Owning a business brand isn’t all required to make it big in the business world – it’s just the first step. To achieve business growth, you’d have to invest in activities that improve the quality of your products and services and make potential buyers aware that you have what they need.
One of such activities is called advertising. Advertisements (Ads for short) are paid activities that help inform potential customers about a product or service. Adverts may also be used to convince potential customers of their need for your products.
Advertising informs the customers of the existence of a product/service, convinces them to patronize the brand, and also serves as a reminder in the future.
Any brand that wants to grow and stay ahead of competition must not only invest in quality advertising. It must also ensure that the adverts placed are in line with societal changes. For ads to be effective, they must gain the target audience’s attention through the medium that they love.
For this reason, mediums for adverts are constantly changing to adapt to the needs of a dynamic society.
Advertising has evolved over the past few years, from printed advertisements in the 1700s to the golden age when television and radio sets became popular advertising.
Now Advertising has evolved to focus more on video advertising on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and now- TikTok.
While we have already gotten used to video advertising as a creative way of feeding viewers with engaging content that they love, TikTok has come to change how video advertising is done, and we are here for it!
What’s TikTok?
Before we fully delve into what TikTok is all about, let’s briefly go down memory lane to discover how Tiktok came to be the go-to social media platform for Zens and Millennials.
TikTok was launched in 2016 by Zhang Yiming, a Chinese internet entrepreneur and founder of Bytedance. Known as Douyin in China, TikTok has now grown to become one of the most downloaded apps on the Apple app store and Google play store, with millions of people worldwide downloading the app.
TikTok is an app that allows its users to create and share videos of less than 60 seconds. In these videos, users usually lip-sync, dance, sing, or talk while interacting with other users’ contents.
Popular among teens and young adults, TikTok seems to have gained popularity overnight and is currently the world’s fastest-growing social media app.
Unlike many social media applications, TikTok uses artificial intelligence to filter content for users to ensure that they only see the type of content that interests them. With it’s growing popularity,
TikTok has now transcended from just another “fun” app to a revolutionary social media platform that has changed how the world consumes information and how video advertising is done.
Why TikTok is so Popular?
TikTok seems to have gained massive popularity in such a short period that it has left so many people wondering why. Its huge success in gaining the hearts of so many users can be tied to various factors. We are going to highlight just a few of them.
1. Fun:
TikTok can be said to be one of the most engaging social media platforms ever. It’s fun-oriented and highly personalizable, making it easy for everyone to create the exact type of content they love and see. Another thing that makes it so much fun is its use of different exciting challenges and mind-stimulating content that expose its users’ creative sides.
2. Collaboration:
Not only can you make fun videos with TikTok, but you’re also given the opportunity of collaborating with other users and gaining useful connections as a result.
3. Versatility:
Unlike other social media platforms that have come to be associated with one thing, there’s room for everyone on TikTok. From arts to food, music, fitness, fashion, comedy, sports, etc., everyone can connect with something on the app without restrictions.
4. Authenticity:
While other social media platforms require highly-edited, perfect videos to gather the needed attention, TikTok doesn’t care much for perfection. TikTok embraces authenticity and gives ample opportunity for even amateurs to thrive.
5. Focuses on localized content:
One of the reasons TikTok has become so popular is because of its emphasis on trending localized content. By regularly focusing on local trends, everyone worldwide can relate to the content being put out on TikTok, and as such, their interest is sustained.
6. Short and Concise:
While people want to be entertained, they don’t want to be bombarded with long videos that take up too much time. Therefore, most individuals prefer short and concise videos – just the type that is created on TikTok.
Apart from being short, TikTok videos are also new and fresh, giving them an appeal that other video platforms can’t guarantee.
Misconceptions about TikTok
With the wide popularity that TikTok has achieved over a very short period, it’s not abnormal to see that many misconceptions about the app have arisen. Let’s discuss two of the most common misconceptions about the app:
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It’s just a lip-syncing app:
If you haven’t been on the app yourself and you draw conclusions based on the majority of the TikTok videos you’ve seen uploaded on other platforms, you are likely to think that TikTok is just a lip-syncing app.
You wouldn’t be entirely wrong, and you wouldn’t be right either. While TikTok allows for lip-syncing, that’s not all there is to it. There are a lot of features and content available on the platform
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TikTok is a joke:
By joke, we mean that most today’s adults think that TikTok is just an app for kids and teens who want to fool around and have fun, with no serious business going on.
However, the facts suggest that while TikTok is essentially for fun, brands and other creatives have begun to take advantage of its popularity to dish out serious content on the app.
TikTok holds a lot of promise for brands and content creators that are wise enough to take advantage of its features now that it has been described as the next big thing for video advertising.
TikTok for Video Advertising: What changed?
TikTok has not only come to change the way users consume content but has also come to cause a long-lasting revolution in the art of video advertising.
We’d show you how by comparing TikTok video advertising with some already established video advertising platforms to enable you to see how TikTok has changed the face of video Advertising.
Video Advertising is now all fun:
The most effective form of advertising is usually very subtle. As humans, we are more likely to purchase an item or patronize a brand if we don’t feel pressured.
We want to feel like we are making our decision ourselves without external influence. With video advertising on other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and especially YouTube, we are already aware that a video is an advert even before watching it. With TikTok, it’s all about having fun. Thus, any effective advert on TikTok doesn’t seem like an advert.
This is very important because TikTok users hate to see promotional videos or highly corporate videos pop up on their feeds. By emphasizing authenticity, TikTok video advertising makes a huge shift from overly produced video ads that we are used to on other social media platforms.
Short and Concise Videos:
Less is more, and it’s true for many things, including video advertising. TikTok ensures that videos are always short, concise, and engaging so that users’ interests don’t wane with time.
Placing an advert via TikTok videos means that your advert wouldn’t be more than 59 seconds, and as a result, you can be sure that your target audience wouldn’t get bored with watching your content.
The Hashtag Challenge:
Brands can capitalize on the Hashtag Challenge on TikTok to run campaigns through branded hashtags that easily gain the attention of TikTok users.
This challenge makes it easy- and fun for brands to create engaging challenges for their audience to partake while simultaneously boosting their visibility.
Organic Growth:
TikTok encourages organic growth much more than any other social media platform right now. Even as an amateur in video advertising, you can easily make TikTok posts that can go viral and attract your target audience if they’re engaging enough even when not perfect.
In other words, it’s easier to grow an audience through video advertising on TikTok than on any other platform.
Music:
TikTok emphasizes the use of music and other rhythmic sounds in promoting videos that no other social media platform has.
The use of sound further amplifies the TikTok experience. While your video advertising on other social media platforms may not engage your audience as you wish because people could scroll through videos without turning on sounds, that’s almost impossible with TikTok.
Artificial Intelligence:
TikTok took video advertising a notch further by using artificial intelligence to connect brands with potential clients.
TikTok Duets:
TikTok has exemplified the importance of collaboration with other users for successful video advertising by introducing TikTok duets.
Authenticity:
You no longer need a “perfect” or highly edited video to make it big in video advertising, as TikTok has shown us. If video advertising were to tow the part that TikTok sets, video advertising would focus less on perfectionism and more on authenticity to gain their attention.
Versatility:
There are different ad formats to choose from on TikTok, depending on your target audience.
TikTok In-Feed ads, top viewed ads, brand takeover challenge, trending dances, and branded Hashtag challenge are options you can choose from to increase the chances of user engagement on your Videos.
Easier live video streaming:
When it comes to live video streaming, you wouldn’t have it as good on any other platform than TikTok. With just 1,000 followers, you can create effective live video streamings, unlike other platforms that require larger followings.
Thanks to TikTok, imperfection has become the new perfection, and as such, video advertising will never remain the same.
