5 Things To Know Before Advertising On TikTok

February 3, 2022

5 minute read
  • Social Media
  • TikTok

TikTok has taken the world by storm since its inception in 2016. The popular video-sharing platform gained significant traction throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, even overtaking Google as the most popular domain visited in 2021 as people hunkered down and consumed endless short-form videos on their phone, according to Cloudflare.

Digital marketers have taken notice, and TikTok’s advertising platform has drastically changed the landscape for reaching your target audience. Today, we’re going to share with you 5 things you need to know before running your own advertising campaign on TikTok. 

1. The Different Types of TikTok Ads

First things first, there are 5 different types of TikTok ads – each one of them with different uses and objectives.

First up, there’s Top View Ads, which is the first thing a user sees when opening the app. These are some of the most sought after ad placements, as it’s the very first thing a user sees. These ads are typically 60-seconds long and they auto-play with sound. Bonus tip: the average user opens TikTok 8 times a day! 

Then there are In-Feed Ads, or the ads you commonly see when scrolling through your “For You Page” or FYP. These ads can appear to be organic user videos, but once you take a closer look you can see it’s a sponsored advertisement. Make sure to use a clear CTA within these ads so the user knows what to do. Often times, people swipe through these ads without understanding it was a targeted advertisement.

The third type of ad you can run are Branded Hashtags. This is a type of ad that’s exclusive to TikTok, and they give brands the opportunity to mix organic and sponsored content to share the same message. An example of this was Bose’s #CancelTheNoise campaign which ran to promote its wireless earbuds. The campaign took off organically with a new trend, where users would cut off the sound of something or someone they didn’t want to hear or listen to, and instead they’d listen to music on their new wireless Bose earphones.

Take a look at that campaign here

You can see that this campaign has generated over 14,000,000,000 views (yes, BILLION), with verified users and content creators making their own videos with the hashtag. That’s the power of TikTok.

Fourth up in the different type of TikTok ads are Branded Effects. These ads are similar to branded hashtags, except they give the user the ability to add shareable stickers, augmented reality filters, and lenses to create fun and engaging videos. These are an exciting way to invite users to interact and engage with your brand.

The final, and possibly most unique form of TikTok ads are what’s known as Spark Ads. These are native ads that enable your brand to leverage organic TikTok posts in your campaigns. This format allows you to:

  • Publish ads using your own TikTok account posts
  • Use posts made by other creators with their permission

There are a few caveats, however. Spark Ads only support the following objectives within TikTok Ads manager. In auction ads, you can only have reach, video views, engagement, traffic, conversions and app installations as an objective. In reservation ads, you can only have reach and frequency as your objective.

The good news is that the benefits outweigh the cons, by quite a lot.

By using Spark Ads, you’re able to drive traffic directly to your profile rather than a landing page, which could lead to future engagement, new leads, or re-purchases. This is an important starting point for building culture and consistency on TikTok.

Spark Ads also could provide a boost for your campaigns.

These metrics come straight from TikTok:

  • Video view metrics: 58% increase on 2s VTR, 66% on 6s VTR, and 30% on Video Play Over Rate compared to non-Spark Ads. 
  • Engagement metrics(Beta): 170% increase in paid comments percentage, 100% in share percentage, and 222% in likes percentage compared to non-Spark Ads. 
  • Conversion metrics: 42% increase in immediate CVR compared to non-Spark Ads. 
  • Cost metrics: 35% decrease in 2s CPV, 39% decrease in 6s CPV compared to non-Spark Ads. 

2. The Demographics

Secondly, the demographics of TikTok might not be what you expect. You might think that TikTok is filled with millions of young adults, teens, and even kids. While that is true, there are over 1 BILLION active monthly users on the platform, meaning you can reach just about any demographic or audience. In fact, of the roughly 80 million monthly users in the United States alone, the age ranges of those users might surprise you.

  • 10-19 years old: 32.5%
  • 20-29 years old: 29.5%
  • 30-39 years old: 17%
  • 40-49 years old: 13.9%
  • 50+ years old: 7.1% 
  • Data provided by WallarooMedia

38% of the user base is above the age of 30! Would you have guessed that?

That equates to roughly 30.4 million active users per month in the United States over the age of 30. 

So no matter what product or service you’re offering, you’re bound to be able to target that ideal customer through TikTok Ads.

3. TikTok Ads Are Surprisingly Affordable!

Overall, raw advertising costs on TikTok are very low. From our own experience, we’ve seen TikTok ads with as low of a CPM as $2. Now that’s not for every campaign, and TikTok promotes the fact that their pricing starts at $10 per CPM (cost per 1,000 views). The platform also asks you spend a minimum of $500 on a campaign. 

Here are some tips to consider to get the most value out of your TikTok budget.

  • Display the message upfront
  • Add emotion
  • Vertical videos perform way better than horizontal

4. TikTok Users Engage At Higher Rates Than Any Other Platform

TikTok has done a great job at making their interface bring out more natural engagement. Users are engaging with TikToks at higher rates than any other social platform. From TopView Ads being played at the top of your FYP as soon as you open to app, to branded hashtags that go uber viral overnight with dance trends, the engagement levels are through the roof.

Micro-influencers (or content creators with less than 1 million followers) saw an engagement rate of 17.96% in 2021, whereas on Instagram and YouTube they saw 3.86% and 1.63% respectively (source: influencermarketinghub).

A study based on over 250 TikTok users from all ages in the UK and US found that in any given month:

  • 63% of users “liked” a video
  • 63% of users followed an account or brand
  • 55% of users uploaded their own content
  • 54% of users left a comment on a video
  • 50% of users shared someone else’s video to another user or social network
  • 43% of users uploaded a “duet”
  • 41% of users uploaded a “reaction” video

5. TikTok Is Perfect For Influencer Marketing

Ever open up TikTok and you see video after video that’s an influencer talking about a product or service? Same.

In the US alone, TikTok Influencers have a higher engagement rate than the global average – and they see an average of 17.99% engagement rate (a whopping 14 times the amount of engagement US based influencers see on Instagram). So you can see why influencer marketing is taking off.

This isn’t going away anytime soon.

You probably have seen TikTok style ads appear in your Instagram and Facebook feed, and that’s because this style is taking over. If you’re already running video creative on TikTok, you can easily convert that into a Facebook ad or Instagram ad and achieve similar results.

If you need help navigating the world of TikTok or social media ads in general, contact us here and we’ll get you started with a one-on-one call with one of our marketing experts.