With the popularity and growth of social media platform TikTok, it was only a matter of time for advertisers and marketers to get involved.
Today (June 25), TikTok has launched TikTok for Business — a new studio for brands and agencies to market their products and services including access to TikTok ad formats.
The new update will serve as the home for all TikTok’s current and future marketing solutions for brands, such as TopView, Brand Takeovers, In-Feed Videos, Hashtag Challenges, and Branded Effects – a new 2D, 3D, and AR effects format.
According to TechCrunch in breaking down the features for advertisers, Brand Takeovers are 3-5 second ads that can be either a video or image. In-Feed Videos can be up to 60 seconds in length and run with the sound on.
Meanwhile, Hashtag Challenges will allow brands to participate in the user community by inviting TikTok users to create content around a hashtag of their choice. This includes Hashtag Plus, which also adds a shopping feature to this experience — most relevant as e-commerce activity continues to boom.
Lastly, Branded Effects will allow brands to insert themselves more directly into the content creation experience. The effects provide a brand or product to be added to a video in a 2D, 3D, or now AR format in either the foreground or background of the video.
What does this present for advertisers?
Up to now, brands worked closely with TikTok on buying and managing their campaigns and on performance reporting.
“TikTok is growing, and fast! In the first quarter of the year, it was downloaded 315 million times — the most downloads of any app in a quarter. This means there’s a huge amount of opportunity for brands and this latest update from the social media platform is recognition of this potential, allowing marketers to reach a large and highly engaged user audience with captivating content,” said Mary-Keane Dawson, Group CEO of influencer marketing platform Takumi.
With these new solutions being rolled out, hopefully, this should provide more scope for advertisers to enhance their ad campaigns on a performance level.
“TikTok for Business will open new doors for marketers to better understand the platform, feel comfortable with exciting new features such as ‘Branded Effects’ and be guided on how to make unique creative. This is especially the case for brands who want to test and learn or who had previously been cautious about trying their hand at a new platform,” Keane-Dawson continued.
From TikTok’s perspective, TikTok for Business is a smart move that will streamline the platform, making it easier for brands to access and get accustomed to. And, ultimately, it will help to grow TikTok’s revenue, matching the ambition shown earlier this year when Kevin Mayer, Disney’s former Head of Streaming, was appointed as CEO.
“TikTok for Business can improve trust in the channel by using it as an education tool for brands, while also helping to regulate the market more efficiently and responsibly. This is an important step for a maturing channel which will continue to succeed, with more and more brands now likely to incorporate it within their wider marketing plans rather than as simply an add on,” Keane-Dawson concluded.