Do you advertise your app where you want to advertise your app, or where your customers are at?
According to a 2020 Kantar “survey of 4,000 consumers and over 700 senior marketers,” there is a “discrepancy between consumers – who favor advertising on fresher platforms such as TikTok – and marketers, who favor more established brands such as YouTube,” reported The Drum.
Following the partnership marketing certificate and after a few hot (if we can say so ourselves) campaigns we help execute, we’re going to help you leverage one of today’s hottest platforms to create a deeper connection with your customers and significantly increase your user acquisition performance.
“Don’t Make Ads. Make TikToks”
As TikTok itself will tell you, if you want to create ads that drive actual results for your app, “don’t make ads. Make TikToks.”
Find ways to incorporate your app, product and message in native TikTok experiences, while recreating popular dances, trends, humorous skits and challenges. In today’s blog post, we’ll show you both ads and everyday creator posts to inspire you to do just that.
One of the simplest ways to do it, though, is to follow one of the most effective TikTok advertising strategies, according to TikTok – “let TikTok creators lead the way.”
Just recently in late January, we had the pleasure to support and be part of the very first TikTok hashtag challenge in Mexico of TCL Mobile together with Zoomd Mexico and the outstanding creative team at Alazrki networks. The First of its kind campaign in Mexico was created uniquely to support the brand activity in the region among the young and active target audience. Generating staggering results of more than 40K followers in less then 24 hours, and so far, created more than 100 million views in total. It is without a doubt that no other media source or platform would be able to meet these results and high exposure with the targeted audience, not even mass media Television broadcast.
Show Your Customers You Believe in Them
While every platform has its negative aspects, TikTok often shows up as a very uplifting platform. Spend some time on the “For You” page, and you’ll see smile after smile expanding as the dance continues. But it’s not just about watching creators having fun, and feeling the contagious need to dance yourself.
You’ll also come across massive creativity in anything from home décor to science experiments, alongside posts focused on women empowerment and stereotype breaking, and hashtags like #ItsOkNotToBeOK, that raise mental health awareness and let people know they’re not the only ones dealing with challenges.
@brooklynandbailey##sponsored Maybe we woke up like this,##MaybeItsMaybelline! @maybelline♬ original sound – Brooklyn and Bailey
Advertising on TikTok is a great opportunity to position your app as the one that believes in the power of your target audience, the one that tells them they’re OK just as they are, and the one that inspires them to turn their aspirations into reality.
@jaymethompson20Build Up Their Confidence ##momsoftiktok ##strongwomen ##momsofdaughters ##positivevibes ##spreadlove ##confidence♬ original sound – Cat Gray
Create a Hashtag or Trend that Sparks Creativity
Of course, instead of following popular hashtags and trends to advertise your app – you can just create one yourself.
To raise awareness for a new car, for example, BMW‘s creators showcased multiple ways to use the campaign’s hashtag.
@falcopunchEndless ##joy with @skyandtami , @patrox & ##BMW 😎 Join ##THE1challenge ##anzeige♬ Like That – NGHTMRE & Big Gigantic
They created multiple videos that could spark creativity in their audiences, and in any case, stood out from traditional car ads.
Of course, while leaving room for creativity with your hashtag or challenge is important, make sure it’s easy to replicate if you want to see it all over the “For You” page (and please make it a challenge that your customers can recreate safely).
Think Outside the Demographic Box
If you use TikTok as someone who’s over 30, you’ll likely come across posts from 30-something and 40-something creators sharing that some viewers told them they’re too old for this platform. But the data disagrees. Depending on the research you read, 44% of TikTok members are over the age of 30, or 49.7% of TikTok members are over 34.
So reaching vast audience on the platform is relevant and should be done correctly with highlighting your benefits to that age group, understanding their needs:
And this talented woman, @keiko.at70, with her 104,600 followers at the time of writing this, isn’t the only one out of the #Over30Club taking TikTok by storm. @amybartoncotney, for example, has 536,500 followers.
@amybartoncotneyGawd I love being married to a happy, silly man that can dance! ##doitbold ##couples##rockstarhusband ##youbeyou##positivity ##positivityclub♬ original sound – Tex
If your app or your products could make life better for active, life-loving adults of all ages, this might just be *the* app to differentiate your brand – and acquire users who you might have otherwise missed out on.
Chances are, if you target “older” audiences on this platform and speak the TkTok language, you’ll likely speak to their souls in a way that most of society just doesn’t.
Add an Element of Surprise
The more time people spend with your brand, the more brand recall and emotional connection you’re likely to build with them. Plus, we know that people often need to hear the same message multiple times before they take action.
TikTok, with its automatic loopable videos, plays that up. Take advantage of this feature by giving viewers a reason to *have* to watch again.
If you’re advertising an app for dog owners, maybe have a dog clap her paws and instantly change outfits at the end of the video. If you’re advertising milk, you could do something like this:
Even viewers who aren’t yet ready to download your app might be curious enough to check out the rest of your videos or learn more about your brand. If your non-ad videos are of similar quality and feel, they’ll likely follow you and continue the conversation, until they’re ready to convert.
Amplify TikTok’s Data for Better User Acquisition
To improve your user acquisition rates, you likely spend a lot of time analyzing data, trying to figure out why something didn’t work, and doing more of what actually drives results. The more data you have, and the easier is it to access and analyze it, the smarter decisions you can make for your app marketing efforts.
But while TikTok gives you access to data and analytics, it’s limited to what TikTok alone knows. To get a deeper picture, you’ve got to look at your data across all platforms. TikTokers do communicate differently than Instagrammers, however analyzing cross-platform behavior gives you a clearer understanding of your audience, which sparks insights and ideas you might not have been able to access before. As at the end of the day the metric might be a bit different from one media source to another, but the bottom line is always the same.
Of course, doing it all manually can end up costing you a lot of time, money and frustration. It can be confusing, as data looks differently on each platform, and the metrics you’re able to measure are sometimes different as well.
As performance marketers, we’ve been there too – until we decided to do something about it, so our clients and fellow marketers won’t have to.
We built a proprietary, AI-based platform that unifies all premium channels all in one dashboard, and unifies all that data as well. Data from one channel now automatically impact the decisions we make on other channels, and it has significantly improved both our time management and user acquisition results. We can do it for you too, or just give you access to our platform, so you can do it yourself. Check it out here.