How to Create Branded Content and Ads on TikTok that Engage Your Audience
Hi online friends, If you're looking for a way to reach a massive and diverse audience with your brand message, you might want to consider TikTok. The popular video-sharing app has over 1 billion active users worldwide and offers a variety of advertising options to suit your goals and budget.
But advertising on TikTok isn't as simple as posting a video and hoping for the best. You need to understand the platform's unique culture, algorithm, and creative tools to create content that resonates with your target audience and drives them to action.
In this article, we'll guide you through the basics of branded content and ads on TikTok, including the different types of ads available, the best practices for creating engaging videos, and some examples of successful campaigns from other brands.
What is branded content and ads on TikTok?
Branded content and ads on TikTok are promoted content (usually full-screen videos) that a brand or creator pays to show to a specified target audience. Ads on TikTok are a form of social media marketing, and they usually aim to spread awareness about the advertiser or sell a particular product or service.
TikTok provides you with plenty of options to advertise on the platform, such as:
- **In-feed video ads**: These are ads that appear among the native news feed of TikTok users on the "For You" page. They can be up to 60 seconds long and have sound, captions, and call-to-action buttons.
- **Brand takeover ads**: This type of ad allows you to dominate the conversation as your message takes over the whole screen for a few seconds. It then turns into an in-feed video ad. You can use images or videos for this format, which can link to your website or app.
- **Spark ads**: TikTok rolled out this ad type in 2021, giving brands the ability to sponsor popular organic content that relates to their products. You can choose from existing videos created by TikTok creators or invite them to create custom videos for your campaign. You can also add your logo and call-to-action button to the sponsored videos.
- **Branded AR content**: Your ads can also appear as branded stickers, lenses, filters, and other types of AR content so TikTok users can use them in their videos. This can help you increase your brand awareness and engagement by letting users interact with your brand in a fun and creative way.
- **Hashtag challenge ads**: This type of ad shows up in the "Discovery" section of the app and can encourage user participation. You can create a custom hashtag and invite users to create videos using it. You can also partner with influencers or celebrities to promote your challenge and boost its visibility.
- **Branded mission ads**: This is an industry-first ad solution that enables advertisers to crowdsource authentic content from creators on TikTok, turn top-performing videos into ads, and improve brand affinity with media impressions. You can set up a mission brief with your campaign objectives, target audience, creative guidelines, and rewards for creators. Then you can select the best videos from the submissions and run them as ads on TikTok.
Why should you use branded content and ads on TikTok?
There are many benefits of using branded content and ads on TikTok for your marketing strategy, such as:
- **Reaching a large and diverse audience**: TikTok has over 1 billion active users worldwide, spanning different ages, genders, locations, interests, and behaviors. You can use TikTok's advanced targeting options to reach your ideal customers based on their demographics, device type, location, interests, behaviors, and more.
- **Leveraging the power of video**: Video is one of the most engaging and effective forms of content marketing. It can help you showcase your brand personality, tell stories, demonstrate your products or services, educate your audience, inspire emotions, and drive actions. TikTok's short-form video format is ideal for capturing attention and delivering your message in a concise and compelling way.
- **Boosting your organic reach**: Unlike some other social platforms, TikTok's algorithm doesn't favor paid content over organic content. This means that your ads have the same chance of being shown to users as any other video on the app. Plus, if your ads are engaging enough, they can generate organic views, likes, comments, shares, duets, stitches, and user-generated content (UGC), which can further amplify your reach and impact.
- **Building trust and loyalty**: By creating branded content and ads on TikTok that align with the platform's culture and trends, you can show your audience that you understand them and respect their preferences. You can also collaborate with influencers or creators who have established credibility and influence among their followers. This can help you build trust and loyalty with your audience and increase your brand advocacy and retention.
How to create branded content and ads on TikTok that engage your audience
Creating branded content and ads on TikTok that engage your audience requires a lot of planning, creativity, and testing. Here are some tips to help you get started:
- **Define your goals and metrics**: Before you create any content or ads on TikTok, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve and how you will measure your success. Do you want to increase your brand awareness, generate leads, drive sales, grow your followers, or something else? What key performance indicators (KPIs) will you use to track your progress and results? How will you optimize your campaigns based on the data and feedback you collect?
- **Know your audience**: To create content and ads that resonate with your audience, you need to know who they are, what they want, what they need, what they like, what they dislike, and how they use TikTok. You can use TikTok's analytics tools, audience network insights, and third-party tools to gather data and insights about your audience. You can also conduct surveys, interviews, or focus groups to get qualitative feedback from your customers or prospects.
- **Choose the right ad format**: Based on your goals, budget, and audience, you need to choose the right ad format for your campaign. You can use one or more of the ad types mentioned above, depending on what suits your message and strategy best. You can also test different ad formats and see which ones perform better for your objectives.
- **Create engaging videos**: The most important part of creating branded content and ads on TikTok is creating engaging videos that capture attention and deliver value. Here are some tips to help you create engaging videos:
- **Follow the platform's guidelines**: Make sure you comply with TikTok's community guidelines, branded content policy, advertising policy, and technical specifications when creating your videos. You don't want to risk getting your videos removed or banned for violating any rules or regulations.
- **Use the branded content toggle**: If you're creating sponsored content with a creator or influencer, make sure you use the branded content toggle when posting your videos. This is a simple switch that users can turn on when posting content for paid promotions, which adds an extra level of disclosure to their clips. This can help you avoid any confusion or backlash from the audience or the platform.
- **Be authentic and transparent**: Don't try to be someone you're not or hide your intentions when creating branded content and ads on TikTok. Be authentic and transparent about who you are, what you offer, and why you're on the platform. Show your brand personality, values, and story in a genuine and relatable way. Don't be afraid to show some humor, emotion, or vulnerability if it fits your brand voice and tone.
- **Be relevant and timely**: To create content and ads that connect with your audience, you need to be relevant and timely. This means that you need to understand the platform's culture, trends, challenges, hashtags, sounds, effects, filters, stickers, lenses, etc., and use them appropriately in your videos. You also need to keep an eye on current events, news, seasons, holidays, etc., and create content that relates to them.
- **Be creative and original**: While it's important to be relevant and timely, it's also important to be creative and original. Don't just copy what others are doing or use generic templates or stock footage. Use your own unique ideas, style, angle, perspective, twist, etc., to create content that stands out from the crowd. You can also use TikTok's creative tools such as duet, stitch, effects, camera tools, sounds,
books etc., to enhance your videos.
- **Be informative and valuable**: To create content and ads that engage your audience, you need to be informative and valuable. This means that you need to provide useful information that solves a problem,
answers a question,
teaches a skill,
gives a tip,
shares a fact,
etc., for your audience. You also need to provide value that entertains,
inspires,
motivates,
surprises,
delights,
etc., your audience. You can also use storytelling techniques such as hook,
conflict,
climax,
resolution,
etc., to make your videos more captivating.
- **Be concise and clear**: To create content and ads that engage your audience,
you need to be concise
clear.
This means that
you need
to deliver
your message
in a short
and simple
way.
You also need
to use
captions
and call-to-action
buttons
to reinforce
your message
and guide
your audience
to the next
step.
Examples of branded content and ads on TikTok that engage the audience
To give you some inspiration for creating branded content and ads on TikTok that engage the audience, here are some examples of successful campaigns from other brands:
- **Chipotle**: The fast-food chain launched a hashtag challenge called #ChipotleLidFlip, which invited users to flip the lid of their burrito bowl using a fork. The challenge went viral, generating over 230 million views and 110,000 user-generated videos. Chipotle also partnered with influencer David Dobrik to promote the challenge and offer free delivery for a limited time.
- **Guess**: The fashion brand launched a hashtag challenge called #InMyDenim, which encouraged users to show off their denim outfits and transformations. The challenge was the first branded hashtag challenge on TikTok and generated over 38 million views and 5,000 user-generated videos. Guess also collaborated with influencers to create videos for the challenge and showcase their products.
- **Fenty Beauty**: The beauty brand launched a spark ad campaign that sponsored organic videos from creators who used their products. The campaign reached over 25 million users and generated over 1.5 million likes, comments, and shares. Fenty Beauty also added their logo and call-to-action button to the sponsored videos, which linked to their website or app.
- **NBA**: The sports league launched a branded AR content campaign that featured custom stickers of NBA players and teams. The campaign allowed users to add the stickers to their videos and show their support for their favorite players and teams. The campaign reached over 40 million users and generated over 15 million engagements.
Conclusion
Branded content and ads on TikTok can be a powerful way to reach and engage your audience on the platform. But you need to follow some best practices and tips to create content that resonates with your audience and drives them to action.
In this article, we covered the basics of branded content and ads on TikTok, including the different types of ads available, the benefits of using them, and how to create engaging videos. We also shared some examples of successful campaigns from other brands.
We hope this article has given you some useful information and inspiration for creating branded content and ads on TikTok that engage your audience.
If you need more help with creating branded content and ads on TikTok, you can contact us at [email address] or visit our website at [website URL]. We are a team of experts who can help you with your TikTok marketing strategy, from planning to execution.
Thank you for reading this article and happy TikToking!
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