An Introduction to TikTok Ads For Small Businesses

If you were to be asked which is the most influential social platform at this moment in time, Tik Tok would probably be the first to come to mind. Whether you are an individual with a start up, a small brand looking for more exposure or a major corporation looking to jump on a trend, the platform offers a wealth of opportunities. Despite this, understanding of the platform is limited. The consistent changing nature of the app and its trends means that what was a popular and workable plan a month ago is now unlikely to get you any exposure. Pair this with the addition of new features and it shows the magnitude of the importance of understanding Tik Tok. 

The fundamentals 

When it comes to Tik Tok, familiarity is key. If you don't use the app but plan on marketing on it, then you will likely struggle to gain an audience. A big reason for this is that users are aware of what is authentic or not. Tik Tok is a large community of 689 million users who fall into various subcategories based on their interests. They interact with this content regularly, henceforth, if you come across in-authentic they will notice. The first action you should make is to get to know the audience you want to target, try creating a personal profile and engage with that content. A good example of a company that understands this is Duo Lingo. They are successfully targeting a demographic of 24-32 year olds with innovative content that fits with the app. This is because they understand the humour of their demographic and have used this understanding to boost their following and successfully advertise their service. They also upload regularly, which is something that is required to maintain an audience of customers. 

Personal or Business account

When your company joins Tik Tok you will be greeted with the option of creating a personal or business account. We recommend that you choose to create a business account. Personal accounts do have benefits, like the ability to use more unlicensed audios, but business accounts have better analytics and tools. Business accounts have access to features like the Creative Centre which shows trending topics, ads and users. This offers advertisers the opportunity to collect market research for what is trending at that moment and how they can utilise this for an upcoming event/release. Business accounts also have access to a ‘creators marketplace’, which allows them to get in contact with trending creators on the app. This is good for brands who want to directly advertise to a specific audience that already has an authentic spokesperson. This proofing of a brand via an individual has resulted in a third of Gen Z Tik Tok users buying products reviewed by a creator.

Setting up an advertising campaign

When setting up a Tik Tok advertising campaign you have to go through a four step process. The first step is to set a goal for your campaign, there are three listed goals in the advertising centre. These are connecting with customers, generating more leads for your business or more website visits. You then can set your audience, you can either use Tik Tok’s automatic audience feature or choose to select one manually. In most cases, businesses should set up a manual demographic for these ads to ensure there is no wasted spend. You can also pick the size of the audience you want to target during this process. One thing to note is that Tik Tok requires a minimum of $50 per day to start a campaign so your budget should reflect this. Once this is complete, you can select your budget. In a similar fashion to Google Ads and other ads platforms, you can select a daily budget and end date. This may seem rudimentary to Google Ads as Tik Tok does not use a detailed cost per click method, instead showing you the cost of reaching 1000 people. After this, you can upload your ad to the site with the ad creation tool. Unlike Tik Tok videos, this will need to be edited beforehand as this editor has no editing capabilities. You can also see how the ad will appear on Tik Tok and choose the format that best suits this ad. 

What to consider when creating your advertisement 

When creating advertising materials it is important to remember that Tik Tok is a content graph and that good content is key to your success. This means you need to follow Tik Toks guidelines to create a successful campaign. Examples of this are having videos suited for the 9:16 scale of the app or using sounds that are high quality. Your ads will appear in various locations based on the campaign you have running. Ads can be the first video to come up in a person's personalised feed, or scattered throughout non-paid content on their page. There are also other advertisements you can do which have a more traditional feel. Advertisements like product placement through the use of filters, challenges designed around your business or its values and sponsored ads. While these may seem easier than creating all the content yourself, there is no right answer. For one, while using an influencer may mean you reach an audience quicker, the life cycle of the content may mean you don”t have a lot of time in the user's memory. Creating a branded hashtag for a challenge may seem like a great way to promote people using your product but these are also one of the most expensive advertising modes on the app and the challenge may not become viral. 

If you are interested in using Tik Tok for your small business but are not familiar with the platform, contact RankingCo today. As Tik Tok advertising partners we can give your advertising campaign the attention it needs to reach your desired audience. If you are interested in learning more about what our team can do for you, call us on 1300 247 045 or send us an email at contact@rankingco.com.