The growth of the TikTok user base is ahead of all other social platforms. TikTok was downloaded 100 million times between March 20 and April 28, 2020, during self-isolation, which drastically increased the already high popularity of this platform.
While many are planning to increase their investment in digital channels such as Instagram, YouTube and Google, which have a proven reputation, marketers are also looking to increase their investments in new channels such as TikTok, according to a new WARC report.
TikTok growing popularity at the beginning of the year
TikTok is a newcomer to the social media block and perhaps the second after Zoom to be the luckiest with Covid-19. It is estimated that the number of active users of the virus was 800 million, which far exceeds Snap and Twitter. In a few weeks of self-isolation, according to Apptopia, TikTok was downloaded 100 million times between March 20 and April 28.
TikTok has become a platform for brands to interact with the audience. This recent surge attracts the attention of marketers and their budgets.
As video usage statistics continue to grow in all fields of life, from entertainment to news, it is becoming increasingly in demand for marketers. In assessing how and where marketers plan to use video, Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2020 report found that YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn were the most popular videos, but TikTok advertising was the most successful for 66% of respondents.
A third (33%) of respondents said that next year they will increase their investment in the platform (net budget change by 31%). This means that more than two-thirds of marketers and agencies investing in TikTok will increase their costs in 2021.
TikTok for business
TikTok has already released a self-service platform for buying ads with flexible daily budgets, targeting and settings that are not too different from Facebook. You can also pay for your ads with a credit card.
TikTok does not publicly disclose the prices of its advertising tools and solutions, but says that the prices are based on what the brand wants to achieve and on the scale of its campaign. Its own website details some budget requirements, such as a minimum of $50 for both campaign daily budgets and general budgets. Digiday recently reported that CPM-based TikTok advertising prices were low during the recession compared to Facebook.
Most marketing products on TikTok For Business have been offered before, except for the new AR (augmented reality) effect. TikTok expects to launch it in the third quarter of 2020. This effect will be called AR Brand Effect advertising. It will allow TikTok users to add interactive visual effects provided by advertisers to their videos. The ad states that new users will join the TikTok AR Effect team and "will create innovative effects and augmented reality capabilities on TikTok mobile devices."
TikTok is also rolling out a new advertising format for influencers allowing creators to attach a call-to-action button to their videos. It will then be directly linked to the advertiser's site. The combination of this and AR advertising may be just what may be of interest to influential people who have complained about the limited revenue opportunities on the platform.
Creator Fund program
In addition to augmented reality, the platform has planned to launch other innovations. In August 2020, the TikTok platform opens the Creator Fund compensation program for influencers who create the best content on the platform. There are many "superstars" of TikTokers who have a huge number of subscribers (today the most popular TikTok influencer is Charlie D'Amelio with more than 50 MILLION fans). These people create unique content to inspire their audience by expanding their target audience to many brands.
To reward this work, the platform will open the Creator Fund program. TikTok has allocated a budget of $200 million for the first year, which will allow to pay the best content creators.
TikTok content creators will have to meet several criteria. Although not all of them have been fully disclosed, we already know that users must be at least 18 years old, have a certain number of subscribers and video posts.
The emergence of this compensation program shows that the social platform has developed a real strategy. This can be explained by several points, in particular the fact that TikTok wants to continue the successful trend that has already been created around the program. As the competition has remained fierce since Instagram introduced Reels, the creators are doing their best to keep their top users.