7 Best Practices For Anyone Starting a TikTok Ads Campaign: We went through TikTok's Business Blog So You Don't Have To

With the popularity of TikTok continuing to increase, more businesses are attempting to utilise the platform to grow their brand. Many brands do this without the knowledge and understanding of what makes a good TikTok ad. Instead, they pump money into a video not fully optimised for the platform. Not only is this ineffective in converting viewers into customers, but it also makes the brand stick out as inauthentic. This is a major loss as 73% of TikTok users feel a deeper connection to brands they interact with on the platform in comparison to other advertising forms. As such it’s important to understand what TikTok and its users require from a brand in order to be successful on the app. At RankingCo, we went through the latest advice on TikTok’s advertising page so you can better understand how to make your ad a success. 

Make sure you know what your selling point is

While this should be at the heart of every marketing strategy, it is important to have a clearly outlined list of your brand/products selling points. This can include the benefits of your product, what makes it unique and its uses. Highlighting these key points should then be the crux of your TikTok content, keeping these messages clear to anyone you are targeting. Another interesting way to use these highlighted key points is to utilise trending sounds and formats in conjunction with this content. This will organically help your growth and show that you are connected to your audience. 

Understand the platform 

The most important part of creating a marketing plan for TikTok is to understand the platform. This includes using the correct screen ratio of portrait 9:16 instead of cropped or square videos. You should also make sure that your content is not overly polished as users prefer ‘human’ content. However, you should also make sure that the quality is good enough to keep in line with other creators' content. You should also never underestimate the value of text in a TikTok. Text allows you to reinforce your message in a concise manner that helps your customers. You should also double up on this by using closed captions. This means you can surpass any audio barrier and still communicate your message clearly. All these additions to a TikTok can boost your impressions and boost your ads popularity. 

Keep the ad short 

Another vital part in making an ad that is TikTok suitable is keeping it to a short length. TikTok themselves state that there is a 1.6x lift in impressions for videos that run between 21 and 34 seconds. You should combine this with their advice to follow the formula they outline for ads. When following this formula, your video should start with a hook that stops the viewer scrolling straight past, emphasise the aforementioned selling points and finish the video with a call to action. This call to action is particularly important at the end of these videos. This is because when an ad finishes, it will give you the option to click a link to the product/brand's website to continue the user's journey down the funnel. 

Sound is as important as video 

Despite Tik Tok being built on large amounts of video micro content, the platform itself values sounds over video. This is noticeable in their features for building content with both a voice over feature and a text to speech interface allowing for easy communication of your message. This voice over ability also adds an authentic impression. Given the platform's history as a lip-sync app, music is also vital to success on TikTok. Music is used for narrative and depending on your advert, can make the visuals presented more interesting. Trending sounds can also be used by companies to advertise. Whether this is a soundbite that is being used in a trend or a song that is dramatically increasing in popularity thanks to TikTok. According to TikTok, you can utilise these in several ways including making your own sound, getting the maker of the song to alter it for your ad or authorising a remix of the song. 

Collaborate with creators 

TikTok personalities are seen by the app as the heart of its platform. They often are the main proponents of a culture or community on the app. As such when businesses partner with them, they usually get good results. According to TikTok, this increase is a 193% click through rate growth when ads star these creators. TikTok’s users are aware of this too, with half saying they believe that a creator is the best way to connect with a brand and over a quarter saying they are more likely to remember a brand if they are featured by a creator. A reason for this is that these creators are seen as authentic because of their experience with the community. Thus, when you collaborate with a creator you are paying for this authenticity. TikTok has recognised the importance of these creators as influencers by offering a creator marketplace, where companies can get in direct contact with creators and filter by price and their suitability. 

Interact with your community

Interaction is another key element that TikTok wants all advertisers to utilise when creating branded content. Engaging users can be as simple as addressing the camera to emphasise the conversational nature of the platform. Another thing they highlight is to build a community by interacting with these users. Answering questions or leaving the Q&A tab open all allows for interaction. They also allow for easy content ideas, answering questions or acknowledging positive reviews that will strengthen the community and incline real people to make real purchases. 

Continue to make content to support the ad

Perhaps one of the most important parts of maintaining your identity on TikTok is the uploading of consistent content. This does not have to be paid content every time but rather organic content for organic reach. Giving your followers behind the scenes videos or day in the life videos is one of the most basic ways to show how your business works and build familiarity. As well as this, it also offers a viewer value with the knowledge that they will continue to get quality content if they decide to follow the brand/company. 

If after this article you are still feeling out of your depth with Tik Tok advertising, contact RankingCo today! As a TikTok marketing partner, we can make sense of those analytics and help you get the best out of your ads spending. If you are interested in learning more about RankingCo and our services, contact us on contact@rankingco.com or call us on 1300 247 045.