TikTok Summarized: Ads, Bloggers, Audience and Promotion

You must have heard something about TikTok, maybe even used it.

What is TikTok

TikTok is an app for creating short music videos and instant messaging. The video platform has already gained popularity in China and is now growing rapidly in other countries.

As of today, TikTok claims to have more than 500 million users. They are mainly children and teenagers – 40% of the users are below 18.

App Overview

The app’s interface is very simple, comprising five sections:

• Home: the feed of posts from the users you follow;
• Discover: feed of popular and recommended videos;
• Shoot Video pushbutton;
• Notification;
• Profile.

You can record a video directly in the app and, when finished, upload it or add filters, effects, AR masks or objects, music.

Subscribers on TikTok are called Fans.
The likes count is summed for all your videos and displayed in the profile.

Music is available in the app’s library owing to the acquisition of musical.ly in 2017.

Content on TikTok

Videos on TikTok are currently flippant and simple: in 15-second videos, users dance or lip-sync, viners shoot funny videos, video challenges enjoy popularity.

The TikTok app resembles Instagram’s or Snapchat’s Stories: vertical content, short videos, users’ reactions.

By the way, you can use Popsters to analyze content of any profiles on TikTok (and for other Social networks).

TikTok Audience Statistics, Globally and in Russia

On the average, a TikTok user spends 13 minutes a day in the app, as reported by the Mediascope survey. The app took the 4^th position among messengers and social media, with only VK.com, Instagram and WhatsApp ranking higher.

In comparison, users spend 28 minutes a day on YouTube where videos are much longer.

The TikTok’s growth is mostly contributed by young users: the share of authors below 18 has increased by 40% over 2018, as reported by Brand Analytics:

 By the number of downloads, TikTok even outranked Instagram in 2018. In general, Android and iOS users downloaded the app 663 million times over the year, with only 444 million for Instagram, as reported by Sensor Tower.

In January 2019, TikTok ranked third by the all-time total number of downloads for Android and iOS.

TikTok Bloggers

Thanks to the recommender, any profile can get famous on TikTok. Every video is ranked individually, so one of your videos, even if your account is not widely promoted, may get famous on TikTok and bring thousands of likes and fans.

Influencers from other platforms quickly gain popularity — Instagram and YouTube bloggers come to the platform together with their audiences.

Popular TikTok Influencers

Even celebrities have users accounts on the platform: Rita Ora, Amy Schumer, Tony Hawk and other famous influencers.

How to get famous on TikTok

The steps to success and popularity on any social media are as simple as pie:

1. Create a TikTok account;
2. Look at what other influencers do, what subjects and presentation attract TikTok users;
3. Analyze what materials get recommended;
4. Create cool content;
5. Repeat the previous step until you get famous on TikTok and reach success. For faster results, you can use ads on TikTok.

TikTok’s Advertising Capabilities

TikTok launching ads is not too surprising for marketers. Let's learn more about the possibilities. This will be useful if you want to know more about how faster to get famous on TikTok and also if going.

Hashtag Challenge

Challenges are the main TikTok ads format and one of the key content categories. The platform always has some challenges going on, which anyone can join.

The mechanics are simple: popular TikTok bloggers launch a challenge to record a video with a particular track playing and post it on your profile with a hashtag.

Such video by an influencer can receive up to 500,000 views, after which it appears in the recommended feed and subscribers join the challenge.

All the videos are available by the hashtag and such campaigns may reach far beyond the expectations due to the involvement of not only influencers but their subscribers as well.

TikTok suggests that brands participate in Hashtag Challenges as an efficient ads format, as reported by Digiday.

Metrics: banner views and clicks, hashtag page view, user-generated video count, engagement by video (likes, comments, shares), branded music usage count (if any)

Brand Takeover

A large update appears right after opening the app. It is a picture, gif or video sized up to 2 MB.
The ad contains website link or unique hashtag.
Metrics: views, reach, clicks

In-Feed Native Video

Quite an effective format of promotion on TikTok. The ad video appears in TikTok user’s feed among other content. The duration is up to 15 seconds, it may be accompanied by a call to action, link and hashtag.

The video opens in full screen, resembling ads in Instagram Stories. It can be skipped.

Metrics: shows, clicks, CTR, video views, 3-second views, 10-second views, average viewing time, engagement by video (likes, comments, shares)

Branded Lenses, Masks, Stickers

This ads format on TikTok resembles Snapchat and Facebook lenses. Lenses on TikTok may be created for a limited period of time (up to 10 days). Branded materials will be shown in key places throughout the app.
Formats: 2D, 3D, AR.

Placement by Bloggers

TikTok already has its opinion leaders. Brands cooperate with them to launch challenges or simply place their ad campaign’s materials for quick promotion on TikTok.

You can find Russian TikTok bloggers for ad placement on unofficial exchanges like this one.

The blogger ad market has not been established yet, so the prices are often not substantiated.

TikTok Analytics

The TikTok’s internal analytics provides little data and doesn’t allow analyzing others’ accounts. You’ll need third-party tools to audit your competitors, get prepared for an advertising campaign, or collect detailed statistics. Analysis of TikTok pages is currently only offered by Popsters.

Analyzing a TikTok account in Popsters

Popsters will find the most popular and talked about posts, compare between several accounts and export the results in a report form.

To analyze an account, find it using the search bar (by link or name) and select the data to analyze.

You will see the list of posts sorted by likes and also statistics summarized over a period.

By default, the top shows posts with the highest like count, but you can also sort them by shares, comments, ER or date.

To view the summarized statistics, click Show Table in the right column. 

In the left column, select the wanted parameter to get the analysis for the best day and time to post or the relation between the post format / text size and the engagement.

Best Videos on TikTok

If you still struggle to imagine what it is like to use the app and are not willing to download it, watch this compilation of the funniest (in the reviewer’s opinion) and best videos from TikTok. 

TikTok Cases

#inmydenim Challenge by Guess

The clothing brand launched the campaign on TikTok in September 2018. Platform’s popular bloggers posted videos showing them wearing old clothes and making fun at their image, after which they changed to a brand-new look in Guess clothes. The challenge was accepted by ordinary and popular TikTok users, so the campaign’s total reach exceeded 30 million users.

#shareacoke by Coca-Cola

One of the first major brand cases is the Coca-Cola’s experience. The company launched a challenge on TikTok, where users made videos with a bottle of coke.

Useful articles on a similar topic:

• How to view and analyze YouTube statistics for any video.
• How to Become Popular on TikTok: Currently Actionable Ways;
• Free TikTok Analytics and Statistics for Any Profile;
• How to create an audience profile in few steps.