After you’ve spent months crafting your video and editing it to perfection, the last thing you want to do is make it available only on YouTube or Facebook. You want to get as much reach as possible, which is where TikTok comes in. TikTok has over 400 million users and over 1 billion videos viewed every day. As the fastest growing social media app in history, it’s easy to see why so many brands are now advertising on TikTok—and why yours should probably be one of them.
TikTok and older demographics
The number of Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers using TikTok have exploded in the past few years. In fact, TikTok is now used by millions of Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers but often times brands overlook TikTok as a platform to reach this audience. The hours spent on TikTok for the demographic of 35+ year old’s has grown faster than any other social media platform usage in history.
Mistake number one many companies make is completely dismissing this platform as a valid marketing opportunity for their business because they do not yet understand it (or use it themselves). This is a mistake, because there are millions of Gen X’ers and Baby Boomers on TikTok using it every day. Not to mention, people are spending more than 3X the amount of time on TikTok vs. Instagram and a little less than 2X the amount of time on TikTok vs. Facebook. For the past 4 years, user’s time in-app on TikTok has continued to grown exponentially.
TikTok for B2B Companies
TikTok is being used by some of the largest B2B brands too. And the platform has not yet seen widespread adoption, making it a lower cost option for advertising and maximizing your media spend, at least for now.
Companies from Adobe to Shopify, Sage Accounting Software, and even corporate accountants, attorneys and commercial real estate companies are getting advertising on TikTok and growing huge organic followings because it’s one of the easier platforms to create content that goes viral (even for the beginner).
TikTok is a great place for B2B brands to advertise, but it’s not the only platform you should be using. As an agency that specializes in helping businesses grow their reach and revenue through social media marketing, we also recommend Facebook and Instagram advertising as two other platforms that give B2B brands the ability to target specific audiences with hyper-targeted ads – and yes, B2B brands can get INCREDIBLE results on these platforms too, despite them also being seen as a B2C powerhouse. They have targeting capabilities that lend themselves very powerful for direct audience targeting for most all B2B target audiences and is also great for retargeting their website traffic.
TikTok can be used by any company
Companies of nearly every shape and size can use TikTok to amplify their brand, but there are a few things to keep in mind when doing so.
#1: If you’re looking to get started advertising on TikTok, make sure you first create a few organic posts on your profile that are relevant to your audience.
People don’t like to see an empty company profile if they click to learn a bit more about the company first from an ad. They want to see that you’re at least somewhat active here. If you just start hitting people with ads and promotions instead of creating non-promoted content first, you’ll likely get negative feedback from users who don’t want to see those types of posts in their feed.
#2 for organically posted content don’t use hashtags that have been overused by other brands who have a lot of followers.
For example, if you search for the hashtag #TikTokChallenges on TikTok, there are millions of videos with that tag. That means there’s already a lot of competition for this hashtag, so it’s unlikely that you’ll get many impressions from using it. Instead, try to find a more niche hashtag that isn’t as popular yet i.e. #RealEstateTikTokChallenges. By doing so, you can get more exposure from users who are searching for content related exactly to what you’re creating.
This leads well into the final recommendation… which is relevant for both ads and organic TikTok content. Always make sure above anything else that your content is relevant, engaging and is crafted with your ideal target audience in mind.
If you’re just posting videos of people doing something irrelevant to what your target audience cares about, it won’t get many views, likes, or click-throughs from users you are targeting. Instead, try to find out what people are searching for on TikTok in your industry by doing some research and create content around that topic. You can easily look through all the videos on TikTok related to a particular hashtag and see what types of videos people are posting that are getting great engagement then make it your own with a unique angle or spin to it.
PRO TIP: Use TikTok’s Creator Marketplace to search for ideal TikTok creators to collaborate with for your brand!
TikTok Advertising Opportunity in Summary
If you aren’t looking at TikTok for your company’s marketing, you could be missing out on one of the biggest secret opportunities for your industry. TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform in the world and reaches millions of users every day. And now you know, it’s NOT just teenagers! And for all of the reasons listed above in this article, TikTok is a great platform for advertisers who want to reach all audiences, despite the common misconception of demographics using the app. The videos are short, the soundtracks are upbeat, and there’s no better way to connect with ideal customers than through beautifully crafted, educational and engaging content. Plus, since TikTok ads manager is a new platform, marketers can possibly get their products or services in front of people with an overall cheaper media budget (higher ROI!).
So if you’re looking for new ways to attract customers while also engaging them in ways that people from your industry might be missing out on, TikTok may be worth checking out. Don’t rule it out, my friends! And if you need some assistance or want to talk through some strategies, reach out to our team at Axle Eight for a complimentary strategy session.