If you aren’t already scrolling through TikTok on your own device, there’s no doubt you’ve heard of it—whether from references to viral comedy videos and dances, seeing the TikTok logo in videos re-posted on your other favorite social media sites, or just hearing about how it’s the latest platform to take the social media landscape by storm.
If you market to Gen Z and younger millenials, plan to create a video content strategy, or both, TikTok is a crucial part of your 2021 social media marketing strategy.
@mychaelade FBI won’t leave me alone💀😅 and I ate the other half of ramen btw
♬ RamenSecret - lavidadetomas
TikTok was the number one most downloaded app in 2020, and it’s estimated that TikTok has about 689 million monthly active users and 2 billion app store downloads. What does that mean? The network is larger than both Twitter and Pinterest.
With this firehose of new content to consume, it’s staying power has become crystal clear—TikTok is unlikely to be a passing fad. If you’re thinking to yourself that at least some of those 689 million people must be in your business’s target audience, there’s a good chance you’re right.
This may sound like a marketing goldmine—especially because there could be less competition while other businesses hesitate to get on board. However, engaging with potential customers in a place where they go to be entertained requires a nuanced, careful approach.
Did you know that you can schedule TikTok posts on Fanbooster?
Use this guide to get up to speed on TikTok, how to use the app, if you should use it, and a few best practices to make your post surge in popularity.
Table of Contents
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What is TikTok?
TikTok is a social media mobile app with a large community of users centered around video content.
TikTokers (TikTok users) film short videos and edit them with effects, filters, captions, and music, then post them for their TikTok followers. Content creators use hashtags and identify which popular category they fit into to more easily be discovered by non-followers.
Much of the site’s content is comedic—kind of like Vine, Twitter’s late video network (rest in peace). Some of the most popular genres include short skits, lip-syncing, cringe videos, how-to’s, and sharing common experiences with “tell me about a time that you…”.
One of the most popular phenomena is the influx of “challenges” posted across the platform (often to visualize lyrics from a popular song or test different reactions to a common social experiment) that create a ripple effect as everyone contributes their own version.
You thought the #InMyFeelingsChallenge was popular when you kept seeing it on Instagram? It was uploaded to Instagram 1.7 million times, while TikTok saw 5 million entries.
TikTok first launched in China as Douyin, then launched as TikTok internationally in 2017. Then, everything changed—ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) acquired Music.ly, a social media platform that allowed users to create lip-sync videos to popular songs.
Creativity with lip-syncing paved the way for TikTok’s US popularity and emphasis on incorporating music.
Douyin still exists, and both Douyin and TikTok use the same software, but they maintain separate networks to comply with China’s censorship laws.
TikTok has a very specific user demographic
@gusgusinthecity another day at the pawfice ##theoffice ##dressyourpetday ##dressyourpet ##dogsoftiktok ##foryoupage
♬ The Office - Scranton Crew
Before you start marketing on TikTok, make sure your demographic aligns.
TikTok is most popular with people between the age of 16 and 24, which makes up 60% of the total userbase. TikTok reports that 80% of all users are between the ages 16-34, confirming that this probably isn’t the channel for marketing to the older crowd.
Aside from age, the other stats we know seem to indicate popularity fairly evenly across the board.
- 58.4% of TikTok users are male and 41% are female. This is a flip from 2020, where the gender split was in similar proportions, but skewed the opposite way.
- The app is available in 150 markets in 39 languages.
- iPhone/Android usage is a 52%/48% split.
As long as you’re in the correct age range, you can probably pretty safely find your customers.
So with that in mind, we do recommend only using TikTok for marketing if you have a young audience. While there’s no doubt that older people are slowly starting to adopt the platform, your marketing resources will likely be better spent elsewhere if that’s your targeted audience.
Does that mean all hope is lost if you market to older millennials and above? Absolutely not.
Re-posting videos that were created on TikTok to other social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter is a hugely popular practice. If you have an engaged audience on those other profiles, you can take advantage of the robust TikTok editing tools to create video content for your followers.
If you go this route, just keep an eye on news released from the other platforms on how they plan to handle repurposed content. For example, Facebook has announced plans to test algorithm changes that make Reels with a TikTok watermark less discoverable.
Here's how to market on TikTok
You have two options for an organic TikTok marketing strategy: working with influencers or creating original content. Each of these strategies have their own merits and time commitments.
Let’s walk through both options so you can decide which one makes the most sense for your business.
Influencer marketing will be huge on TikTok
From makeup to baking videos, TikTok is full of people making things. There are some huge TikTok influencers in these spaces—in fact, some have millions of subscribers.
These influencers have audiences that may want to buy your products, so for a chunk of your marketing budget, you can partner with them and create an influencer marketing campaign.
Pay these influencers to use your products on-camera or otherwise promote your brand in their videos, and you’ll get your products in front of new eyes.
But even more importantly, you’ll earn some of your customers’ trust too. One in three consumers trust an influencer’s opinion more than what a brand says, so use that to your advantage.
@bilintinamakeup A touch of purple 💜 ##makeuplover ##makeup ##makeupvideo ##sigmabeauty
♬ original sound - bilintinamakeup
How to get started with TikTok influencer marketing
The golden rule of Influencer Marketing: relevance is more important than reach.
Don’t simply approach the people behind accounts with the largest following—not only will they be incredibly expensive to work with, but many references to your brand could fall on deaf ears.
Find out who is posting popular videos in your niche by navigating to the Discover tab, and searching a handful of keywords that relate to your industry, products, or services.
Document the users with the most followers or most popular videos within this topic, watch their posts to determine a fit for your brand, and think about reaching out.
As you’re moving through this process, also look at the most popular videos associated with those keywords, under Discover>Top.
While not a lot of information about the inner workings of the TikTok algorithm is public, there appears to be a component that allows anyone with palatable content skyrocket to popularity.
The team at Later reports from a first-hand investigation into the app that posts seem to be ‘tested’ on people who don’t follow you. If it performs well in that first group,the post will be served to even more non-followers if it performs well in that first group. Reach depends on performance.
“When your video is published, it’s served to a small number of TikTok users in between popular videos on their For You page. This is why when you’re scrolling through your For You page, you’ll often see a video that has very few likes.
If your video is received well by the users who initially receive it on their For You page, the chances are it will get bumped up to a larger pool of users, and then to even more, and so on.
So even if you only have a handful of followers on TikTok, your video could still skyrocket to success!”
While this is great encouragement when producing your own original content, this also gives us clues about when to nab an influencer as they’re on the cusp of becoming popular.
The micro-influencers with just one or two wildly popular videos that gained traction through this performance-based model may still be in the process of amassing a huge following (and price tag).
Keep an eye out for these as you sift through popular videos from your keyword search and document influencers to reach out to.
Create original TikTok content for your brand (if you dare)
Making your own content can be a powerful TikTok marketing strategy. However, it will take lots of time, creativity, and resources. TikTok is largely based on viral content, so your content needs to be viral too. Otherwise, it will likely be ignored by TikTokers.
The easiest, most effective way to ensure that your original content is popular and shareable is to dive into the “trend” culture.
Use the Discover page to track trending hashtags, and then create your own version of the trend that includes an element of your business. Bonus points if it’s funny or silly to increase your chance of virality.
Take the #WipeItDown challenge for example. This one shows creators wiping down their mirror to the beat of the song “Wipe It Down,” where on the third wipe they’re revealed as a different version of themselves, only to return to their original version for the fourth and final wipe of the mirror.
@willsmith I don’t remember making this...? @chrisashley
♬ Wipe It Down - BMW KENNY
This challenge would be a great opportunity to use the third wipe to show a “better” or more exciting version of the star of the video after they use your product or service.
If you sell makeup, the original version could depict being very undone, comfortable, and maybe even make the “transformation” over the top by appearing in baggy sweats and messy bedhead.
On the third wipe, the star would be completely done up with the makeup, then quickly return to the natural version as if it never happened at all.
Another simple way to create popular content is to offer how-to’s, tips and tricks, or insider secrets from your industry.
If you own a bakery, you can show a pared-down, visually appealing version of the steps in a recipe, like baking a cake to the tune of a pop song where the final version appears when you show yourself snapping your fingers.
Sell clothing? Show how many ways a piece can be implemented into an outfit or the secret steps of your perfect shirt knot.
@foodwithmichel Red Velvet Puffle cone from Cauldron Ice Cream ##savortheflavor ##tiktokcreator ##icecream ##trending
♬ original sound - foodwithmichel
This method is a doubly effective strategy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, where many in-person services have been forced to find a way to offer something different virtually.
Create a TikTok of your top yoga poses for stress relief or how to create extravagant cocktails in your own kitchen to stay relevant to your audience while they stay home.
Once you’ve created your content using one of these ideas or an original one you came up with for your business, always add a few relevant hashtags to your post before you upload it, since this is how users who don’t yet follow you will find it.
Just remember: Even if you don’t employ one of those two methods, the key to TikTok marketing is to make a viral, light-hearted video that also promotes your products—not a product-first sales pitch.
The team at Later also reports that “Rewatches, video completions, shares, comments, and likes all seem to be strong indicators to the TikTok algorithm,” so make it entertaining.
To see more examples of brands at the top of the TikTok game, check out our list of top brands on TikTok.
How to find hashtags for your brand's TikTok posts
There are three top ways to find TikTok hashtags that will boost your reach.
Use some tried-and-true general hashtags that have surged in popularity and are meant to help get as many eyes as possible on your posts. Try these ones below from Influencer Marketing Hub.
Look at trending hashtags
Navigate over to the Discover page, where you’ll find a list of currently trending hashtags. Scroll through the hashtags to see if any fit your business and industry, or see if they indicate general challenges that you could put your spin on.
Get inspo from influencers
Look at the hashtags influencers in your vertical use. After you’ve completed the steps above to find niche influencers for your industry, borrow the hashtags they use and test their success on your own posts.
Use general popular hashtags
Use some tried-and-true general hashtags that have surged in popularity and are meant to help get as many eyes as possible on your posts. Try these ones below from Influencer Marketing Hub.
- #tiktok
- #foryoupage
- #fyp
- #foryou
- #viral
- #love
- #funny
- #memes
- #follow
- #bestvideo
- #tiktok4fun
- #tiktok4fun
- #thisis4u
- #loveyoutiktok
For topic-specific lists of most popular hashtags, check out the rest of their list.
How To Upload TikTok videos for publishing using Fanbooster
1. Using Fanbooster, upload your video content with any accompanying text or hashtags. You can do this in either the Fanbooster web app or the mobile app, but ultimately you’ll need to open the post in the Fanbooster mobile app to continue publishing to TikTok.
Here’s a list of everything you will need to create your post:
- Your video
- Any edits you want to make to your video, including music, captions, cuts, special effects, filters and more
- The text that will make up your short description or blurb
- Relevant hashtags
If you aren’t sure how to use the effects in TikTok, check out this quick tutorial that explains how to use all the tools.
2. Once you have your post open in the mobile app and everything looks good, select “Open in TikTok” at the bottom, which will then open the TikTok app.
3. You’ll now see your post and video content automatically populated on the post creation page in TikTok. Here you can change any settings or make any additional tweaks to your settings before you publish the post.
4. If you decide that you want to edit your video content further by adding more music, captions, or any other TikTok effects, just click the “back” arrow at the top of the TikTok post publishing screen.
This will allow you to go back to the video editing steps as if you were going through the TikTok video creation process instead of taking the expedited route to the last step through Fanbooster.
5. Publish your post! That’s all there is to it.
Use TikTok Ads
If you don’t have the time to come up with creative ideas, execute videos, and then slowly cultivate their reach through organic engagement, don’t sweat it—TikTok has an advertising platform that will expand the reach for you if you set aside some budget.
TikTok Ad Formats
TikTok offers a variety of ways your ad can appear in the feed, depending on the creative assets you’re visualizing or what makes sense for your campaign. TikTok says these formats “include but not limited to: horizontal, vertical, or square videos and images.”
To create these ads, they also offer a couple creation tool sets, should you choose to use them:
- “Video Creation Kit” which provides you with a variety of video templates and allows you to create videos by using your existing images, without needing to be a pro editor.
- "Automated Creative Optimization" which helps you automate the process of creating, delivering, and optimizing your ads.
These ads can appear in four places:
- In-feed
- Detail Page
- Post-roll
- Story
TikTok Ad Targeting
When managing your TikTok Ads, you can target your audience by gender, location, age, interests, and what TikTok calls “other unique variables.”
For more advanced users who may have practice using these same popular strategies on other paid social initiatives, you can create “Custom Audiences” and “Lookalike Audiences” to reach more people similar to your existing customers.
If you have a self-serve account, you can use TikTok’s chart to see which geographic ad targeting options are available to you based on the location of the owner account.
TikTok Ad Performance Measurement
TikTok Ads measurement tools let you monitor your ads performance by using a few different devices meant to help you track actionable KPIs:
- Use the TikTok pixel to monitor your ad performance and measure your marketing results by tracking users’ behaviors on your website.
- TikTok partners with third-party tracking companies to track ad conversions, users’ in-app behavior, impressions and click attribution data
As you can probably tell, these ad specifications indicate that TikTok ads are meant to blend into the average customer experience as much as possible.
If you want users to linger on your ad (or even better, click through and convert), you’re not off the hook for creating something entertaining that doesn’t disrupt their social experience.
The brand, Guess jeans kept this in mind when launching their TikTok advertising campaign, leaning into both the musical and “trending challenge” aspects of the platform by creating their own challenge hashtag and generating an influx of consumer-generated content.
They used the idea of “transforming your looks” with the slogan “Transform your outfit from a mess to best-dressed! All you need is denim!” accompanied by Bebe Rexh’s “I’m a Mess” and the hashtag #InMyDenim.
The campaign was wildly successful, and you can read more about the KPIs they hit in the case study on TikTok’s website.
Ultimately, in making the decision between organic and paid TikTok content, you will have to decide if you’re paying with your time or your money. There’s pros and cons to each, so it will depend on your budget and how you want to interact with your audience.
Bottom Line for TikTok Marketing
And there you have it: How to market on TikTok in 2021. Use this guide to decide on if you should pursue TikTok marketing, whether it should be organic or paid, and how you want to kick off your first campaign.
Remember, it has a very specific demographic, so tread lightly, keep it fun, and make it shareable for that audience.
