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POV: You’re about to get some amazing marketing tips
Are you struggling to increase your brand awareness but don’t know where to start? We know the feeling.
When you’re trying to spread the word about your new brand, product, or service, it can be hard to know how to connect with the right audience. And, unless we’re speaking to Jeff Bezos, you’re probably pretty conscious of how much your marketing strategy is going to cost.
TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media platforms today, and can be an incredibly powerful and cost effective tool to put your brand in front of the right consumers. This article will take you through what makes the platform unique, and why you should consider advertising on TikTok if you want to increase your brand awareness.
What makes TikTok unique?
Whilst many of us associate the words ‘tik tok’ with a great night out in 2009, the TikTok we’re talking about is a Chinese-owned social media platform founded in 2016. In only six years, the platform has grown to an astonishing over one billion users worldwide.
As with most technology, the early adopters were young people. And, in the case of TikTok, even more so than usual. This has led to the app being heralded as a trendsetting machine, and the platform of choice for Gen Z users.
Unfortunately, this reputation has its downside for marketers like us. Many businesses are unwilling to invest in a TikTok marketing strategy because they believe that the app is only populated by young users with no spending power. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Without further ado, let’s jump in to some of the ways that TikTok can help your brand thrive:
1. Connect with Unique Audiences
The key to any marketing campaign is to get in touch with the right audience, and that means understanding where the right audience hangs out online. Contrary to popular belief, less than 25% of the platform’s audience is underage, and the majority are young adults. Interestingly, research shows that TikTok is also being accessed by users that aren’t on other popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram, making it a valuable way to get in touch with audiences that are completely unique to the app.
The slight caveat here is that TikTok’s audiences are still overwhelmingly under 50, so some products and services (like mobility aids) won’t be an ideal fit for the platform.
2. A range of options for any budget
On the app, businesses have the option to choose between a range of different advertising options that come at a range of different prices. These options include:
In-feed videos - Videos that appear on the ‘For You Page’ in between native content, and can be targeted towards specific audiences and interest groups
Top-view videos - ads that appear full screen the first time that any user opens that app that day (cannot be targeted)
Branded Effects - branded filters, lenses and stickers available to users creating organic content
At different price points and levels of reach, the variety of options make it easy for any business to find a solution that works.
3. The Home of User Generated Content
Did you know that user generated content is considered almost 40% more trustworthy and memorable than other forms of marketing? Luckily, TikTok is designed to help brands tap into the power of user generated content. The app’s technological affordances (ie. what it lets users do), means that ads show up as part of user’s main feed — meaning that advertisements made in the style of organic content are imbued with that ‘home grown’, authentic feel. What’s more, your brand’s organic content has a far greater impact in terms of brand awareness, as accounts don’t need to have a tonne of followers in order to show up on millions of users’ feeds.
The platform also makes it easy for brands to connect with top content creators in any niche and commission videos. These creators often have highly engaged audiences, and can be a great resource for producing content that feels trustworthy and genuine.
4. Impressions are Cheap
If you’re looking to build brand awareness on a tight budget, then TikTok is the place to do it. The platform’s algorithm creates a single, curated feed for users — meaning that users are exposed to more content (and a wider range of content) than they would be in a grid or newsfeed. The impact of this is that users are exposed to more branded content in a single session, driving down the cost per 1000 impressions compared to other social media apps.
5. Find Your Niche
More than any other social media app, TikTok relies on user data and powerful analytics to curate content for the ‘For You Page’ / feed. This means that the platform is incredibly good at understanding user’s interests and habits. By understanding user interests, the platform is then able to put your ads in front of what can be incredibly specific audiences. Overall, the advantage of this specific targeting power is that your business ends up wasting less money targeting disinterested users, and your ads spend more time on the feeds of potential buyers.
Key Takeaways
TikTok ads is a great way to build brand awareness without breaking the bank, and it gives you access to a level of specificity that’s not found on other platforms. As marketers, we’ve seen how so many different brands have benefited from using TikTok to connect with new and unique audiences in order to spread their message. In fact, we’d be hard pressed to think of many businesses that couldn’t benefit from TikTok marketing. If your business is already utilising TikTok for your business marketing strategy, check out the 7 TikTok ads metrics that you should be monitoring to measure success and ROAS.
Get in touch to talk more about how TikTok advertising could benefit your business and get personalised advice and recommendations. At SOUP, we are a social media agency that offer other services such as LinkedIn Ads and Facebook Ads, head to our website for free digital strategy session.