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TikTok Advertisements vs. TikTok Influencer Marketing: Which one is best for marketing?

Did you know that every second, eight new users join TikTok? That’s an approximate number of 650,000 new users joining TikTok on a daily basis…which is almost like the total population of the country Luxembourg joining TikTok every single day! With businesses witnessing this humongous upswing in TikTok’s popularity, they are marketing on the app

Image 98 - Paramount Digital

Did you know that every second, eight new users join TikTok? That’s an approximate number of 650,000 new users joining TikTok on a daily basis…which is almost like the total population of the country Luxembourg joining TikTok every single day!

With businesses witnessing this humongous upswing in TikTok’s popularity, they are marketing on the app like never before. Two of the most prime TikTok marketing strategies that businesses are currently leveraging:

  • TikTok Advertisements
  • TikTok Influencer Marketing


Both of them have their own sets of pros and cons, which we will meticulously explain in the upcoming blog. At the end, you’ll have a crystal clear idea of which marketing strategy to go for: TikTok Advertising or TikTok Influencer Marketing.

Why Should You Advertise on TikTok?

TikTok is growing at a supersonic speed, having recently reported 1 billion active monthly users on the platform. That’s a whopping 45% increase from the previous year. This gives marketers a good reason to advertise on the platform.

But first, let’s define the parameters to define your target audience.

Defining Your Target Audience

The majority of active users fall either into the Gen Z bracket or the Millennial bracket. But it’s amusing to know that 59% of both Gen Z and Millennials click on ads while online. And 59% also buy products recommended to them in ads.

Whenever they come across sponsored ads, Gen Z has a higher probability of clicking on them. Additionally, they are likely to buy the promoted products either online or offline. Yes, it’s interesting to know that sponsored ads drive online as well as offline purchases. For instance, Gen Z buyers are equally likely to buy products offline after viewing a promoted text or image ad.

It would be erroneous to say that online advertisements solely affect online purchasing. In actuality, the customer journey is complicated. Thus, it may lead to several online-to-offline transitions.

There are also other important audience demographics that you shouldn’t neglect:

  • Gender
  • Language
  • Location
  • Interests
  • Behaviours
  • Device details


Types of TikTok Ads

TikTok has a plethora of ad types, and you should carefully opt for the type that best suits your requirements. Some of the prime TikTok ad types include:

In-Feed Ads

When users scroll through the ‘For You Page’ or FYP, in-feed ads will pop up in between their TikTok content. They can be up to a minute long. They’re also moulded into TikTok designs to fit in with the content of other creators. This gives it an aesthetic feel.

Top-View Ads

Top-view ads pop up as soon as the individual opens the TikTok app and can be up to a minute long. They assure visibility as they are the first thing a person views when they open the app. But, you have only about 2–3 seconds to captivate users before they scroll it away.

Brand Takeover Ads

Brand takeover ads emerge when a person first opens TikTok. The only distinction is that these ads cover the entire screen for 5 unskippable seconds. Then they translate into an in-feed ad. You may also incorporate a clickable link in it to steer users to a landing page.

Spark Ads

You can promote content you’ve already posted on your account with Spark advertisements. They increase your content’s reach while still crediting your original video for any new views and interactions. It’s an excellent way to ensure that your content is seen by relevant viewers.

Branded Hashtag Challenge

Branded hashtag challenges reign supreme over user generated content. Here, marketers can use a branded hashtag to invite users to join in on a trend. TikTok offers packages ranging from 3–6 days that include media placement and creative assistance. This hashtag challenge counts as “branded” due to its investment element.

Branded Effects

Branded effects allow businesses to design a unique interactive filter that TikTokers can use. Branded effects are remarkably customisable and can stay for up to 10 days at a stretch. You can employ interactive effects that play filters over the user as they record their videos for:

  • Green-screen effects
  • Games
  • Challenges
  • Adventurous Experiences

Tik Tok Ads Vs Influencers


How to Create a Compelling TikTok Ad?

Advertisers need to produce enticing content that best serves user demands. TikTok users expect relevant content that fits their TikTok experience. Make sure that your advertisement videos follow the given rules of thumb to accomplish this:

High-Resolution and Full-Screen Videos

According to TikTok, video size and quality are important. Stay away from grainy, low-quality videos. Maximise the video’s holistic experience by making your advertisements full-screen.

Captions and Sound

According to TikTok, 93% of top-performing videos make use of audio. Additionally, 73% of TikTok users said they would stop and view commercials with the audio.

How Much Do TikTok Ads Cost?

You can choose a daily or lifetime budget, and it can be modified at any stage while your campaign is running. You must have a minimum daily and overall budget of $50 USD at the campaign level. Your daily budget for an ad group level must be more than $20 USD.

What Is TikTok Influencer Marketing?

TikTok influencer marketing encompasses partnering with content creators to make short-form TikTok videos that promote your brand. By utilising the powerful marketing gambits of social proof and brand loyalty, influencer marketing helps firms avoid coming across as interruptive or salesy.

Brands frequently publish branded content or sponsored advertisements on their own TikTok accounts. Although this is a good strategy, influencer-generated content (IGC) typically receives more engagement.

34% of TikTok users have made purchases as a result of influencers. Therefore, it is smart to devote the lion’s share of your investment to creating IGC. This would almost assuredly attract new audiences to your brand’s TikTok account or website.

How Successful Can a TikTok Influencer Marketing Campaign Be?

Lipton had launched a TikTok influencer marketing campaign for their iced tea products. They selected influencers to make content in their natural, casual manner. They were told to simply show the Lipton bottle in the video rather than being excessively prescriptive with the brief.

The results?

  • 110K+ Total Videos
  • 14% Engagement
  • 257M+ Views


Who Are TikTok Influencers?

TikTok influencers are the content creators on TikTok who have built a considerable following to the point where businesses can pay them to promote their brand. TikTok influencers are another great way to promote your brand on TikTok. Modern brands understand the value of social media. Hence, they invest more in this marketing niche as it:

  • Delivers great ROI
  • Increases recall
  • Renders easy scalability


The best advertisements involve TikTok influencers. According to research, working with TikTok creators can boost ad recall by 27%.

Besides, ads made for the app with creator partnerships have engagement rates that are 83% higher. Influencers understand what piques the interest of their followers. They already know how to reach the proper audience and how to pitch products to them.

Choosing a suitable creator is of paramount importance when making an investment in influencer marketing.

Developing a TikTok Influencer Marketing Strategy

A successful marketing partnership demands the right selection of TikTok influencers. Consider the scenario where you join the TikTok bandwagon and look for a suitable influencer who can create videos wearing your gear. While doing so, you must decide what your campaign’s principal objective is amongst the following:

  • Increasing awareness
  • Building audience
  • Generating engagement
  • Increasing sales


1. Define Your Goals

Like anything else in social media marketing, you must begin with measurable goals. Irrespective of the influencer marketing platform you are focusing on, you should consider the following objectives:

· Increasing Brand Awareness
Increasing brand awareness means increasing the level of familiarity that people have with your brand and offerings.

· Building a Substantial Audience
You can direct the efforts of your influencer marketing campaign just to build an audience that follows your TikTok business account.

· Generating Engagement
While generating engagement, you go an extra mile and boost the number of interactions that your audience has with your content. This also helps in fine-tuning the TikTok algorithm and, in turn, improves your account’s reach.

· Increase Sales
You can also host an array of contests and competitions while providing discount codes and rewards to increase your sales.

2. Find Relevant Influencers

As with any social media platform, the primary move in TikTok influencer marketing is finding the right influencers.

This is to ensure that your TikTok influencer marketing campaign is on the right track. The best sources to find pertinent influencers are:

· Discover Page
TikTok’s “discover” page is not dissimilar to the search page of most social media platforms. It enables you to browse a variety of videos that are in sync with:

  1. Ongoing trends
  2. Videos
  3. Hashtags
  4. Popular users


The “discover” page is very valuable when it comes to finding popular TikTok influencers. You are able to organically search across several types of videos. This helps you funnel down your search by recognising the style of videos that your audience prefers.

· Creator Marketplace
One of the distinctive TikTok features is its Creator Marketplace. Businesses can use this tool to request access to the data of TikTok users. But be aware that TikTok verifies brands to confirm they are authentic businesses. After receiving access, you can skim creators using a variety of filters like:

  • Geographic scope
  • Niche or topic
  • Number of video views
  • Level of commercialisation


From here, you can review their profiles to find influencers who precisely match your needs.

3. Connect with Suitable Influencers and Collaborate

Reaching out directly to TikTok influencers can save you a healthy sum of money as you are essentially cutting out the middlemen. It also helps you to understand how good the personality of the TikTok influencer is. You also understand the person’s thought process when it comes to the influencer campaigns. You can ensure that you are conveying all you want pre-emptively. But, you may have to go the extra mile since you’ll have to find influencers by yourself. Your research could be super helpful as you may collaborate on a piece of content that attracts engagement and views for weeks or even months.

Marketing To Gen Z Vs Millennials


How to Market to Gen Z and Millennials

To better understand how to advertise to the Gen Z and the millennials, we must first take a few aspects into account:

Preferred Devices

Gen Z has a higher probability of buying things on mobile. You may already be aware of how strongly hooked both of these generations are on social media and the internet. Gen Z has been using the internet since they were very young, while millennials have watched it evolve.

Daily, millennials spend nearly 7.5 hours online, whereas Gen Z surfs for about 10 hours. Gen Z and millennials both use mobile devices generally to access the internet. According to Think With Google, Gen Z spends a great deal of time on mobile devices. In general, 71% of Gen Z teenagers watch videos on their mobile devices. Also, 51% use them to browse social media platforms. The mobile-first approach of Gen Z influences their shopping habits as well. The generation’s members are twice as likely as millennials to make an online mobile purchase.

Attention Span

Each generation’s tendencies for consuming content are in congruence with their average attention span. Gen Z will only pay attention to content for eight seconds. But millennials have an attention span of twelve seconds.

Furthermore, millennials prefer long-form content such as:

  • Comprehensive videos
  • Long podcasts
  • In-depth articles


Alternatively, Gen Z prefers short-form video content such as Instagram Stories or Snapchat.

Today’s social media and online platforms increasingly revolve around video content. This reflects the fact that both generations’ use of video is rapidly increasing. Whether you’re producing long-form content for millennials or short-form videos for Gen Z, it is a wise choice to go for mobile-optimised video content.

Content Sources

Each generation has its own distinct tastes when it comes to researching brands or products on social media. Gen Z generally favours social media-based videos and influencer marketing to learn about products.

But millennials are more receptive to a range of marketing campaigns, such as:

  • Conventional internet ads
  • Social media marketing
  • Podcast promos


Marketing To Gen Z On Tiktok


The Bottom Line

From this blog, we can conclude that TikTok influencer marketing is better than TikTok advertising. But this does not mean that TikTok advertising is dead. Actually, TikTok advertising is easier as it involves less work. Also, hiring popular influencers might not only be arduous but also cost you big bucks if you are looking to collaborate with famous TikTok stars. However, if done right, influencer marketing can change the fortunes of your business.

If your pockets are deep enough, then go for influencer marketing. But if you have a limited budget, go for TikTok advertisements. As we all know, something is better than nothing.

If you found this blog insightful, share it with someone who is looking for ways to grow his or her business through TikTok.

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