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TikTok, the social network with 800 million active users, has officially launched its advertising offer for advertisers in Spain. Want to advertise in TikTok? Here’s everything you need to know before you start.
TikTok: what is it?
For those who don’t yet know it (What have you done during confinement?), TikTok is a social network for sharing short 60-second music videos.
It works exclusively in a mobile application and its use is relatively simple for its users:
They select a music of their choice and then associate a 60-second video before sharing, with the ability to integrate hashtags and a brief description.
Tiktok, the numbers
Data on TikTok worldwide may be of little help to companies whose market is mainly Spain.
Our contact at TikTok has had the detail of sharing with us the latest data for Spain (May 2020).
- App Downloads: 14 million.
- Active users: 8.8 million active users.
- Genders: 73 Women, 27 Men
- Average usage time: 58 minutes per user.
- Frequency of use per day: average 10 times a day.
Why advertise on TikTok?
As is often the case when a new digital advertising offering is launched, the number of active advertisers is not large,so it is interesting to try a new format, when the competition is still weak.
In addition, a recent change in their model allows for more affordable budgets than it was a few months ago.
Finally, ad pressure on users remains limited,allowing you to get good results.
Remember Instagram in its principles? Did you miss that moment? Well, with TikTok we are at that moment when those who take risks will take the best part.
Which advertisers have interest in advertising on TikTok?
A few months ago, I would have told you that given the app’s fairly young audience, only B2C brands aimed at people between the ages of 16 and 30 (and with million-dollar marketing budgets) had a real interest in advertising their products and services through TikTok.
However, TikTok is very fun, and with the arrival of the Covid-19 things have changed a lot; TikTok has settled in families during the crisis and its use is increasingly democratized. Parents and children enjoy its possibilities and spend a lot of time entertaining themselves.
Even the very respectable UOC has published a very interesting article on “The Boomer Generation Conquers TikTok” We no longer talk about a minority social network. It’s here to stay and conquer a good part of the market.
So that argument, which we heard so far, referring to TikTok as a teen app is no longer based. It is true that as in other social networks (Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram,..) there are products and services that will be better suited to TikTok than others.
Among the sectors most related to TikTok, we find in particular:
- Fashion,
- Cosmetics,
- Sport,
- Games and toys,
- Mobile apps
- Music (artists, record companies, music streaming services,
- Video games (mobile applications, computers and consoles),
- Film and video
What advertising objectives does TikTok offer?
Once accepted into the TikTok ad platform, you’ll have the option to choose from 3 advertising goals when you create your campaign:
- Traffic
- Conversions
- Mobile app installation.
Advertising in TikTok, what advertising formats does it offer?
Until a few months ago, TikTok offered advertising solutions ideal for large corporations but with prohibitive costs for the vast majority of companies.
We have decided to present the various TikTok Ads advertising formats from a budget point of view.
Formats for major budgets
All of the following formats have a price in Spain that reaches tens of thousands of euros.
Brand Take Over
Usually, when a user first opens the app TikTok presents you with a post from another user, but with Brand Takeover, you will see the content of a brand instead.
Brand Take Over are also useful for promoting branded hashtags within TikTok.
Being a campaign that will be taught to all users,it is ideal paw campaigns with Awareness objective.
Topview
TopView is a new video-based ad format that introduces the brand when the app is opened, reaching a wider audience. TopView has the same effect as Brand Takeover,with the difference that videos like In-Feed-Video can be used as advertising material. The first global tests yield better results and could significantly increase video views and interaction
Hashtag Challenge
This format is used when a brand wants custom dance or parody challenges under a hashtag. These challenges usually have a unique sound that users can overlay on their own videos. Brands can pay to sponsor a hashtag on Tiktok which will then be displayed on the discovery page, to gain more exposure.
Hashtag challenges are one of the most popular ways to advertise on the social media platform because they encourage people to actively interact with and actively engage with brands, rather than passively receiving information.
It is an ideal format for campaigns with engagementobjective.
Branded Effect / Lenses
From creative facial filters to animated objects, users can radically change their environment with their smartphones. TikTok offers the possibility to create and use 2D, 3D and Augmented Reality (AR) on the platform.
With Branded Effect/Lenses,users can interact with and play with the brand using their filter. Lenses promote consideration (Awareness) and allow users to test products. By integrating brand lenses into a hashtag challenge, you can promote a stronger bond with the brand and its products.
Format for moderate budgets
In-Feed
The new formula allows you to advertise in TikTok in a format called “In-feed”, which appears in the “For You” section in a very similar way to the advertisements that we can see in Instagram Stories.
The minimum budget is 50 euros per campaign and 20 euros/day per ad group.
What bid types do you offer in TikTok?
Currently, TikTok Ads offers 4 different bidding methods:
Cost per click (CPC)
This means that your offer is the cost you’re willing to pay per click. The system will deliver your ads to users who are most likely to click on them at a cost as close as possible to your offer.
It is available for campaignswith Traffic, App Installation and Conversion objective.
Optimized cost per click (oCPC)
This means that your offer is the cost you’re willing to pay per result. The system will deliver your ads to users who are most likely to take the action you want at a cost as close as possible to your offer.
It is available for campaigns with App Installation and Conversionobjective.
Cost per thousand / thousand impressions (CPM)
This means that your offer is the price you’re willing to pay for a thousand impressions. The system will deliver your ads to get as much exposure and reach as many customers as possible within your budget.
It is available for Traffic-targeted campaigns and Reach objective (still in Beta and available only for a few accounts).
Cost per thousand views (CPV)
This means that your offer is the price you’re willing to pay for every thousand video views of 6 seconds or 2 seconds. The system will deliver your video to get as many views as possible within your budget.
Still in Beta and available only for a few accounts.
How does the TikTok algorithm work?
As with other advertising platforms such as Facebook or Google, the role of optimization algorithms is paramount. Each campaign needs a learning phase to be able to optimize its performance.
TikTok’s own documentation tells us:
The learning phase refers to the initial ad delivery period during which the system continuously scans new customers to help the ad group reach the most appropriate audience. This is an important part of the ad delivery lifecycle, as data during this stage is used to empower the system to help better optimize delivery and deliver the best performance.
It is important to note that the learning phase is an experimental process.
During this phase, CPA may fluctuate, but it will become more stable as the learning data accumulates. According to historical analysis, usually an oCPC ad group can expect a stable CPA after achieving 50 conversions. The ad group will have passed the learning phase approximately at this point.
Therefore, the results you get during this phase are likely to be more unstable than the results you’ll get once TikTok Ads has had time to optimize your campaigns. So, don’t panic if your ads don’t work as well as you expected. This testing phase is fairly standard, and once TikTok Ads has collected enough data about your campaign, it will start delivering your ads more stablely.
TikTok Ads – May 2020
How to create a TikTok advertisement?
If you’re interested in advertising with TikTok, then it’s time for you to understand how it works. We explain this in a few steps.
Create an advertiser account
You’ll need to create an ad account in TikTok Ads: this step is simple, just go to the TikTok Adspage. When you’re there, click“Create an ad”.
You’ll need to fill out a form and provide a certain amount of information about your business. Once completed, you’ll need to wait approximately 48 hours for a representative to contact you to complete the launch of your TikTok account.
Create a campaign
As soon as your account is validated, go to the “Campaign” tab at the top left of your TikTok dashboard. The next step will be to choose from the list what you will be proposed as the objective of your campaign. You’ll be presented with three options: traffic, app installation, and conversion.
Enter your budget: The minimum budget to start a campaign is 50 euros. You can choose your budget type, with the “Daily” or “Total” tab.
Ad group
Once inside your ad group, you’ll need to set ad placements. Locations are the platforms on which you want your ads to appear (TikTok, Vigo video, Buzz video, News Republic …). I recommend choosing TikTok and leaving the other networks.
As soon as you have your locations chosen, you’ll need to follow the prompts and insert all the other data needed to launch your marketing campaign. These are display names such as URLs, images, keywords, etc.
Objective (Audience)
Here you will specify certain data related to the chosen goal, that is, the users of the website who will see your ad. It’s about specifying gender, age group, languages, interests, and more. It is also possible to target users in the TikTok app by downloading their identifiers. But for that, you need a group to gather them. The download can be done as a CSV, TXT or ZIP file.
Budget and calendar
The daily budget must be at least 20 euros. Until recently, it would have been 50o!
After you determine your daily budget, you’ll also determine how long you want your ad to stay active. You can also determine the times of day during which you want your ad content to run. It’s the same for days of the week. That’s not all, because with the TikTok platform you can also specify the speed at which you want to spend your budget. There is standard delivery (divided in equal parts) and acceleration mode that spends your budget as quickly as possible (not suitable for cardiacs).
Ad
Creating video
TikTok offers over 300 music options that you can be inspired by designing your marketing video. You’ll also have to choose the format: horizontal, vertical, or square.
Optimization
It is important to choose good quality images, but also to define a CTA (call to action). In addition, ad optimization takes into account the location of text that does not exceed 80 characters. At the bottom or in the middle of the image, the location will depend on the goals and what you offer.
What audience parameters does TikTok offer?
To define the audience your TikTok advertising will see, the mobile app proposes several targeting criteria.
The main parameters of audience planning are:
- Demographic
- Sex
- Geographical location (Up to Autonomous Community level in Spain),
- Age ranges,
- Language
- Interests, similar to Facebook but with much less variety.
- User device
- Operating system,
- Connection type,
- Device price
What is the TikTok Video Creation Kit?
TikTok offers a unique tool for people who want to launch an advertising campaign. The Video Authoring Kit is a tool built into the TikTok ad app, which provides video and image templates to customize your ad using existing images.
It offers over 300 free background music templates to choose from to make your ad much more interesting.
What is really important with this tool is the fact that it allows your video to look like a TikTok video and therefore merges into the mass.
Advertising in TikTok: What prices?
TikTok was relatively slow in implementing a formal advertising program. For this reason, brands had to find alternative ways to advertise on TikTok. This is one of the reasons influencer marketing has thrived on the platform.
TikTok began experimenting with advertising in late 2018, although it did not take off well into the following year. There was a lot of discussion in the early days about the high cost of TikTok ads.
For example, it can cost brands $50,000 to $100,000 take over a popular TikTok channel, the cost of a hashtag challenge (HashTag Challenge) has a flat fee of $150,000 for six days, and companies spend additional budgets on promoting the challenge.
However, now that TikTok has introduced brief native video ads, things are much more accessible to brands that want to advertise on TikTok.
A campaign has a minimum daily budget of $50, and each ad group has a minimum budget of $20.
Advertising in TikTok is much more affordable than before, but it’s clear that if your budget is less than about $1500/2000 a month, you won’t be able to get in and play.
For now, those minimums don’t allow one dollar a day campaigns like some do on Facebook/Instagram.
Adkonversion & TikTok Ads
In May 2020, after a few months of waiting we received good news.
Our agency is part of a small group of around 10 companies in Spain that have received an invitation from TikTok Ads to be able to manage campaigns through its new platform.
Our team is available to manage your campaigns and achieve your goals. TikTok offers a new environment still little used by Spanish companies. That’s your chance to enter a market with a huge growth potential. Pioneers, welcome!
