TikTok has become the fastest-growing social media platform, and its advertising arm has been very well assimilated into its medium. The TikTok advertising experience is split into extremes. Some brands do not get any traction, while others do pretty well.
The best way to advertise on TikTok is not to interrupt the fun that TikTok viewers are having but to join in on it. The more entertaining your ad is, the cheaper each click will be, and the more instant your conversion process, the higher your conversion rate.
In this article, you will learn the nuances and rationale behind these practices, alongside some examples highlighting their effectiveness. Toward the end, we will review the three things you need to remember to make the most out of your TikTok ads.
Let's get started!
1. Start with the Audience(s) in Mind
The best way to ensure you're successful as an advertiser on any platform is to know its audience. But even more important is to know your audience. Marketing dentures to TikTok demography might work, but will it work as well as email marketing?
Not likely.
Advertisers with FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) make platform choices just to spread themselves across all platforms. It is wiser to factor in the opportunity costs and ask yourself if TikTok advertising is right for you.
The good news is that TikTok advertising is suitable for most brands, thanks to millennial adoption alongside a loyal Gen-Z user base. But that still doesn't exclude you from the burden of zoning in on the type of customer you want to target. TikTok ads have an algorithm too!
2. Select the Right Ad type
TikTok Ad types include:
For most companies, In-feed Ads work because they show up when customers scroll through their FYP or Following page. The ad algorithm doesn't overprice the clicks as long as the content is interesting. (Related: 12 Best Content Marketing Podcasts: Step Up Your Content Game Today)
3. Make your Ad look like a TikTok
Speaking of exciting content, the rule of thumb remains to interrupt without interrupting. The best TikTok ads do not look like ads. And Nolan Brothers leveraged this to get a 3.4% conversion rate on a $0.21 cost-per-click.
As mentioned earlier, TikTok has an algorithm for ads too. And what The Nolan Brothers brand did right was to construct ad creatives that looked like TikTok videos. They even turned their "Original Audio" for the ads into a call to action.
4. Split-test before You Scale
The fact that there is an algorithm for TikTok makes this the single most important best practice. The more engaged the audience is, the less the click cost.
This reduces the pressure on your campaign's conversion rate. Even a 0.000001% conversion rate can be profitable if you're not paying anything for it. Of course, $0 ads are not possible on TikTok except with occasional ad vouchers. You can reduce your ad costs as much as possible by split-testing different ads on small budgets.
As long as you've followed the earlier tips, the cost of your ads will be low. Pick the ad people are responding to the most and put a higher budget behind it. Saving a single cent per click can save thousands of dollars across the lifespan of a campaign.
5. Strategies Sequences to Drive up Conversions
TikTok's views-to-followers ratio is unlike Instagram:
Why is this relevant for advertisers? Because it shows that the TikTok audience is not bothered to Follow creators, which is a free action. So as much as you like your own ad, you should not expect it to generate a high conversion ratio. Instead, use the same method to generate actions as TikTok creators.
On average, one has to see a creator over 20 times on their feed before one decides to follow them. If you can have only one ad, don't annoy your audience by showing the exact creative 20 times. But if you have 5 to 6 creatives, you can enter your audience's consciousness with two impressions per ad.
6. Grab Attention in the First Second
"Wait till the end," you have to tell your friends to get them not to roll their eyes too early when watching a clip you shared. But this does not work with ads. You might know that the third second of the ad is worth waiting through the first two seconds. 100% of its audience doesn't.
Balenciaga got an 18% CTR just being Balenciaga. The brand is known for being off-beat with its internet content, and its primary campaign led to multiple reaction videos.
7. Optimize your Offer for a TikTok Audience
Earlier, we discussed the Nolan Brothers, who got one of the highest TikTok conversion rates in the world for their tier of click cost. It might be easy to overlook that their offer was designed to be an easy impulse purchase.
You have to make sure that your offer matches the kind of state your audience is in. And TikTok browsers are generally looking for instant results.
8. Have a Secondary Opt-in to Get Emails
So what do you do if you're trying to sell a car? It is in no way an impulse purchase! Most car dealerships use online ads to acquire customer information for direct sales down the line. Regardless of whether you're selling cars or kites, you should have an opt-in option to get your customers' emails.
Capturing emails ensures that viewers interested enough to click but not convinced enough to buy don't just fall off. Having their emails can allow you to remarket to them. That said, getting emails without giving something in return is impossible. And this is where you must start thinking about vouchers and digital giveaways.
9. Let Quantity lead to Quality
AKA, just start! Finally, you have to get better at advertising on TikTok by advertising on TikTok. Knowing that your first ad will not be your best-performing one removes the pressure of perfectionism. Social media, in general, rewards perfection, and if you start creating ad campaigns with a small $10 to $15 budget for each one, you will get infinitely better at TikTok advertising after spending $100 than you would while putting $100 behind a single ad campaign.
Conclusion: 3 Things to Remember
If you've read posts like this before, you know what happens. You check out twelve tips and forget thirteen. That's why we're concluding this one with meta-practices. No, not the Zuckerberg company meta but the meta that means "overarching." If you follow these tips, you will get better results than most TikTok advertisers: