Everything You Need to Know About TikTok's Rise & Why You Should Review Your Media Mix

In recent years, TikTok has grown enormously since it was launched in 2016. The app merged with Musical.ly in 2018 and has topped the charts of the most downloaded apps in both the App Store and Play Store. Today, the app boasts over 1 billion active users. So, what do we know about the app that everyone is talking about, and what business opportunities does it present?

Many see TikTok as a creative platform where there's room to show a different side without filters and perfection, making it less demanding than other channels. TikTok boasts high engagement, even higher than both Instagram and Twitter. This presents great opportunities to build your brand by publishing organic content on the platform.

So, what else do we know about this app everyone is buzzing about? Well, here are some TikTok stats to cheer you up:

Total number of active TikTok users worldwide: 1.1 billion

Total TikTok downloads: 1.65 billionVideos viewed per day: 1 billion

TikTok users spend over 850 minutes per month on the app

TikTok users average 52 minutes per day on the app

About 50% of TikTok's global audience is under 34, with 26% between 18 and 24

TikTok topped the list in 2019 with 738 million downloads and came second among free apps

TikTok was the absolute favorite among apps in 2020, downloaded 850 million times worldwide.

TikTok has the highest social media engagement rate per post (Upfluence found that micro-influencers had an engagement of 17.96% on TikTok, 3.86% on Instagram, and 1.63% on YouTube. On the other hand, mega-influencers had an engagement of 4.96% on TikTok, 1.21% on Instagram, and 0.37% on YouTube.)

Source: Influencer Marketing Hub
Source: Digital 2020 Global Overview Report by Hootsuite & We Are Social
Source: TikTok Statistics – Updated February 2021 by Wallaroo

As of June 2020, the most popular content categories on TikTok all have over a billion views. The most-viewed content category in the app was entertainment, with a total of 443.3 billion hashtag views. This category probably includes all those lip-syncing videos. The second most-viewed content category was dance, with a total of 150.3 billion hashtag views.

The following categories are:

Pranks – 54 billion
Fitness/sports – 43.3 billion
Home renovation/DIY – 28.6 billion
Beauty/skincare – 21.8 billion
Fashion – 17.5 billion
Recipes/cooking – 12.9 billion
Life hacks/advice – 8.3 billion
Pets – 7.5 billion
Outdoors - 1.2 billion

While entertainment and dance videos monopolize TikTok users' time and interest, it's clear they're willing to spend time watching videos on a broader range of topics these days – which means greater opportunities for businesses to create a strong presence and achieve real business impact across the platform. Here are some Swedish examples of companies that have harnessed these great opportunities.

“The key is to make a plan for how you want to present your brand in this channel – both organically, through influencers, and in paid social, and understand and analyze how all these three parts together will contribute to increased brand awareness, sales, engagement, and new customers. For us, TikTok is a performance marketing channel among all other channels, and we optimize and have implemented the same KPIs we have in our other channels,” says Raisa Räisänen from Ideal of Sweden in an interview with E-commerce.

“At the end of 2019, Stronger registered an account on TikTok when we noticed that the channel was growing rapidly among the younger segment of our target audience. There are still very few companies that have established themselves on TikTok, so we decided to start developing a strategy for TikTok to stay ahead,” says Juri Gendelman, Head of Growth at Stronger in an interview with E-commerce.

Initially, it was just a channel used by the younger audience, also called Generation Z, which includes those who grew up after the turn of the millennium. During 2020, TikTok usage among the 26-35 age group increased from 5% in Q1 to 15% in Q3, according to “Swedes and the Internet 2020,” and continued to grow in 2021. During the pandemic, the channel has been used for more than just challenges and dance videos. Healthcare professionals in the USA have been able to spread information about Covid-19 and educate the audience to prevent fake news by publishing sketches, new ideas, music videos, and duets.

Above, you see TikTok users utilizing the app for educational purposes. Chipotle uses the app to share content from their customers, thus building a community. Edmon Torosyan teaches his followers about legal issues. Gordon Ramsey shares clips where he comments on others' cooking.

Advertising on TikTok
TikTok's own advertising tool resembles Facebook Ads Manager, allowing you to create, deliver, and optimize your ads. You can also target primary audiences based on demographics, geography, interests, and then create custom audiences and lookalike audiences. You can choose your campaign goal: Traffic and conversions depending on your campaign objective. Above all, there are opportunities to boost your engagement. Advertising on TikTok has just begun, as competition is lower among your target audience, providing significant opportunities for your company to gain ground on the platform. By jumping on trends, you can easily grow and connect with your audience.

Recently, TikTok announced TikTok for Business is open for business in the Nordics, which you can read more about in their press release here or on Resumé here.

Ad formats on TikTok

Brand Takeover – A format tailored for brand-building advertising – effective for the audience but expensive as it's specified for a target group.

TopView ads – Similar to Brand Takeover, it gives the user three seconds to scroll before the ad appears in the feed.

In-Feed ads – Short video ads located within the feed, can be up to 60 seconds long:

Branded Hashtag Challenge – Like typical hashtag trends and challenges, with opportunities both organic and sponsored. It's likely your challenge can be seen on TikTok's Discover Banner.

Branded effects – To create your own shareable stickers, filters, and effects.

If you're striving to strengthen your brand and increase your engagement, TikTok is a great channel to include in your media mix. TikTok offers the opportunity to get close and connect with your audience. As previously mentioned above, there are opportunities to gain ground since many companies have not yet discovered TikTok and its potential.

Good luck! By trying yourself, you'll learn and most importantly develop to achieve the best results.

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