Should you market your brand on TikTok this time? 

A relatively new social media platform may be daunting for marketers and advertisers to invest their money in. Perhaps, you have even heard doubts about the profitability of TikTok. But fret not, understanding why marketing on TikTok will not be a loss of investment can come in these 5 simple facts. If done correctly, it may even get the opposite.

1. TikTok is Full of Young and Audiences, such as The Millennials and Generation Z

TikTok is arguably the best platform to tap into a younger audience. It is reported that about 66% of TikTok users are below the age of 30. The app is also often associated with Generation Z who accounts for 32% of the global population, or 40% of all the consumers in the EU, US, and BRIC countries. Gen Z is highly internet-savvy and is estimated to have an accumulated buying power of $200 billion a year, $5 trillion according to a different study.

Gen Z is a lucrative target market, not just for the long-term. As of today, every social media user above the age of 14 is studied to make at least one purchase via social media. Not to mention that Gen Z has a tendency to associate themselves with the brands they consume. They are an excellent brand ambassador in the age of user-generated content, contributing millions of submissions into hashtag challenges on TikTok. But most importantly, building their loyalty to your brand and your brand’s loyalty to Gen Z is a massive marketing investment that will lead to a sustainable future.

2. TikTok Loves Raw Unedited Content

In the traditional world of marketing and advertising, brands are often pressured to spend huge sums of money on photo shoots, designs, and display ads. TikTok is here to prove that wrong. On TikTok, good lighting and a bathroom mirror can make millions. This is proven by the rapid followers and engagement growth by many simple teenagers on TikTok. 

Gen Z people are more able to appreciate creativity, relatability, and authenticity than other generations. They allow brands and creators to display entertainment with limited resources and appreciate that. Financially, this means your campaign creation on TikTok will cost you much less. Most successful brand campaigns on TikTok, such as Chipotle’s TikTok campaigns, require nothing more than the resources they already have. And when you do want to spend extra on perfection, TikTok will at least save you time as campaigns such as Elf cosmetics’ #eyeslipsface challenge requires no more than 4 days to create.

3. Rising Influencers with Great Returns on Investment (ROI)

Charli D’Amelio or Addison Rae maybe some of the world’s most famous young people, but they started their stardom with a smartphone and nothing else. Of course, you will instantly think that these are remote cases. Fairly enough, TikTok stardom does not fall upon every teenager on TikTok. However, if you look at the number of non-celebrities and users that weren’t previously known on the internet who became famous on TikTok, you will see that TikTok at least raised the odds. In simpler words, there are more “normal people” whose creations are discovered by many people through TikTok than there has been in any other social media platform.

What does this have to do with your brand’s campaign? Simple, this means that you do not always need famous celebrities or established influencers to launch your campaign. There are plenty of rising influencers on TikTok and more to come. Brands can also be successful by partnering with medium-sized or micro-influencers on TikTok. They are less likely to cost you a fortune but they still have a loyal fanbase that would willingly participate in your campaign.

4. User-Generated Content

UGC is not a brand new concept in the world of social media or even the internet. However, the volume and impact User-Generated content has on TikTok are never before seen. TikTok offers the opportunity to have your brand voluntarily marketed by millions of people and viewed by their millions of connections. This means that your marketing message will be displayed for free in various places in the world, clicked by millions of people, and even memorized into songs and memes. So even though a paid advertising route may still be taken, it will give you a much larger impact in terms of reach and display time than it would if you invested elsewhere.

5. Multiple Advertising Methods

With a combination of authentic content and subtle marketing, TikTok has been able to innovate various ways for your brand to advertise effectively. TikTok is working to make products accessible through TikTok posts while at the same time camouflaging ads into parts of users’ content. This includes in-feed ads that appear on the For You Page, branded hashtag challenges, and branded 2D AR filters. TikTok also allows you to bid for your Ad to directly appear when users in your area open TikTok that is known as the 24-hour takeover.

If you have been marketing on social media for a while, at some point you must have experienced difficulties with creating genuine content that sells your product at the same time. Of course, you will still have to think about the content that you are going to display as an ad but TikTok ads formats enable an easier process to make your ad visually authentic.