How to Use TikTok for Business

Sure, TikTok offers an entertaining platform where users can spend their extra time laughing at lip-syncing videos and learning from makeup or cooking tutorials. But TikTok can be a valuable resource for small businesses, as well. Brands can promote themselves through the Tiktok for Business platform, reaching an engaged audience of millions. After all, the social media platform boasts more than 3 billion downloads and 1 billion monthly active users.

What is TikTok for Business?

What is TikTok for Business? The platform is an all-in-one tool for marketers to advertise on TikTok. The company offers a variety of solutions for brands to increase their engagement via TikTok, including everything from interactive polls to enticing hashtag challenges. Brands even can employ various advertising options to increase their reach among TikTok users.

How does TikTok for Business work? Brands using TikTok advertising can employ the specialized ad platform or create their own organic video content to share with TikTok users. TikTok ads then appear for users in between other videos, often creatively appearing similar to non-advertising video content to bolster engagement.

Is TikTok for Business Free?

TikTok for business has become a favored platform for brand marketing due to its flexible and cost-effective pricing model. Creating a TikTok account is free, and advertising expenses are determined by engagement levels. Advertising starts at $10 per CPM, with a minimum budget of $50 required for each ad group. According to reports from AdAge, the costs for TikTok advertising can vary between $50,000 and $120,000, depending on the chosen ad format and its length.

Why TikTok Users Should be Part of Your Business Marketing Strategy

Why should TikTok users be part of your business marketing strategy? The enormously engaged audience of TikTok makes it an ideal market for practically any brand to reach. Almost two-thirds of TikTok users told Global Web Index they tend to purchase from brands they see advertised on the platform.

TikTok is also an ideal market for brands targeting youthful audiences. The social media platform is dominated by Generation Z, and its user base is largely composed of the key demographic aged between 18 and 34 – an age group with more than $140 billion in buying power. In fact, young adults spend more time on TikTok than they spend on other social media platforms. TikTok users spend an average of 80 minutes each day on the social media platform, interacting with organic content and ads.

The TikTok for Business platform is designed to encourage TikTok users’ engagement with branded content. TikTok features a variety of ad formats that appeal to brands and their different audiences.

Setting Up Your TikTok Business Account

How do you set up your TikTok Business account? Getting started on the social media platform is simple; just follow the following basic steps:

1. Download TikTok from the App Store or Google Play Store.
2. Log in to TikTok or sign up for a free TikTok profile.
3. Select the “Me” tab from the bottom of the screen.
4. Choose “Manage account,” then select “Switch to Business Account.”
5. Select the category that best represents your brand. Answer a few other questions about your organization.
6. Once you’ve established your TikTok for Business profile, you are ready to create short videos and other marketing content for your target audience.

Ways to Use TikTok for Business

TikTok boasts an engaged audience that appreciates the diverse range of content available on the platform, leading many small businesses to leverage it for different social media marketing campaigns. So, how are small businesses utilizing TikTok for Business?

TikTok Adverts

Posting video ads are some of the most common ways small businesses use TikTok for Business. Brands can establish TikTok advertising campaigns and place a variety of ad formats to meet various business and audience needs. Small businesses can choose TikTok ad formats such as in-feed ads, top-view ads, and branded effect ads.

Influencer Marketing

The most popular TikTok influencers are followed by millions, and brands can harness the power of such engaged audiences by partnering with TikTok influencers in multiple ways. Because they use their platforms to inspire, encourage and motivate audiences, TikTok stars are in the perfect position to encourage followers’ choices and influence their behaviors. Choosing to partner with influencers in the right niche or category can help brands appear on TikTok users’ Discover page.

Brand Takeovers

A brand takeover advertisement is another popular TikTok marketing choice. These ads dominate screens for the first few seconds a user opens the platform, capturing the audience’s attention. Brand takeover ads also appear in other areas of TikTok, and they can feature links to a branded landing page within the platform.

TikTok to Create Content

Because TikTok is a naturally engaging platform, it can be used to interact with target audiences simply by creating organic content like entertaining or motivational videos and other niche content. Popular TikTok content used by successful brands includes hashtag challenges, how-to videos, and product demonstrations. Other types of TikTok videos employed by brands include team introductions, before-and-after videos, case studies, and videos that tell unique stories of products, customers, and brands.

TikTok for User-Generated Content

Organic content is one of the best ways to generate new business from TikTok, but a brand can only generate so much of its own content. That’s why user-generated content is a popular marketing tool on TikTok for Business. When users see other people like themselves interacting with a product, it inspires trust in the brand and motivates them to try it out, too. User-generated content is the online equivalent of traditional word-of-mouth advertising.

What is the TikTok Target Audience?

The TikTok app continues to grow in popularity, and the TikTok community is a youthful and engaged audience. Of TikTok’s 1.2 billion monthly active users, 43% are between 18 and 24 years old, and another 32% are between the ages of 25 and 34. 138 million of TikTok’s monthly active users live in the United States, where 21% of all people reported using TikTok.

Brands Using TikTok for Business

TikTok for Business is taking off among the world’s most popular brands. While some only post-TikTok videos and advertisements occasionally, others have mastered the platform and use it to engage audiences of millions.

Curious about the successful strategies that various brands are employing on TikTok to inspire your own social media marketing approach? Here are five companies that are excelling on TikTok for Business:

Spikeball

TikTok was practically made for brands like Spikeball. Without video, how else is a target audience going to grasp a game that crosses volleyball with foursquare? Watching the game must be almost as much fun as playing it since Spikeball boasts 1.2 million followers watching its fun and entertaining video content.

Chipotle

The restauranteur has found success on TikTok by consistently sharing fresh content with its engaged audience of 1.7 million followers. Chipotle has also leveraged branded hashtags to create buzz among its target demographic. For instance, during Halloween, the brand launched a TikTok marketing campaign featuring the #boorito hashtag, which garnered over 4 billion views.

NBA

The National Basketball Association has been mastering TikTok to engage sports fans since practically the inception of the social media platform. The NBA’s TikTok for Business profile shares a plethora of engaging video content for its 14.8 million followers. While it showcases game highlights and news on other platforms, the brand focuses on funny sports videos and other comedic memes to engage its TikTok followers.

Gymshark

With 5.3 million followers, Gymshark has shown you don’t have to be a global industry powerhouse to dominate TikTok for Business. The British fitness apparel brand has built its following by consistently posting quality videos that attract a broad audience. To appeal to its target market, Gymshark typically shares videos related to fitness, workouts, and inspiration.

ESPN

There’s no question that ESPN dominates on TikTok. The broadcaster boasts 23.1 million followers, which it keeps entertained with plenty of hilarious and motivational sports videos. Audiences remain so engaged that the brand boasts an impressive 1.7 billion likes.

TikTok Brand Guidelines

Before a small business even thinks about how to get paid on TikTok, it must be aware of the platform’s brand guidelines to ensure it follows all the proper rules and meets the requirements to run a successful TikTok ads campaign.

TikTok provides a set of guidelines for advertisers. These rules specify that advertisements must be in approved languages, free of spelling and other errors, should not encourage actions that the platform does not support, and must adhere to specific image and video requirements. Additionally, TikTok bans branded content that promotes industries that are prohibited worldwide, and other restrictions may differ by country.

How Your Business’s TikTok Account Can Be Successful

Digital marketing can be simple with the right tools and strategies. Any small business has the potential to engage target audiences with a successful TikTok ads campaign and other branded content. You can interact with your followers by posting trending videos using the following tips:

• Set the proper tone. TikTok is a platform for lighthearted, entertaining content.
• Keep your brand voice in mind. Consistently express your brand’s personality to effectively connect with your target audience.
• Understand and anticipate the TikTok algorithm. Understanding how TikTok categorizes and sorts content will help you optimize your videos for the best results.
• Share consistent TikTok video content. TikTok users tend to engage more with brands that consistently post content, so make sure to stay active.
• Remember the importance of user interaction. Engaged audiences are more inclined to endorse a brand and incorporate it into their content, so make sure to engage with your followers on TikTok.
• Utilize influencer marketing. Influencers have a ready-made audience of engaged followers, and partnering with them helps brands harness the power of that influence to their own advantage.

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