Why is TikTok advertising good for your business?
For most of us over the age of 30, the name ‘TikTok’ is mostly related to teenagers pranking each other, and doing dangerous ‘challenges’. Obviously, these aren’t very good connotations, yet this social media app has a lot more to offer than you might believe. During its evolution, TikTok has shifted from a solely entertainment-oriented platform into a leading advertising hub.
My name is Ofir Bar, and I have two decades of experience investing in young start-ups, innovators, and real estate. I’m especially interested in helping small businesses grow. When I first noticed that TikTok was being used as a marketing and advertising tool, I started researching about it. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that many of the brands that aren’t on TikTok are missing out. For this reason, I would like to bring you some general knowledge about it, tell you about the benefits of advertising on the platform, and explain to you about tools available on it that can be used for advertising.
What is TikTok actually?
TikTok is a short-video sharing platform. It has over 2.5 billion users worldwide, making it the most popular social media tool in the world. Most of these users are between the ages of 16–24. It was launched in 2018, and today it’s spread over 150 countries. The young clients of TikTok consume it mainly for participating in trending themes and contests. However, the days when it was used only by youngsters are long gone. TikTok is nowadays utilized also by multiple brands, celebrities, and even politicians.
The advantages of a business TikTok account
It’s not a secret that what makes people log in to social media is the fact that they can like, comment, share content, etc. TikTok has taken interaction to a new level. Thanks to its relatively young crowd, having a TikTok account for your business is a great way to connect and interact with the younger members of your target audience. If you manage to create, for example, a branded challenge that will attract TikTokers to participate, the challenge can become viral, and therefore promote your brand.
TikTok can be used to increase traffic to your website. Ads allow you to add links to your videos, resulting in users entering your site. Furthermore, The platform can help you make your business reach the ‘top-of-mind’ of your target audience. This means that when a potential customer thinks about buying a product that multiple companies sell, they will think of YOUR brand first. For the same reason, TikTok has the ‘top-view’ ads, that make your business show over your competitors.
TikTok’s toolbox
TikTok for business helps small businesses by guiding marketers through the whole process of creating a digital fingerprint for brands — from choosing a target audience to creating ads. The app can teach you how to create ads — and how to do it well — in a way that will attract views, engagement, and brand awareness. With TikTok’s ads manager you can create 5 kinds of ads:
- ‘Hashtag challenge’ invites users to create content. Hashtag challenges can be on air for 6 days and are a great way to raise brand awareness.
- ‘Top-view ad’ is the first in-feed post after 3 seconds, that can be up to 60 seconds long, with autoplay and sound.
- ‘In-feed ad’ appears in the user’s feed, in between videos. This ad allows multiple calls to action, and can be 9–15 seconds long. In-feed ads can be liked, commented on, and shared.
- Brand takeover: an unskippable ad that appears on the user’s screen once a day, when they first launch the app. It can include a clickable link.
- Branded effect: you can design a branded sticker and filters that are shareable for 10 days. This is a great way to interact with your audience.
The future of business advertising
Social media has stormed into our lives less than 20 years ago and changed advertising forever. Even though printed ads and TV ads aren’t going to disappear soon, it’s well understood that as years roll by, these kinds of classic advertising lose more and more attention to digital advertising. Just have a look at how influential this platform is on the Russian invasion into Ukraine. If TikTok can affect wars, be sure it can affect consumerism.
Looking ahead to the future, it makes sense that as time passes, more and more brand fates will be decided by the willingness or unwillingness of the companies to adopt new technologies. The battle for the attention of the consumer is fierce, and there seems to be no way around social media as a business tool.
