TikTok influencers are becoming increasingly popular for marketing campaigns, and are fast becoming the best way to reach out to Gen Z audiences.
Just how popular is TikTok?
TikTok has broken multiple records for growth since its launch in 2016. The app, specialising in short-form videos, gained massive popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with users mostly stuck at home and investing time to explore and connect with the app. In 2020, TikTok set the record for the social app with the highest number of downloads in a single quarter, at a massive 315 million downloads.
TikTok now has over one billion active users across the world. This makes it one of the most used social network sites, ahead of giants like Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn. It took six years for Instagram to amass the same number of active monthly users that TikTok gained in less than three years.
Ninety percent of these users access TikTok every day, and users are extremely active. The short-form video content also seems to work really well for engagement, with users reportedly spending an average of 52 minutes every day on the app. This makes TikTok really appealing for marketers, as young audiences are collaborating and creating constantly, reaching impossibly wide audiences.
User-generated content
TikTok is based on authentic freeform content, which is a deviation from the polished Instagram advertising seen previously in marketing and influencer campaigns.
The recent growth in the popularity of content creators is intrinsically linked to TikTok’s success. This success was partially to do with luck, with TikTok gaining a large proportion of its success during the pandemic, since most users were stuck at home. In addition to this, TikTok was the first platform built specifically for Gen Z users, which may be a factor in its popularity amongst this group.
Gen Z tend to lean more towards content that is educational or funny (or both!), and although in the past shorter content has been the best, Gen Z audiences seem increasingly happy to watch full three-minute videos if they are interested and engaged by it.
Creators are more often than ever doing their own research to gain an understanding of their audiences and work to tailor content to these groups, working on building effective and engaging content to amass a loyal audience.
TikTok influencers
Content creators are making use of TikTok to reach out to a global audience and many users have created huge communities of loyal followers. Brands across the world are starting to take notice, and are partnering with TikTok influencers to promote their products and services. Huge brand names such as Calvin Klein, Nike, Sony and Fenty Beauty are just a few who have cashed in on paid and influencer campaigns on TikTok to reach out to new audiences.
Successful influencer marketing comes from picking the right creators to work with, so take time to research the audience you are trying to reach, then identify which influencers are creating content for these groups. Look into past collaborations that the influencer has been a part of, to protect your brand identity and fit your campaign objectives. Remember that the creators you pick are being trusted with your brand, and their actions can reflect on you, so do your research and pick trusted influencers.
The traditional model of an influencer appears to be dying out. Gone are the days of polished, staged Instagram marketing campaigns, instead Gen Z are calling for authentic and relatable content. Both the type of content being distributed as well as the methods of distribution are changing.
Celebrity influencers are less and less prominent, with product placements hardly being used. TikTok users and content creators who are gaining fame and recognition are more and more ‘everyday people,’ gaining traction with Gen Z audiences due to the authenticity and relatability they are bringing.
New future for marketing
Given the way that the marketing industries and the media are moving, it seems more and more that the traditional marketing funnel is no longer relevant. Putting in lots of work and building brand awareness no longer appears to be enough to move audiences all the way through to purchase.
Using content creators is an excellent way to engage with Gen Z, and if you are looking to advertise on platforms like TikTok it is important to use the applications yourself to get a good understanding of the formats, trends and algorithms working all the time to make TikTok the ever-changing and valuable resource it is. Keeping up to date on trends will allow you to format your marketing campaigns, pick TikTok influencers to work with and access a whole new audience.
If you want to learn even more about ways you can use influencers and affiliate marketers to grow your business, come along to the Affiverse Elevate Summit this June.
