TikTok is the most famous mobile app in the world right now. But don’t forget — it’s also a digital media platform that is primarily a marketing tool.
Last year, former President Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok. He was worried the app had gotten so big, had such a powerful influence on American consumers, and had dangerous connections with the Chinese government.
Right now, it seems that President Joe Biden will not pursue that course of action and will let TikTok continue to grow.
So TikTok is here to stay…
The official statistics are that TikTok has 689 Million Monthly Active Users worldwide. Out of that 689 Million, 100 Million are in the US and 100 Million are in Europe. These are the official numbers from last year, and in reality they are likely much much larger.
When you think of TikTok, you might think of young people dancing or silly videos or a powerful recommendation algorithm that shows you exactly what you want.
However, there’s a question many people still are asking…How is TikTok used in Marketing? TikTok is a business and TikTok makes money by proving itself as a powerful marketing tool for brands. Here are three ways that Tiktok is used in marketing:
1) TikTok Organic Content — As a business, you can start organically posting TikToks to reach your target audience. Compared to other platforms like Facebook and Instagram, TikTok has fewer businesses posting content so you have much much higher organic reach on TikTok. It’s a pretty simple scenario of supply and demand. Also, TikTok’s algorithm surfaces content based on the topics you are interested in, not based on your social following. So your business’s content could reach people specifically interested in your niche, regardless of how many TikTok followers your business has.
2) TikTok Ad Formats — TikTok has several ad formats that you can use to promote your business and reach your target audience. These range from straightforward full-screen video ads to the more interactive hashtag challenges. Again, considering how TikTok Ads still aren’t mainstream or have as many case studies, buying TikTok ads right now is an arbitrage opportunity that likely will get you better results at a lower cost. In general, the costs to advertise on any platform (Google, Youtube, Facebook, TV) will increase over time as more brands compete for a smaller set of eyeballs. Right now, TikTok is the platform that has the ‘most eyeballs up for grabs’ with the fewest number of brands competing for their attention.
3) TikTok Creator Partnerships — Content created by popular Creators/Influencers is one of the main reasons people use TikTok. Right now, you can use TikTok’s Creator Marketplace to directly contact TikTok creators from around the world, across a variety of different niches and with varying audience sizes. When you reach out to a creator, you will negotiate some kind of agreement where you pay the creator a certain fee in return for them posting a TikTok (or several TikToks) about your brand. This is standard influencer marketing. What’s interesting is that — like TikTok organic content and TikTok ads — TikTok creators are likely underpriced compared to creators on other platforms like Instagram.
TikTok is a huge opportunity for marketing. It’s just heating up and there’s a lot more upside available for brands.
I’ve created this newsletter as an experiment. I’ve got a Weekly Newsletter on TikTok Creative, a TikTok Course, and still feel like I’m falling behind on the world of TikTok.
I’ll be sharing my thoughts daily on all the interesting things I’m learning about TikTok for business.
You can find me here, and thanks for reading!