In 30 seconds:
- So you’re active on TikTok, ready to capture that all-important Gen Z market? Great! Now all you need to know is how to promote your TikTok videos…
- With a whole range of creator tools and features available to brands, successful promotion on TikTok is a question of selecting the best approach to get yourself trending.
- We’ve detailed three different methods for boosting your organic content and racking up your views on TikTok.
More and more brands are understanding the importance of growing a community on TikTok. Last year, the platform surpassed over 1 billion monthly active users, and it remains the social media platform most popular amongst the Gen Z demographic.
But while brands flock to TikTok, they’re quickly finding that creating engaging content is only part of the puzzle. How do you actually secure the views you deserve? That’s where having a TikTok promotion strategy is important.
Luckily, TikTok brands start off in an encouraging position: it’s the platform where users report being most favourable towards branded content. There’s also proof of the potential benefits for brands who nail their promotional strategy: nearly half of TikTok users have said they’re on TikTok to find new things.
There are a few different routes brands can take when deciding how to promote TikTok videos on the TikTok app. So whether you decide to use influencers, paid ads, or explore the new “TikTok Promote” feature, here’s everything you need to know to get started.
What is TikTok Promote?
In 2021, TikTok released their new feature: Promote. Much like Facebook’s “Boost” feature, the TikTok promote button allows TikTok users with a business account to pay to promote TikTok videos. By promoting a video through this feature, users can push their content to a wider pool of TikTokers – thereby potentially increasing their following, view counts and website visits.
But how does it work?
How to use Promote on TikTok
Given that the Promote feature is still relatively new on TikTok, brands who master it now can expect to be at the cutting edge of the TikTok promotion wave.
We’ve detailed a step-by-step guide for brands who want to know how to promote TikTok videos via the new feature:
1. Choose a goal
When you begin a new Tiktok Promote campaign, you’re able to select from a choice of three “goals” based on what business objective you hope to achieve with the campaign.
These are: more views, more website visits, or more followers.
More views will push your video to a larger TikTok audience. This makes it a great choice if you’re hoping to highlight a particular offering and land on more people‘s For You Page (FYP). Of course, if you reach new audiences who enjoy your content, they’re more likely to follow you, engage with the rest of your content, and potentially check out your website too.
More website visits is the path which looks most similar to Instagram’s swipe-up feature. When setting up your ad you’ll be prompted to enter your website URL and select a call to action. (For example, ‘Shop Now’, ‘Learn More’ or ‘Contact Us’.) Social commerce brands may find this goal the most appealing, as you can easily use this option to focus on directing traffic towards your sales platform.
If it’s more followers you’re after, selecting this objective will help you grow your TikTok following. Again, an increase in valuable followers can often result in higher engagement and view counts itself, just as long as you consistently post high-quality organic content!
2. Set up your TikTok promote campaign
You’ll find the option to set up a Promote campaign by navigating to “Promote” in your business suite settings.
After setting your goal, you can select which audience to target; either automatic, which means that TikTok will choose the audience for you, or custom, which gives you more control over target audience demographics.
When setting up your TikTok Promote campaign, there are a couple of things to bear in mind. One, the Promote tool is only available for videos that don’t use copyrighted sounds (We talk more about music promotion on Tiktok in our Tiktok commercial sounds article). That means you need to have an original sound, or use one of the 100,000 free-to-use sounds in TikTok’s sound library.
Secondly, you’ll choose one of your own videos that’s already live on your profile, so think about which would work best for your aim. Often this will be the video which performed best organically. Make sure it‘s an original video. Selecting the video that already performed best for your Promo campaign means you’ll be setting your ad up for the best chance at success on TikTok‘s algorithm, since you’ll already know that TikTokers have responded well to the content.
3. Check the results
TikTok Analytics metrics available to brands‘ social media marketing include:
- The amount you’ve spent and how long the promotion has lasted
- The number of likes, comments and shares
- The number of video views
- The number of link clicks, if you’re targeting website visits.
By monitoring the results of your Promote campaign, you’ll be able to see where your ad has been successful, and where you can potentially make tweaks in future campaigns. You’ll also be able to see whether you’re successfully reaching your target demographic.
How to promote TikTok videos with ads
Of course, TikTok Promote is far from the only method available for video promotion on the platform. TikTok has a robust paid ads platform that constantly updates to offer brands the best options for video promotion on the app.
Currently there are seven different available paid ads options for your TikTok ad campaign. The most popular of these is the In-Feed Ad, which appears in the native feed of TikTokers’ ‘For You’ pages.
Also available are: brand takeovers, hashtag challenges, branded lens, top views ads, spark ads and custom influencers.
The range of options means that there are ads available for every brand’s budget and overall goal – just make sure you’ve set up your TikTok ads account to get started.
Learn more about the different kinds of TikTok ads and how to run paid ads that convert on TikTok here.
How to promote TikTok videos with influencers
Influencer marketing. It’s a buzzword digital marketers are well aware of. But that’s because it’s one of the most effective methods for reaching Gen Z.
Did you know that influencers have a higher social media engagement rate on TikTok compared to both Instagram and YouTube? Research from Upfluence found that the micro-influencer engagement rate was 17.96% on TikTok, compared to 3.86% on Instagram and only 1.63% on YouTube.
If you’re able to secure the perfect content creator for your brand, it’s likely you’ll find both your sales and brand sentiment climbing. That’s because Gen Z reports being more likely to buy a product based on a recommendation from an influencer, and they like brands who seamlessly fit into their browsing experience, which working with influencers ensures.
After all, they’re already TikTok marketing experts. It’s what they do every day.
So if it’s a viral video you’re after? Influencers might just be your safest bet to secure one. We’ve outlined how you can use TikTok creators to send your campaigns viral here.
Our approach
At Fanbytes by Brainlabs, we know how crucial it is to align your campaign with the platform. We’re experts in TikTok – it’s how we’ve helped so many brands create successful campaigns that reach Gen Z.
When it comes to TikTok promotion, we follow these three steps for success:
1. Create Ads With Influencers
We collaborate with TikTok influencers to create fun short videos which are native to the platform. This integrated approach is why our creatives convert at 78% more than conventional paid TikTok ads.
2. Test Multiple Creatives
We rigorously A/B test multiple creatives through the TikTok Ads platform, optimising messaging and targeting. It’s how we know which creatives are landing best amongst the TikTok user-base.
3. Scale Top Performers
We scale up the best performing TikTok ads, driving ROI and conversion and providing you with weekly reports on performance and data.
Learn more about our paid social arm, and find out how we can help your brand promote your TikTok content to reach a whole new audience of Gen Z consumers.
Promote videos: how can I boost my TikTok?
There are many ways for brands to make use of TikTok’s features to promote their videos.
Whether you decide to try out the new Promote feature, or opt to integrate paid ads or influencers in your marketing campaign – or all three! – establishing a clear target audience for your TikTok account is key.
TikTok is the platform where brands are most likely to encounter Gen Z consumers, so it’s well worth the effort to establish a successful brand presence on the video-sharing platform.
If you need further guidance, contact us to learn more about how we can help you.
We also have plenty more insights on how to capture the hearts of Gen Z:
