The most popular social media channel of the moment, TikTok, has launched a new advertising option that allows brands to use organic content that is already popular in their ads. Without creating your own content or hiring a content creator, you can now leverage existing, hot content that fits your offerings and benefit from the association boost.
TikTok Ads' new "Spark" ad option allows brands to identify existing organic videos that might fit their campaign - for example, if a beauty influencer has featured your product in their organic clips. As a brand, you can then approach this content creator and repurpose the clips for paid campaigns.
TikTok explains: "TikTok is made up of creative content creators who are redefining entertainment, setting trends and sharing their take on popular products and services with the world. Brands can now access the wealth of creative, diverse native content Tap into and connect with the creators who help them bring their products and services to life."
With Spark, brands can boost both their own organic posts and relevant content posted by content creators and convert them into in-feed ads or TopView ads. Since this is essentially boosting content that is already performing well, this could be a great way to maximize brand reach and resonance. This could be particularly useful for advertisers who are less familiar with the platform and may not have the budget or skills to create original material.
Aside from the obvious content benefits, sponsored clips via Spark also enable
Additionally, you can keep your ads momentum with fun duet features, allowing the community to further expand their creativity. With Spark Ads, brands can build lasting relationships with creators that are authentic and rooted in the community, while delivering sustainable and impactful value to your business.
So while promoting organic, unbranded videos may sound a bit strange at first, in many cases it actually makes a lot of sense. By the highlight user-generated, relevant content maximize reach within your TikTok user community.
As TikTok Ads continues to expand, the platform is on everyone's lips, especially among marketers. For this reason, many other brands are now considering how to integrate the popular social video network into their marketing strategy. The challenge atTikTok Marketing is that you cannot easily reuse content from other platforms or advertising campaigns. Because TikTok has its own presentation style and creative ethos. And if you don't take advantage of that, the promotions just don't pan out.
After all, there's a reason TikTok keeps telling advertisers on its platform: "Don't advertise. Do TikToks." Because the ads that work best are the ones that match what users are already seeing in their native feed. This allows users to consume your brand message in unison with the rest of their experience on the platform.
Short video ads are inherently difficult as you only have a brief moment to grab attention. And it only takes a split second for users to lose interest and keep scrolling the app. With that in mind, it's important to familiarize yourself with TikTok Ads before considering your advertising options. Scroll through your feed and notice which content is gaining traction and let that inspire you for your own promotional content.
Or you could just promote existing clips that are already organically promoting your products. In that regard, Spark Ads could be a big boost for many brands. And while this form of ads certainly doesn't suit all marketing strategies, they may well have a place in your social media advertising planning.
TikTok Ads recently had one new report published showing that TikTok ads are more memorable than ads on other platforms and even TV campaigns. Measuring emotional response also shows that TikTok ads are more likely to elicit buying responses based on top emotional triggers.
The study was funded by the neuro analytics company, Neuro Insight, conducted and is based on "neuro-research" (i.e. measuring brain response) with 57 laboratory interviewees aged 18-35 years.
The results show that TikTok clips elicit various significant responses to branded content. First, the researchers examined the "emotional valence," which indicates liking for what is seen in a video ad, and how this then relates to the action of the moment (e.g., paving the way for unplanned purchases). According to the study, TikTok Ads lead to a higher reaction intent than normal campaigns on social platforms.
In addition to emotional valence, a second vector was also examined: 'Engagement' refers to the personal relevance of the content, which has the highest correlation to memory. This determines whether someone will act on that information in the future (e.g. buy a product in the online shop).
The full-screen, immersive nature of TikTok clips could be a key factor here, as the content evokes a stronger mental response due to brain activity.
The same element is highlighted in the second part of the study, which looks at engagement rate per minute.
TikTok's algorithm and the shorter video formats create continuous cycles of engagement, making TikTok the leading information density platform. This also suggests that the TikTok audience is fully included and involved compared to other platforms.
The full-screen format also helps TikTok Ads drive deeper reactions. And that gives the social media provider a huge advantage over other platforms. On Facebook, for example, you may see ten different posts, options, and ads on the screen at once. This makes it difficult for Facebook to make definitive statements about exactly what content its users are engaging with.
This is not the case with TikTok Ads. Because the displayed content is all you can see. This means that each engagement is linked specifically to that clip, which helps the system better determine your interests and show you more of them.
And that's undoubtedly why TikTok ads have the edge in this comparative study: mental engagement is significantly higher with TikTok clips - an important consideration for marketers.
Even if TikTok Ads prove to be extremely promising, you still have to get your messaging right in the first place. Just because TikTok theoretically has an engagement advantage over other social media channels doesn't mean you can simply repurpose your usual campaign into a short clip and expect big hits with it.
And this is exactly where the use of the new TikTok Spark Ads comes in handy. The new advertising option offers brands the opportunity to benefit from trending organic content and use it for their ads.
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