TikTok Influencer Marketing 101: Why and How Brands can Use TikTok

TikTok Influencer Marketing 101: Why and How Brands can Use TikTok


Musical.ly was a short-form (15 seconds) video sharing platform primarily featuring lip-syncing videos. In August 2018, Bytedance, a Chinese company acquired the app and moved its users and their content to TikTok. There have been many questions about TikTok and its meteoric rise as a social media platform. In this blog article, we will discuss the potential of TikTok as a marketing platform.


What is TikTok and Why is it Popular?


TikTok is a short-form video creation and sharing app. In China, TikTok maintains a separate app by the name of Douyin. The Chinese counterpart has over 300 million active monthly users


TikTok has expanded its focus from lip-syncing videos to allow users to upload videos shot on their phones. The platform offers a large selection of sound snippets and enables users to add special effects and filters. Some of the popular content ideas floating on TikTok are:


  • Lip-syncing and voice dubbing videos
  • Trendy dance videos
  • Nostalgic songs
  • Cute pets
  • Duets
  • Artists
  • Musicians
  • Memes

In September 2018, TikTok added a Reactions feature on the platform where users and record and share their reactions to videos. The video-sharing app also tells users when they have spent more than two hours a day on the app keeping in mind their digital well being (this is mind-blowing if you think about it).


The app has more than 500 million active monthly users and was the most downloaded video and photo sharing app on the App Store in October 2018. What makes TikTok so popular is the easy video creation, sharing and viewing. The length of the video is short so users can just capture anything in your daily routine and share it.


How to Succeed at TikTok Marketing?


TikTok doesn’t have any place for ads on the platform but it is the rapid growth of the platform that calls attention to its potential as a marketing platform. Businesses are recognizing this potential in terms of the content being created.


When starting with TikTok marketing, ensure your demographic is in line with the platform’s audience. TikTok is primarily used by people between the ages of 16 to 24 (41% of TikTok users) and 66% users being in the age range of 16-30. So TikTok marketing is most successful if you have a young audience.


TikTok Influencer Marketing Campaigns


Every day, there are people creating content on TikTok. Some of these people have millions upon millions of followers, they are TikTok influencers. They have an engaged and loyal audience of people who are potential customers for a business.


Businesses can partner with these TikTok influencers to execute creative influencer marketing campaigns. Brands can leverage challenges and contests to create branded content that will generate excellent brand awareness and drive sales. Moreover, many of these TikTok influencers have accounts on Instagram and they regularly share content created on TikTok on Instagram as well.


Brands can execute TikTok influencer marketing campaigns in the form of brand integrations where creators to use the brand’s products in their videos. In an earlier article, we have explored how the fitness clothing brand Gymshark utilized TikTok influencer marketing campaigns to promote its brand to newer, previously untapped audiences.


Results from that campaign:


  • Likes: 1,916,400
  • Comments: 12,576
  • Engagement rate (overall average): 11.11%
  • Hashtag usage (in views) #gymshark66: 45.5 million views


There are no ads on TikTok yet…


As mentioned before, TikTok hasn’t yet introduced ads on its platform so influencer marketing seems to be the way to go when it comes to promoting a brand’s products and services. Given the staggering popularity the app has gained so far, it is safe to assume that TikTok will also be looking for ways to innovate and increase engagement. TikTok will eventually have to move towards becoming a pro-marketing channel where brands can also benefit.


If TikTok manages to successfully leverage this avenue of opportunity, it will grow leaps and bounds, giving a fierce competition to other social media channels. If you are a business wondering whether to promote your products on TikTok, the answer is YES! Start now with influencer marketing campaigns on TikTok, see the results for yourself and reap the rewards.


Final Thoughts


TikTok is a growing video sharing platform catering primarily to a young audience. Despite the absence of native ads on the platform, TikTok still has the potential to be a prominent marketing platform due to the engagement levels on the platform and the rise of TikTok influencers. Influencer marketing campaigns on TikTok are a great avenue to promote your brand through challenges and contests.


Do you want to start a TikTok influencer marketing campaign for your brand or become a TikTok influencer? Let us know your thoughts on TikTok marketing in the comments section?