Amazon and HBO have spent huge money on TikTok advertisements in the U.S. during the months of January and May 2022, says Statista!

And why not? TikTok reached the “1 billion” count on its daily active users in 2022! Hence, advertising on TikTok is just inescapable! 

TikTok Ads are booming because their widely diversified audience has helped brands gain high profits with natural virality.

How to Get Started with TikTok?

Who doesn’t know TikTok?

But, this time let us look at it as a definition. TikTok is a short-form video platform that pledges to entertain the world and also inspires creativity.  

Studies have revealed that 75% of TikTok users come to get entertained. The hook to its success is the algorithm that draws out the right content for its users. The content you create on TikTok is not restricted to your friends and followers but taps millions of people globally, enabling anyone or any brand to go viral. 

TikTok is flourishing, especially in the Nordics! Let us look at some numbers that justify the statement.
TikTok is being enjoyed in 75 languages by 150 countries! Not just this, it has a whopping 100 million monthly active users in Europe alone, and 1 billion monthly active users around the globe!

TikTok has its number game going strong, look at the June 2022 statistics alone and you'll know it all!

The eye-catcher here is that the numbers are growing within the older age groups. 

What impact does this have on brands?

91% of users respond to branded content on TikTok; hence, it can be inferred that they have a positive attitude towards the brands and advertisements on this entertainment platform.   

So, to benefit from the community’s brand love, you must be seen on TikTok. 

3 TikTok Ways to Succeed

  TikTok’s powerful ad format
  Create an organic account
  Collaborate with influencers

The most important thing to remember regardless of your purpose in creating the content is authenticity, happiness, and joy.
As a marketer, how will you take care of these 3 most important aspects of your content? The answer is to create content that evokes the said emotions. 

 To convey authenticity, your content must be- 

· Creative
·  Straightforward
·  Homemade
·  Open

To convey joy, your content must be-

·  Simple
·  Original
·  Emotional

To convey happiness, your content must be-

·  About candidly sharing your brand story

TikTok being a curious open platform to new experiences has trend starters and trendsetters. Trends begin on TikTok but do not stay there for long, and this is the greatest power of TikTok! 

Apart from these, there are some more best practices that help you grow your online business.

TikTok Strategy Marketing Plan

Did you know? 

 TikTok successfully gives out 30% higher paid media ROAS contrary to the average of all the other digital medias!

  As shown in the image above, there’s a comparison between TikTok and Facebook/ Meta. The Cost per Click and the Cost per Mille (Mille, here is a thousand). The impressions here are quite large looking at the numbers. 
If you are running awareness ads, e.g., to build your brand, then TikTok is value for money. 


  TikTok is all about inspiring creativity, bringing joy, and building brands. Their product suite is the key element. With six creative formats to choose from, how would you decide which is right for your campaign? 
Here are the most popular objectives and KPIs’ – and the TikTok business solutions that will help you achieve them.

How to Understand the Funnel?

We must always start with the unknown. Creating brand awareness in the minds of those who are unknown to your business, i.e., embracing strangers is important. Once people get familiar with your brand, the next step is to get your business into their consideration and compel them to buy your products/ services. 

Post consideration comes the conversion phase. This is when the stranger buys your product or service and becomes a customer.

The Different Marketing Objectives

The above-shown method was a traditional one. Here’s something different with a higher success rate! We have a different version of the sales funnel that works for us.  

As shown on the left side, the funnel consists of some added elements like interaction, interest, and loyalty. So, to succeed with these, which kind of marketing objectives must be followed?  

 
We recommend campaign objectives like Reach, Engagement, or Traffic that would get you views for creating brand awareness. As you move down to the lower side of the funnel you must move on to the conversion campaigns like web conversion, lead generations, etc.
Now, where do we push these? Usually, we push these marketing campaigns into in-feed ads.

  Awareness- 

There are 2 ways to run awareness ads. 

Top View Ads :
This 60-second video format appears as soon as users open the app, ensuring your brand is the first thing they see and hear – it’s sound-on by default.

In-Feed Ads :
This 60-second video format reaches users in their personalized ‘For You’ feeds, capturing their attention with native storytelling.

  Consideration-

Releasing a new product, promoting a sale, or sharing a film teaser? Consideration will be high on your list.

Top View :
This 60-second video format appears as soon as users open the app, it’s sound-on by default and can be optimized for diversion and engagement.

In-Feed Ads : 
Get users interested in your brand, and drive traffic to your site or Business Profile while attracting impressive video view times. This 60-second video format reaches users in their personalized ‘For You’ feeds, capturing their attention with native storytelling.

Start-Up Phase

Ramp up your conversion campaigns during the first few weeks. Start at view content and collect 50 conversions on each step before moving on to the next one. 

TikTok has Pixel similar to Facebook and you need a minimum of 50 conversions or events on your Pixel per ad group. 
To surpass 50 conversions, it ideally takes up to 4 weeks, depending upon your business.

  Engagement-

Engagement is an important part of interaction-led campaigns from launching products and promoting sales to repositioning your brand.

Branded Hashtag Challenge :
Kickstart a viral movement with this popular format. Watch as users create content in response to your sponsored hashtag. Here, you can create your own brand’s hashtag challenge and push it as an advertisement.

Branded Effects :
Give users the tools to share their stories in unique ways, while landing the brand and boosting brand engagement.
This is more about likes, followers, and brand engagement. You can use branded effects to grow your audience at a rapid pace. 

  Conversion-

 If landing page visits or app installs are the focus of your campaign, you’ll know all about conversion.

In-Feed Ads : 

Add a call-to-action click-through to this video format to increase landing page conversions and app installs. As seen in the image, the ad showcasing all the different products is placed in the feed itself. This campaign aims to see some brand conversions on the website.
There are a few different placements like In-Feed Ads and Spark Ads to run your advertisements.

Let us dig a bit deeper:

In-Feed Ads-

Just upload a video, choose the music and think of an interesting caption on your account and that’s it! People who want to engage more with your content will click on the link you have provided in the caption. These ads are mostly shown in the ads manager. 

Spark Ads- 

Spark Ads are healthy for your sales funnel, you first need to upload the ad organically and then later schedule it to run as an ad. Running a conversion ad will get you clicks and the call-to-action button will lead people to the product for them to decide to purchase. They can also like and follow you. 
Spark ads help connect with influencers and creators effortlessly. All you need to do is get your QR code and send it to the influencer, they open the app and you’re done! You can swiftly collaborate with the creators and use their content.

Digital Sales Funnel

People tend to Google search for a product after discovering it on social media before purchasing the product. Despite this fact, 71% of people shopped from TikTok itself!

Where Can I find Success Stories?

Are you thinking of where to find inspiration? Don’t worry, we have an answer for you! It’s a website that shows you what your competitors or brand colleagues are doing. It is TikTok’s Creative Center. Here, you can see what kind of content they run and you may come across some difficult types of ads that you wish to create but don’t have the time and resources.                                                                                                                                              
Here’s the solution. There are a few free apps and some with free versions like Quik, Adobe Express, Pixaloop, etc. can be used. 
When you use the app, it automatically put the end with the capture if it enables you to remove it for free. You must add your brand logo and people to keep building your brand awareness. 

  The In-Feed Ad Format

Study the image carefully to make your ads run successfully.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is the difference between a Self-Service account and a regular TikTok Ad Spend account?

  As an advertiser, you can either sign up for a self-service account or t on-boarded by a TikTok representative. You cannot access premium products like top-used hashtag challenges with a self-service account you are on-boarded by TikTok, you can access the product betas, brand-lift studies, and measure your results as well.  

 The key differentiator is that the self-service account holder can only pay by credit card, and invoicing is available only to those on-boarded by TikTok. 

2. What are the top 3 tips for getting started on TikTok?

 i. Experiment with the app to get familiar with the content and get inspiration

ii. All the content on TikTok is full-screen and sound on. So, you must create content keeping this in mind. Also remember, that sound doesn’t restrict us to just music. It can be different sounds or voices too.

iii. Experiment with various creatives when you run ads. Don’t just stop at creating just one creative and think that this will do well. Be ready with 3 or more creatives when running ads, do a bit of A/B testing, and conclude on what works and what doesn’t. 

CONCLUSION

About TikTok, if you get the knack of the game, you are already a winner! It's all about how you unlock your brand's organic reach on the social media giant. To become a winner, read this!

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