What you need to know: A beginner’s guide to TikTok marketing

The app that has hooked the nation. TikTok. If you are not one of the 9.2 million active users in the UK, I’m sure you are aware what it is, but for those of you who don’t, TikTok is a video sharing app that allows users to create videos as short as 3 seconds, and as long as 3 minutes. So, what is the purpose of this app? TikTok is owned by Chinese technology company, ByteDance, and was launched in 2016. In 2017, ByteDance merged TikTok with one of their other popular apps, Musical.ly, resulting in the closure of Musical.ly as it was known, but giving us the TikTok we know today. The purpose of this social media platform was for people to express themselves through singing, dancing, comedy and lip-syncing to popular songs. Initially, the app was aimed at a younger demographic but due to its popularity, it is now used daily by people up to the age of 55.  

The algorithm 

A social media algorithm is specific to each social channel, however, they all seem to evolve into similar things. Video content is what many of the social channels are favouring at the moment and on average it receives more engagement. The first step of any TikTok marketing is setting up a professional account and identifying your target audience. This target audience could be different for each post, so be sure to be constantly reviewing these audiences. On most other channels, you could typically look at y our followers and create personas based on that, however, due to TikTok running things a bit differently, you could be appearing on a group of people’s FYP’s that are the complete opposite to your followers. An FYP (for you page) is the home page of TikTok which is shown when you open the app. You are presented with content which the algorithm believes you will engage with based on previous interactions on the app.

Although it’s important to engage with your followers, you also need to take into account that most of your views will be from people that may not follow you, but have seen your content on their FYP. In other words, don’t spend too much of your time identifying your audience based on your followers alone.

The current algorithm is favouring text over the video, so make sure to include that in some of your videos and see if you notice a difference. Another way to work with the algorithm is by using high quality videos. High quality content performs better, this doesn’t mean you need to invest in the latest Canon EOS camera to film your content, but it does mean that you should be switching the enhance option on or choosing to upload your videos in HD. This can be found under ‘more options’ just before you post and will appear as ‘allow high quality uploads’. The most important thing is to try new things and review how they affect your performance, then learn from them.

The trends

TikTok trends are extremely important and can be a great place to start when creating content. Just be aware they are constantly changing. By the time you have discovered a new trend, planned out the content and got round to posting, there will be a whole new trend.

When creating content, you want to get straight into the video. There is no need for long intros like there are with YouTube. The average attention span is 8.25 seconds, so that’s how long you have to capture your audience. 

Trending sounds, you either love them or hate them. They’re stuck in your head on the way to work and you find yourself annoying your colleagues by repeatedly humming the tune all day. Songs from decades ago even seem to worm their way back up the charts when it becomes a trending sound, which proves how popular they can be. 

But, should you just be using trending sounds, or can you choose your favourite song? Well, if you want to have a higher chance of reaching your users’ FYPs then trending sounds is the way to go, however you want to maintain a sense of originality otherwise you can just be forgotten amongst the many creators using the same trends. When starting out, the best way to find trending sounds is to go to the discover section, and scroll down to the playlists where there is one titled ‘TikTok Viral’.

The organic content 

Remember – 20% of your content should be promotional but the rest should be fun and engaging.  

So, is organic content necessary? The answer is yes. TikTok finds a mix of organic posts along with paid content lead to the best ROAS (return on ad spend). Organic content is a good way to gauge how your posts perform without paid assistance. Not to mention, it’s free! 

There are a few key things you can do to optimise your organic content such as:

    Trending sounds – as mentioned earlier, trending sounds are what can get you appearing on users FYPs

    Content length –  keep the duration of the video on the shorter side, this will increase engagement and impressions. 

    Keywords and hashtags – using keywords and hashtags in your captions allows the videos to be discovered easier by people who are searching for similar things.

    Consistency – just like any other platform, consistency is key, although TikTok suggests posting 1-2 times a day for optimum results. Interestingly, unlike other social channels Tik Tok does not penalise you for posting too much – so post away.  

The paid content

The first step of creating paid ads on TikTok is setting up your own business account. Just be mindful of the fact that once you have set up your business account, you will no longer have access to all the music available due to copyright reasons. But don’t worry, there is still a good variety in the commercial music library for you to choose from that will compliment your video – including trending sounds.

Here are the main benefits of TikTok ads:

    Cost-effective – social media ads are known for being cheaper than Google and other platforms, and TikTok is no different. Your content can be boosted for as little as £20 a day.

    More exposure – as you are paying for results, you will reach a higher number of people. Identifying your target audience is key to making sure your content is shown to the right users.

    Access to data – tracking your content is advantageous and offers invaluable insights into user behaviour. In order to scope who your audience is, you can boost one of your videos that is already uploaded and see who has interacted with your video, who has followed you off the back of it, how many impressions you have received and more. You can then compare with organic posts and see how they differ. It can also help you identify new audiences.

    Trusted – When a video has a lot of views, it looks more trusted to be good content and users are therefore more inclined to click on it.

    Share traffic – When it comes to paid TikTok ads, you can include links which direct users to different content such as your profile or website.

To sum up, it’s clear to see how much there is to gain from TikTok marketing. If you want to implement TikTok into your brand strategy, or for any other advice, contact us via the websiteor give us a quick call on 01423 313 134and you can be partnered with a leading TikTok marketing agency.