Should you be using TikTok?

TikTok is very much the social media platform of the moment, and is considered the go-to place to reach the Gen Z demographic. The growth of users since its global launch in 2017 has been astronomical, with over one billion active users in 2022, and 20% of global internet users. These are the kinds of numbers that will light up the eyes of marketers, but there are some things you need to consider before diving in…

As with all marketing campaigns, to be most effective, you need to be where your audience are positioned online – and it’s never a case of one size fits all. The TikTok demographic leans towards a younger audience, with 28% of users under 18, and the largest segment (39%) being the 19 to 29 years olds bracket. And now, TikTok challenges Instagram and YouTube for their daily viewing.

However, it’s not a case of just editing your YouTube ads and launching them on TikTok – to reap the full benefit of the platform, your content needs to feel like an integrated part of it to ensure that users don’t just scroll past.

Here are some top tips to get the most out of TikTok as a platform:

• Spend time watching content from a range of users, to understand the pace, tone of voice and delivery that works best. Most videos are people speaking directly to the camera and have a homemade feel, rather than slick production.
• Consider what your key marketing objective is. TikTok offers the opportunity to reach a large number of people and gain thousands of video views at a relatively low cost; but given the nature of the platform, people soon scroll to the next piece of content, and then the next, and so on.
• Clickthrough rates are low, and your ad could soon be forgotten. Therefore, building a series of videos, and re-engaging people to move along the marketing funnel, is the best way to ensure you are remembered.
• And, as always, no platform is an island. The Gen Z audience may be regular TikTok users, but they are also elsewhere online. Make sure you are present when they search for your company or service, keep messages consistent across all social media activity, utilise display and programmatic campaigns to retarget your audience and ultimately, get them to your website.

In summary, these are the questions you need to ask before you begin your TikTok campaigns:

• Is one of your key audiences spending a significant amount of time on TikTok?
• Do you have the resource to produce new video ads for the platform?
• How would TikTok advertising contribute to your marketing plan?

Once you have the answers to the above, you will be well on the way to identifying whether TikTok is the right platform to use for your marketing campaign strategy.