The Pros and Cons of Advertising on TikTok

TikTok (est 2016) gained rapid popularity during the pandemic when younger audiences flocked to the app looking to express themselves. The FYP (For You Page) on TikTok tailors the content for the individual user based on their previous interactions with content on the app.

Taking inspiration from Musical.ly and Vine, TikTok allows content creators to make short videos – now up to 3 minutes – either with their own audio or by adding existing sounds over video footage. Popular content on the app often takes advantage of trending audios or active discussions within the app.

But is it worth allocating a portion of your advertisement budget to the platform or is TikTok destined to fail like its predecessors?

Pros

TikTok can be an absolutely brilliant app to invest your advertising time in! Many videos have gone viral due to the sound used, or the personality expressed through the unique video content. Videos also do not require an expansive knowledge of videography or high-tech equipment to receive millions of views and interactions.

For businesses that sell physical products, using TikTok can be highly beneficial. The ever-popular hashtag?TikTokMadeMeBuy?has accumulated over 9.5B views as of early 2022, with many users actively engaging in their tailored advertisement within the app. Content creators can organically drive traffic to your site by providing honest reviews of the products they purchase. Having a diverse range of creators actively searching for something new, can make all the difference in how well your product or service performs – for example, many upcoming novels have sold out on pre order or even made it into bestseller lists, largely based on the content created on TikTok.

TikTok mostly appeals to a younger demographic with the majority of users being between the ages of 10 and 29. This allows businesses and brands to fine tune their advertisements. If a business wants to target this age bracket specifically, TikTok is a must to invest in.

Cons

The tone of the app is often recreational, upbeat and fun. While darker topics have been proven to succeed on the app, they are usually presented in a more light-hearted manner. The app makes heavy use of trending chart music and audio to create dances or to discuss topics important to them. For your brand, this might not suit your message and might detract from your brand image.

It can also be extremely difficult to drive sales through clicks when the user is required to visit your profile to find the website URL. The app is designed to encourage creativity and interaction as opposed to purchases, however many small businesses have benefitted from sales generated from their TikTok content. The in-app analytics function for TikTok is only available for 28 days, meaning that extra time is required to keep a long-term record of your performance from the app. This data can help you improve your content, but it does mean that you will need to spend extra time compiling this data regularly.

TikTok is currently a highly successful platform with billions of active users and creators. With trends and challenges gaining traction within hours of their initial creation, businesses have to be agile in order to take advantage of them, however it can be highly rewarding. It is still early days for TikTok but at the moment it seems to be going from strength to strength so it is definitely worth considering it as a new advertising platform for your business.

If you would like to find out more about advertising on TikTok get in touch with the team at 21 Degrees today and we will be happy to help.