If you are familiar with TikTok, that’s probably due to a teenager you know who is obsessed with this recent but popular entrant to the social media app market. It was in 2016 that Chinese firm ByteDance launched TikTok, which lets its users make short-form videos with various visual effects.
That’s TikTok in a nutshell, but what you really need to know as a marketer is that over 40% of TikTok users are aged 10 to 19, as Business News Daily notes. So, how can you market to these people?
There’s plenty of unchartered territory for you to mine
If you have often focused your marketing efforts on well-established social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, you may be wondering what TikTok is. It could be said that it combines elements of Twitter and Instagram, with some of the now-defunct Vine also thrown in.
Vine enabled its users to share six-second-long, looping video clips and edit them with various effects. Getting up and running with TikTok’s core functionality, as you should do anyway if you seek to soon market on TikTok, can enlighten you as to the key features of this particular app.
As a TikTok user, you can make short-form videos – which, on this platform, often have a musical focus – before editing them with lenses, filters and even AR features.
These features make TikTok a fertile creative playground which has undoubtedly helped the app to reach its impressive tally of 500 million monthly users. Also, because the platform isn’t awash with influencers, you can more easily fight for top positions if you want to become an influencer there.
What advertising opportunities are available on TikTok?
This year, TikTok has started rolling out an array of advertising options. Those include in-feed native content ads, which are much like Snapchat or Instagram story ads. The ads are full-screen videos that, like all other TikTok videos, last from 9 to 15 seconds in duration.
Alternatively, you could embark on a brand takeover, where you would take over the app for one day, letting you make images, GIFs and videos to share with TikTok users. Then there’s the option of a hashtag takeover, enabling you to create a hashtag and give TikTok users an end goal to pursue – and, yes, there will be a prize on offer for them – while they include that hashtag in their content.
Pounce on TikTok while it’s still quiet… for marketers
It’s only fairly recently that TikTok has started offering practical advertising options for marketers. For example, it was only in January that the app started quietly testing ads, as Digiday reported then. Hence, the platform is far from saturated with advertising content compared to more established social media players like Facebook and Instagram.
Furthermore, it provides you with a valuable opportunity to reach out to Generation Z members as their economic influence strengthens. Don’t forget that TikTok is a wonderfully creative space, too – so, don’t be afraid to show your quirky side with your advertising there!
