TikTok is a textbook example of the dark horse analogy. It has grown exponentially in under five years and cut itself a niche in the marketing mix. The platform is ranked 7th among online marketing platforms and shows no sign of stopping soon. TikTok boasts of 800million active monthly users and over 2.3 billion downloads. The app had 60.8million downloads in the single month of January of 2021.
While TikTok is largely viewed as an acquisition tool for the Gen Z demographic, analytics show that it has diverse users. More people aged over 25 and with substantial purchasing power are joining the platform. Adverts on TikTok spiked by 75% in 2019 and the numbers seem to be growing steadily. Many marketers are jumping on the TikTok bandwagon and understandably so. The platform is a superior marketing tool for building presence, creating brand and product awareness, and also user acquisition. It has become a force to reckon with and bears promising opportunities for brands.
TikTok is still at its infancy stage advertising-wise. However, it is gradually establishing useful advertising tools for businesses such as hyperlink features and the self-serve ad interface. So, how do you achieve ROI on TikTok? Below are a few tips to help you justify your TikTok marketing budget.
Getting Started Marketing on TikTok
The most important thing to note is that TikTok is very different from all social media platforms before it. Everything you know about social media marketing goes out of the window.
Understanding the platform is vital for your marketing efforts.
There are four avenues you can utilize to market your brand on TikTok:
- Activating a TikTok account for your brand
- Influencer Marketing
- TikTok Ad Campaigns
- User-generated Content (UGC)
You can use one or a combination of the above avenues to kickstart your TikTok marketing efforts. Some of the content you can use on TikTok includes memes, music, and brand jingles. One advantage TikTok has over other online marketing platforms is its AI/ML algorithm. The algorithm rapidly sifts through huge amounts of data to generate an algorithmically personalized “For you” feed page for each user. If you master content creation on TikTok, you will get plenty of eyeballs and engagement too.
Content creation on TikTok is also a different ballgame. To hack this user acquisition channel, the content guidelines you live by on other platforms go out the window. The same applies when selecting influencers. The influencers should not only resonate with your brand but also with TikTok.
TikTok runs on authenticity so do not take yourself too seriously as a brand on the platform. You also need to note that content on TikTok gets saturated quite fast. You will need to iterate creative content to keep your followers hooked and remain relevant. Thanks to TikTok’s AI algorithm, video editing won’t slow you down.
Recommended Reading: 16 Successful TikTok Case Studies [+Actionable Takeaways]
TikTok Ad Formats/Types
There are four main ad formats/types available on TikTok:
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In-feed Ads:
These pop up within a user’s feed. They are visually similar to the rest of the content in the feed hence are not annoying to the user. You can include a CTA such as a clickable link to the ad. Users can also interact with an In-feed ad as with any other TikTok post.
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Brand Takeovers:
Brand takeover ads are the first piece of content users see when they open the app. They are 3-5 seconds long and can be embedded with clickable links to landing pages or even a branded hashtag challenge. They are rather costly because only one brand can do a takeover in a day. The takeover lasts 24 hours.
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Branded Hashtag Challenges:
There are two main ways to utilize the branded hashtag challenge. You can either pay for your hashtag to feature in TikTok’s discover banner or by engaging an influencer to promote your branded hashtag. Either way, when a user clicks on the branded hashtag they are redirected to a page with the challenge description, brand logo, brand website link, and other popular videos under the challenge. Branded challenges often tend to go viral and generate a string of fantastic UGC.
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Branded Lenses:
These features AR such as lenses and filters customized by a brand. There are tools on TikTok to help you create custom AR features. Branded lenses are ideal for engagement.
How to Achieve ROI on TikTok
After setting up ad sets, onboarding influencers, and running campaigns on TikTok you need to measure your marketing efforts for future decision-making. Learning how to optimize your content will help you achieve ROI. Note that ROI is not always directly related to a rise in revenue. To achieve ROI, you need to establish clear marketing goals that will define your ROI. You also need to establish metrics that will serve as a roadmap to achieving ROI. Measurable metrics give insight into TikTok campaign performance and help to optimize it for better performance. As we mentioned above, TikTok is primarily an acquisition channel. Below are the top metrics to track on TikTok to help you achieve ROI.
TikTok Analytics: TikTok Metrics You Should Track to Achieve ROI
The first step to tracking metrics on TikTok is upgrading to a TikTok pro account. A TikTok Pro account is quite similar to an Instagram business page in that it features an analytics page that highlights account performance. From your pro account, you can track a series of metrics that will guide you on how to achieve ROI on TikTok. You can view the analytical data from either a mobile device or a desktop. There are also no extra charges for TikTok analytics on a pro account. Note that the analytics data available on the TikTok analytics dashboard range from 7days to 28 days. Alternatively, you can also view TikTok analytics from third-party analytics tools. Let us go straight into the metrics.
TikTok account overview metrics
From the TikTok Pro analytics dashboard, you can track general metrics like the number of followers and follower growth between 7 and 28days. Overview metrics can be measured alongside active TikTok ad campaigns to establish ROI in terms of reach.
TikTok post performance
Monitoring the performance of individual posts in your TikTok account is vital to achieving the engagement ROI on TikTok. By knowing how your target audiences receive your content, you can create better content.
The individual post performance metrics you can track on TikTok include:
- Number of video plays
- Number of video hearts or likes
- Number of comments
- Number of shares
Traffic source
Traffic analytics on TikTok help you identify the source of traction to your account from within the app. You can track traffic from the following sources
- Other profiles
- The “For you” page
- Existing page followers
- Sponsored hashtag campaigns
Tracking traffic sources empowers you to decide the best avenue to consolidate your advertising efforts within TikTok. For instance, if most of your traffic is from users’ “For you” pages you can you may consider in-feed adverts. Traffic analytics also help you to track ROI from ad campaigns and influencer marketing.
Viewership metrics
Viewership metrics indicate whether your followers and new users like or are indifferent toward your content. TikTok analytics shows the following metrics
- Total Playtime-The total amount of time in hours that your video was played
- Average watch time-This is the average time your video was watched.
The average watch time should be closer to the length of the video. From viewership metrics, you can explore new content for better performance. One way of generating fresh content on TikTok is through setting up challenges or competitions that lead to reusable UGC. UGC can also help you identify influencers that resonate with your TikTok followers.
Follower Metrics
Follower metrics give you insight into your followers to help you establish a persona. Some of the follower metrics you can track include;
- Gender
- Top territories-ideal for content localization
- Follower activities-when they are active on TikTok
Follower analytics help you establish when to post your TikTok videos for better engagement.
Recommendation metrics
There are two types of preferred content metrics on TikTok
- Videos your followers watch
- Sounds your followers listen to-you can even bookmark soundtracks for future use
These are invaluable metrics that help you create content that resonates with your followers.
Trackable links
Marketing activities on TikTok aim to generate traffic for both your TikTok account and your website. You can add trackable links to your TikTok videos to help generate new leads, downloads, subscriptions, and even sales. Using trackable links is a sure way to establish and achieve ROI on TikTok.
Note that third-party analytics tools may have deeper metrics for TikTok. But the above is enough.
Tracking the above metrics with organic content on TikTok will help you set a baseline for your performance on TikTok. Using that baseline, you can track paid marketing campaigns’ performance on the platform and tweak campaigns to achieve results. And that is how you achieve ROI on TikTok.
As stated above, TikTok is a stupendous customer acquisition tool that helps brands generate create awareness and engage with their followers on a light note. TikTok has shown commendable conversion rates for major brands in the recent past. It is, therefore, a worthwhile marketing avenue. However, just like with any other online advertising platform, it takes a few trials and errors to master the platform and guarantee to achieve ROI, especially revenue-wise. As you track the above metrics, you will learn new hacks and tips to help you nail how to achieve ROI on TikTok.
Want to get a jumpstart on advertising on TikTok? Reach out to our team today.