TikTok has quickly taken over popular culture. With over 2.6 billion global downloads, the TikTok app is one of the most popular items in the app store. Despite that, marketing on TikTok has been slower to develop than on other social media platforms. But TikTok ads are now beginning to emerge, and companies are rushing to capitalize. So what makes TikTok so appealing as an eCommerce space?
The Value of TikTok Marketing
Part of what makes TikTok so hugely successful is that it’s predominantly used for entertainment. Other major social media platforms are used for lifestyle, news, and communication.
TikTok’s format is also a major factor in its success and a reason for its appeal as a marketing space. All content on TikTok is delivered in the form of short personal videos. Most TikTok videos are 15 seconds or shorter, often centered around music and humor. Trends move very quickly on TikTok, making all content very current and “of the moment.” All of this lends itself to extremely high engagement levels.
As any social media marketer knows, high engagement levels are a must for any successful campaign. Lastly, TikTok is predominantly used by young people, with the majority of daily users being under 25.
So if TikTok seems like such a marketing goldmine, why has it taken so long for TikTok ads to develop? There are a couple of reasons for this. Concerns about the platform’s digital security have scared some users and companies off. There has also been hesitation about the stability of the TikTok marketplace. TikTok is still a relatively new space on the social media landscape, so companies have been unsure how to engage. But that has begun to change. TikTok has finally begun to emerge as a major space for eCommerce.
Advertising on the TikTok App
Companies have found a few creative ways to advertise on TikTok. The most fundamental way companies are using the TikTok app is with their brand accounts. Here, companies can create content that reflects their brand values and engages directly with users. The goals are to gain traction and build an audience, as with any form of social media marketing.
The dream of any brand on TikTok is to go viral. Brands whose image or products are featured in viral videos often enjoy a measurable sales boost and a huge increase in brand awareness. The difficulty with this is that it can be difficult to achieve, especially without organic traction.
More direct TikTok ads are also an option. Companies can now pay for more traditional advertising spots on TikTok. Ads at the top of a user’s feed, or interspersed throughout their feed, provide highly visible marketing opportunities. Some companies even arrange for partnerships with influencers on the platforms. TikTok’s most popular influencers have millions of followers. Companies can pay for these users to show or review their products on TikTok, and users can even use the app to buy these products directly.
aiCommerce Point of View
An early mover approach with a test-and-learn mentality is a key to win in the competitive eCommerce environment. For a relatively nascent platform, TikTok’s Ad Manager provides robust controls to test advertising, and an interface that feels familiar to Meta. A user can select advertising objectives, with several conversion options, and like Meta and Google, automatically optimizes creatives to the user. Targeting is available down to the zip code, and allows standard age, gender, and household income selections. Custom targeting allows ads to show only to desired interest and behaviors such as content interests or creator followers, e.g. Home Improvement or Bob Vila, video interactions, hashtag interactions, and customer lists (for both inclusion or exclusion). Daily budgets, dayparting, and CPC caps provide controls to make a small test very low risk. aiCommerce encourages testing TikTok advertising to see how it compares to the rest of your portfolio, and always encourages multi-channel diversification.
As for privacy laws and potential government intervention, aiCommerce believes consumer data privacy and protection is of utmost importance. We encourage regulators to work with top digital platforms and industry leaders to define a set of standards for consumer protection for companies to meet, then take action on violators.
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