The Short Guide To TikTok For Brands
TikTok, owned by Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance, originated as a music and dance app. Today it’s a hot spot for everything from funny cat videos, viral dance challenges, comedians, artists, and everything in between. Many marketers put TikTok on the backburner. They wanted to see if it would really take off or burn out like hundreds of other social media networks that tried and failed. Yet as we approach the end of 2021, TikTok is among the top downloaded social media apps. It’s time to put TikTok into your marketing strategy and here at Moondust, we’ve got you covered with a short guide to TikTok for brands.
Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
Why Add TikTok To Your Marketing Mix?
TikTok is now available in 150 + countries in 75 + languages, has 1 billion + users, and it isn’t just for teenagers as we once assumed. Not only is TikTok Gen Z’s favourite platform, it also proved to be a great antidote to the negative content often associated with channels such as Facebook or Twitter. This meant its popularity soared during global lockdowns when people wanted some light hearted entertainment. TikTok is focused entirely on user made videos which can be created, styled and published quickly. Essentially, It’s all about entertainment and creativity.
- TikTok officially has over 1 billion monthly active users. To put that into perspective, Facebook has 2.9B, YouTube has 2.2B, Instagram has 1.4B. Twitter’s 206 million monetizable users is dwarfed by TikTok. Yes, TikTok will soon overtake Instagram and they are worried!
- 37% of TikTok users earn over $100 thousand per year making them ripe for targeting!
- TikTok users love the app and spend 52 minutes per day in the platform. Additionally, the average user opens the app 8 times per day.
- In February 2021, TikTok generated more than $110 million worth of user spending. That’s 1.9 times its revenue in February 2020.
- For every level of influencer engagement, TikTok outperforms YouTube and Instagram. Micro-influencers (followings of 15,000 or fewer) receive 17.96% engagement on TikTok. By comparison, Instagram nets them just 3.86%.
TikTok WOW Fact: Jennifer Lopez posted the same video on Twitter and TikTok. The video on Twitter got 2 million views (from 45 million followers). The video on TikTok got 71 million views (from just 5 million followers). You can see the comparison between likes and shares below too!
TikTok is growing fast, so let’s run you through some essential TikTok marketing pointers.
TikTok Basics
If you haven’t used TikTok, then take some time to understand the basics. Here’s a quick run through:
Usernames: As with the other social media platforms, you will need to choose a username. In TikTok, the username is the one preceded by an @ sign and makes your brand searchable. It will also determine the url of your TikTok page. Aim to get a name that matches your brand and a separate one for you if you want to browse and interact “off brand”. You can easily switch between the two.
Personal V Pro: TikTok initially designates all new accounts as personal. You can easily change to "pro" in the settings to access more analytics tools. Pro accounts can be "business" or "creator." (Creator accounts are usually used by influencers)
Time limits: TikTok videos were originally 15 seconds, but you now have the option of 15 seconds, 60 seconds, or 3 minutes. Experience shows us that short videos perform better so don’t feel you need to use the full 3! If you do go for 3, get the most engaging part of your video upfront while you have the attention of viewers!
Hashtags: Hashtags on TikTok are searchable and help people find your content. Remember though, the caption character length is only 100 characters, so you need to choose your best hashtags and get creative with your captions.
Discover: You really need to be following the hashtag trends under the “Discover” section if you want to succeed on TikTok. Be ready to move fast and create on-trend content to really grab those views. Remember – your video doesn’t have to be perfect!
Music: You still have access to a large library of music clips that include movie soundtracks and theme show intros. However, billboard hits were recently excluded due to licensing rights. We imagine this will change again soon though.
Uploading: You can see in the above screenshot that TikTok allows you to upload a video too. The video should be up to 287.6 MB in size for iOS, or 72 MB on Android. For ads, it can be up to 500 MB. TikTok is formatted to be viewed on a smartphone, so vertical video is best, though horizontal is also allowed. TikTok video dimensions should be 1080×1920.
TikTok Tip: You can download your styled TikTok videos featuring your TikTok handle and share them on other networks. This will help you to spread awareness of your channel and get more exposure to your videos.
More Advanced
Now you’ve checked out the basic features, let’s look at some of the more advanced free features available to creators.
- Filters and Augmented Reality (AR): One of the most popular TikTok features that allows you to add fun features or accessories to your face or change the background of your video. Check out these Halloween visuals you can play with when you record your video!
- React: The react feature allows you to show a thumbnail of your screen over an existing piece of content so you can showcase your reaction to watching someone else’s video. This really ramps up the community engagement and adds to the motivation to create more content!
- Duet: A duet will split your screen with another user’s video so you can sing or dance along with them. If you don’t want this to happen with your videos you can disable the Duet feature before you publish content. Check out these awesome singing duet vids.
- Stitch: The Stitch feature on TikTok allows you to take someone else’s content and add onto it or splice your own video into it. If you browse the platform, you can view some hilarious results. Check out a top Stitch compilation here.
- Live Stream: This feature is the same as live streaming on the other platforms only you will probably get more engagement on Tiktok. When you go live, your followers will be notified and able to watch your video in real-time.
Brands on TikTok: We love M&S on TikTok. The seemingly traditional British clothing and food retailer has surprised us all by creating a hilarious TikTok channel featuring their Percy Pig candy character. Check out their take on viral Netflix show Squid Game
Advertising on TikTok
Brand awareness is great and so is the opportunity to gain a new demographic for your fan base. But what about the advertising? How can you monetize your channel? Let’s get down to business! Just like Instagram, TikTok does not allow live links in organic posts. So, if you want to drive traffic from TikTok to your website, you’ll need to pay. TikTok is not entirely transparent about its marketing prices and right now you need to work with a TikTok rep or an authorised advertising partner like Moondust.
#1 In-Feed Ads: This is probably the most cost effective of all the TikTok ad types. The best equivalent would be boosting a post on Facebook where brand content is added into user feeds and largely resembles organic content. These ads include a CTA (call-to-action) with a live link. In-feed ads are the only ones that can be purchased through TikTok’s self-service ad platform. For everything else you will need a TikTok rep like Moondust Agency. We like these ads because they allow other users to like, comment, share, follow, and duet with you. For optimal results, we recommend your video ad is 15 seconds long.
EXAMPLE: Beauty brand Purelei used In-Feed ads for International Women’s Day.
#2 Branded Hashtag Challenge One of the reasons we love TikTok so much is that your success does depend on your creativity. And what’s more creative than a Branded Hashtag Challenge! Hashtag challenges range from tasks or tricks to dance choreography for selected music clips. TikTok features different hashtag challenges in their Discover feed each day, and brands can buy access to that premium space in the page header. TikTok recommends that brands purchasing this space also use in-feed. TikTok says:
“Because Branded Hashtag Challenge is all about driving authentic interaction between brands and users, it’s the solution to choose if your campaign objective is engagement. It also means you can build affinity with your brand among our millions of users, leading to loyalty.”
Branded Hashtag challenges have a flat fee of $150,000 for six days, with firms spending additional budget on promoting the challenge.
EXAMPLE: Colgate created the hashtag #MakeMomSmile for Mother’s Day. This challenge was to make your mother or mother-figure in your life smile, whether it be breakfast in bed or a dance-off challenge. Other brands jumped on the hashtag, including the New York Giants, and the Dallas Cowboys. The challenge went viral with thousands of awesome videos made.
#3 Top View Ads: Appearing 5 seconds after users first open the app, Top View ads can be up to 60 seconds long. They do appear like ads much the same as when you search for something on Google and view the sponsored ads first at the top. There is also no way to engage with the ads either (no comments/likes/shares etc). The only action available is to hit the CTA link. Don’t dismiss them though. They’re great for brand awareness and for promoting a sale item or new product, especially if you can link straight to the purchase page. 71% of users say TopView grabs their attention.
See an example here with Balenciaga.
#4 Brand Takeover: Brand takeovers can encompass all the TikTok ad types and are pretty exclusive. That means there is a lot of FOMO surrounding them for brands looking to advertise. TikTok only allows one brand takeover per category per day, and includes Top View, In-Feed, and Branded Hashtag ads all together. A brand takeover is a full-screen ad which is displayed in the “For You” feed when the user first opens Tik Tok. It's either a three-second image or a three to five-second GIF. It’s a great choice for brands launching a new product or raising awareness for a cause or campaign.
EXAMPLE: Netflix staged a Stranger Things takeover in one of Baskin-Robbins' Burbank Stores. And this was echoed over on TikTok. A 5 day “branded challenge,” with the hashtag #StrangerThingsBinge saw the ice cream company receive over 13,000 created videos and 22 million views. Plus, it got a click-through rate of 11.37%, with the app delivering 28% more impressions that a brand typically receives. Note the synergy between the two brands. Ice cream and Netflix. Binge watching shows and binge eating ice cream.
#5 Branded Effects Last but not least, Branded Effects include filters, stickers and augmented reality features. Of course, there are plenty of non-branded free effects that brands can use. But if you have the budget and really want to create fun and awareness around your product then this is the paid route. The feature can prompt TikTokers to play with facial expressions, posture or body motions to control and interact with branded elements in the experience. TikTok recommends buying in-feed ads to help promote the use of the custom effects.
EXAMPLE: When Dirol launched a new black-coloured chewing gum, the #DirolCheekyStyle campaign featured a Branded Effect that encouraged participants to show off both their mild-mannered and sassy sides, mirroring the white and black gum colours.
#6 Pick an Influencer: We know that influencer marketing, especially micro influencer marketing is super effective. TikTok indexes many of their top creators in their Creator Marketplace, where you can search for a good fit using filters like number of followers, type of content, and personal interests. While the cost to work with creators varies greatly depends, you can expect to spend approximately $600-$1000 per post for influencers with 2.5+ million followers.
TikTok Marketing Checklist
Before you start creating, here’s a handy checklist to keep you on track. Remember, the goal is to create engagement, win new fans and build your community.
- Keep it authentic – TikTok users love authentic videos and don’t respond well to insincere marketing spiel. Think like a community member and not as a marketer.
- What’s the pay off – Why should the TikTok audience interact with you or take part in your challenges? Incentivising contests and challenges will boost your chance of success.
- Keep it simple – The shorter and easier your video or challenge, the better the pickup. Don’t try to be too clever or take too long to explain what users need to do or you will lose them along the way.
- Join trends - Identify emerging and popular trends that align with your brand, then integrate them. Don’t just go off and do your own thing. Or do but understand that your pickup will be low!
- Be Inclusive – TikTok is for everyone so avoid excluding people based on age, culture, race or gender. Don’t make assumptions about the audience demographic either, it’s a very open minded and diverse community.
- Make it fun - TikTok is all about bringing joy and inspiring creativity. And your challenge should do the same. In general, users turn to TikTok to escape from negativity on other channels so let’s keep it that way.