If you’re active on TikTok as a business owner, you need to take advantage of TikTok promotion. As the fastest growing social media platform, TikTok offers a set of promotion tools to make it easy for businesses to engage with their audience and grow. They can simply send you an invoice at the end of the month or project, without you needing to add an in-house member to your team.
TikTok promotion tools can help you in three areas:
- creating and editing engaging videos using numerous design features
- promoting your videos for increasing video views, your followers, or referral traffic to your website
- analyzing the effectiveness of your campaigns through various analytics tools
Let’s dive deeper in what TikTok promotion is and it helps reach your audience and grow your business:
What is TikTok promotion
As one of the most popular social media platforms today, TikTok offers an array of opportunities for businesses. The platform has rich business solutions and in-app tools that help businesses pick up the pace of their growth. Using those tools effectively, you get greater visibility, connect with your audience, and convert more customers.
TikTok Promote, a brilliant in-app advertising tool, best resembles the platform’s functionality. Promote allows you to turn your TikTok videos into ads very easily, even if they weren’t originally designed for that purpose. You can edit any of your existing content within the app, and simply promote. It doesn’t get any easier than what the platform offers—you can finish the process in a few taps.
TikTok Promote is very intuitive. Add to that, 67% of TikTok users state that the app inspires them to shop, even if they had no such plan at first. Getting your brand in front of those users is too good of a chance to miss. So how do you start?
Creating your TikTok Promote video
Get to know your target audience
There are niche communities and subcultures on the platform with shared interests and needs. So first, find your own community, and what interests them the most. Your promotion videos must appeal to their taste and emotions. And TikTok’s Creative Center is the address if you want to find your niche community.
Creative Center is a space where you can find top-performing ads across industries, and insights into your audience’s user behavior.
If you’re selling supplements or training equipment, for instance, you can learn about the health & wellness communities on TikTok. In our post about can you schedule tiktok videos, we learned that automating your posts can significantly boost engagement!
In essence, you’re trying to discover customers and prospects on the platform. They will be the target audience of your promotions.
Use TikTok tools to optimize your videos
Now that you know more about your niche community, the next step is creating content that is actually engrossing.
The platform has incredibly useful tools that can help you tailor your message to your audience’s preferences and common interests. Make use of these tools to turn your videos into advertising content.
Add music
Under ‘Sounds’, you’ll find TikTok’s Sounds Library, where thousands of tracks are listed for free. But if the platform identifies you as a brand account, you’ll have to use tracks from the Commercial Music Library. There you’ll find royalty-free tracks that’ll ensure your ads are compliant to Intellectual Property regulations.
Use filters and add text
You can use filters under portrait, landscape, food, and vibe categories to change the ambience of your videos. Also, you can add texts with different fonts, alignment, and color to your videos. Simply open the editing tools, find ‘Text’ and set a duration that’ll define where the text will appear and disappear in the video.
Add effects
There are a wide selection of effects that can take your creativity to the next level. Using GreenScreen, for instance, you can change the background of your videos in no time. Tap the ‘Effects’ button to open the effects library. You’ll see that the effects are categorized into ‘New’, ‘Trending’, ‘Special Effects’ and ‘Interactive’ genres, with the opportunity to see their previews. The richness of the effects library makes it possible to create attention-grabbing content without investing in video production tools. Moreover, you can hire a freelance designer to help you edit them. They can simply send you an invoice at the end of the month or project, without you needing to add an in-house member to your team.
Branded Effects allow you to increase your brand’s visibility and raise brand awareness. To use Branded Effects, however, you’ll have to contact the partnerships team to become a TikTok partner.
Record voiceover
You can record voice overs in your videos with the platform’s Voiceover tool, which is often used to create ‘how to’ videos. The ‘Voiceover’ button appears on the right side of the editing screen. Drag the bar to the point where you want to create the voice over, and start recording.
How to access Promote features
Promote has handy features that help you convert your TikTok videos into ads. There are two ways to access Promote features. You can either go to video settings or Use Business Suite or Creator Tools.
Using video settings
Pick one of the most popular videos in your account to reach the maximum number of platform users. Tap ‘...’ to open Video Settings, and tap ‘Promote’. Yes, it’s that easy.
Using Business Suite or Creator Tools
Tap ‘...’ on your profile page and tap ‘Settings and Privacy’. Go to Top Creator tools or Business Suite if TikTok identifies you as a business account, then tap Promote. You’ll see your public videos, pick one.
Choose your goal
Once you’ve chosen the video, continue building your campaign by picking a goal. You can choose:
- More video views to reach new TikTokers.
- More website visits to drive traffic to your website.
- More followers to build your TikTok following.
As Tony Restell explains in his social media strategy guide, your social media marketing goals should follow the SMART model. They should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.
Marketing literature divides the consumer decision making process into different stages of awareness to conceptualize how a buyer makes decisions.
Now, before choosing your goals for each campaign, consider how your content would resonate with audiences at different stages of the buying journey. The smart thing to do when building your TikTok content strategy is aiming for it all.
Marketing works when a business hits all the right notes. You have to continuously target and lure consumers at different stages of awareness into your social accounts, website and eventually convert those visitors. You need to get traction from social accounts on your website to sell, and simultaneously, you have to get the word out about your brand to reach new audiences. Consider using a content creation software tool for planning and producing your content.
Reaching new TikTokers
You might be wondering, what is tiktok? TikTok can help you expand your reach to people who’ve never heard of your brand. The platform is a gem for growing SMBs. TikTok users spend most of their active time on their ‘’For You’’ pages, where they see content from accounts they’re not following yet. TikTok’s algorithm amplifies your content to a well-targeted audience if you engage with existing communities and subcultures.
Driving traffic to your website
Some people have already heard of your products or solutions. And a portion of them are considering your brand among other alternatives. Create Promote videos that’ll encourage them to have a look at your website and products.
Take Kudos as an example, a company that helps you make the most of your credit card rewards. They have been consistent with their TikTok strategy by creating authentic and dynamic videos, which in turn has allowed them to reach new audiences and educate them on financial topics. This strategy is helping them attract new leads and direct them to their website where they find more information on the tool they offer.
Image source
Gaining TikTok followers
Gaining brand advocates is the key for sustainable growth. “As people start following your brand across platforms, you’ll gradually build trust and hype around your brand,'' says Serg Aspidoff, Founder & CEO of Shoutcart. More and more people will trust your solutions and guidance regarding your expertise. Some of your ads should be designed to help you claim thought leadership and authority by showing that you have extensive knowledge and share insightful information about your industry.
Keep an eye on analytics
TikTok has an analytics module where you can monitor your account data. Monitoring social media data will help you:
- Spot industry and community trends
- Listen to the Voice of the Customer
- Mingle with your audience and other creators
- Identify influencers and experts in your niche
Once you use Promote to run a TikTok ad, you’ll be able to see how your videos perform. The Promotion details page allows you to monitor:
- The status of your video (pending review, active, paused or rejected).
- The amount you've spent and how long the promotion has lasted.
- The number of video views.
- The number of link clicks (if you chose to promote your website).
- The number of likes, comments and shares.
- Age range and gender percentages.
You can reach your account’s analytics by:
- Going to your page and your settings
- Tapping ‘...’ in the top right
- Tapping ‘Creator tools’ and then ‘Promote’
- Tapping ‘See details’
Go beyond promotion
Don’t let the phrase “TikTok promotion” trick you into creating self-serving ads. TikTok users are more interested in seeing engaging videos rather than ads. Here are some tips to engage your audience naturally.
Come up with a TikTok content strategy
As we mentioned, your content strategy should be able to address issues of people from all awareness stages. You need to be able to create content that’ll appeal to people who don’t know that your product/solution is essential to their success, as well as people that are aware of that. Build a yearly social media calendar that contains content targeting consumers at different stages of their journey. To increase the effectiveness of your content strategy, use a CRM to keep track of your customer interactions in every phase of their journey.
Start building your community
Going LIVE on TikTok is a great way to start building your community. TikTok LIVE allows you to connect with your audience in real-time. It’s an opportunity to show the true character of your brand and get to know your community. Go LIVE regularly to make your audience look forward to your next LIVE event. Hold a Q&A session every time you go LIVE, it’ll help both sides better understand each other.
Use your community to encourage business interactions. If you’re a restaurant owner, you can build and engage your community by featuring user-generated content and holding different kinds of contests or events. And to encourage sales, you can feature your menu and drive traffic to your website, app, or your online ordering system.
Encourage user generated content
User generated content is the most authentic type of brand-specific content. It’s not bound by the formal tone of voice of a business, and it’s not promotional. Encourage your followers to create content about the experience they have with your brand. Use Branded Hashtag Challenges, like the global fashion brand BOSS brilliantly did.
Collaborate with others
TikTok Creative Marketplaces brings together businesses and creators for collaboration opportunities. You can find thousands of creators that are influential across communities and different niches. TCM’s creator search page has parameters that allow you to filter creators by age, gender, and content categories. You can find inspiration in Benefit Cosmetics’ Benefit Brow Challenge.
Finally:
TikTok promotion is not a quick fix to growing on TikTok. The tools and features provided in TikTok Promote suite are actually an additional help to your TikTok strategy. What you need to do is create a TikTok content plan aimed at building a community of engaged followers. Shoot and edit exciting videos, interact with your audience, and use TikTok promote tools to put your content strategy on steroids.
Is TikTok promotion worth it?
Yes, TikTok Promote is worth it! With over 500 million active users, TikTok is a social media platform you don’t want to miss out on. As a business, being active on TikTok can help you reach new customers and grow your brand. It is becoming common practice to promote TikTok's today as a marketing strategy.
How much is a TikTok promotion?
Normally, a TikTok promotion starts at around $10 per 1000 views. However, many people choose to spend much more depending on their individual goals.
Can you pay to Promote your TikTok?
Yes, you can pay to promote your TikTok videos. Paid advertising is becoming very popular on TikTok. If your audience is on TikTok, then promoting your videos makes sense! Consider making TikTok part of your marketing strategy.
How do I increase my TikTok views?
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to how to increase TikTok views. But you should consider trying the following things.
1) Make sure your videos are high quality and interesting to watch. If your content is boring or not up to par, people are less likely to watch it.
2) Try using creative editing techniques or filming in unique locations. This will help make your videos stand out from the crowd.
3) Share your videos on other platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, and use hashtags to help them reach a larger audience.