On Thursday, May 25, 2023, members of our Creative & Marketing teams had the opportunity to attend TikTok’s Agency Creative Bootcamp at their New York headquarters. Spearheaded by TikTok’s Global Creative Expert team, the sessions included tips and tricks for their Creative Center, a run-through of their educational Playbooks, best practices for agencies (both organic and Paid Media), and an overview of Cap Cut. We’re excited to share our top takeaways and insights from the event:
- Tap into underutilized resources. The TikTok Business Center has a variety of resources available to marketers that are often overlooked. By exploring valuable tools, clients and agencies can enhance their TikTok success through refined strategies. From keyword insights that reveal organic resonance to hashtag searches for media targeting and an extensive library of royalty-free music, leveraging these resources can give your campaigns a competitive edge when evaluating ad performance.
- Keep it concise. With the endless scroll of content available, brevity is key. Videos from 20-40 seconds tend to see higher performance, with 30 seconds being the sweet spot. However, consider the nature of your product or industry when thinking about content length—some verticals may benefit from longer videos that provide in-depth explanations or solutions.
- Consider the narrative approach. Different industries thrive with different narrative approaches. For example, with fashion and apparel, unboxing videos, customer reviews try-ons, and problem/solution-focused content tend to perform exceptionally well. Experiment with storytelling styles that align with your brand and engage your target audience effectively.
- Remember the obvious. Your product should be the focus of the video. Rather than trying to include your full catalog of best sellers in the video, prioritize one product per video, as this typically leads to better performance. Additionally, be transparent about the value upfront, whether it’s disclosing prices or emphasizing unique value propositions. Finally, include a clear call-to-action (CTA) that guides viewers to your website, product, or relevant page. Brands often put too much focus on the creative story, and forget to circle back to the main objective of the video – to drive sales.
- It’s all about testing. Continue testing, refining and optimizing your approach. TikTok advertising does not have a linear approach, and it will need to continuously change per industry and product. Keep an eye on trends, user behaviors, and changing industry dynamics. Also, as trends change and user behaviors continue to shift, brands will need an always on approach when it comes to monitoring key trends, hashtags, and themes.
- Leverage TikTok as a search engine. 50% of Gen Z TikTok users immediately buy something they discovered on the platform and 58% of all users discover new brands on the platform. TikTok is a fast-growing search engine for younger demographics, and resultantly, an opportunity for brands to grow awareness, expand content viewership, and increase sales on an alternative platform.
- Look out for TikTok’s Script Generator. This impending tool will expedite the ideation process and provide an efficient way for brands to optimize their TikTok content for different demographics. As our teams have consistently adopted cutting-edge AI tools to stay at the forefront of digital advertising, we eagerly anticipate incorporating this feature into our content strategies.
If you would like to learn about Direct Agents’ paid or organic social capabilities, please contact [email protected].
Katherine Grabowsky, Senior Creative & Content Specialist, Direct Agents
Sammy Clark, Marketing Coordinator, Direct Agents
