Five TikTok Paid Media Tips to Boost Your Strategy
Welcome to newsletter number two. I want to talk about TikTok, one of the most exciting, fast-evolving social media platforms today.
Just recently, TikTok overtook Google to become the world’s most visited website, new data has revealed. TikTok users spent $2.3 billion in the app in 2021, an increase of 77% over the $1.3 billion it scored in 2020.
What’s more, TikTok is increasingly becoming a paid advertising channel. TikTok's suite of seamless, easy-to-use branded solutions is embedded in the platform’s joyful content experience to help brands connect with consumers.
These five paid media tools are growing fast and connecting content to direct sales, attribution, paid media, and click-to-buy.
Dark ads
The self-serve auction platform currently only works with in-feed ads (ads that show up natively as one scrolls down the feed). As with Instagram, ads can be run in two different ways:
1. Dark Ads (Non-Spark)
2. Boosted Ads (Spark)
Dark ads cannot come from the influencer handle as the handle needs to truthfully represent the brand or product that is being advertised. In fact, dark ads don’t connect to an existing TikTok account at all, but instead use a display name and a profile picture set during the ad creation process, which means brands won’t need local TikTok handles. This option also has a clickable Call to Action button and helps drive traffic and conversion.
Boosted ads (Spark ads)
Boosted ads, as with Instagram’s Branded Content Ads, amplify the reach and impact of organic posts. They are served from the origin account (so can be influencer or brand), which connects to an actual profile. Influencers give boosting access to individual posts via authorization codes. What’s more, links can be added so users can be directed to a brand’s landing page or music page. On TikTok, these ads are dubbed ‘Spark ads.’ This tactic is perfect for engagement and channel growth as well as more subtle traffic and conversion strategies.
Recommended by LinkedIn
TopView
These kinds of ads are storytelling video ads embedded within the 'For You' feed, meaning they quickly capture users’ attention. They’re designed to drive users to engage with the Challenge or product page. This encourages user engagement as well as external and internal landing page conversions, and messaging can be a little more detailed.
Native in-feed video
This video ad format showcases your brand immediately when users open TikTok to reach and engage audiences in a visually impactful way. With the ability to target by age, gender, location (state), interest categories, you can drive directly to the hashtag page or product page.
Branded hashtag challenge
This is a seamless and customizable TikTok experience is a storytelling video ad embedded within the 'For You' feed, designed to drive users to engage with the Challenge or product page. It puts brands at the centre of cultural movements by allowing them to share challenges far and wide in the TikTok community. Hashtags allow users to follow from one video to another with similar content or style, which drives hashtag challenges like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt. Anyone can create a hashtag challenge, but the Branded Hashtag Challenge is a paid-for version that amplifies the hashtag idea.
TikTok reads:
Follow BDB on TikTok and get in touch if you’d like to launch your brand on TikTok or bolster your campaigns with paid media.
Founder at Dojo Films - Voted Top 100 CreaTech Companies | Producing globally, shooting locally, and working sustainably | Helping brands tell their story through film | Forward thinker and creative leader
2yWow! That is unreal...