If you’ve worked in marketing as long as we have, you’ve probably seen your fair share of advertising trends come and go. In fact, maybe when TikTok first emerged in 2016, you thought, this is just another fad.

Fast-forward 5 years, a pandemic, and a 5G network, and TikTok is still here. Actually, it's thriving!

What Is TikTok?

TikTok is a video-sharing app that specializes in “short-form” (i.e., 15-second) mobile content creation. These videos can range from fun, lip-syncing parodies and dance challenges to influencers educating their followers on products, discussing social issues and politics, or sharing workouts, recipes, and stories of inspiration. 

Where Did TikTok Come From?

TikTok began as Musical.ly—an app that created short, lip-syncing videos that users could record and share with friends in their network. 

In 2016, a Chinese-based company known as ByteDance launched Douyin—the Chinese version of TikTok. Seeing its rapid success, they eventually bought Muiscal.ly. Next, they combined the two into one platform in 2018, thus creating the popular app we use today. 

Where Is TikTok Headed?

In 2021, TikTok had more than 3 billion downloads—a milestone that only Facebook and its other social apps (WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.) have achieved. Although TikTok still falls short of Facebook’s monthly average users, it outranks its competitors as the fastest growing social media platform...ever. 

In the first quarter of 2020, TikTok took home the record for the most downloads (315 million). This had a lot to do with the pandemic forcing people to stay home. With all that free time, it gave new users the chance to explore the app and connect with friends virtually.  

Today, it has over 130 million active users in the United States. It's also available in more than 150 countries worldwide. 

So, now we know that TikTok is a worthy contender of other popular social media platforms. But can it benefit your brand’s marketing efforts?

Is TikTok Good for Business?

With a surge in downloads and steady increase in active monthly users, it’s not surprising why many businesses are wondering if TikTok is right for them.

The answer to this question is...it depends. To give you a better idea, let’s discuss considerations you’ll need to make before launching your brand into yet another social platform:

• Target Audience - Though TikTok is gaining momentum in terms of user engagement and reaching larger audiences across the globe, there are important variations among its users’ age groups that you’ll need to consider.
  • According to a recent report on TikTok users by age, GenZ is among the majority of TikTok users with 32.5% of users between the ages of 10-19 and 29.5% of users between the ages of 20-29. Millennials (ages 30-39) are around 16.4% of TikTok users. 
• Your Content Strategy - Regularly posting original and engaging videos that contain the type of content your audiences want to see will be essential for a business TikTok account. This platform will require as much time, strategy and investment as your other campaigns. 
  • Things you’ll need to consider: will your tone or messaging differ from other channels? How often will you post and what is your end goal?
• Your Marketing Goals - Just as you’ll need to invest more resources into your TikTok strategy, you’ll also need to decide how this platform will align with your other campaigns. 
  • Is your goal to grow followers, improve brand awareness, or convert users into loyal customers? You’ll need to decide how to use TikTok’s features to meet these objectives and support your existing campaigns.

How to Promote Your Business on TikTok

With these considerations in mind, many businesses have gone the route of recruiting marketing influencers to advertise on TikTok. This, of course, requires a bit of extra leg work. It may include finding the right group of influencers who share your target audience, values, and brand image. 

You’ll also need to negotiate a compensation plan for advertising. And likely create extra incentives for influencers to push your products over other competing brands. 

Though this can help you piggyback off of the success of influencers—in terms of followers and reach—there is another effective way to promote your business on TikTok: TikTok advertising!  

 What Is TikTok Advertising?

Though still fairly new—especially when you compare it to Facebook, Instagram, and other paid social platforms—TikTok ads are attracting more businesses every day.

Starting a TikTok business account allows you to create, launch, and track ads in minutes. Similarly to ad formats you’ve already used on Instagram, you can target your audience, set a budget, and easily turn any post into a new ad. You also have the option of choosing from five different ad formats, including in-feed ads that appear as users scroll down the page. 

But TikTok offers a bit more fun and creativity when it comes to advertising. 

In fact, ad formats like branded effects can implement AR filters. This helps create more engaging ways to entertain users and generate new leads for your business.

In part 2 of this two-part series, we’ll discuss how ads work in TikTok, including the types of ads you can choose from, average ad costs, and how to measure engagement.

Stay connected to our blog for part 2 of this series. Check back for other helpful articles on how to improve your ad campaigns with East Shore Marketing.