TIA Library

The TikTok
'For You' Playbook

Insights & 360° Digital Marketing Strategies

iPhone with Staples Canada's TikTok Feed
iPhone with Napoleon's TikTok Feed

Yes, you can drive leads, conversions, and followers. Whether you're a seasoned marketer or new to the game, this playbook will provide you with actionable strategies, tips, and tricks to create engaging content, build your following, and achieve your business goals on TikTok.

By the end of this playbook, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and tools to tap into TikTok's massive user base and reach new audiences in a fun, creative, and effective way.

Let's explore

Unsure Whether TikTok Is Right for You?

“My brand is too boring.”

“People on TikTok are too young.”

“I don’t know what is trending.”

“I do not have the resources to create weekly content.”

“I don’t get what value this is adding to my bottom line.”

“Will TikTok stick around?”

Let’s put a stop to this thinking real quick. The truth is, any brand can find success on TikTok with the right approach.

TikTok provides brands with a unique opportunity to authentically connect with audiences and showcase their personality in a creative and engaging way. While it's easy to think that only certain brands or industries can succeed on the platform, TikTok's algorithm favours engaging content regardless of the industry or niche. Even if a brand doesn't initially seem like a natural fit for the platform, there are plenty of ways to leverage TikTok's strengths to achieve business goals.

An Introduction to TikTok: The Basics You Need to Know

TikTok is a short-form, video-based social media platform become a powerhouse in recent years. What sets it apart from other platforms is its unique algorithm that showcases personalized content based on users' behaviour and interests. This has resulted in an explosion of user-generated content, making TikTok a hub for viral trends and challenges. Brands have taken notice of the platform's massive user base, with over 1.53 billion active users globally, and its ability to connect with younger audiences. 

TikTok has disrupted traditional marketing methods by offering a new, more organic way to reach consumers through creative and engaging content. As a result, brands that successfully tap into the platform's culture and trends can quickly gain widespread exposure and attract a devoted following. It's possible to reach thousands of users in days with just a few influencers mentioning your brand or product.

The Advantages of Using TikTok for Marketing

Massive User Base

With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok provides access to a massive and diverse audience. Brands can use the platform to reach new customers and engage with existing ones in a fun and interactive way.

Younger Demographic

Z

TikTok is particularly popular among Gen Z and millennials, making it an ideal platform for brands looking to reach younger audiences. By establishing a presence on TikTok, brands can tap into the preferences and behaviours of the next generation of consumers.

Creative Freedom

TikTok's emphasis on short-form, user-generated content encourages creativity and experimentation. Brands can use the platform to showcase their personality and connect with audiences on a more personal level.

Trendsetting Culture

TikTok has become a cultural phenomenon, with many viral trends originating on the platform. Brands that establish a presence on TikTok can tap into these trends and use them to build brand awareness and engage with audiences.

Business-friendly Features

TikTok offers several business-friendly features, including advertising options and analytics tools. Brands can use these features to measure the success of their TikTok campaigns and refine their approach over time.

Platform Demographics:
Who Uses TikTok?

Total Users Worldwide

1.53b

TikTok has over 1.53 billion users as of March 2023. 

30.25%

30.25% of the world's 5.07 billion internet users.

1.05b

1.05 billion monthly users across 154 countries.

Gender Split

A circle graph representing that 57% of TikTok users are female and 43% of TikTok users are male

57%

of TikTok users are female.

43%

of TikTok users are male.

Age Split

28%

of users are under 18 years old

35%

of users are between 19-29 years old

18%

of users are between 30-39 years old

19%

of users are over 39 years old

Average Time Spent on the App

1.5hours/day

TikTokers use the app for 1.5 hours a day on average.

2,700mins/month

That’s around 2,700 minutes per month.

Usage

35.1% use TikTok to follow or research brands.

78% of TikTok users are there to find funny or entertaining content.

32.4% of TikTok users use the app to keep up-to-date with current events.

Identifying Your Goals on TikTok

The first step to succeeding on TikTok is identifying your goals. From there, you can leverage various strategies to ensure your goals get met or—even better—exceeded!

There are three primary goals that brands can aim for: community growth, increasing brand awareness, and generating conversions and sales. Each of these goals serves a different purpose and requires a unique strategy, but they all ultimately aim to build brand credibility and drive business results. 

In the following sections, we'll explore each of these goals in more detail, providing tips and tactics for achieving success on TikTok. Whether you're looking to build a loyal following, establish brand recognition, or drive revenue, this playbook has got you covered.

Where Do I Even Start?

Starting with an awareness or community growth strategy can be a great way for brands to ease into the platform, develop your brand voice, refine your video style, and build a loyal audience for future ad targeting and remarketing efforts.

Jumping straight into conversions or sales without an established presence on the app can be challenging. Users may be hesitant to trust a new brand, and targeting options may be limited to interests, automated targeting, and hashtags. As we know, the most effective audiences for conversions are those who have engaged with your brand previously.

However, if your brand is already established on TikTok and you've run successful campaigns in the past, a conversion-focused approach may be the perfect fit for achieving your goals on the platform.

Goal 1

Promote Community Growth

Campaigns that grow your community through followers are called community growth campaigns. Simply put, you would boost the TikTok content on your brand page with the objective of community growth, and you can expect followers to roll in.

Who's this for?
This is perfect for brands that are new to the app and only have a few followers. If you are driving people to your TikTok page (through influencer marketing and people tagging the brand), this campaign will be essential for users to trust that you are a credible business.

Find Out How

Goal 2

Increase Brand Awareness

Brand awareness campaigns cast a large net and reach many people. They are great for reaching new audiences and for top-of-funnel awareness.

Who's this for?
This campaign is ideal for people who understand that it takes time to convert followers to customers and are ready to take the first step in moving people down the funnel.

Find Out How

Goal 3

Drive Conversions & Sales

Conversion campaigns tap into high-intent audiences with various touchpoints with the brand. TikTok has many exciting products and features to convert people in-app or on your website.

Who's this for?
This campaign is for brands who have previously executed brand awareness campaigns on TikTok and are ready to start turning people who are now familiar with the brand into loyal customers.

Find Out How

Building a community is a great social media strategy for brands to start with on TikTok. Creating a community on the platform allows brands to connect with users more personally and create loyal fans. This means actively engaging with followers, responding to comments and messages, and creating content that resonates with their audience.

Building a strong community is a crucial goal for brands on TikTok, and there are several effective methods to achieve this goal. The next few sections will cover how to achieve this goal with the following strategies:

Community Management

Community management is essential to elevating a brand and supporting community growth. At its core, community management involves creating and maintaining a social media presence that fosters engagement and brand loyalty among customers. This includes account creation, content creation, developing social media calendars for publishing content, and engagement tactics.

Account Creation
In case your brand doesn't have a TikTok account, our team will create one for you and secure a handle that reflects your brand identity. For large B2C brands, we're equipped to obtain your branded and verified handles if necessary, due to our close partnership with TikTok.

Content Creation
Once your account has been set up, our team will begin developing content for you. This involves brainstorming creative concepts that will grab the attention of the platform's audience, leveraging TikTok's editing tools to add effects and music, and ensuring that the video is optimized for the platform's vertical format. Additionally, it's important to keep in mind the length of the video, with 15-30 seconds being the recommended range. This allows users to quickly consume a large amount of content in a short amount of time, making it easier for them to engage with and share videos that are succinct and attention-grabbing.

iPhone mockup that highlights the safespace required for TikTok posts

Content Planning & Publishing
Our team prepares a weekly or monthly calendar for our clients, which includes identifying key themes, topics, and types of content that will resonate with the target audience. The next step is creating and curating the actual content for TikTok, which could include developing original videos, repurposing existing content, or partnering with influencers to create user-generated content (UGC), as well as relevant hashtags and captions for each video. Once the content is created, our team schedules and publishes at the optimal times to maximize engagement and reach.

Engagement
Our services also consist of engagement and community management for any client profiles, which includes monitoring all incoming comments and DMs and responding in a timely and appropriate manner. Doing so increases your visibility on the platform and attracts more followers. As an extension of this, we proactively engage with trending content within your industry to actively participate in relevant conversations and amplify your brand exposure.

How Community Management
Elevates Your Brand

Building a loyal customer base who feels genuinely connected to your brand is one of the most significant benefits of community management. You can establish yourself as a trusted authority in your industry or niche by engaging with followers regularly and creating content that resonates with them. This, in turn, leads to increased customer loyalty, brand advocacy, and, ultimately, revenue growth.

Setting Goals for
Community Management

Setting goals for this strategy should be based on your primary campaign KPIs. From an organic perspective, your main KPIs are community growth and engagement. Set measurable goals for these metrics and track progress over time. It's also a good idea to partner with a community management company like The Influence Agency that knows the industry so that you get expert guidance and support.

Branded & Reactive
Content Creation

Video content for TikTok is typically divided into two categories: evergreen and reactive. 

Evergreen content refers to content that remains relevant and useful over a long period of time and can be used repeatedly, even years after it was originally created, continuing to generate traffic, engagement, and leads for a brand. Examples of evergreen content include workplace or office tours, day-in-the-life videos, answering product or service FAQs, and educational resources. 

Additionally, we create reactive content since it is favoured by the TikTok algorithm. The goal of reactive content is to engage with the audience in real-time and to increase the likelihood of the content being shared and seen by a wider audience. Our social media team meets on a weekly basis to discuss trending TikTok content and determine how it can be adapted for our clients. From there, we create reactive video content and present it to you for final approval.

Evergreen Content

Relevant to your brand at any time, regardless of seasonality or current TikTok trends.

  • Timeless Value

  • Consistent Engagement

  • Increases Brand Awareness

  • Cost-Effective

  • Builds Authority

Reactive Content

Created in response to a specific event or trend, usually with the aim of capitalizing on its popularity or relevance.

  • Timeliness

  • Viral Potential

  • Fosters Brand Personality

  • Increases Brand Visibility

  • Keeps Content Fresh

However, creating content that resonates with the platform’s audience is a challenge that many brands are facing, making it an integral part of The Influence Agency’s TikTok marketing services. Specifically, our services address the following pain points:

Post Frequency & Quick Turnaround Times:

To be successful on the platform, you need to post frequently and in order to ride the momentum of trends, you need to hop on these trends quickly. Many brands don’t have the internal ability to execute video in such a timely manner.

Using Personal Likeness:

Many brands don’t have staff that are comfortable being on camera or willing to be the sole face featured in the content which is an important component to success on TikTok. 

Our internal team has the ability to combat both these pain points quickly and effectively, all we need is a little coordination and input from your brand team.  

How Content Creation Elevates Your Brand

Content creation is the backbone of any successful TikTok marketing strategy. By creating a variety of content, including evergreen and reactive content, you can keep your audience interested and engaged

Repurposing organic content for paid social and community-building efforts on TikTok can be an effective way to maximize your investment in content creation. By identifying top-performing organic content, brands can use this content to create paid ads that are more likely to resonate with their target audience. This not only saves time and resources in the content creation process, but also ensures that your paid ads are leveraging content that has already proven to be successful with your audience.

Setting Goals for Content Creation

A strategic approach to content creation should consider the brand's objectives, target audience, and current trends. The key is to balance evergreen and reactive content to ensure the brand's message is always relevant, fresh, and engaging. Similar to community management, content creation goals are dependent on the brand’s main campaign KPIs. From an organic perspective, KPIs are typically community growth and engagement. 

Follower Campaigns

As the strategy name suggests, follower campaigns are aimed at increasing the number of followers for your brand’s TikTok account. They are a powerful way to increase your brand’s visibility to a larger audience through paid ads with Community Interaction objectives—AKA Follower Optimization and Profile Visit Optimization.

Follower Optimization

A campaign objective designed to help brands increase their TikTok following and engagement. 

This objective is accomplished by running ads that encourage users to follow a brand's TikTok account, with the goal of building a loyal audience of engaged followers.

Profile Visit Optimization

A paid advertising campaign objective designed to drive traffic to a brand's TikTok profile. 

With this objective, the goal is to increase the number of people who visit a brand's profile on TikTok, which can ultimately lead to more followers, engagement, and conversions.

These campaign objectives can be used in conjunction with each other to create a comprehensive TikTok advertising strategy. Just make sure you rotate your ads frequently to avoid ad fatigue by repurposing existing content and strategically targeting audiences based on factors such as location, interests, and demographics. 

Community Interaction Campaign

From a single spark ad, we generated 3,000+ new followers at a cost-per-follow of <$0.30

Napoleon Grills Logo
Case Study

3,000+

New Followers Generated

at

<$0.30

Cost-Per-Follow

Work with The Influence Agency

How Follower Campaigns Elevate Your Brand

This objective is particularly effective for brands that regularly upload content and provide value to their audience. The more value a brand provides to its audience, the more likely they are to follow the brand and engage with its content. By running follower campaigns, brands can increase their social proof and brand trust by demonstrating that they have a large following of engaged users.

Ultimately, follower campaigns elevate your brand's social proof and build trust with online communities by showing you have a sizeable amount of followers.

Setting Goals for Follower Campaigns

Setting follower campaign goals requires knowing what audiences your brand wants to reach and target. Having a goal in mind helps select the right targeting options, creatives, and ad formats to use in the campaign. Assets should reflect your brand and encompass future content users can expect. Once a campaign is live, monitor conversion rates and determine top-performing and lowest-performing creatives to identify what content works best for this objective.

Benchmarks for cost-per-follow (CPF) vary depending on the industry, but they can range from $1.50 upwards of $10. 

$1.50 to $10

Range for Cost-per-follow (CPF)

How to Get Started Building a Community on TikTok

Building a community on TikTok can be a powerful way for brands and individuals to connect with their audience and expand their reach. However, getting started on the platform can be daunting, especially if you're new to social media or not familiar with TikTok's unique features. In this section, we'll guide you through the process of how to get started building a community on TikTok with actionable steps you can take.

Step 1

Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience is essential before you start creating TikTok content. As a brand, you must understand your audience's preferences and interests in order to develop content that resonates with them. This means you have to analyze your followers' demographics, interests, and behaviours to create content that's tailored to them. By doing this, your brand can better understand how to develop engaging and relevant content.

Producing content that resonates with your audience is more likely to attract followers and build a community on the platform. Understanding what your audience wants to see and what they find entertaining is a crucial first step in building a successful TikTok presence.

Step 2

Post Often

Posting often is a vital component of building a successful TikTok presence.
The platform's most successful creators and brands post daily, sometimes even multiple times a day!Consistency is key, as it helps ensure that you stay top of mind with your audience. But it's not just about frequency, it's also about catering to the TikTok algorithm. The more you post content that the algorithm deems valuable to your desired audience, the more likely your content will be discovered and shared widely. So, if you want to achieve viral success on TikTok, make posting often a priority.

Step 3

Use Relevant Hashtags

Hashtags are crucial to getting your content discovered by the right audience on TikTok. Using relevant hashtags popular in your niche can increase your visibility and get your content in front of users interested in your brand or products. Researching and choosing the right hashtags for each post is essential to maximize its reach. Here’s how:

  • Look At What Your Competitors Are Doing for Inspiration

  • Use TikTok’s Search Function to Find Related Keywords

  • Check the For You Page for Popular and Trending Content

  • Use Niche-Specific Hashtags to Reach a Wider Audience 

  • Experiment With Different Hashtags to Find Out What Works

Creating a branded hashtag for your business that you can use across all your TikTok content is also a good idea. This will help users discover more of your content and create a sense of community around your brand. So, don't overlook the power of hashtags in getting your content discovered on TikTok.

Step 4

Keep Your Content Casual

TikTok is a platform where authenticity and relatability reign supreme. The content that performs the best is often the one that appears to be user-generated. Brands that lean into this aesthetic and keep their content casual and authentic-looking perform better than those that are too "corporate" or polished.

TikTok's algorithm tends to reward brands that present themselves in a relatable way to the user base instead of coming across as overly promotional.
Brands that act like creators instead of advertisers are more likely to garner attention and engagement
It's all about staying true to the essence of TikTok and presenting a personality that resonates with the community.

Step 5

Collaborate With Creators

Collaborating with creators is a powerful way to expand your reach on TikTok. By partnering with influencers with established audiences that align with your brand, you can tap into new demographics and build credibility with potential customers.

When choosing creators to collaborate with, it's important to consider their audience demographics, content style, and overall brand fit. Working with a diverse range of creators can also help you reach new audiences and increase your brand's visibility on the platform. With the right partnerships in place, you can leverage the power of social proof to build your brand's reputation and drive engagement with your content.

Step 6

Engage With Your Audience

Engaging with your audience is essential to building a community on TikTok. Brands who actively comment under their videos, UGC content, competitor content, and viral content in their category or content mentioning a competitor in the hope of getting in on the conversation excel on the platform.

A great example of a brand doing this is Duolingo, which uses humour and wit to interact with its followers in a fun and playful way. It's a great way to show off your brand personality and attract users to your page, especially if your comment gets pinned or gets the most likes. When you engage with your audience, you build relationships and show the algorithm that your content is valuable.

Step 7

Lead With Value Through “Edu-tainment”

Creating educational content on TikTok can be a powerful way to build a loyal following while providing value to your audience. The platform has become a go-to source for quick, visually engaging how-to's and hacks, making it an excellent platform for brands to showcase their expertise. From work-from-home tips to DIY projects, educational content possibilities are endless.

However, keeping the content light and fun is important, as TikTok users tend to favour entertaining content over more serious or dry educational content. Additionally, TikTok's algorithm acts as a search engine, with 40% of Gen Z preferring TikTok over Google when searching for something online. This makes educational content even more valuable for building a brand's presence on the platform.

Step 8

Engage With Your Competitors

Engaging with competitors on TikTok can actually benefit your brand! 

When you comment on viral industry content within your niche, it can increase your brand visibility. The key is to make sure your comment is interesting and cheeky enough to get the attention of other users. If your comment receives a lot of "likes," it may even appear at the top of the comments section, giving you even more exposure.

Additionally, keeping tabs on your competitors' content is a good idea to see if there's an opportunity to "own" a competitor issue or hijack a trending story for your benefit. Just remember to always be respectful and professional in your engagement.

Step 9

Create a Recurring Series

Creating a recurring series is a great way to keep your audience engaged and coming back for more. By breaking down a topic within your niche into multiple parts, you can create an ongoing storyline or theme that your audience will eagerly anticipate. The beauty of this tactic is that it will leave your audience wanting more and coming back for the next episode. 

Plus, if your audience watches the entire video, TikTok's algorithm will likely serve the follow-up episodes as well. The more traction your series gets, the more conversation will spark in the comments, which could inspire future TikToks within the series. So, get creative and plan a series that your audience will love!

Step 10

Experiment and Take Creative Risks

Brands must be willing to take creative risks and think outside the box to stand out. Unlike other platforms, TikTok rewards content creators who are daring and unafraid to experiment with new approaches. Brands should be open to exploring innovative ideas and embracing unconventional content styles to make an impact. 

The more unique, memorable, and attention-grabbing the content, the better the chance of capturing the interest of your desired audience. By pushing the boundaries and taking creative risks, you can connect with your audience and make a lasting impression on the platform.

Increasing brand awareness on TikTok means making more people familiar with your brand and what it stands for. This is important because the more people who are aware of your brand, the more likely they are to remember it and choose your products or services over those of your competitors. Building brand awareness can also help increase your social media following, which can lead to more engagement, sales, and word-of-mouth referrals. 

There are several effective ways for brands to increase awareness and recognition on TikTok. We will cover the following strategies to achieve this goal in the upcoming sections:

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing on TikTok is a powerful way for brands to reach new audiences and build trust with their target customers, with 51% of consumers trusting influencers as a reliable source of information before making a purchase.

This strategy involves collaborating with popular TikTok creators who have a large following and can promote your brand's products or services in their videos. Typically, they will be provided guidelines or a brief to follow, and will create a video that features your brand in a way that appeals to their audience. In some cases, the influencer may also include a discount code or other call-to-action to encourage their followers to try the product or service.

By collaborating with influencers, brands can tap into their existing audience and gain exposure to new, potential customers in authentic and relatable ways.

How to Pick the Right Influencers For Your Campaign
When picking influencers for your TikTok campaign, the first step is to identify your campaign goals, target audience, and budget. It's also important to do your research within your industry category to see what has worked for other brands. You should understand the different types of influencers and their corresponding rates, so you can choose what's feasible with the budget you have. Once you have narrowed down your options, request the influencers' audience analytics to ensure that they align with your target audience. 

By carefully considering these factors, you can pick the right influencers who can help elevate your brand on TikTok.

Julia Romano
@julesthelawyer
141.6K Followers

Katherine Grace Moore
@katherinewants
745K Followers

Athena Ashley Bates
@athenaashleybates
161.9K Followers

Tiffy Chen
@tiffycooks
2.9M Followers

Ramiro Garza
@ramirogarza_
249.4K Followers

How Influencer Marketing Elevates Your Brand

Partnering with a popular and relevant influencer can expose your brand to a large and engaged audience, potentially leading to increased brand awareness, trust, and sales.  Influencer-created content can be more authentic and relatable to viewers compared to traditional advertising, which can enhance the brand's credibility and reputation. Finally, influencer collaborations can generate user-generated content and valuable user feedback, which can be repurposed for future marketing efforts such as paid ads. 

Overall, TikTok influencer marketing can provide a unique opportunity for brands to connect with their target audience in a more organic and effective way.

Setting Goals for Influencer Marketing

To set goals for influencer marketing on TikTok, you should first identify what you want to achieve. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or generate sales? These should align with your overall campaign objectives. Once you have identified your goals, you should determine how you will measure success with the following KPIs:

Impressions

Reach

Engagement Rate

Follower Growth

Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Conversion Rate

Return on Investment (ROI)

By setting clear goals and KPIs, you can track the success of your influencer marketing campaign and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.

Influencer Content Spark Ads

TikTok user interface with the different sections labelled

How Influencer Content Spark Ads Elevate Your Brand

By incorporating boosted posts into your TikTok marketing strategy, you can tap into the influencer's following—which can potentially increase brand exposure and reach a wider audience. Influencers have a dedicated following that trusts and values their opinions, so using their content in Spark Ads can provide social proof and credibility for your brand. 

By leveraging the power of influencer content in Spark Ads, your brand can effectively target your desired audience and achieve your marketing goals on TikTok.

Setting Goals for Influencer Content Spark Ads

Spark Ads can be optimized for specific campaign objectives, such as increasing website traffic or app downloads, which can lead to increased conversions and revenue. To set goals for this type of strategy, choose the campaign objective you want to run in TikTok Ads Manager. It's also important to understand industry benchmarks so that you're able to compare your campaign results and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.

2023 TikTok Ad Benchmarks

$9.5

Average CPM

0.58%

Average CTR

1.1%

Average CR

With every influencer marketing campaign, we suggest allocating a percentage of your budget to amplify the influencer’s content.

Spark Ads—known as boosted posts on other social platforms—allow businesses to use existing content from their influencer partnerships and repurpose it as an ad format on the platform. 

To use influencer content for Spark Ads, first, a brand must partner with an influencer and create content that aligns with the brand's marketing goals. The influencer's content can then be used to create a Spark Ad, where it will be displayed as an in-feed video ad to the target audience. You can use Spark Ads to promote your brand’s products or services and reach a wider audience through the influencer's followers. 

It's important to note that you should ensure that you have the rights to use the influencer's content in paid promotions and comply with any legal requirements. 

How to Get Started Increasing Brand Awareness on TikTok

If you're looking to increase your brand's visibility, TikTok can be a powerful platform to achieve those goals. TikTok offers brands an opportunity to create content that resonates with their target audience and drives brand awareness. But with so much content on the platform, it can be difficult to know where to start. In this section, we'll provide some tips and best practices to help you get started with increasing brand awareness on TikTok.

Step 1

Develop an “Always On” Strategy

An "Always On" strategy is crucial to increasing brand awareness on TikTok. In contrast to other social media platforms, TikTok demands consistency in posting content to remain relevant and top of mind. An Always-On strategy helps keep your brand at the forefront of your target audience's minds and encourages them to engage with your content, building brand familiarity and loyalty.

Creating a content calendar that aligns with your business objectives and goals is essential, enabling you to design and curate content that resonates with your audience. By implementing an always-on strategy, you can keep your brand top-of-mind and establish a stronger brand identity on the platform.

Step 2

Ensure Your Content is Relevant

Making your content relevant and timely is key to increasing brand awareness on TikTok. The algorithm on TikTok pushes content relevant to the platform's audience, so brands should stay on top of trending topics, sounds, and challenges to ensure their content appears in front of the right people.

Brands can also leverage the platform's popular effects and hashtags to increase the reach and visibility of their content. By keeping up with current trends and creating content that aligns with the interests of the TikTok audience, brands can increase their chances of going viral and reaching a wider audience.

Step 3

Ensure Your Content is Relatable

It's essential to create content that TikTok users can relate to if you want to increase brand awareness. Users are more likely to engage with content that resonates with them and feels authentic. This means that brands should create genuine and not overly polished content. It's also important to understand your target audience and what type of content they are interested in.

When brands create content that speaks to their audience's interests and experiences, they are more likely to connect with them and increase brand awareness. By being relatable, brands can build trust and loyalty with their audience, leading to long-term success on the platform.

Step 4

Engage With Like-minded Accounts & Users

Building your community and making your brand known on TikTok starts with engaging with other like-minded accounts and users. When you interact with people who share your interests and values, you increase your brand's visibility and establish yourself as part of the community. Following other accounts, commenting on their posts, and participating in challenges or trends can help.

Engaging your audience is also important, as responding to comments and direct messages fosters loyalty. You can build a stronger presence on the platform by building relationships with other users and engaging them.

Step 5

Use Paid Amplification to Reach a Wider Audience

Paid amplification is crucial to increasing brand awareness on TikTok. Setting aside a budget to promote your content can help you reach a wider audience and target specific demographics that align with your brand. Boosting posts or running sponsored ads can help you get to users who are not already following you, expanding your brand's reach and awareness.

TikTok Ads Manager offers various campaign objectives for business goals such as traffic, reach, and engagement. It is crucial to identify your objectives and KPIs beforehand to measure success and adjust your strategy accordingly. Additionally, understanding industry benchmarks can help you evaluate the success of your campaign and optimize future efforts.

Ultimately, brands want to grow their business and increase revenue. Driving conversions and sales means converting TikTok users into customers who make a purchase or take a desired action, such as signing up for a newsletter or downloading an app. 

TikTok offers several tools and strategies that can help brands achieve this goal. The following few sections will discuss how to reach this goal using the following strategies:

Branded Content Spark Ads

As previously mentioned, Spark Ads allow advertisers to publish ads using their own TikTok account's posts or organic posts made by other creators with their permission. Using Spark Ads, your brand can reach your target audience with native content that blends in with the platform, helping to build trust and increase engagement.

To get the most out of Spark Ads, brands should focus on creating TikToks, not ads. This means producing sponsored content that is both engaging and entertaining, while still maintaining a relaxed and informal tone while taking advantage of the platform's sound-on feature and fast-paced nature. You don’t want your ad to come across as an ad.

How Branded Content Spark Ads Elevate Your Brand

Using TikTok, customers can interact with your business in a fun, authentic, and highly effective way. That's much more fun than reading about what a company does on social media or looking at boring product photos. 

Spark Ads can include a call-to-action button that directs users to the brand's website or a specific product page, making it easier for users to take action and make a purchase. This allows your business to present its products and services uniquely and creatively, particularly in a world where consumers are increasingly skeptical of traditional advertising methods. 

Setting Goals for Branded Content Spark Ads

Spark Ads can be used for any campaign objective, from awareness to traffic and conversions, and can help brands elevate popular native content. With Spark Ads, brands can increase paid profile visits and engagement while increasing brand awareness. To set goals for Spark Ads, advertisers can leverage all TikTok objectives, including the following:

Reach

Video Views

Traffic

Conversions

App Installs

User-Generated Content

User-generated content (UGC) refers to content created by fans, followers, or customers rather than the brand itself. UGC can take many forms, such as photos, videos, reviews, and testimonials. Brands can use it to gain trust, boost engagement, and drive conversions by tapping into the authentic voice of their audience.

UGC tends to outperform over-produced assets because it is more relatable and engaging to consumers. It can be particularly effective for driving conversions and sales because it allows you to showcase your product or service authentically. Associating your brand with trusted creators and leveraging social proof can elevate your marketing campaigns.

Additionally, partnering with influential TikTok users and creators can help boost your UGC's visibility and relatability. By providing influencers with ad guidelines and encouraging them to participate in brand trends and challenges, you can help to generate UGC that is both authentic and effective.


Authentic Content From Real People
UGC feels more authentic and trustworthy because it comes from real people rather than a brand's marketing team. This can increase the credibility and relatability of your brand on TikTok as the platform's user base values genuine, unfiltered content that reflects the personalities and perspectives of the creators. 

Cost-Effective
Compared to producing original content from scratch, using UGC can significantly reduce the production costs of a TikTok campaign. Even better, UGC is often created and shared by users for free or in exchange for a small incentive, making it an even more cost-effective way for brands to create content.

Engaging
UGC can be more engaging than branded content because it is created by real people and reflects their unique experiences and perspectives. When people see UGC, they may feel more inclined to engage with it, such as by liking, commenting, or sharing the content with their own followers. 

Encourages Community Building
When brands encourage users to share their own content related to the brand or product, it can foster a sense of participation and belonging. This can lead to more engagement and increased brand loyalty, as well as a stronger sense of brand identity and community.

Viral Potential
TikTok's algorithm is designed to promote videos that generate high levels of engagement, including likes, shares, and comments, regardless of who created the content. This means that UGC that resonates with the TikTok community has the potential to reach a much larger audience than traditional branded content. 

Showcases Diverse Perspectives
UGC opens up the possibility for a wide range of perspectives and experiences to be shared. This can be particularly valuable for brands looking to connect with a diverse audience and show that they are inclusive and aware of different cultural backgrounds and experiences.

How UGC Elevates Your Brand

TikTok's algorithm rewards content that feels authentic and engaging by amplifying it to a wider audience, which can ultimately lead to increased brand exposure and growth. Users are also more likely to engage with content that they perceive as authentic, which can result in higher levels of user-generated content and community building. 

In contrast, brands that try to force a certain image or message on TikTok risk coming across as inauthentic or tone-deaf, which can turn off users and damage the brand's reputation. 

Since UGC is often created by people who are passionate about your brand or products, it can be highly effective at generating excitement and buzz around your offerings. By embracing authenticity and creating content that feels true to their brand values and the TikTok community, brands can build trust and loyalty with their followers and create a lasting presence on the platform.

Setting Goals for UGC

UGC content can be used for In-Feed Ads for any campaign objective or be used as a Spark Ad. When setting your goals for campaigns that utilize UGC, ensure that you are aligning your chosen content with the interests, demographic, and audience targeting options in TikTok.

Ultimately, incorporating UGC into a TikTok strategy can help brands maximize their return on investment and allocate their resources more efficiently.

Delta Investment Tracker Case Study: UGC Campaign

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Case Study

We generated 29K app downloads at a $9 CPI benchmark with influencer marketing!

29k

App Downloads

at

$9

CPI

Work with The Influence Agency

How to Get Started Generating Conversions on TikTok

By now, we know that TikTok isn't just a platform for entertainment and engagement. It also provides opportunities for businesses to drive conversions and boost sales. However, with the fast-paced nature of TikTok and its unique user base, it can be challenging to navigate the platform and effectively convert viewers into customers. Here are some tips and strategies for how to start generating sales and conversion on TikTok: 

Step 1

Align Your Business Goal With Campaign Objectives

Aligning your business goals with campaign objectives is essential in generating TikTok conversions. You can create campaigns specifically tailored to meet those goals by clearly defining what you want to achieve.

There are different campaign objectives to choose from, such as Awareness, Traffic, and Conversions. For example, if your business aims to increase website visits or generate leads, you should select the Traffic or Conversions objective. By aligning your business goal with the right campaign objective, you can ensure your TikTok campaign is optimized to deliver the desired results.

Step 2

Create TikToks, Not Ads

It's important to remember that you're creating TikToks, not ads. TikTok is a sound-on platform, so music or sound effects are essential. Additionally, TikTok's fast-paced nature means that casual videos, not highly-produced ones, tend to perform better. To make your content more engaging, try breaking the fourth wall by having creators talk directly to the camera. It's also a good idea to include closed captions for accessibility.

Focus on creator-first, user-generated content. Creating relatable and fun content can increase your brand's engagement and drive conversions. TikTok is about having fun and being creative, so let your imagination run wild!

Step 3

Cast a Wide Net With Targeting

To get conversions on TikTok, you need to cast a wide net with targeting. This means combining relevant interests, videos, creator interaction categories, and hashtags that match your content. By doing this, you can reach a broader audience and increase the likelihood of conversion.

Additionally, it's important to remember your target audience's demographics and interests when selecting targeting options. By using TikTok's targeting tools effectively, brands can ensure that their content reaches the right people and maximize the impact of their campaigns. Ultimately, casting a wide net with targeting is essential to generating conversions on TikTok and achieving your campaign objectives.

Step 4

Use Tailored Ad Copy

Ad copy is key to driving conversions on TikTok. Brands should write ads that resonate with their target audience and tell a clear story about what they do. Your message needs to grab people's attention within 44 characters since the app truncates the text after that.

Ad copy should be concise, compelling, and relevant to the campaign objective. Make your ad copy more engaging and attention-grabbing by using emojis or other visual elements. Making compelling TikTok ads that speak to the target audience increases the chances of brands getting conversions and sales.

Step 5

Boost Ad Effectiveness With Interactive Add-Ons

Use interactive add-ons like display cards, promo stickers, and more to boost ad effectiveness on TikTok. Advertisers can use these features to create an engaging and interactive experience, which can increase conversions. For example, display cards can tell viewers more about a product or service, while promo stickers can offer exclusive deals.

These interactive features can help brands stand out on TikTok and make their ads more memorable. TikTok is a highly creative platform, and interactive add-ons can help you make your ads more creative and effective. Combine these features with tailored ad copy and user-generated content to get more conversions and increase success on TikTok.

The Influence Agency’s TikTok Packages

Getting your social media strategy right means working with an agency that understands how to navigate the ever-changing landscape of social media marketing. Whether you're looking to increase brand awareness, drive conversions and sales, or engage with your followers through user-generated content, The Influence Agency offers a range of TikTok packages that can help you achieve your marketing goals.

$10,000

Includes: UGC, paid social mgmt, ad spend, agency fee

4x

UGC Assets

  • In-house reactive content that speaks to relevant trends on TikTok/IG

  • Leverages UGC creators and/or nano influencers to create native-looking assets that are optimized for ads

  • Includes digital usage (60 days)

2 months

Paid Social Management

  • Weekly optimizations

  • Custom audience creation 

  • Includes ad spend ($2K/month)

Contact us

$15,000

Includes: UGC, paid social mgmt, ad spend, agency fee

6x

UGC Assets

  • In-house reactive content that speaks to relevant trends on TikTok/IG

  • Leverages UGC creators and/or nano influencers to create native-looking assets that are optimized for ads

  • Includes digital usage (90 days)

3 months

Paid Social Management

  • Weekly optimizations

  • Custom audience creation 

  • Remarketing (pixel implementation assistance included)

  • Includes ad spend ($2K/month)

Contact us

$20,000

Includes: UGC, paid social mgmt, ad spend, agency fee

8x

UGC Assets

  • In-house reactive content that speaks to relevant trends on TikTok/IG

  • Leverages UGC creators and/or nano influencers to create native-looking assets that are optimized for ads

  • Includes digital usage (120 days)

4 months

Paid Social Management

  • Weekly optimizations

  • Custom audience creation 

  • Remarketing (pixel implementation assistance included)

  • Includes ad spend ($2K/month)

Contact us

TIA Lite

$6,500

  • 12 Posts / 8 Stories per month

  • 24 Custom Photos

  • 12 Design Graphics

Get TIA Lite

$8,500

TIA Custom
  • 16 Posts / 8 Stories per month

  • 15 Custom Photos

  • 6 Design Graphics

  • 5 Custom Videos

Get TIA Custom

$10,000

TIA Motion
  • 12 Posts per month

  • 30 Reels/TikToks

Get TIA Motion

TIA Studio

$12,000

  • 16 Posts / 8 Stories per month

  • 8 Studio Photos

  • 4 Stop Motion

  • 5 Custom Videos

Get TIA Studio