How do you build your brand on TikTok?
Despite numerous controversies in recent times, TikTok is a globally known social network with several strengths. A source of entertainment for young people, TikTok represents a real opportunity for brands. How can you be effective on this app with 800 million monthly users? We explain everything below.
The Rise of TikTok
What Is TikTok?
TikTok is a social network based on sharing videos of up to 60 seconds, often with a humorous or artistic purpose. Growing rapidly since 2018, the year of its merger with Musical.ly, it is mainly used by a young audience, with 13-22 year-olds making up the majority of TikTok users, although the app also attracts some adults. It is extremely easy to use, allowing anyone to give free rein to their creativity. The community video format is also highly addictive. However, like any other social network, TikTok is not free from potential misuse or malicious users.
Available in more than 150 countries and with 800 million active users each month, TikTok is one of the 10 most widely used social media apps in the world, ahead of Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn. It is clear that the lockdown linked to the coronavirus crisis significantly increased the number of app downloads. In France, for example, in just two weeks after the start of lockdown, TikTok was downloaded more than 93,000 times.
TikTok’s growth has been such since its launch that it reached one billion users in just 2 years, compared with 4 years for Facebook and 5 for Instagram.
Alexa: An Illustration of TikTok’s Growing Popularity
Since the launch of Alexa Skill in the United States, Americans can now activate and control several TikTok features using voice commands, such as launching the app, starting a recording or performing a search. This new option makes video creation considerably easier.
No launch date has yet been planned for France, especially since Alexa is not the most widely used voice assistant in the country.
TikTok for Business
In order to meet the needs of businesses, TikTok launched its advertising platform, TikTok for Business, in July, a development that had been highly anticipated by brands wishing to advertise there. Until then, it was not possible to test the self-service format without support from a TikTok advisor. Now, all brands are eligible and can invest on the platform independently.
Given its growing popularity, TikTok represents a real opportunity for brands looking to target a young audience, especially since engagement rates on the app are currently very high (above 8%). However, brands must be aware that content on this app differs from that on other social networks and must therefore adapt their message to TikTok’s informal tone.
TikTok for Business aims to provide marketing professionals with the tools they need to increase brand awareness, grow their audience and gain visibility within the TikTok community. This new platform also allows brands to track their performance in real time. The objective: create new trends and interact with the community through immersive formats adapted to the platform’s codes.
On TikTok, brands have several advertising formats available to them, including: Top View Ads (ads displayed in users’ personal feeds), Brand Takeovers (full-screen ads that appear when a user opens the app for the first time), In-Feed Videos (videos directly in users’ feeds), Hashtag Challenges (allowing brands to create a video effect and send an invitation to the community), and Branded Effects.
As with other social networks, brands wishing to advertise on TikTok must define their objectives and the audience they want to target. To do this, the app offers several criteria such as gender, geographical location, age or language.
Expert Opinion: Sophie Bourdieu, Social Media Agency Tigrz
Sophie Bourdieu, a member of the Social Media agency Tigrz, explains why TikTok has become an essential tool for professionals.
In your opinion, why has TikTok become an essential channel for brands?
First of all, it is important to remember that TikTok has a strong community made up of a young audience eager for fun and creative content. It is therefore an ideal platform for brands wishing to communicate with a young target audience through video, a highly impactful format that is widely consumed by this demographic. In addition, the number of platform downloads exploded during the COVID-19 lockdown period. TikTok is now the third most downloaded app in France. This sharp increase highlights its potential as a true driver of virality that brands should take advantage of.
How can companies position themselves effectively on this platform?
TikTok represents a real opportunity for brands because advertising costs are still low, given that relatively few brands currently invest on the platform. Yet it generates a great deal of engagement.
I advise them to implement an influencer marketing strategy and target young people with video formats, which are much more impactful than formats accompanied by text. Several types of immersive formats are available: In-feed video, Top View, etc.
The platform has strong audience potential: affinity data from the platform, custom audiences created through the implementation of a pixel on the client’s website (website visitors, cart abandoners, etc.), and lookalike profiles based on these custom audiences. TikTok can also meet many marketing objectives by directing brands toward several types of campaigns: awareness (reach), consideration (traffic, app installs, video views) & conversions.
Do you have examples of successful collaborations with Tigrz?
Of course! I can mention the brand awareness campaign carried out for the new ba&sh collection in collaboration with Reebok in the French and British markets, which was a great success.
Thanks to Sophie from Tigrz for sharing her expert perspective with us 🙂
