If you want to give your business strategies a sprint by investing a budget, you need to know how advertising works on TikTok. No problem, in this article you will have all the knowledge you need to understand the situation.
Why should you advertise on TikTok? Thanks to the audience and the different ad options it offers, you can reach numerous customers with a high level of engagement.
The first thing that needs to be specified is that on TikTok there is not only one advertising format for advertisers but many more! In this multitude we will analyze the main 4 formats, analyzing their pros and cons.
First of all, let’s see where to start.
Open a TikTok Ads account
The first step is to create an advertiser account. We have to go to this link https://ads.tiktok.com/homepage/, apply and wait for a reply from TikTok.
TikTok will ask us to enter our country of origin and the purpose for which we open the account: business in case we want to sell goods or services, individual to do personal branding.
Most likely we will go to select business.
At this point it will be necessary to enter some contact information, both personal and business, based on the promotion area and the activity you want to promote.
After this step, you must wait for a communication from TikTok that will be able to accept our request or not.
What to do after they have accepted us?
As soon as we are accepted (times are long), we should enter additional information that I am not here to list so as not to bore you.
Once your account is reviewed and accepted again, you can add a budget to your account and start advertising on TikTok.
At this point, let’s move on to the 4 main formats available. The choice is not purely stylistic or creative, as the choice of format must depend on our business goal. In fact, some formats are great for selling, others for branding, and still others for building a community.
Advertising on TikTok
First type:
Brand takeover
This advertisement consists of a “full-screen” advertisement that appears to the user as soon as the application starts, ie before entering the section for you. To understand this, it corresponds to the video that appears when you enter the app but you haven’t really landed in the app yet.
The interesting feature of this format is that it is limited to only one advertiser per day. In this way, on a given day all users will only see the announcement of a brand running, with a particular exclusivity agreement.
Clearly it is a format that lends itself very well to video ads, but images and gifs can also be used. This type is very good both for branding, as it is highly immersive and exclusive for a single company, but it is also excellent for sale, because it is possible to insert a link to the website.
The main cons? It can be skippable at the top right. And the announcement can
only last 5 seconds.
Second type of Advertising on TikTok:
Hashtag challenge
This type of advertising on TikTok consists of thematic challenges sponsored by a brand to stimulate content creation. The characteristic from which the name derives is that you have to create thematic challenges based on a hashtag.
Widely used by big brands that use it to launch a new product or by singers for a new release. Usually the winner of the challenge gets something.
When to use it? For the launch of something new, to obtain brand awareness and above all to exploit user generated content.
When not to use it? When you need to sell a product, as there are better formats. However, the hashtag challenge plus was created to overcome this weakness, which is probably the most complete format at the moment.
Evolution of the classic hashtag challenge. It allows you to add an area called discover where products related to the challenge can be added, through a link or connection to an area where the user has the opportunity to buy the product directly. As can be deduced, in this way the format also becomes an excellent tool for direct sales.
This format is undoubtedly the most advantageous for brands and therefore the most coveted.
Third type:
In-feed native video
This format is undoubtedly the most immersive of TikTok, because it is identical to the videos
of the users, with the addition of a link. In concrete terms, it is a fullscreen vertical video that can be skipped by swiping up or down. It ranks in the “for you” section just like non-sponsored videos. Hencethe name “native”.
The video must have a duration of 9-15 seconds and must be highly captivating, because it starts as soon as it appears on the user’s monitor which, if not captured, will skip in no time.
Advantage: It looks like a classic TikTok video, it gets confused in the section for you. You can add a clickable call to action, which makes it a great format for selling.
Disadvantage: the ease with which you can skip this video makes it difficult to use if it is not combined with a winning creativity.
Fourth type for advertising on TikTok:
Branded lenses
In this case, the company does not have to create a promotional video, but a personalized “mask” for users to use.
These masks do not differ from the classic ones, except for the fact that they are highlighted for 5 days in the first 5 places of the “hot”, “trending” or “new” tab (then in unsecured places in the next 5 days).
The advantage of this campaign is also the disadvantage. In fact, since it is up to the end user to create the content, the company cannot control the success of the strategy too much. The more user-generated content, the more successful the campaign will be. The idea behind the mask is the basis for the success of the strategy.