TikTok has a short but wildly successful history. Having begun its life back in 2017, the social media app quickly became a phenomenal success. Today, there are more than a billion active monthly users, and those stats are increasing all the time.
If you’ve got TikTok (or know someone who has), then you’ll know it as a fun app where you can check in with all kinds of content. But did you know that it is also a useful advertising tool? In fact, it might just be the world’s best advertising tool, given how quickly a piece of content can go viral. There have been instances of businesses increasing their profits by more than ten times thanks to TikTok — and it wasn’t even their video that sparked the massive increase in trade.
So long story short: TikTok is powerful. In this blog, we’ll dig into the ins and outs of why your business might just need to set up an account on the social media app.
Everyone Loves It
If you want to advertise your business, then you should go to where the people are spending their time. And people are increasingly spending their time on TikTok. And they’re just not opening up the app; they’re enjoying the time they spend using it.
This is key and is one of the reasons why TikTok might just yield better results than Facebook and Instagram in the near future. Don’t get us wrong: those two social media apps are still extremely effective, but they might run into problems in the future; people are leaving both, especially Facebook, and those that stay are finding they’re enjoying it less and less.
But TikTok? People are having a great time on that app — they cannot get enough, as evidenced by the sheer amount of time people spend on the app each day. A well-made video is more likely to be seen by people because of how many users are there, and by people who are in a good mood, which helps with engagement.
So what exactly is it that people love about TikTok? It’s the videos. Videos account for 80% of internet traffic, and that’s not something that’s going to change anytime soon; if anything, it’ll increase. The short-form aspect of TikTok makes it an outstanding entertainment source. People know they can open up the app and see a whole host of excellent videos, even if they only have a few minutes to spare.
It Offers Various Advertising Tactics
TikTok can help your business even if you don’t have an account. How? Because other people might upload a video for you.
That’s just what happened to Binley Mega Chippy, a chip shop located in the West Midlands. They had hundreds of people turning up to buy a freshly-battered fish meal, all because people had been posting the chip shop on TikTok. Videos featuring the chip have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times — and it was all organic. Binley Mega Chippy had nothing to do with it. The impact was profound. Overnight, they were a sensation, serving up to ten times their normal customer numbers.
Such successes should not, of course, be expected. But they do offer a window into the power of TikTok. Binley Mega Chippy got lucky in the sense that other people made videos for them. But companies can do things themselves, too.
Companies are increasingly flocking to TikTok because of how creative they can be with their marketing campaigns. It’s a different medium compared to, say, Google advertising. We’re not going to say that all the rules go out the window when you’re advertising on TikTok, but many of them are. You’re able to create a creative, out-there video without wondering whether you’ve taken things too far — people go on TikTok because they want to see things that are different and interesting, after all.
It’s an opportunity to show your customers a different side of your business and the chance to tell a story you generally don’t have an opportunity to tell. The app, for what it’s worth, makes it easy to create engaging content, offering a host of editing tools that can help businesses create videos that their audience will love.
It Delivers Results
Of course, it’s all good and well saying that advertising on TikTok is fun and that everyone’s having a great time on the app and so on. The proof is in the pudding. Does advertising on TikTok get results?
All the research suggests that yes, it does — and in a way that’s more appealing than on other social media sites. For example, while companies have to compete with the big players to get their voices heard on Facebook and Instagram, on TikTok it’s more of a fair playing field. If the content is good, then it can be seen by hundreds of thousands of people without having to pay top dollar.
The key to growing your follower list? Consistent, high-quality content. People have high expectations on TikTok, because the quality of the other content on the app is so good. You need to take your time creating content that customers will love. But if you can do that, then you’ll see engagement and, ultimately, an increase in website visitors and conversions. In the end, the cream always rises to the top — if you’re putting together excellent videos, then over time, you’ll see an impact.
Final Thoughts
It’s best not to overstate the potential of TikTok too much. It’s not a one-stop shop for marketing success. But in 2022, it can form an integral part of a company’s broader social media campaigns. Of course, making great videos is not something that you can just do on your first attempt. Thought, consideration, and technical ability are required, as is the need to monitor a campaign’s progress and make adjustments from time to time. But if brands can get it right, then they might just find that they get a level of success that Binley Mega Chippy would be proud of.