TikTok has been seen as somewhat of an overnight success, boasting 656 million downloads in 2021. With its ever-growing user base, it only makes sense that TikTok marketing should hold a space within the social media campaign strategy of any digital marketing agency. Whether you’re a company looking to leverage the platform, or an individual looking for unique and effective ways to market your mobile app, you’ll find it worthwhile to invest in TikTok marketing in the long run.
Pros of TikTok Marketing
Increased Brand Awareness
TikTok has about 80 million monthly active users in the US alone. While this number flals behind Instagram and Facebook, it’s worth noting that 60% of users also fall under the umbrella of the Gen-Z demographic. With a single generation making up most of the app’s user base, TikTok quickly becomes a vital platform for extending your brand recognition. Especially if your target audience falls on the younger side, you don’t want to miss out on the chance to connect with them authentically through social media.
Peak Audience Engagement
Another pro of TikTok marketing is its built-in capacity for audience engagement. TikTok’s user engagement rate falls between 15-18%, which is the highest of any social media platform. Users are heavily encouraged to like, share, and comment on videos in order to see more of what interests them on their For You page. This provides you with a great advantage as a business because it means that your marketing efforts are likely to go farther regardless of which method you choose to use.
TikTok also has immensely specific targeting capabilities, allowing you to show ads to users based on factors as precise as their phone model and carrier. This contributes to audience engagement because it shows your content to people most likely to interact with it instead of simply uploading it on the platform in the hopes that it will reach who you hope to target.
Using TikTok for Business
Once you’ve decided to make TikTok marketing part of your marketing plan, you’ll want to set up a business account in order to easily track your marketing efforts and make the most of what the platform has to offer. This should be your first step before you begin running any sort of campaign on the platform. Anyone can set up their account for business so this will not limit the type of content you create and share from the profile. You can change your account to a business one by going to your profile settings, hitting Manage Account, and toggling the switch from Personal to Business account. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be able to choose a category for your account – this helps users interested in that topic to find you. You’ll also be able to add a website and email to your profile so that people can contact you and visit your chosen site to learn more about and download your app. Now you’re ready to dive into the different marketing methods you can use to make the most of TikTok.
3 Major TikTok Marketing Methods
Paid TikTok Advertising
Paid advertising is a marketing strategy that many companies use and are familiar with. This method requires you to pay TikTok directly in order to display an ad you’ve created. There are multiple TikTok ad types including but not limited to:
- In-Feed ads: these ads show up amongst regular TikToks as users are scrolling through the app, however they appear as standalone ads, not content. They can appear as images or as videos. Spark ads are organic posts that you can boost for broader visibility. If you’re more interested in bringing engagement to your TikTok account than a specific product/service, or if you create a TikTok that’s already performing well, Boosting it into a Spark ad could be useful for you.
- TopView ads – These are the ads that appear to users right when they open their For You page. These can sometimes be skipped but not always. In either case, they take up the entire screen which means that for up to 60 seconds, you have the full attention of your audience.
- Branded Hashtag Challenges & Branded Effects: These play into the ever-growing trend of UGC (user generated content) across social media. The first effect allows you to create an actionable hashtag connected to your brand, inviting engagement and maximizing reach. The second effect works similarly, but with filters and stickers that can be used alone or in tandem with a branded hashtag challenge.
TikTok Influencers
Influencer marketing is a technique that has been steadily growing steam for the past few years with no signs of slowing down. The tricky aspect of this industry is that people often feel as though they need to work with the biggest names in order to see a return on their investment. While the top tiktok influencers are helping brands like Dunkin’ and NYX Cosmetics, it’s not actually necessary to partner with them in order to market your app. In fact, it’s been shown that nano influencers (influencers with less than 10K followers), tend to inspire more brand trust and higher engagement than any other level of influencer. Connecting a face to your brand can be one of the best ways to connect with your audience so you definitely don’t want to overlook it. If the prospect is overwhelming to you, you can always partner with an influencer marketing agency that will guide you through the process of reaching out to and working with influencers that can help your app succeed.
TikTok Marketing Through Organic Content
Last, but certainly not least, we have the method of creating organic content. Anyone versed in inbound marketing knows that solid organic content is nothing to scoff at. Building a brand with a distinct voice and feel is how companies such as Wendy’s and Netflix have come to be known as giants on platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. TikTok’s relative newness gives smaller companies the opportunity to position themselves uniquely in a similar way. You can utilize scheduling tools that help you not only batch content, but analyze its performance in order to continue to bolster engagement and drive conversions. Creating valuable organic content also ties in with paid advertising because you can boost those posts as mentioned above.
In the end, a solid TikTok marketing strategy will incorporate all three of the methods in order to reach different subsets of your audience and build a robust online presence. You might also want to consider hiring a community manager or social media manager who has in-depth knowledge of how to interact with your community and is able to provide an in-house face for your brand. As you continue to learn more about TikTok, you’ll likely discover more ways that you can use the platform to let people know about your app and encourage them to become active users!