What makes a TikTok campaign successful? (2024)

Did you know? TikTok ads outperform TV ads. Check it out for yourself…

As you can see in the image above, TikTok advertising is cheaper and more effective. Plus, the audience on TikTok is quite a pot of gold for most businesses.

Every 2 in 10 TikTok users are young females. This means brands who are spending 80% of their marketing budget targeting females have a massive opportunity for sales on this platform.

And it won’t be a shot in the dark. According to TikTok, the platform has helped millennials and Gen Z both discover new products and influence their buying decisions.

On that note, in this guide, we’ll be exploring how can you use this impact and influence of TikTok to your benefit. We’ll share the basics of TikTok marketing as well as how to effectively develop a TikTok campaign of your own.

Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Essentially, ‘TikTok marketing’ is all about utilizing the platform’s unique features and user behaviors to promote brands, products, or services. With its predominantly youthful audience and emphasis on creative expression, TikTok offers a dynamic space for businesses to connect with consumers in an authentic and engaging manner.

From viral challenges to influencer collaborations, TikTok houses loads of opportunities for brands to cultivate brand awareness and drive conversions through compelling content.

TikTok marketing is a broader term. TikTok campaign is a more specific term within this broad domain.

It’s basically a structured marketing initiative designed to achieve specific objectives through targeted content creation and distribution on the platform. Unlike traditional advertising methods, TikTok campaigns utilize the platform’s interactive features, including music, filters, and effects, to captivate and engage audiences effectively.

These campaigns can take various forms, such as branded challenges, influencer partnerships, or user-generated content competitions, tailored to resonate with TikTok’s dynamic community.

By utilizing the platform’s viral nature and creative tools, brands can amplify their message and develop meaningful connections with their target audience.

@chipotle TFW guac is free. Online/in-app only 7/31 #GuacDance ♬ The Guacamole Song - Dr. Jean

Brands like Chipotle have embraced TikTok as a platform for innovative marketing. Chipotle’s #GuacDance challenge encouraged users to show off their dance moves for a chance to win free guacamole.

The campaign generated over 250,000 video submissions and 430 million video starts, demonstrating the power of user-generated content and interactive challenges to drive engagement and brand affinity on TikTok.

This example highlights how creative, interactive campaigns can resonate with TikTok’s audience and yield impressive results for brands.

@glamzilla This @elfyeah Jelly Highlighter is HOT FIRE! #ad #eyeslipsface #elfingamazing #elfcosmetics #crueltyfree #vegan ♬ original sound - GLAMZILLA

Another compelling example of a successful TikTok campaign is the collaboration between the cosmetics brand e.l.f. and the popular TikTok influencer, @glamzilla. In this campaign, e.l.f. challenged @glamzilla to create a captivating makeup transformation using only e.l.f. products within a limited time frame.

The resulting video showcased @glamzilla‘s incredible makeup skills while effectively highlighting e.l.f.’s product range. With engaging content and the influencer’s authenticity, the campaign garnered millions of views. This did not only lead to brand awareness but also generated product interest among TikTok users.

This partnership exemplifies how leveraging influencers and user-generated content can propel a brand’s message to a wider audience and foster genuine connections with consumers on TikTok.

Before launching a TikTok campaign, it’s crucial to define clear objectives and identify the target audience. Whether your goal is to increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, or boost sales, understanding the desired outcomes will shape the campaign strategy and content creation process.

Moreover, a deep understanding of the target audience’s demographics, interests, and behaviors on TikTok is essential for crafting content that truly resonates and drives engagement.

With that said, the following are three most common types of business goals to set for TikTok campaigns:

• Brand awareness: Introduce the brand to a new audience and increase visibility.
• Engagement: Increase interaction and build a community around the brand.
• Lead generation: Capture potential customers’ interest and gather contact information.
• Sales: Drive conversions and revenue through product promotions and discounts.

Apart from the demographics and basic details, you should have an understanding of your target audience’s behavior. Are they even using TikTok or prefer the kind of music/filters/words you’re going to use in your TikTok campaign?

If you do not have a definite answer to this, you might be shooting a shot in the dark — which means wasting hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Remember, majority of TikTok’s user base skews towards younger demographics, particularly Gen Z and Millennials. Plus, most users on TikTok are drawn to authenticity, humor, and creativity. It is an ideal platform for brands with a playful or visually appealing aesthetic.

Clarity of your objectives also involves having clarity about your ‘funnel.

Earlier, we did a detailed post on how to build a video marketing funnel. But to quickly recap it for you: a funnel guides the video viewer from awareness to conversion.

You should have a funnel that:

• Reaches out to new people, makes them aware of your brand
• Builds interest using interesting videos, ad campaigns, or other pieces of content
• Convinces the user to consider buying your product/service.
• Successfully sells the product

The product/service is successfully sold, the user is converted and the funnel is effective.

You may utilize TikTok’s various ad formats, such as In-Feed ads, Branded Hashtag Challenges, and TopView ads, to target users at different stages of the funnel. Also, you might want to use tracking tools to measure campaign performance and optimize strategies based on user engagement and conversion metrics.

The next most essential thing you need for launching a successful TikTok campaign is outstanding video content.

There are two ways to arrange this:

1. Outsource the task to freelancers or video production agencies
2. Do it yourself!

In either case, you will have to first develop creative concepts that align with the brand’s identity and resonate with your TikTok’s audience. These are basically the video ideas you are generating.

For these, you can also capitalize on trending topics, challenges, or memes while adding a unique twist to stand out from the crowd.

If you’re producing the video content by yourself, consider investing in high-quality production equipment, such as cameras, lighting, and audio devices, to ensure professional-looking videos. You might want to browse this list of complete videography equipment if you’re completely new to video production.

It’s also a good idea to experiment with different filming techniques, angles, and settings to create visually captivating content.

Also, pay attention to details like framing, composition, and visual effects to enhance the overall aesthetic appeal of the video.

Given that, we know video production is difficult — especially for the newbies. So, if your footage is shaky, needs some professional transitions, text overlays, or audio editing, we’re happy to extend help. We can refine and polish your videos for less than $75 per video (check out Weekly Plan).

And let us tell you – that’s the most economical video editing package out there. We’ve compared the top 15 video editing services to outsource for you.

But if you’re starting from scratch and got no budget at all, you can take help from YouTube tutorials and online video editing tools (but they may come with a non-removable watermark).

TikTok SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plays a crucial role in maximizing the visibility and discoverability of your content on the platform.

By optimizing various elements, you can increase the chances of your TikTok videos appearing in users’ feeds and search results, ultimately driving more engagement and reach.

Here are key techniques to enhance your TikTok SEO:

• TikTok Hashtags
• Research relevant and trending hashtags related to your content or industry.
• Use a mix of broad and niche hashtags to increase the discoverability of your videos.
• Incorporate branded hashtags to strengthen your brand identity and encourage user-generated content.
• Avoid overloading your captions with hashtags; focus on using a select few that are most relevant to your video.
• Captioning
• Craft compelling captions that provide context, intrigue, or call-to-action for your videos.
• Include relevant keywords or phrases in your captions to improve searchability.
• Utilize emojis and formatting to make your captions visually appealing and easy to read.
• Encourage engagement by prompting users to like, comment, or share your video in the caption.
• Cross-Platform Sharing
• Use other social media channels to promote your TikTok content and drive traffic to your profile.
• Share your TikTok videos on platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to reach a broader audience.
• Customize your captions and thumbnails for each platform to optimize engagement and relevance.

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• Subtitles
• Add subtitles or captions to your videos to make them accessible to users with hearing impairments.
• Subtitles also improve engagement by making your content more consumable in noisy environments or situations where sound is muted.
• Use clear and concise language in your subtitles to ensure readability and comprehension.

Summing up, mastering the art of TikTok marketing requires a strategic blend of creativity, audience understanding, and optimization techniques.

By incorporating the essential elements discussed – setting clear goals, creating outstanding video content, and optimizing for TikTok SEO – brands can easily maximize their impact and drive success on the platform.

Also, before we part, here’s an additional tip for you: keep the dimension of your video approx 9:16 for best results and keep the video durations between 21 to 34 seconds! This will retain your audience’s attention in TikTok’s dynamic ecosystem very effectively.