Since launching in early 2018, TikTok has come a long way. As per reports, in 2022 Q1, TikTok had over 1 billion monthly active users, with 1.8 billion predicted by the end of 2022. This means TikTok has already overtaken Twitter, Telegram, Reddit, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
It is quite a myth that TikTok is primarily used by younger audiences which have led a lot of companies & marketers to not develop platform-specific strategies for TikTok. The truth is that TikTok has aged up significantly, and has a sizeable older audience base. It is not only cheaper in terms of CPMs (cost per thousand impressions) but is also leading the way in SKAN-friendly through its ‘app profile page’ that helps improve the delivery performance of SKAN campaigns by acting as a bridge between TikTok and the App Store.
At Rocketship HQ, we consider TikTok to be a key marketing channel & have been using this extensively to maximize results for our clients. See below some of the key hacks that we believe have been performing well & can work across other accounts.
- Don’t make ads, make TikToks:
While everyone is aware of this popular caption by TikTok, it certainly is not easy to implement. A study found that 56% of users feel closer to brands on TikTok that publish unpolished content featuring everyday people. What that effectively means is to create User-generated content (UGC) in the form of ads. Go native & adopt UGCs in your creative strategy by experimenting with hooks, and using popular TikTok features like TikTok video editor, Duets, Stitch, etc.
Developing a slick UGC is in no way easy feet & here in our past blog post, we have developed a structure that makes for a winning UGC commercial video.
- Use TikTok Creator Marketplace:
TikTok Creator Marketplace is a collaboration platform to connect brands and creators on TikTok. While there are certain requirements for an influencer to join the TikTok marketplace (more than 100k followers), for a brand it gives access to popular influencers who can provide high-quality finished UGCs with ease.
- Use TikTok Creative Center:
To identify the creative performing trends & creative level insights on TikTok, nothing is better than going through current performing creatives. TikTok Creative Center surfaces the most exciting content from TikTok by region, industry & duration to help discover the next big thing before everyone else.
- Use Spark Ads:
Sparkpost allows you to use organic content in our paid ads, as well as the content of other creators to promote our brand. This opens up a world of possibilities for influencer collaboration as this allows us to gain more exposure and reach a wider audience.
Spark Ads format provides an authentic and unique brand experience with long-lasting marketing impact and improved ROI. Creating Spark Ads is fairly easy & one can create and publish Spark Ads on TikTok Ads Manager by following a few quick steps.
- Use trending audio:
To increase your chances of having your content seen on TikTok, including trending audio will boost engagement and make it more likely that your content will be seen.
To find trending sounds on TikTok, tap Discover on the bottom of your screen. You will see a scrolling feed of all trending hashtags and sounds across the app. Scroll until you see an icon on the left-hand side of a music note inside a circle. On the right-hand side, you will see a number that indicates how many videos on TikTok use that sound.
- Be aware of TikTok’s safe zones:
Safe zone is critical while developing content for TikTok & ideally this is the area where our content should stay. If we follow the rules and stay in the safe zone, along with the relevant ad specifications, we will make sure that your creatives get shared in the way we wanted.
To make it work, less is more here & keep your messages short. The more space you devote to your message, the less power you give it (don’t they say goldfish have longer attention spans than us?).
- Run a creative test campaign:
Ad fatigue usually happens faster on TikTok compared to other platforms. As a result, it is always ideal to consistently test creatives on TikTok but not at a cost of performance. Always test creatives in a separate campaign with a creative level lifetime budget cap & move them to the core adsets based on how they perform on the parameters like IPM, CPI, CPA, etc.
This will allow us to keep a balanced budget split between performing creatives & creatives in testing.
- Implement SKAN campaigns & best practices:
Post ATT, we have seen delays in the iOS data & to counter that, we need to ensure that we have the required budget to cross iOS privacy thresholds(we talk about this in extensive detail in our workshop series MobileGrowthLab.com). TikTok recommends a daily target of 90+ installs per iOS14 campaign. To manage that, campaigns need to be consolidated, bids should be the lowest cost & you should avoid making campaign adjustments in the first 72 hours (during the learning phase) after launching the iOS14 campaign.
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In conclusion, TikTok is a platform that advertisers are increasingly turning to as the platform has come of age. Our experimentation with TikTok has led us to develop strategies that we believe will not only improve the overall performance but make TikTok a key channel to keep in the marketing mix across verticals.
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