What Makes TikTok Such a Lucrative Platform

TikTok was named Musical.ly prior to its purchase by ByteDance in August of 2018. Ever since the rebranding, the popularity of the app has risen astronomically. To compare the success of the app to others, TikTok broke records by having over 115.2 million installs during the month of March 2020, while in 2019, Instagram only got about 111.5 million downloads per quarter. So far, TikTok is the number one downloaded app of 2020, currently having been downloaded over 2 billion times by Apple and Google Play users. The app has more than 800 million monthly active users, beating LinkedIn (660+ million), Reddit (430+ million), Snapchat (218+ million), Twitter (340+ million), and Pinterest (322+ million). With the age demographic shifting upwards, TikTok is a lucrative platform for brands to target not only Gen Z, but Millennials as well.

The reason most videos and ads go viral on TikTok is the music. Whereas music in your videos can be an afterthought on most other platforms, on TikTok it’s the key to virality. A trending song on TikTok is typically a trending song on Spotify, showing the influence of the platform. When creating a TikTok ad, one factor to take note of is what songs are popular. Successful ads have also created their own songs with instructions on what they want their audience to do in the lyrics. Bomb Pop made a song called “Original Bomb Pop” to use for their advertisements, but also to allow users to make videos using the song. The top video using the song has over 10 million views.

As of June 25, 2020, TikTok launched TikTok for Business to provide brands and marketers the opportunity to engage with the TikTok community. TikTok is a very fun, light-hearted community that is open to a wide variety of content, so it’s important for brands to create ads with the platform in mind for a less intrusive ad experience. What brings success when advertising on TikTok is the ability to connect and creatively engage. Glossy, cookie cutter ads that may work on other social platforms won’t perform as well on TikTok, so it’s important to keep that in mind when creating content for a TikTok ad campaign.

A Variety of Unique and Effective Adveritising Options on the TikTok app

Branded Hashtag Challenge

Branded hashtag challenges are exclusive to TikTok. They appear on the Discover page, where users are encouraged to use the trending hashtags in their videos. Some 35% of TikTok users have taken part in these challenges and, according to TikTok, 16% of all videos on the platform are linked to hashtag challenges.

Successful branded hashtag challenges such as: NYX’s #ButterGlossPop currently has 10.9 billion views, and P&G’s #DistanceDance has 17.2 billion.

In-Feed Video

In-feed videos appear in the For You page of TikTok when users are scrolling. It’s important to have an attention-grabbing first couple of seconds in your ad to prevent users from scrolling past.

Brand Takeover

Brand takeover ads appear right when the TikTok app is opened and takes over the screen for a few seconds before turning into an in-feed video ad.

TikTok guarantees five million daily impressions for brand takeover ads, which will leave you spending less time worrying about competition.

Custom Influencer Package

Custom Influencer ads appear as part of sponsored content created by a TikTok user with influence in your market. TikTok launched their Creator Marketplace last year to streamline the process for brands to choose which creators to work with based on the brand’s goals and strategies. You can look at things such as the creators’ country, topics they have covered, their reach size, performance data about their posts, and demographics of their followers. When you have selected a creator you would like to work with, you are able to message them within the Creator Marketplace to see if they would like to collaborate with your business. You can include any necessary information pertaining to your campaign, sponsorship fee, product or service, etc.

NYX collaborated with TikTok influencers Avani, Mahogany Lox, Brent Rivera, Louie Castro and Tanisha Coatzee to help their hashtag challenge go viral. The creators told followers to “pop your gloss”, which meant making a video of yourself trying on different shades of lip gloss while you sing and dance. A winner, selected at random, who participated in their #ButterGlossPop challenge would win $1,200 in NYX products. As stated previously, 10.9 billion views were gathered from this.

Branded Effects

TikTok’s branded effects could be compared to Snapchat’s branded lenses. Branded effects allow brands and marketers to create custom TikTok filters. They appear as lenses, stickers, and augmented reality content for users to incorporate into their videos.

TikTok gives brands a chance to present themselves in a more authentic way, as opposed to other social media channels. With a growth rate that shows no sign of slowing down and a very engaged user base, the platform can be a great way to reach young audiences. If you are interested in advertising on TikTok, reach out to Avx Digital to see how we can elevate your performance!