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TikTok for Finance
TikTok’s app is used by nearly a billion users everyday, 70% of whom are under 24 years old. With such a large audience, the content people share and watch is incredibly diverse. TikTok isn’t just the place for dance challenges and funny videos: it’s also an incredible tool for bite-sized learning, and picking up life skills.
As the older half of Gen Z grows up and enters the workforce, they’re interested in personal finance, banking, mortgages and even investment. We’ve seen a jump in finance content on TikTok, with fintech brands joining the action. We’re also seeing ‘fin-influencers’ emerge: influencers who focus on personal finance, money management or investment themed content.
Trends and fin-fluencers
Finance trends regularly go viral, from money-saving challenges to crypto and investment: cryptocurrency Dogecoin saw its value rise 40% after it went viral on TikTok. Younger users loved the meme value of Dogecoin, but didn’t really know what cryptocurrencies were, with some mistakenly calling DOGE a stock. However, their interest in Dogecoin gave an opportunity for brands to engage with Gen Z, whether by issuing simple explanations of crypto, blockchain or recommending alternative investment options (e.g. their own products).
We’re also seeing ‘fin-influencers’ emerge: influencers who focus on personal finance, money management or investment themed content.
@whatdatruckjoel Tiktok advice is nuts! ##duet with @jamezg97 ##greenscreen ##dogecoin ##dogeggchallenge ##investing ##money ##bruh ##icantbelieveit
@virtualbacon Do the opposite of the herd ##doge ##dogecoin ##crypto ##trading
Gen Z and Finance
Gen Z combined has over $143 billion spending power, making this segment important for financial institutions to pay attention to. 44% of Gen Z are open to using fintechs instead of traditional brands – almost double the rate of previous generations. This generation is highly invested in learning about finance: 35% have actually electively attended a financial education seminar, or lecture. Gen Z also have a strong incentive to pay attention to finance brands: 81% list money as a major stressor, and 33% list personal debt as a huge source of anxiety.
So, what do these stats mean? They show us Gen Z is an audience deeply interested in engaging with fintechs: being digital natives they’re more open to relying on technology for integral services like banking. They also show highlight a strong case for fintech brands to reach Gen Z on TikTok: the network most heavily skewed to a younger demographic.
For skeptics who don’t think financial education is a ‘match’ for TikTok: remember that TikTok has recent successful launch of the #LearnOnTikTok campaign focusing on delivering bite-sized education videos to Gen Z. Gen Z is already using TikTok to learn about topics including finance, so why should your fintech brand miss out?
What’s more, there is a huge 989.3 million views attributed to the #finance hashtag on TikTok and thousands of ‘financial’ series and content that have Gen Z coming back for more.
An example of this comes from @investmentjoy who garnered a mammoth 24 million views from his ‘$1m or a magic penny series’. It was a series of 5 videos where he demonstrates the difference between taking money and investing and how, if done correctly, you can end up with a lot more money with the ‘magic penny’ alternatively to taking the $1m.
@drbradklontz No Nuance November with a Financial Psychologist #NoNuanceNovember #money #personalfinance #finance #TikTokPartner #LearnOnTikTok
@investmentjoy $1m or a magic penny? ##fyp ##foryoupage ##foryourpage ##fypシ ##money ##finance part 2 will be out asap.
The rise of ‘Fin-fluencers’
Influencers are essential to content discovery and promotion on TikTok. They span a diverse range of topics including everything from cooking and beauty to personal finance and investment. For those all-crucial influencer partnerships, there’s a diverse range of finance influencers fintech brands can choose to work with.
Gen Z’s strong interest in finance topics has led to the rise of ‘fin-fluencers’ who use their videos to educate young audiences on aspects of finance. @humphreyyang is a hugely popular personal finance educator with 1.1 million followers, and over 15 million likes. His videos tackle complex concepts like book value, credit cards vs. change cards and tackle how to manage money.
@thelaymaninvestor Rahul Rai (3.7 million likes, 354k followers) wants to increase financial literacy, especially around investment. @kimi.du is another great example: she regularly posts educational content around personal finance and insurance.
The lesson here? There’s never been a better time for fintech brands to debut on TikTok. Influencer partnerships mean that you can strike the right tone from your very first video – and you can use influencers reach to boost your own.
@kimi.du 4 recession proof high income skills ANYONE can learn #highincomeskill #education #makemoney #sidehustle
@humphreytalks Payment terms: Net 30! Small Business Tok! #smallbusinesscheck #learnontiktok #tiktokpartner #personalfinance #banana
Fintech brands on TikTok
Many brands have already spotted this huge opportunity and kicked off TikTok campaigns targeting a younger millennial and older Gen Z audience. TikTok hasn’t been saturated with ads like Instagram and Facebook, so there’s significantly less competition (hence lower cost per acquisition) for fintech brand marketers. In fact, UK fintech Tally has reported TikTok ads are over 300% more effective than Instagram, for gaining new users.
UK Fintechs Lead The Way on TikTok
UK fintech Plum (an AI ‘assistant’ helping you save money) has enjoyed early entry to TikTok, seeing strong growth in the 25-34 age group. Plum’s debut was well-timed: COVID meant more people were on TikTok, but also led to a 180% increase in investment as people naturally thought about saving more money.
For their campaign, Plum partnered with finance influencers like @mrtradingrobot to advertise a ’52-week savings challenge’, where the app puts away £1 in week one, £2 in week two and so on, from the user’s linked bank account. Eventually, users save around £1,300 without feeling much of an impact. Gen Z love participation-based marketing, so challenge initiatives work really well on TikTok. Additionally, most Gen Z’s can enjoy this challenge even if they’re relying on an allowance from parents, since the amount saved each week will always be under £52.
UK app Moneybox is also enjoying TikTok success by getting young people to think about their future savings through investing spare change.
UK fintech Snoop is the latest to join in, reviewing TikTok favourably against other channels for customer acquisition. Interestingly, they’ve seen customers in their 50s and 60s sign up from TikTok, which should reassure those who think this is ‘just an app for kids’.
US Challenger Banks Partner With Charli D’Amelio
Challenger bank Step launched by partnering with the most-followed person on TikTok: Charli D’Amelio! Charli posted about the bank to her (then) 91 million followers, kicking off the launch with a $100,000 giveaway. Step took a multi-channel approach, with D’Amelio posting about their bank accounts on Instagram as well. Giveaways are an incredible tactic on TikTok, and if teens don’t win the big prize they can still enjoy the bank’s referral scheme, bringing users in for small amounts of cash.
How can fintech brands use TikTok?
Post financial education content
TikTok has recently announced an initiative to support educational content through the #LearnOnTikTok campaign. This is in recognition of huge Gen Z demand for micro-learning, i.e. breaking down complex concepts into bite-sized videos.
There’s never been a better time for fintech brands to join in and share educational content. From explaining a credit score, to insurance, or demystifying investment: brands can create quick-shot videos using TikTok’s native editing effects. For bonus points, use popular features like ‘Duet’ where you can include another user’s video alongside your own – this is a good way of boosting your reach. Use appropriate hashtags to aid discovery: #investing has nearly a billion views, while #personalfinance has 622 million.
Remember the golden rule: make sure your videos are made for TikTok and are not repurposed from another network like Instagram. Humorous or useful content does best, and bold caption headers help you stand out in hashtag feeds.
If you’re looking for content inspiration, or want to join in on trending discussions make sure to subscribe to our TikTok trends newsletter. We’ll keep you well-informed.
Partner with ‘fin–fluencers’
For both ads or organic videos, partnering with someone who has an established TikTok following boosts your audience’s trust through social proof. It’s also likely that the quality of your content will be a lot higher if it’s created by people who use TikTok everyday, and have ‘nailed’ the formula for their own videos.
With so many influencers to choose from, you can select from accounts with large followings, or focus on micro-influencers who have smaller but highly engaged audiences. The golden rule? Find the right influencers you can trust with your brand voice, who understands your campaign goals. However, don’t hoard creative control: once they get the idea, let them lead the content.
Remember, Gen Z cares about ethical and impact-based missions. If your brand’s goal is financial inclusion for everyone, or increased financial literacy, or ‘ethical’ investment – shout about it on TikTok!
Conclusion
There’s a rising finance community on TikTok, and an even larger appetite for financial education. There’s never been a better time for fintech brands to leverage this channel, especially in light of COVID-19 pushing people onto TikTok, and primed to enjoy digital finance products.
If your fintech brand wants to maximize opportunities on TikTok, or needs help getting started, get in touch with us!
