Why Tiktok Is The New Advertising Frontier
“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your advertising as funny as possible.”
David Ogilvy
As I’m sure you already know, TikTok is teenagers' latest social media app popularly used to share funny videos and lip-sync to their favorite songs.
But it's taking over global markets as one of the best platforms for advertising as well.
What makes TikTok so popular?
This media app has some great advertising features that make it easier than ever to run campaigns on, and it’s massive growing audience make it a very attractive advertising platform to reach 19-32 year olds (including millennials). Not only that, its older adult audience is also growing in leaps and bounds.
Here are some interesting statistics:
53% of TikTok users are male and 47% are female.
Roughly 50% of TikTok’s global audience is under the age of 34 with 32.5% aged between 10 and 19.
100 million monthly active users are from the USA
60 percent of TikTok users are aged between 16 and 24.
TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app.
26.5 million monthly active users are from the USA
In less than 18 months, the number of US adult TikTok users grew 550 percent.
90% of TikTok users visit the app more than once per day.
Gen Z, Millennials and Great Brand Recall
Out of TikTok’s 100 million monthly active users in the United States, 26 percent are between the ages 25 and 44, and of these most are millennials.
Did you know that the millennial generation has now surpassed Baby Boomers in numbers and has been known for their growing purchasing power?
But at a whopping 60 percent, Generation Z or Gen Z (16 to 24) is the biggest audience on TikTok. This younger generation may still be living with their parents, but studies say its members can heavily influence family buying decisions.
Gen Z-ers also have great ad recall, which means a strong (and usually funny) message can resonate and influence buying behavior immediately.
Why Brands Are Flocking To TikTok To Advertise
One of the main reasons why brands prefer advertising on TikTok is its massive global audience. You can access this app from 150 countries in seventy-five different languages, no matter what time of the day.
According to Forbes, the app is expected to continue its growth trajectory and in our opinion, is a worthy platform for you to consider advertising your business on.
Here are some other reasons you might consider adding TikTok to your Marketing Engine:
High Engagement
The engagement rate is very high on TikTok with most users spending an hour or more per day on the app. And they’re not just there to passively watch as on LinkedIN (where the majority of users categorize themselves as news junkies and read content as oppose to interacting with it). TikTok is built around engagement and even encourages users to take an advertiser’s content and spin it into their own.
The energy drink, RedBull is a good example of this. In 2020, RedBull took a trending clip of someone pouring a drink into a cup (the clip was actually someone’s mouth spurting liquid into a cup off camera) and ran an ad campaign around it. Many TikTok users recreated the clip, making the ad go viral. They also used the hashtag #Givesyouwings, which gave users the chance to post about remarkable moments to millions of users.
Funny, Authentic & Viral
Lastly, there is room to be funny, off-brand and authentic on TikTok. Because of the short video limit, users are drawn to witty and entertaining content. This presents a chance for companies to truly engage with their audience and do things that might be unexpected or highly creative.
Here’s How To Create An Effective Ad On TikTok
Use influencers to market your product so that you can build a more targeted audience, faster.
Develop original content for TikTok. It’s fine to repurpose other content occasionally but most of your content should be playing by TikTok’s rules, with their text, features and sounds.
Include a call to action at the end of most videos, whether it’s to follow you for more, comment with questions or click the link in bio. Otherwise you could have a video go viral and lose out on gaining followers.
Be authentic and innovative about how you interact with your audience.
Try to be funny and build a relationship with your audience. This way, your brand is easy to relate to.
Test different video formats
Engage your followers by asking them questions or running a giveaway/contest.
Use keyword hashtags so that the right people interested in your product can find you.
Give regular updates of new products.
Always add a call to action at the end of every video so that when a video goes viral you don’t miss out on followers.
In Conclusion
TikTok can be a powerful way to advertise your brand, new products and services, and tap into a younger, highly influential demographic. The regular rules of advertising do not necessarily apply on TikTok, so whatever you do, don’t just repurpose the ads you’re running on Instagram, SnapChat or Facebook on TikTok.
