Last week, All Advertising were lucky enough to join TikTok‘s Advertising Event in order to celebrate and learn all about their new advertising options. The event was an upbeat 90 minutes filled with DJ interludes and interesting stats. For example, did you know that 42% of people say they learn new things on TikTok and 71% of people say the biggest trends start on TikTok. Here are some things we learned during the stream!
Make TikToks NOT Ads
In order to successfully make advertising work for your business on TikTok, you will need to change the way you think of video advertising. Usually, a television ad will be roughly 30 seconds long, including information about your product in some sort of story format. Usually, you will have one or two different ads and will create a resolution to fit a television screen.
TikTok is different. You will want to create short, fast paced videos in the style of TikToks. For example, showing your product using transitions that are popular on the app. Sound is also extremely important to consider in a TikTok as trending sounds change weekly. You will need to change your ad to fit a phone screen instead of a tv screen and overall, you need to make sure your ad doesn’t feel like a tv ad.
TikTok audiences will swipe away from ads if they feel like it breaks up their content too much or looks too much like an ad. Therefore, it’s important to take a look at the kind of TikToks that are popular and recreate this style for your ads.
Learn and copy trends
Carrying on with the theme of creating TikToks and not ads, take a look at current trends. Trends with certain music, sounds or hashtags will get significantly more views as they circulate people’s for you pages who have interacted with the trend. Therefore, if your brand works with trends to showcase your product, you’ll not only show Gen Z that you’re working to stay ahead of the times but also you’re more likely to get positive interactions with your ads instead of individuals complaining about being advertised to.
This can take a bit of work as trends change from week to week, but it’s well worth creating a profile and uploading regular videos following trends as well as paying for advertisements to show up on peoples for you pages.
TikTok’s main themes revolve around trends. So, for you to make TikToks and not ads, it’s important to stay ahead of the trends.
Embrace Gen Z
Gen Z makes up a large proportion of TikTok users which means that you should make your ads Gen Z friendly to encourage positive interaction. One brand that does this well is the Scrub Daddy brand. A seemingly non Gen Z company, creating sponges, has amassed a large following on TikTok with their humorous videos incorporating their sponge into current TikTok trends. The key to Gen Z is humour and not taking yourself too seriously. So, look at creating content alongside your paid ads that can draw in a Gen Z audience.
Another example of good brands on TikTok for Gen Z is Ryanair and Duolingo. Both companies aren’t particularly Gen Z directed but through the use of trends and humour, have become beloved by thousands of users online.
This shows that your product does not have to be directed at a Gen Z audience for you to expand your reach to the demographic. Having a large Gen Z audience will increase your reach by them sharing your funny or informative content.
Reach any demographic
With TikTok’s new advertising model, you can reach millions of people with your ads. This works by showing your video to a wide range of people on their for you page for a couple of weeks to encourage views, then moving to another phase in which you encourage clicks before moving on to the final stage to promote purchasing your product.
In this way, you can choose the demographic you want to reach or choose to reach all demographics in order to gain a wider reach and show your product to more potential customers.
Stick to 21-34 seconds
TikTok has found that the optimal length for ads is between 21-34 seconds. This gives audiences enough time to get engaged with your content and enough time to learn without getting bored and swiping. This will promote clicks and positive impressions.
TikTok is also starting to introduce a carousel of your products at the bottom of the screen along with the ad so that potential customers get an instant access to your store and products, decreasing the time from seeing the ad to purchasing a product.
Overall
When advertising on TikTok, it is important to make TikToks and not ads. This means following trends, keeping up with music and sounds. Creating regular content alongside ads that offer humour or education to appeal to a Gen Z audience. Also, sticking to an optimal time length and resolution for TikTok.
If you want to speak to experts about advertising on TikTok, give us a call on 01708 952952
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