TikTok Statistics You Need to Know (August 2020)

TikTok sued the US government to block the ban to take effect the next month. In their lawsuit filing, TikTok revealed statistics on the surge of the app’s popularity in the US market.

As of August 2020, TikTok now has:

– about 100 million monthly active US users
50 million daily active US users
700 million monthly active users globally, and
– has over 2 billion global downloads.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/24/tiktok-reveals-us-global-user-growth-numbers-for-first-time.html

Why are People on TikTok and What do They do?

TikTok has taken over the scene of social media apps in 2020, with the best quarter for any app ever in Q1 2020 and surpassing 2 billion downloads globally. So, what is TikTok, who is on it and exactly what do they do?

As an overview, here are some important TikTok statistics you need to know:

  1. TikTok is now the sixth largest social network in the world. It has 800 million monthly active users.
  2. India, China and the US are the top three countries that account for the 2 billion downloads.
  3. Monthly active users in the US were reported to be 28 million in November 2019. We estimate this amount to be over 80 million after the surge in the app’s popularity during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
  4. According to a leaked TikTok pitch deck, the average American user opens the app 8+ times and spends over 46 minutes on the app daily.

What is TikTok?

TikTok is a short-form mobile video sharing app, as described on their website. It allows users to record, edit and share videos while watching what other users created.

 Who are on TikTok?

Although vastly dominated by Gen-Z, TikTok is increasingly becoming more mainstream with millennials and even older generations have begun to join the platform.

The last reported number of active users in the US was 28 million in November 2019. Based on the number of downloads, we are estimating that the number of active users in the US exceeded 50 million by May 2020.

TikTok didn’t disclose number of active users in the UK, however, there are several TikTok influencers in the UK that have follower counts of over 10 million.

What are the User Motivations on TikTok?

The use of all social media channels can be based on 5 basic motivations:

  • Social interaction
  • Self-expression
  • Archiving, following trends
  • Entertainment
  • Peeking into private lives

Each social media channel lures its users with one or even a combination of these motivations. Most users of Instagram frequent the app for checking up on their acquaintances (peeking into private lives) or the influencers they follow (following trends). Pinterest, however, works mostly as an archiving tool and for finding fashionable products or DIY projects (following trends). Twitter is a platform for discussing politics and other subjects (self-expression and social interaction).

For TikTok, the main user motivation is entertainment. TikTok is a platform that doesn’t tolerate negative issues, such as politics or hate or fights. An endless stream of entertaining short videos turns TikTok into an escapist’s paradise. Users who would like to take a break from their stressful lives and struggles go on the app to watch short-form entertaining videos.

The main difference between Tiktok and other platforms is the glorification of virtual and reality. Tiktok is in the opposite position of real life with all of its content, effects and background music. Since people use Tiktok content for escape from real life, Tiktok is the hub of content that complies with these codes.

What are the User Behaviours on TikTok?

@jamescharles

Welcome to the Sisters Christmas Party! 🎅🏻❤️ ##fyp ##christmas ##HolidayBeat

♬ Tactical Christmas – chivalroustube

Although the quantitative data available is limited, user engagement on TikTok is crazy! Videos that are considered viral on TikTok easily get millions of views and thousands of comments. The video above by the TikTok star James Charles got 1.7 billion views and 70 thousand views.

The user behaviours in social media can be classified into three classes:

  • Consuming behaviour
  • Participating behaviour
  • Producing behaviour

Consuming behaviour:

These are users who use a social media app to only consume content and do not produce or participate.

Participating behaviour:

These are users who consume and content as well as like, share and comment but does not produce their own content.

Producing behaviour:

These are users who produce content and interact.

The Content Democracy

TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) makes it possible for any creator’s video to go viral, regardless of past performance or follower count. That is possible by the engagement of users, encouraging participating behaviour on the platform.

Low Imitation Threshold Content

Most content on TikTok works as User Generated Media (UGM), where other users can create their own content by imitating or recreating the original piece. Giving users a chance of self-expression, users are more likely to create pieces of video content compared to other video platforms such as YouTube.

Conclusion

TikTok is a platform with very high engagement rate with a democratic algorithm that allows any user with good content to go viral. For many users, TikTok works as an entertainment app where users can watch an endless stream of humorous videos and interact with others socially.

What’s different about TikTok content that makes the app so popular?

In the past few years, video consumption on mobile phones has become mainstream as broadband mobile internet is readily available. Although all of the social media channels now support video, what makes TikTok content so popular that TikTok videos make their ways to other channels?

The difference with TikTok is that TikTok shifted video production into being a social activity, blurring the line between the consumer and the producer.

Getting More Users to produce Video Content

A popular term with social media is User Generated Content (UGC). All social media channels are made up of content that’s generated by its users, just like TikTok. The difference with TikTok’s user generated content lies with the way the content is produced. TikTok allows users to co-create, allowing users to create their own media where other users can produce their own pieces of content on. This encourages more users to produce on the channel and it’s reshaping the video sharing market by encouraging more and more users to be video producers. So how does TikTok achieve this?

User Generated Content vs. User Generated Media

TikTok is made up of User Generated Media (UGM) along with User Generated Content (UGC). User Generated Media are pieces of content with a low imitation threshold.

You may be asking; what are examples of UGM’s on TikTok and how do they encourage more users to produce content?

Formats

@eleanor.mxo

Just gotta joke about it ##fyp ##positivevibes ##OwnTheCurve ##albumcoverchallenge

♬ Trumpet Sax – lextay_40

The above is an example from the collection of thousands of pieces of content that were created in the same format – the album cover challenge. Each of these videos shows users recreating an album cover photo in their own way, using apparel they already owned (easy production). They all use the same music and the same transitions. Each user adds their own spin by adding some on-screen text, associating that with the name of the album.

Lip-syncing

@kyscottt

ur doing great sweetie ##antibiotics ##covid19 ##covid ##quarantine ##intheclub ##drunkwords ##trump

♬ original sound – iampeterchao

Lip-syncing is huge on TikTok. Many users just shoot their version of a video by using the same audio and lip-syncing over it. Above is a popular example of a user, whose account is made of videos of her lip-syncing excerpts from President Trump’s speeches. One of her videos even reached over a million views.

Themed audios

@brando

Karen gets a triple reverse card 🔃 😂 ##foryou ##xyzbca ##plottwist

♬ Majesty – Instrumental Mix – Apashe

Many pieces of audio on TikTok help users create content. Users are inspired by watching what other users created with the same piece of audio, and so they create their own.

The audio functions as a place holder for adding the pieces of video, marking the change of emotions in the story telling of the whole piece.

Users tell their stories by adding on-screen text and acting in the video. These audio pieces allow users to add over a certain number of video clips. Users can easily express themselves by adding the video associated with the emotion conveyed by the audio, and adding on-screen text on the videos.

Above is an example from a collection for a popular TikTok audio with over 90,000 pieces of content and millions of views.

How does this make TikTok different?

The UGM culture in TikTok allows a much higher percentage of users to be producers, compared to other video-only platforms such as YouTube. When compared to Instagram, Instagram users are much more likely to post carefully edited images rather than the much raw-looking videos on TikTok. The UGM culture also increases the engagement in terms of likes, comments and shares. Many users who are also producers themselves take a joy in engaging with other producer users.

TikTok content makes its way to other channels much more easily. There are even examples of TikTok content that have attracted much more attention on a secondary platform than it did on its original platform.

For example, the TikTok video above created by comedian Sarah Cooper originally received several hundred thousands of views on TikTok, however, it garnered over 6 million views on Twitter.

Conclusion

TikTok’s User-Generated Media culture allows more users on the platform to be producers rather than just staying as consumers. The same culture also increases the engagement of users with each other and increases the likelihood of virality of the content. For this reason, the time spent on the app increases and it may likely steal screen time from other social media platforms.

TikTok offers FREE ad credits up to $2300!

TikTok just launched a new program, TikTok Back to Business.

For eligible small and medium-sized businesses, TikTok offers up to $2300 in free ad credits.

Here are the offers:

  • A one-time free ad credit worth $300 USD to be used by December 31, 2020.
  • Additional spending matched 1-to-1 with free ad credit, up to $2,000 per business.

The amount and currency vary by the country, for instance, in the UK the total amount you can get in free ad credits is £1,830.

If you are considering to test TikTok as a new UA channel, now is the time to get free £1,830.

Eligibility:

  • SMB’s who sign up for a new TikTok Ads Manager account or who have an active account, and meet all of the requirements of the program are eligible.
  • Your company must be registered as a taxpayer business in the following countries:
    • The United States
    • The United Kingdom
    • Italy
    • France
    • Spain
    • India
    • Australia
    • Russia
    • South Korea
    • Saudi Arabia
    • the UAE
    • Egypt
    • Turkey
    • Thailand
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • Vietnam
    • and Japan.

Business Information Required for Verification:

In order to be eligible for the program, you have to prove your company is registered with your local jurisdiction. In the case of the UK, below are the documents you can provide:

  • Companies Registry Office number
  • VAT number
  • Company phone number
  • Name of the legal representative
  • More documents:
    • Business license
    • Registration certificate
    • Tax registration certificate

Still Need Help?

If you need help with claiming your free ad credits with TikTok and creating engaging TikTok ad creatives, and managing your campaigns, CONTACT US!

Best Practices for Casual Games Ad Creatives on TikTok

Introduction

With more than two billion app downloads and over 800 million monthly active users, TikTok has seen a huge growth in 2020.

Since 69% of its users are ages between 13 – 24, and over 150 million users are from 1st tier countries, TikTok is a huge attraction for game advertisers. On top of that, TikTok is an entertainment app rather than a social media app, which makes it a natural fit for game advertising.

However, TikTok is a much different channel and game advertisers must be aware of the channel’s differences and potential challenges that lay ahead of them while running ads for casual games.

TikTok allows users to scroll away from an ad just like they could on an organic piece of content, which makes it imperative to make ads highly engaging. The best way to make a TikTok ad engaging is to make it look like a TikTok. TikTok confirms this strategy in their TikTok for Business launch slogan: “Don’t make ads, make TikToks”.

Another challenge for advertisers is the 9-second rule. TikTok ads display the copy and the call-to-action button at the 9th second mark of an ad. For this reason, TikTok advertisers must keep their audience engaged for at least 9 seconds.

Attention-Grabbing Intro

TikTok ads must start with a bang! Most TikTok users determine whether or not they want to watch a TikTok in the first three seconds of the video, and the same goes with TikTok ads. Here are a few tips to make the intro of a TikTok ad successful:

  • Use bright colours. Visually appealing bright colors and scenery are more likely to capture a user’s attention.
  • Give a reason to watch: The intro must give the user a reason to watch the rest of the ad. This could be achieved by story-telling with different elements, such as tension or surprise.
  • Use the human face: As a general rule of thumb, humans are instinctively programmed to view another human’s face. The visual appearance of a face increases engagement, especially when the face is in line with the target audience and also the game’s emotion.

Atmosphere

Components of a Video Ad

The success of any ad campaign depends on understanding who your target audience is. Define your target audience. Who is more likely to play your game? Young kids or older women (many casual games are played by women older than 30).

The cast, the scene and the story must be relevant to your target audience. Think of who would play your game and in what situation. Make a reference to common situations to be relevant to your audience. This is a great way of attracting sympathy from your target audience and getting them more engaged with your ad.

Another important component of an ad is the emotion or emotions. Each game has a set of emotions that it creates with the gamer, whether this is happiness, tension or even excitement. Your ad must convey the same emotion associated with the gameplay.

TikTok Context

TikTok Ad Creative Basics

TikTok is mostly made up of meme culture. Take advantage of this while creating your ad. A TikTok ad that fits into the TikTok context is what’s called a native ad on TikTok. A native TikTok ad helps keep your audience engaged and increases the chance of the user to download your game. How to get your ad to be a TikTok ad:

  • Take up a meme and transform it into an ad for your game. The meme should be somehow connected to your game. If you push too hard for that connection, you may receive backlash from your audience.
  • Humour reigns supreme on TikTok. TikTok is an entertainment app. If your ad manages to entertain your audience and functions as an ad at the same time, that is golden. This also increases virality of your ad, as users will start forwarding an entertaining ad to each other.
  • Make use of TikTok’s huge music library. Music is the driving power behind much of TikTok content. Choose a music that fits well to your game and your ad.

A native TikTok ad has huge advantages over a regular gameplay video ad. It will get your audience more engaged and will perform better. On top of this, you will also benefit from a common user behaviour on the app – forwarding. Many users on the app forward to other users the content they like best. If your ad is a TikTok that people like, you will get free impressions from people sharing your ad.

Gameplay Video Tips

Last but not least, any game ad must showcase the gameplay. Here are some tips to make your gameplay footage shine and stand out from the rest:

  • Make sure your gameplay footage is exciting and fun, and that it demonstrates the best bits of your casual game.
  • Make sure it’s easy to understand, and that you start teaching your audience about the gameplay even while watching the ad.
  • Introduce the key and pain points in the gameplay. You can use on-screen text or narration.
  • Show the difference between a rookie player and a veteran.

Conclusion

TikTok users favor ads that look like TikTok content! Have fun with it. Make sure your ad starts with an attention-capturing intro. Add some elements in the ad that will make it relevant to your target audience. Entertain this audience while advertising your casual game, as users on TikTok are on the app for entertainment. Make use of TikTok’s trends, memes, and music while creating an ad for your casual game. 

Will the US ban TikTok?

It’s very probable.

Here are some reasons why:

1 – TikTok is owned by Bytedance, a Chinese company that’s required by Chinese law to share user data with the Chinese government.

Although TikTok is separate from its Chinese version Douyin and its user data is stored separately in servers around the world but not in China, TikTok confirms that it may share user data within the corporation in its Privacy Policy:

“We may share your information with a parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of our corporate group.”

2 – Look at what happened to Huawei.

Although there are many news stories circulating about TikTok stealing user data and potentially sharing it with the Chinese government, there is no real evidence that this has happened.

However, the FCC formally declared Huawei (and ZTE) a national security threat due to the fact that Huawei is based in China. Just like Bytedance, Huawei is also required by Chinese law to share user data with the Chinese government.

3 – There are political motivations for a probable ban.

“TikTok is led by an American CEO, with hundreds of employees and key leaders across safety, security, product, and public policy here in the US. We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our users. We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.”

TikTok Spokesperson

TikTok has tried to distance itself from its Chinese roots and is likely practicing a proper privacy policy. For instance, they pulled out of Hong Kong, as China imposed new national security legislations.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration aims to gain a political advantage by declaring TikTok a national security threat, fueling its politics of fear strategy.

Reasons why a TikTok ban won’t hold:

On the other hand, there are reasons why a TikTok ban won’t hold.

1 – It’s become a huge platform for the most creative people in the world. Regardless of its Chinese roots, the people want TikTok. A ban would make Trump lose much more than it’d make him win.

2 – TikTok has set itself up as a global corporation with a huge presence in the US, as well. TikTok has global offices including Los Angeles, New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.

3 – Banning TikTok is much more complicated than declaring Huawei a national security threat. There should be other ways of protecting people’s privacy and data than taking away one of their freedoms. With a probable ban, people won’t be able to use the platform to express themselves in a way unique to TikTok, thus hindering the freedom of expression.

Understanding the Algorithm Behind TikTok’s For You Page

Introduction

The For You Page, commonly known as the FYP, is what distinguishes TikTok from other social media apps. In fact, it is the FYP that pushes some videos to millions of users. For reference, any video with less than 100 K views is not considered viral on TikTok, while some videos get only as little as 50 views. The FYP is described as an “endless stream of short videos that feel personalized just for you” on the app’s page on the App Store. So how does the algorithm behind TikTok’s FYP work? What feeds the algorithm and how does it choose which videos to surface?

Much like other social media apps, TikTok’s algorithm is a secret owned by the company. However, they recently released a press statement somewhat vaguely describing how the algorithm works. In this article, we take a look at what TikTok revealed about its algorithm and what us, the users are experiencing. This article is a compilation of what is known of the algorithm as shared by the app’s users on the internet.

The Matchmaker

We call the TikTok algorithm a matchmaker. It matches the right video with the right viewer. TikTok’s main aim as an app business is to maximize the engagement of its users with the app. To do that, it has to show the most engaging videos to the viewer.

The algorithm uses machine learning to process the data about the video and the viewer in order to calculate the compatibility.

What is the data available that may be fed to the algorithm?

The Video:

The video may be classified with the following features, some of which are creator-specified and others that are calculated:

User-specified features:

  • Soundtrack
  • Hashtag
  • Caption

Calculated features:

  • Video’s own engagement metrics
    • Re-watch rate
    • Shares
    • Comments
    • Likes
  • Creator’s past performance
    • Engagement metrics (likes, shares, comments, etc.)
    • Followers

The Viewer:

TikTok has two sets of data about the viewer: the in-app behavior and external behavior. In-app behavior data refers to all that the user does while on the app which are recorded by the app. This then may be fed to the algorithm.

 The external behavior data refers to the actions taken by the user while on a separate website that uses the TikTok pixel or on an app that uses the TikTok conversion ads. This is referred to as information obtained from “Third-party services” and “cookies” as described in TikTok’s Privacy Policy document.

In-app behavior data:

  • Video views and engagement metrics (percentage watched, re-watch rate, etc.)
  • Likes
  • Shares
  • Comments

External behavior data:

  • Website visits
  • E-commerce events (add-to-carts, purchases, etc.)

App events (app open, registration, purchases, etc.)

The Mechanism:

TikTok Algorithm's Process Flow Chart

Initial Push

Based on the reports shared by TikTok creators in Facebook groups and alike, the algorithm works on a cycle as shown in the flow chart above. This is called the small-batch theory, in which it is speculated that any video posted on TikTok is pushed to a small batch of random viewers. The interesting thing about the algorithm is that any video has a chance of going viral, regardless of the creator’s account and previous performance. This is proven by the reports of accounts whose first video went viral and received millions of views. Below is an example of @ali.shir, whose first video received 10.7 million views.

@ali.shir

This took 2 days to make ##college ##trickshot

♬ Funky Town – The Dance Queen Group

The Cycle to Go Viral

The algorithm calculates the performance of a video after the initial push and determines the next steps. Engagement metrics are the base of the performance evaluation. Although many users speculate on which metrics are more important and what the magic like/comment ratio to views is, no one knows what the actual criteria are. However, it seems that the algorithm favors re-watch rate (how many times a viewer watches the video in the loop) and the shares over likes.

TikTok Tribes

After the initial push, the algorithm looks for viewers who are more likely to engage with your video. Another theory is that TikTok creates tribes of users with similar interests and affinities. The algorithm then uses the data obtained from the initial push to determine which tribes your video might do better with.  

How does a strong following affect a post’s performance?

Depending on the creator’s past performance, the size and the affinities of the initial small batch may change. A creator that has a higher past performance has a higher chance in reaching more viewers with a new post. However, there is no guarantee. Even creators with a strong following may see their videos “flop” (a term frequently used by TikTok creators to describe a video that didn’t receive any substantial views).

If a video “flopped” today, may it get views again tomorrow?

Yes! Unlike other social media apps, TikTok’s algorithm may start pushing a video from a several weeks prior, even after it “flopped” after the initial push. This shows the importance of sticking to a certain niche and not deleting any of your older videos.

When a video goes viral, many viewers also visit the creator’s profile and watch the older videos. If the creator stuck to a specific niche, it is more likely that the viewer may engage with the older videos as well. When TikTok detects new engagement with the older videos, it starts serving them to similar viewers.

Conclusion

TikTok’s algorithm’s inner workings are a secret. The company won’t share details of how the algorithm works, much like any other social media app. However, we know that the algorithm is designed to match the right video with the right viewer and therefore maximizing the engagement. This is provided the algorithm does a good job of that, content remains as king, and high-quality content prevails.

Creating a TikTok Ad

We’ve written a simple, step-by-step guide for creating a TikTok ad. You don’t need to have a lot of experience to advertise on TikTok. Follow the steps in our guide to start advertising on TikTok today!


1. Create a Campaign

1.a Choose Your Objective

TikTok Campaign Objectives
TikTok Campaign Objectives

Define what your business goals are. Think of what you want your audience to do when they see your ads. When you have a precise strategy in place, you can choose the correct campaign objective for a successful campaign.

You can choose from 5 different campaign objectives (as of June 2020):

  • Awareness:
    • Reach: The only option under awareness. Choose this option to reach the maximum number of people for the minimum budget. The app optimizes your campaign to show your ads to a maximum number of people.
  • Consideration:
    • Traffic: Choose this option to optimize for traffic. The app shows your ad to users who are more likely to click through the destination link you define in your ad.
    • App Installs: Use this objective to have the platform optimize for app installs.
    • Video views: Pick this objective to optimize for video views. This option shows your ads to users who are more likely to watch through your video content.

1.b Define Campaign Name and Budget

TikTok Campaign Settings
Campaign Settings

Choose an appropriate name for your campaign and set a budget for your campaign. The platform generates a random name for your campaign. Change this name to a name that makes sense and is easier for you and others to understand. 

As for the budget, you can set a daily budget or a lifetime budget. The minimum setting for daily budget is £50 (or $50, depending on geographical location). Don’t worry, you can change these settings later.

2. Ad Group

2.1 Placement

TikTok Ad Placements
Placement Settings

This is the element where you choose where you’d like your ad to be published. There are two main options here: ‘Automatic Placement’ and ‘Select Placement’.

If you choose ‘Automatic Placement’, TikTok will publish your ad on TikTok and other apps owned by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. Some of these apps are only available in certain regions and countries.

If you choose ‘Select Placement’, you will be able choose manually from 5 different placements:

  • TikTok
  • News Feed App Series (TopBuzz/BuzzVideo/News Republic/Babe)
  • Vigo (ads available in India only)
  • Helo (ads available in India only)
  • Pangle (Available in Japan, Korea and Taiwan)

2.2. Ad Details

TikTok Ad Details Settings
Ad Details

Depending on your campaign objective selection, you will see several fields to fill in this part.

In the ‘Ad Details’ section, you will need to provide a ‘Display Name’, a profile image, and ad category and tags for your ads. The display name replaces the username in a regular TikTok and the profile image replaces the user’s profile image. You also need to choose a category for your ad, this will be the category of the business or the product or the app you’re promoting. Many categories also have subcategories, for instance, ‘App Install’ has two subcategories: ‘Mobile Game’ and Mobile App’. Both of these subcategories also have sub-subcategories and these are the genres of the apps. It’s important to choose the category that best represents your business and also fill out ‘Ad Tags’ too, since the information you put in both of these fields will help the algorithm to find the optimum audience for your ads. 

Based on your choice of campaign objective, the ad details section will have additional settings.

If you chose ‘Traffic’ as your campaign objective, you will need to input the destination URL you’d like to draw traffic to. You can also activate a TikTok pixel associated with this URL.

If you chose ‘App Install’ as your campaign objective, you will need to choose the app which you would like to promote (you need to set up your ad in TikTok for Business beforehand).

2.3 Creative Type

In this section, you can turn on ‘Automated Creative Optimization’. This function will automatically generate combinations of your creative assets (images, videos and ad copy) and test these combinations within this ad group.

We recommend this option if you have several video assets and ad copies that are centered around the same concept and you would like to test random combinations of these.

2.4 Targeting

TikTok Ads Targeting
Targeting Settings

In this section, you define the audience you would like your ad group to target. If your app or business has previous custom audience data, you can use it on TikTok. By clicking on the ‘Create New’ button next to the audience field, you can get to the ‘Audiences’ page. There you can create custom audiences or lookalike audiences. There are four options to choose from while creating a custom audience:

  • Customer file: Upload a file containing customer information (name, email, location, etc) and find matches with people on TikTok to create an audience.
  • Engagement: Create a list of people who saw, clicked, or engaged with your content.
  • App Activity: Create a list of people who took specific actions with your app (download or in-app actions)
  • Website Traffic: Use TikTok pixel to create a list of people who visited or took specific actions on your website.

You can also use the ‘Excluded’ field to exclude some people from your audience, for example people who already downloaded your app.

Under ‘Demographics’, you can narrow down your audience based on location, gender, age and language. Choose the appropriate options here to pin down on your target audience.

Interest Targeting

TikTok has a vast selection of categories when it comes to interest targeting. Here you can choose from many categories and subcategories. For app promoters, you can choose interests in many different genres of apps. For game promoters, you can choose from different game genres. 

Device Targeting

You can target based on device as well. TikTok lets you target based on the user’s devices’ operating system, connection type and carrier. You can even define a device price range, which means TikTok has the device brand and model information of users.

Audience Size

TikTok Audience Size Dial Indicator
Audience Size Dial

It’s important to be aware of your audience size. If your audience size is too narrow, TikTok may not be able to serve enough ads to spend your budget. If your audience is too broad, then your ads may be shown to people who are less likely to take the desired action. Depending on your campaign objectives and your budget, the audience size diagram on the right of the screen will show your audience size in a dial diagram. It’s recommended to keep the dial in the center.

2.5 Budget and Schedule

TikTok Ads Budget and Schedule Settings
Budget and Schedule Settings

You can define a daily budget for your adgroup. You can also define a schedule for your ad group. You can either choose your ad group to run continuously or define a start date and an end date. Furthermore, you can also choose specific time periods of the day for your ad group to be running.

2.6 Bidding & Optimization

If you chose as your campaign objective ‘Reach’, you can select a frequency cap for your ads.

If you chose as your campaign objective ‘App install’, for ‘Optimization Goal’ you can choose between ‘Install’ and ‘Click’.

If your campaign objective is ‘Conversions’, for ‘Optimization Goal’ you can choose between ‘Conversion’ and ‘Click’.

If your campaign objective is ‘Traffic’, your ‘Optimization Goal’ will be ‘Click’ by default.

You can choose from two different bidding strategies: ‘Standard Bid’, ‘Max Conversion’. Depending on your business requirements, choose your bidding strategy and define a bid. The table below shows advantages and trade-offs of each strategy:

Bidding StrategyRecommended UsageBudget SettingBid SettingDelivery Expectation
Standard Bid More control on cost per result.Your target budget.Your target cost per result.1. Daily spend may fluctuate.    2. Stable cost per result and possibly lower than the bid.
Max Conversion(Without Bid)More stability in daily spend.Your target budgetNo need to provide a bid.1. Daily spend is stable.2. Daily cost per result may fluctuate.
Max Conversion (With Bid)Willing to trade a higher cost per result for more spend.Your target budget.Your target cost per result.1. Daily spend fluctuates within a certain range. 2. Daily cost per result fluctuates within a certain range.

3. Ad

Your ad can be in the form of an image or a video.

You can upload the file from your computer or from the library on TikTok for Business. There is also a video creator, which helps create ad videos from your existing assets. Additionally, you can use video templates, which will help turn your assets into more engaging TikTok videos. 

There is also a Smart Video Generator. This software uses AI to cut your videos to match the music beat and add video transitions, according to the number of shots in your uploaded video. You can even choose video style: dynamic or peaceful.

‘Text’ is the ad copy you would like to use on your ad.

You have several different call-to-action prompts  you can choose from:

1. ‘Download’

2. ‘Shop Now’

3. ‘Sign Up’

4. ‘Contact Us’

5. ‘Apply Now’

6. ‘Book Now’

7. ‘Play Game’

What is TikTok and Why You Should Care as a Marketer?

With the best quarter for any app ever in Q1 2020 and surpassing 2 billion downloads globally, TikTok is the latest of the mainstream social media apps. You may be asking, what is TikTok? Who is on it and how can brands use it?

As an overview, here are some important TikTok statistics you should know:

1.   TikTok is now the sixth largest social network in the world. It has 800 million monthly active users.

2.   India, China and the US are the top three countries that account for the 2 billion downloads.

3.   Monthly active users in the US were reported to be 28 million in November 2019, we estimate this amount to be over 80 million after the surge in the app’s popularity during the COVID-19 lockdowns.

4.   TikTok has not disclosed the number of active users in the UK specifically. However, there are several TikTok influencers in the UK that have over 10 million follower counts.

5.   According to a leaked TikTok pitch deck, the average American user opens the app 8+ times and spends over 46 minutes on the app daily.

What is TikTok?

Credit: https://www.themds.com/back-stage/what-is-tiktok-the-new-social-network-to-conquer-gen-z.html

TikTok is a short-form mobile video-sharing app, as described on their website. It allows users to record, edit, and share videos while watching what other users created.

The Content on TikTok

The range of content on TikTok is diverse. The users on the app create videos of a length of 15 seconds up to a minute. Typical content found on TikTok is as follows:

·         Users acting, playing short scripts of jokes.

·         Dance videos

·         Lip syncing

·         Pranks

·         Artists such as comedians, photographers and painters showcasing their skills.

·         Pet videos

·         Cooking videos

·         Educational videos

Along with many more. 

The FYP Page

TikTok’s For You Page

TikTok’s homepage is called the For You Page. The FYP is described as an “endless stream of short videos that feel personalized just for you” on the app’s page on the App Store. The FYP is algorithmically personalized for each user based on the user’s past engagement, interests and demographic. The users don’t need to follow anyone on the app, the algorithm populates the FYP page automatically.

Thanks to the algorithm, the FYP shows popular videos to millions of users and keeps other videos to very limited audiences. The number of views a video gets on the platform may change from as low as 50 views to hundreds of millions. In fact, there is a record holding video that hit a view count of 1.7 billion views.

How do users engage with one another?

Users on TikTok can like videos, comment on videos and share videos. Users can share videos on the app, or across different platforms on apps like WhatsApp, Instagram or even Twitter.

Users can even use the same soundtrack, record reaction videos or duets with one another.

User with over ten thousand followers can do live video sessions, where they can interact with their followers on a more personal basis.

Video Editing, Effects and the Music Library

TikTok’s Music Library

TikTok has over a hundred effects, transitions and stickers. Users can use these tools to make their videos more engaging, more creative and express their feelings or a story.

TikTok has a huge licensed music library. Users can add the music over to their video or dance over the music. They can even incorporate the lyrics into their story play. 

TikTok Profiles

TikTok's Profile Page
TikTok’s Profile Page

Each user has a TikTok profile page. On this page, the number followers and the number of accounts followed are shown. Users can add a link to their Instagram and YouTube account on their TikTok profile.

If you like a video on your FYP page, you can go to the creator’s profile page, follow them and watch other videos they created.

How is TikTok different from other social media apps?

Tiktok is different than Facebook or Instagram as it puts the focus on creativity rather than being social. As described by Josh Constine of TechCrunch, TikTok created a new category of social apps – social entertainment, rather than competing with other social media apps.

Unlike Instagram, TikTok isn’t about sharing what you’re up to on spontaneously captured stories. TikTok is about entertaining your audience – and whatever that takes. To get a piece of TikTok fame, ordinary people from all around the world invent characters, create storylines and act.

Who uses TikTok?

TikTok has reportedly over 800 million monthly active users in the world. TikTok is available in 150 countries in the world. TikTok has the most users in India, followed by China and the US.

According to a leaked TikTok pitch deck dated 2019*, the audience stats are as below:

·         Age 16-24: 69% vs Age 25+ 31%

·         Female 60%:40% male

·         Android 46% – Apple 54%

Age breakdown:

·         Age 13-17: 27%

·         Age 18-24: 42%

·         Age 25-34: 16%

·         Age 35-44: 8%

·         Age 45-54: 3%

·         Age 55+: 4%

*The current data is not readily available. However, we estimate that the average age of the user base has grown, as the older generations started adopting the app.

Rise in TikTok’s Popularity During Covid-19 Lockdowns

By November 2019, TikTok already hit 1.5 downloads worldwide. At that point, the growth came from countries such as India and Turkey. The app also had 28 million users in the US. It started gaining traction by the promise of fame, as some users such as @charlidamelio had already over 10 million followers. Luring in many more users, especially from the Gen-Z population, the app continued its growth in to 2020, when something much unexpected happened: COVID-19 lockdowns.

Growing interest in TikTok coincides with covid-19 lockdowns in Google Trends

As the COVID-19 breakout caused many major cities around the world to be under lockdown, the interest in TikTok grew. Check out the graph above taken from trends.google.com showing the interest in worldwide searches containing the keyword, “tiktok”. The leap on the graph coincides with the dates lockdowns around the world started.

@darnbee

Quarantine or family bonding? ##wishmeluck ##fyp ##foryoupage

♬ Fabulous – mollscar

Lockdowns were great for TikTok’s organic growth, as it kept different generations under the same roof for extended periods of time. Empty nesters had their households full again as college students went back home. It wasn’t long before there were several videos showing parents with their kids doing their takes of popular TikTok dances.

At the same time, millennials started discovering the app and started flocking to the app. #millenial got over 1 billion views.

#millenial on TikTok

How can Brands use TikTok?

There are three main ways brands can use TikTok:

1.   Building a page on TikTok and posting videos

2.   Paid ads

a.   Performance marketing

b.   Brand marketing

3.   Influencer marketing

Building a TikTok Page for Your Brand

Due to the nature of the platform, great and well-crafted content can reach millions. However, creating great content for TikTok is a challenge.

TikTok is a platform where having a great number of followers does not guarantee great reach. If your content doesn’t gain attention from viewers it will surely “flop” (a term used by TikTok creators to describe videos getting very little views).

Using existing assets to create TikTok content

The branded content you use on your Instagram page or Facebook page won’t work on TikTok. TikTok context is entirely different than that of IG’s and FB’s.

A brand may boast their product’s function or benefits in Instagram and gain reach to their followers, but that same content in TikTok may get as little as a few hundred views. TikTok is a platform where people tune in to be entertained.

In order to reach hundreds of thousands of viewers on the platform, you will need to repurpose your existing assets to include the entertainment element. Your content needs to show the fun side of your brand.

You can also create new content by having your brand hop on one of the ever-changing trends on TikTok. Every week a new trend, challenge or song is popular on the app. You can create content adapting to these trends and maintain a fresh, up-to-date brand image on the platform. 

Watch below a piece of content by Boss, where they showed the fun side of the brand by surfing in a suit:

@boss

Kitesurfer @victor.borsuk gets airborne for his ##SuitChallenge – follow @boss and show us yours

♬ Originalton – boss

Paid Ads

Performance marketing

TikTok has a self-service ad platform just like Facebook and Snapchat. The ad platform is pretty new and it has a lot of catching up to do to get on the same level of functionality like that of Facebook’s. However, we have seen that it is quickly developing by adding new features onto it every day.

The ad platform lets you run ads in the in-feed video placement of the TikTok app. The platform also has a few more placements from other media channels ByteDance, TikTok’s owner company, has. The ads are 5-15 seconds long, auto-play, and audio-on. The ads are designed to feel like native advertisements. This is accomplished by the ad looking just like another video in the feed and the call to action appears only after the 9th second.

TikTok lets you run ads to interest-based audiences and choose from available demographic options. You can also create lookalike audiences as well.

TikTok also has the conversion ads feature, where you can set up a TikTok pixel on your website or use measurement partners’ data to feed in-app events to TikTok. TikTok has the ability to optimize these ads based on the conversion data from the client-side.

Brand marketing

TikTok has additional ad products for brands. These ad products have minimum budget requirements. There are three main products:

1.   Brand Takeover

2.   Hashtag Challenge

3.   Branded Lens

A Brand Takeover ad appears upon opening the TikTok app. It is the first screen users interact with as they open the app. It can be a 3-4 second long GIF, image or video. Brand Takeover ads start from $50,000 for 1-day buy.

A Hashtag Challenge is a sponsored hashtag, where users are encouraged to create their own content. This package starts from $150,000.

A Branded Lens is a sponsored special effect added to the effects toolbar of TikTok. Users are encouraged to use the effect and create their own content. This package ranges between $80,000 to $120,000.

The price ranges for the Brand Marketing packages are included in this article only as a reference. These prices were taken from a leaked TikTok pitch deck dated 2019.

Influencer Marketing

TikTok is already a viable platform for influencer marketing. There are hundreds of TikTok influencers with following counts ranging from a few thousand followers to millions of followers.

The TikTok influencer with the highest follower count to date is Charli D’Amelio, @charlidamelio. Charli is a teenage dancer who has over 50 million followers. She’s already struck several deals with brands, including Prada, Sabra Hummus and UNICEF.

@charlidamelio

##prada @prada

♬ CITY OF ANGELS 24KGoldn Funk Remix – llusionmusic

There are several challenges with influencer marketing on TikTok. One is that many influencers struggle with getting consistent views. Since TikTok is a platform that focuses on content, an influencer’s video’s views may tank when they try and promote a brand. For this reason, influencers on TikTok are experimenting with new ways of monetizing their audience without hurting their reach.

TikTok also launched a marketplace for influencer marketing. The platform is called “Creator Marketplace”. The marketplace helps brands and agencies contact select TikTok creators. The marketplace is beta-invite only for now.

Conclusion

TikTok is distinguished from its competitors and has become a mainstream and up and coming channel. Monetization of the channel has allowed more and more advertisers and marketers to start utilizing this channel. As many brands aren’t there yet, it is an opportunity for brands to hop on this new channel and gain a competitive advantage.