TikTok Marketing: How to Create a Strategy That Converts

Let’s talk TikTok marketing.

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From TikTok Shopping to Branded Hashtag Challenges, this social media platform is becoming a must-have for eCommerce marketers. 

Why? 

With approximately 113.2 million TikTok users in the US alone, this social media brand’s reach is growing at a fast pace. When you add that to their quickly increasing list of social media marketing products, they are not a platform you want to ignore when planning your eCommerce ads and marketing. 

But how do you create a successful TikTok marketing strategy that actually reaches your brand’s target audience and converts? 

This post will answer just that. But first, we will quickly review important TikTok advertising and platform questions for those totally new to TikTok marketing. 

Let’s jump in. 

What Is TikTok Marketing?

TikTok marketing is the overall strategy you put together for the platform. This includes campaigns, content, competitions, and social media shopping. 

A successful TikTok marketing strategy is about more than just a good video idea. You need the right campaign or content to reach just the right potential shopper at just the right time. 

Plus, you don’t need an expensive TikTok agency to dominate this social media platform. Like with any other channel, the TikTok Ads Manager is user-friendly and easy to manage. 

How Is TikTok Marketing Used?

Like with any social media, your brand, target shopper, and budget will determine how TikTok marketing is used. However, when it comes to eCommerce ads, TikTok specifically, you want to ensure that TikTok works harmoniously with your other channels — especially when integrating TikTok Shopping into your long-term strategy.

How to Create a TikTok Marketing Account?

Creating a business TikTok account for marketing is a pretty straightforward process. Here are the steps: 

1. Go to the TikTok Ads Manager sign-up page, here. 
2. Next, create an account in TikTok Ads Manager and set login details. 
3. Lastly, verify your TikTok account via the phone number or email address you provided. 

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How to Create a Successful TikTok Marketing Strategy

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Now that the basics are out of the way, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of creating a successful TikTok marketing strategy — one that converts. 

To build the optimum social media strategy for this platform, you will need to: 

1. Define your goals
2. Clarify your target audience segment
3. Choose the right combination of TikTok advertising options
4. Build a content strategy that aligns with other social media channels
5. Use the TikTok marketing best practices
6. Review and optimize

Let’s dive into each. 

1. Define Your Goals

The first step to any successful marketing strategy is setting clear objectives. What do you hope to achieve with TikTok marketing — your number one goal? Is it driving more potential shoppers to your product pages, increasing brand awareness, or retargeting a specific segment of TikTok users with promotions?  

Ultimately, you want to set one main goal for your TikTok marketing. This can, of course, be changed as business objectives, market landscapes, or budgets change. You want to ensure you are always focused on a specific goal, which will ensure you can focus your efforts accordingly. 

2. Clarify Your Target Audience Segment

Next, you will want to lock down the specific target market you want to reach with your TikTok marketing and content. 

Why?

Because who you target is vital to how successful your marketing will be. When it comes to TikTok specifically, it’s also important to note which general market segments are performing on the social media platform to ensure it aligns with your goals. 

As we learned in our TikTok eCommerce guide, the core platform reach is Gen Z and millennials, who account for 75% of TikTok users, with 41% aged between 16 and 24. So, you want to make sure the target audience you want to reach is within these greater segments.

3. Choose the Right Combination of TikTok Advertising Options

Once you have a clear objective for your social media marketing and have drilled down precisely who you want to target, you will need to lock down your content. This means using the right combination of video content, TikTok advertising options, and influencer marketing opportunities that will best achieve them. 

To do this, you will need to consider TikTok’s advertising options, such as in-feed ads, branded hashtags, and sponsored challenges, to reach a wider audience. Choosing between TikTok content will depend on your budget, brand, and market. 

Here’s a breakdown of some of the top TikTok ad and content marketing options for eCommerce brands: 

1. TikTok Shopping
2. TikTok Collection Ads
3. TikTok Creator Marketplace
4. TikTok In-Feed Ads
5. TopView TikTok Ads
6. Branded Mission TikTok Ads 
7. Branded Effect TikTok Ads
8. TikTok Spark Ads
9. TikTok Promote
10. TikTok LIVE

Let’s take a quick look at each. 

1. TikTok Shopping

Shopping, powered by TikTok, positions itself as a way to authentically connect with creators and communities to drive meaningful shopping moments. Providing three native ways to shop, TikTok Shopping enables TikTok users to purchase directly through a complete in-app experience.

2. TikTok Collection Ads

One of TikTok’s newest types, TikTok Collection Ads, is part of TikTok’s Shopping suite. They are swipeable cards that appear in feed video ads.

3. TikTok Creator Marketplace

TikTok Creator Marketplace is the social platform that enables you to find TikTok influencers for marketing campaigns. You can access it here. 

You can also check out TikTok’s Creative Exchange, where you can get paired with a professional creative service provider to produce your video ads with end-to-end support.

4. TikTok In-Feed Ads

TikTok In-Feed Ads are vertical video ads that appear in your potential shoppers’ For You feeds and can be up to 60 seconds long. Additionally, they can be enhanced with interactive add-ons such as Display Cards, stickers, and Super Likes. 

5. TopView TikTok Ads

TopView TikTok Ads are in-feed ads that appear at the top of a TikTok user’s feed. In other words, it is the first piece of content they will see when they open the TikTok app. 

6. Branded Mission Ads 

Branded Mission Ads are one of TikTok’s newest marketing additions. This TikTok content is designed to help brands “crowdsource authentic content from creators on TikTok, boost top-performing videos as ads, and drive media impressions.”

7. Branded Effect Ads 

Great for product or brand awareness, this video content type was designed to allow a store’s followers and TikTok users/community to express their creativity and joy. With this TikTok ad, eCommerce marketers can create customized effects that engage TikTok users. 

8. TikTok Spark Ads 

These TikTok ads enable you to maximize content marketing impact and reach by enabling you to boost different video content types. Spark Ads allow you to boost influencer marketing or TikTok videos that mention your store brand.

9. TikTok Promote

Promoted TikTok content is similar to Facebook’s boost feature. It enables you to promote any piece of TikTok content you upload to your brand’s account. 

10. TikTok LIVE 

Not technically an ad, TikTok LIVE is still a powerful sales tool for online store owners. Allowing creators and brands to engage with followers in real-time, when tied with TikTok LIVE Campaigns (which are promotional programs for LIVE functions run by TikTok), you can use promotions to drive brand awareness and push product sales. 

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Whichever TikTok ads you add to your social media marketing plan, make sure they not only work  together but integrate into the overall multi-channel marketing strategy — which brings us to the next step in creating a successful TikTok marketing strategy.

4. Build a Content Strategy That Aligns with Other Social Media Channels

Once you know whether you’re going to focus on TikTok influencer marketing, feed ads, TikTok user-generated content, or hashtag challenges, you want to build your content strategy. This means planning video content or TikTok ad creatives to drive home the objectives of your marketing strategy. 

The bottom line is that you want to build a content plan that aligns with your goals and audience preferences. TikTok is all about short-form video, so brainstorm creative and engaging video ideas.

The best way to ensure this is by using a robust PPC management service like Traffic Booster, leaving you time and budget to work on TikTok content and ensure it fits seamlessly into your overall customer journey and marketing channels. This also ensures you can DIY your advertising without the need for an expensive TikTok agency. 

5. Use the TikTok Marketing Best Practices

Regardless of the types of TikTok advertising or influencer marketing you use to build your plan, you want to be sure you follow TikTok marketing best practices to maximize your success. 

This includes: 

1. Maintaining a regular posting schedule to keep your audience engaged and your brand visible
2. Staying up to date on TikTok trends and trending hashtags and challenges to participate and boost discoverability
3. Making sure you are always staying authentic to your brand and users
4. Encouraging your followers to create content related to your brand or products to promote engagement
5. Opting for a sound-on environment for all TikTok content
6. Collaborating with TikTok influencers or other businesses to expand your reach and tap into new audiences
7. Using on-screen CTAs to drive conversions 

You can read more about these and other strategies in more detail in our Winning TikTok Video Ideas and Best Practices [+ Examples] post. 

6. Review and Optimize

Like with any social media marketing strategy, it’s essential to review and optimize your plans constantly. Here are the three critical steps to optimizing your TikTok marketing strategy like a pro: 

1. Review your TikTok marketing strategy, analyze data, and make adjustments to optimize your approach. Track key metrics like views, likes, shares, and conversion rates. Use TikTok Analytics to evaluate the performance of your content and campaigns.
2. Experiment with different content formats, posting times, creatives, or TikTok ad types. Use A/B testing to help identify what resonates best with your audience.

Final Thoughts: Plan Ahead but Be Ready to Adjust in Real-Time

There is no doubt that any TikTok marketing campaign can have a huge (positive) impact on your conversions, but you want to ensure that when things change, you are prepared to pivot. 

Why?

Because TikTok is an ever-evolving platform. To really excel at social media marketing on this channel, you want to stay up to date on new features, TikTok trends, and TikTok algorithm changes to adapt your marketing strategy accordingly.

 

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