the TikTok marketing team. The challenge usually lasts for 6 days.
The challenge involves creating custom content with specified conditions, which must be placed with a specific hashtag. Hashtag challenges are promoted by the platform itself (the challenge banner is placed on the main page), as well as with the participation of popular TikTok bloggers.
Successful campaigns get tens of millions of views of videos created as part of the challenge.
Free Ways
There are also free ways to promote your ads. The first thing that comes to mind is activity. Likes, comments, and subscriptions — everything will do. TikTok does not prohibit the use of mass-liking and mass-following services: such applications parse users by hashtags or competitors and put likes themselves, thus automating routine and long work.
Several services are similar in functionality, where you can configure and launch automatic subscriptions to users based on competitors or hashtags, for example, TikTok Tool, Tokker, TikTokHelper.
Another way is trends. Even the youngest account can be promoted using trends. There were cases when it was possible to get into the top literally with 2-3 videos and get thousands of views. Follow music trends and new challenges.
Here are some examples of successful ads:
- #TRANSFORMURDORM challenge by retail giant Kroger. This is a Hashtag Challenge Plus, which allows users to shop for products associated with a marketing campaign’s hashtag directly through the app. This hashtag has been viewed 875 million times.
- Another example is the ad from Walmart with the tag #DealDropDance which has to date generated a staggering 3.6 billion views on videos that included the hashtag.
- CALVIN KLEIN’S TikTok Marketing.
They created an official account, hired big-name celebrities, and posted their promotional marketing material directly through the official account.
- Moreover, everyone remembers the campaign by Warner Music Group. They cooperated with several TikTok influencers by having them dance, sing, and entertain their way through a particular song.
- And last but not least: here is one of the most successful ad campaigns ever on Tiktok: #YouOwnIt videos have notched approximately 2.3 billion views. And the campaign was developed for cosmetics company MAC.
Seems like the key to the audience in TikTok is to make TikTok campaign as authentic and relatable as possible.
Conclusion
Overall, due to the excellent tools for creating creatives and automation, it is quite easy to launch and manage ads in TikTok. The main thing to consider when creating an ad in TikTok is organic placement. After all, people come to TikTok for entertainment, so try to make your advertising videos in the spirit of those videos that are posted by ordinary users.
