TikTok has skyrocketed its way to popularity to sit on the throne alongside frontrunners like Youtube and Instagram in a short period of time. It is “the” social platform of the moment, especially for generations Y and Z. And it’s crucial for businesses to involve social media services and to be on the lookout for new and trending social platforms to promote and engage on. The good news is that eCommerce is by far the most prominent industry to post ads on the app, especially if they target these audiences. Here’s everything you need to get started with TikTok ads for your eCommerce business.
Get Started Advertising on TikTok
You may even be asking yourself “are there ads on TikTok?”. Often, they are so discreet and blend in with native posts that you won’t notice they’re an ad at first sight. The TikTok community values authenticity, storytelling, and experience which is why businesses who utilize these within their TikTok promotions and campaigns are bound to notice promising results. From direct sales to brand awareness, it’s all possible to execute efficiently with promoted and organic content.
These are the various types of TikTok ads that you can look into for your eCommerce business:
In-feed Ads
These are by far the most common type of TikTok ads you will see since they emerge directly in the ‘For You’ page. These ads closely resemble sponsored posts that you would typically find on Instagram or Facebook. You can upload up to a 60-second video that promotes your product.
Hashtag Challenge
This is a hybrid of a challenge and a paid advertisement. TikTok allows companies a 6-day interval during which they can run a customized hashtag that users can tag their videos with. An alternative Hashtag Challenge Plus is also available and with this, advertisers also receive a dedicated challenge page, banner, and directing people to the store. This is a great choice for eCommerce businesses.
Brand Takeover
Brand takeovers are a less common type of paid ads on TikTok since they are commonly placed by big brand names. During a brand takeover, when a user opens the app, the very first video which plays on their ‘For You’ feed is the promotional video placed by the business. This ad approach guarantees a reach of about 5 million TikTok users. The uniqueness of brand takeover ads is that a maximum of only one brand takeover ad can be placed across the entire platform each day.
Branded Effects
If you’re familiar with creating customized Instagram filters, then this feature is almost identical to it. You create a unique filter for your brand that can be used by users all across the app — and the world. The filter is available for only 10 days but it generates significant exposure if you are able to tie it with a hashtag challenge or contest to attract more creators to use the filter in their posts. This is an optimal approach to utilizing user generated content for your TikTok advertising.
Biddable Ads TikTok
Instead of paying fixed rates, marketers can use biddable ads to submit bids on paid search or social media slots for their advertising. It is essentially competitive bidding for ad space, which is typically done in real-time. Similar to Google Ads, you’ll find measurements like CPC (cost-per-click), CPM (cost-per-1,000 impressions), and CPV (cost-per-view).
How to Run Ads on TikTok
Setting up your ads on TikTok is as easy and straightforward as creating paid ads on just about any social platform. Here is a step-by-step outline of how to get started with TikTok ads:
- Create a TikTok Ads Account and fill invalid company information.
- Create a new campaign and select the ad goal from 3 options: conversion, awareness, and consideration.
- Set-up placement and targeting by filling in necessary ad details URLs, images, and keywords along with
- optimizing for location, age group, and device type.
- Set either a daily budget for recurring ads or a one-time ad budget.
- Upload your creative content (a vertical video) to the ad campaign.
- Submit it for review.
Why TikTok Ads for eCommerce?
It’s important to consider TikTok’s target market in general before you narrow down your audience via ads. A vast majority of the users on TikTok are under the age of 30, with teenagers being the prominent audience. What does this say for your business? Your ads will perform significantly better if they already target the interests and needs of this audience. This isn’t to say that there isn’t an ongoing increase in users 30-50 years old, but they aren’t as notable as you would find among Facebook users, for example.
Additionally, standard calls to actions like ‘buy now’ and ‘sign up’ now are less attractive on TikTok since the focus is on genuine, engaging, and informative content. For this reason, it’s best that your entire TikTok account and advertising efforts reflect this. For eCommerce businesses, you can post videos of packaging, behind-the-scenes processes, new inventory, staff engagement, following TikTok video trends, and more.
Still, have your doubts about whether or not to advertise on TikTok? Consider these stats:
- The app has over 2 billion downloads worldwide.
- 51.8% of TikTok users have an average annual income of $75k.
- 52% of TikTok users say they have discovered new products on the app.
- Expand to an international market — TikTok is available in 150 countries and 39 languages.
- 75% of Millennials and Gen Z shop via their mobile devices now,
As a business owner, it’s important to seize new opportunities and expand your marketing efforts to new channels. With video content undoubtedly on the rise, it’s only a matter of time that your business incorporates engaging video content to your marketing and advertising campaigns. Experiment with TikTok ads to begin with if you’re unsure of the results and before you know it, you may incorporate it into your marketing strategy permanently.
Not sure how to do TikTok advertising right? Contact us today and our seasoned marketing specialists will handle the rest.
