It feels like every day I’m seeing new products with interesting angles and solutions to problems that I didn’t even know existed on TikTok - and there’s a reason for this. Brands understand just how effective TikTok is at getting a product in front of hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people.

What is TikTok?

For those of you living under a rock, have been in a coma, or just got out of prison - TikTok is a social media turned entertainment platform where you create and share short-form videos. It became one of the most popular apps in the world quicker than anyone could have anticipated, with millions of users from all over this planet that we call home.

So, why do people love it so much?

Well, for starters, it’s incredibly entertaining. You’ll find an abundance of hilarious, relatable, and often downright bizarre videos.

But it's not just about mindless doom scrolling – TikTok is also a great platform for brands to display what makes them unique, connect with customers, and showcase new products.

Why should you use TikTok as an advertising platform?

1. TikTok’s growth has been rapid. There are over 1 billion active users on the platform and it's used by 30.25% of everyone who uses the internet.
2. Super high engagement rate - TikTok pulls a 5.96% engagement rate. To put that into perspective the next highest is Instagram at a measly 0.83%.
3. It’s great at finding an audience for your product - TikTok's algorithm is designed to show users content that they're most likely to enjoy, regardless of how many followers or likes a creator has. This means that even if you're just starting out on TikTok, you still have a chance to go viral and gain a huge following.
4. It can be cheap to advertise. Think about it - if your video goes viral, you have your product in front of millions of people for only the cost of making the video.

So that was the why, now here’s the how.

Here’s an incredibly simple step-by-step process on how to start and scale your brand on TikTok in 90 days

Consume before you produce

It’s important that before you jump into producing content for TikTok that you understand all of its quirks. Spend time on the platform, follow brands, pages, and creators that you enjoy watching and that align with your brand.

Don’t just watch it, make a mental note, and then forget about it. Use software such as Foreplay to bring some order to your research. Here’s a breakdown of how we use Foreplay to orgainse our creative workflow at Soar With Us.

Use Foreplay to create a board of your favourite TikTok ads for inspiration. Systemising the research process will help you to spot trends as well as formulate amazing ideas of your own.

For each ad that you save, make a note of why you saved it. Why did you like it? Why did you find it engaging? The more you do this, the easier it will be for you to spot creative trends, sounds, effects, and themes running through the content you enjoy.

How to frame your products on TikTok

You’ve got your list of themes and creative angles on your inspiration board, now it’s time to figure out what would work best for your product, and put it into practice!

Not all styles of video will be applicable, but here are 5 TikTok creative angles to test and then let the data speak for itself.

5 TikTok ad creatives

• Testimonial
• Before and after
• Comment reply videos
• Comedy skit
• How to videos

How to leverage creators on TikTok

Chances are you’ve had a think about influencer marketing - and bigger doesn’t always mean better. Yes, there is a chance they could get your product out in front of a large audience, but typically their audiences are much less engaged than micro-influencers and creators.

Influencers and creators in the 1k-5k bracket tend to have around a 5% engagement rate when compared to ones with over 1M that sit at around 1.23%.

It’s important to make sure that whoever you chose to promote your products is someone who does or would use your brand. They will be more passionate about the project and create content that is authentic to their and others’ experiences with your product.

Where to find TikTok creators for your brand?

If you look, you will find. Consider using Twitter, there are 1000s of creators hungry for a new challenge. If you put out an open call I guarantee you’ll get a plethora of responses from budding talent.

You could also consider agencies such as Insesne or For You Advertising.

Start posting and analysing

Once you post, don’t just rely on the soft metrics like follows and likes to work out how your videos are doing. Obviously their great at seeing how your videos are doing with a broad audience and if the concept is resonating with people. But you should get more granular with your data and look into the creative metrics.

Did you hook people in but they don’t stay until the end of the video? When do they lose attention? An easy way to work this out is to see when they are clicking off your video. It’s also a sign that you need to work on the bulk of the video to make it more engaging.

Are they clicking through to your site but going no further? Think about designing a custom landing page, or work out bottlenecks on your site which might be stopping conversions. How is the design? Is your load speed too slow? How is the quality of the content on your site? Does the site match the quality of content that is attracting customers?

A lot of questions to ask. Consider bringing in an internal team to audit your site to work out key areas for improvement who won’t have any biases towards the site. A fresh pair of eyes on any situation is only a good thing.

Iterate and grow

Now you’ve been analysing the creative data, you need to break it down and systemise your optimisation process. The formula to rapid growth is finding the winners and iterating consistently on them until you have crafted a high-performance masterpiece worthy of people's feeds.

• Low CTR? Improve your call to action. People might need that extra little push to click through to the website the next stage.
• High thumb stop ratio but low watch time? Make more cuts to the video, change up the audio, or add new clips.
• Low thumb stop ratio? Work on your hook and first-second visuals.

Check out this blog on common mistakes people make and how to create high-converting content on TikTok.

TikTok is clearly a powerful tool for anyone that wants to start and scale a brand. With over 1 billion active users and a 5.96% engagement rate, it's no wonder why more and more brands are starting to realise the unrivalled potential of TikTok.

So, what are you waiting for? Start creating and get lost in the magic of TikTok.

If you want to find out how we can help you scale your brand on TikTok, scroll to the bottom of this page to get in touch with one of our team who will help you further!