TikTok for Business - How Does It Work?

In mid-2020, TikTok launched its For Business platform and introduced AR ads. The idea is to have TikTok For Business act as the go-to place for all of TikTok’s marketing solutions. And even though TikTok For Business is geared towards brands and marketers, there’s also an option to use it for personal promotion.

Among all the features, this article takes a closer look at the ones that you’re most likely to find useful. Before that, however, let’s take a look at how the new For Business platform works. 

Setting Up TikTok for Business

Go to the TikTok For Business page and hit the Get Started button. In the first window, select your billing region and choose how you’d like to use the account. There are two options: Business and Individual (with slightly different features).

Thereon, tap the Log In button and enter your credentials. If you had chosen Business in the previous step, the online form is going to be a long one designed to cover both local and international promotions. Go ahead and enter your office location, business name and type, and everything else as applicable.

With that out of the way, you can log into TikTok Ads Manager and start creating your campaigns. It’ll be easy to keep track of your campaigns, engagement, create new campaigns, and more.

Most of all, you want to be familiar with all the features at your disposal.

Features, Options, and Effects

Since its launch, TikTok For Business supports different ad formats. This included TopView, which is for ads that pop up when users first open the app. In addition to this, you also have Branded Effects, Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Videos, and Hashtag Challenges.

If a 3-to-5-second ad appeals to you, choose Brand Takeovers and the ad can be an image or a video. For a longer video ad (up to 60 seconds), select In-Feed Videos. Unlike the previous, In-Feed Videos have the sound on by default.

Moving on, you have Hashtag Challenges, perhaps the most promising of all. This is where you can tap into the TikTok community and prompt them to participate in a particular challenge. It’s up to you to come up with the appropriate hashtag that users will use to create content t. There’s also an option to use Hashtag Plus to add a shopping feature to a challenge.

As for Branded Effects, companies and individuals can take part in the content creation process more directly. You can add your product or brand in AR, 3D, or 2D. And it can be featured in the background or the foreground of your content. Furthermore, you can combine it with Hashtag Challenges to potentially increase engagement further.

TikTok’s Brand Scan is yet another AR effect that is not that different than Word Lens or Snapchat’s Sponsored Lens.

Important Notes

A lot of marketing products within the platform were previously available. But TikTok For Business puts them in the same place to improve ad management and create a springboard for new features. You gain access to an e-learning center with resources, best practices with examples, and product guides.

And if you are new to TikTok advertising, the e-learning center is one of the best places to get started. To begin with, it’s where you can learn how to use the Branded Effects Partner Program.

The costs of ads may vary and TikTok has yet to disclose the details. In general, you are likely to find that the costs are based on your campaign, including its goals and scope. The minimum budget is set at $50 total or daily.

For what it’s worth, some users have claimed that TikTok’s rates for CPM campaigns are cheaper than Facebook.

Benefits of Using TikTok for Business

As a relatively new platform, TikTok is a treasure trove of opportunities for marketers and aspiring influencers. The social network isn’t as saturated as Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, so to speak. With fewer people and companies bidding, it could be cheaper to run your campaigns, at least for the time being.

More influencers are getting serious traction on TikTok and celebrities were quick to jump on the bandwagon. Through it all, TikTok For Business remains a great place to explore what your target audience finds interesting and fun. It’s a good entry point for those who want to advertise to Generation Z, a segment of the market that is notoriously tricky to tap into.

Working with Influencers

As indicated, influencer marketing is not that big on TikTok, but this doesn’t mean that it’s not lucrative. Assuming that you want to target the younger crowds, TikTok influencers have the power to deliver impressive ROIs.

Besides an influencer’s following, it may also interest you to find an influencer who will make a good ambassador for your brand. Needless to say, your target customers should intersect with an influencer’s following if you want to get it to work at all, not to mention getting a good ROI.

A great example is the Guess campaign of 2018. The apparel brand forged a deal with two influencers to post videos of transformation featuring Guess clothes. The company also created a hashtag and urged the audience to share their best Guess apparel looks.

In the end, the hashtag and videos attracted more than 40 million views and lots of community-generated content.

The Business of Social

With all of the available options, TikTok For Business can give the more established advertising networks a good run for their money. For a start, the way that the platform displays ads creates a more immersive experience. So much so that it can be hard to distinguish an ad from user-generated content.

The beauty of TikTok For Business is that you can encourage the community to create spin-offs of your campaign. And if you get this right, the reach and impact of your campaign could be hard to achieve elsewhere.