E-commerce and TikTok: how to sell on TikTok

TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world and can be an excellent opportunity for performance marketing.
Among the advantages the platform has are the fact that it has a young, active audience and an algorithm that makes it easy to reach a mass audience, overcoming the obstacles of traditional advertising channels.
So, campaigns on TikTok are able to reach a wide range of audience segments, thanks to the platform’s ability to generate highly personalized content.
Through the integration of an e-commerce on Tiktok a company could record these three phenomena to date:

1. Rising Trend of Social Commerce
2. Increased sales
3. Improved brand visibility

Understanding how to sell on TikTok, then, is important to make a significant improvement for businesses that decide to land on the social.

How to sell on Tik Tok

One of the great advantages of social commerce is that all businesses can advertise on TikTok.
E-commerce businesses that land on TikTok have several strategies at their disposal to manage their online advertising campaigns, and they can choose the one that best conforms to the sales strategy they want to undertake, so they can also follow (or create) the e-commerce trends of the moment.
However, there are some assessments that should not be overlooked; in fact, certain requirements or conditions may need to be met in order to start an online advertising campaign on TikTok.
First, you should read the TikTok Ads guidelines to make sure you meet the specific requirements.
Also, advertising on TikTok requires a dedicated budget.
Finally, TikTok is a platform focused on video content, so the ads must be creative, engaging, and of high quality to capture users’ attention.

Types of ads on Tik Tok

Among the different types of ads available for e-commerce services we can find:

• In-Feed Ads: This type of online advertising campaign appears in users’ main feed, the “For You” section.
  In-Feed ads are designed to integrate with other users’ videos in the feed and are accompanied by a “Learn More” caption that users can select for more information or to interact with the ad.
  The advantage of these types of ads is that they can include a CTA button that prompts users to take a specific action, such as visiting a website, downloading an app, or making a purchase.
  The duration of In-Feed ads usually ranges from 9 to 15 seconds.

• Top View: highly visible and high-impact form of advertising, as it appears when a user opens the app and is placed at the top of the feed, taking up the entire screen.
  Top View ads are therefore the first thing that users see when they open the app, ensuring wide visibility and immediate attention.
  The duration of the ad is usually between 5 and 60 seconds.

• Spark Ads: this type of advertising promotes organic content that has already been published and has gained good interaction.
  These ads are displayed like regular videos in the users’ feed, but with a “Sponsored” label.
  Spark Ads are a great way to reach a high-quality target audience that is already interested in a specific creator’s content and is, therefore, more likely to be interested in the ad.
  This content will not disappear the moment the campaign ends, but will always remain visible.

• Branded Hashtag Challenge: a form of interactive advertising that engages users in creating video content related to a specific hashtag associated with a brand or product.
  Advertisers partner with TikTok to create a branded hashtag challenge, which can include a hashtag customized with the product name, brand message, or theme of the online advertising campaign.
  Users are invited to participate in the challenge by creating their own videos using the hashtag in different ways.
  Sometimes, advertisers offer prizes to the most creative participants or the most popular videos, stimulating engagement.

• Branded Effect: a type of advertising that allows advertisers to create custom special effects or filters that users can use in their videos.
  These effects allow the brand to integrate into users’ content creation experience, promoting brand awareness and engaging users.
  Once the brand effect is created, it is integrated into the TikTok app so that users can access it when recording or editing their videos.
  Engagement can create affinity toward the brand and encourage users to share their content.
• Promote: a very quick advertising option that allows advertisers to promote existing videos directly from the app.
  This type of ad is particularly useful for those who want to increase the visibility of a specific video or reach a wider audience on the platform.

How does Tik Tok Advertising work for ecommerce?

Before you can start creating ads on TikTok, you must open an advertising account by logging into TikTok Ads Manager, TikTok’s ad management platform.
To upgrade to the business version of your TikTok account you must:

1. From your profile click on the menu in the upper right corner;
2. Click on Settings and privacy and then Account;

Click on Switch to Business Account.
Once you have selected the business version you need to choose a category to define your profile, add a photo, email address and a bio to describe your business.
At this point the business profile will be completed.
This type of account allows access to much more information and functionality than the personal account.

How can you create TikTok Ads campaigns for ecommerce?

Let’s look at it in 8 steps:

1. 1. Create an account on TikTok Ads Manager: this is accessed from the TikTok Business portal seen earlier.
   2. Create one or more TikTok Pixel(s): the Pixel is a tracking tag generated by the platform, useful for letting TikTok understand user behavior in front of a campaign.
      (Link with Pixel sub-article)
   3. Select Ads Manager mode: two modes can be selected, a simplified mode and a custom mode.
      The former will create campaigns that are simpler to implement, the latter allows for more control over the entire campaign.
   4. Choose the goal of your campaign
   5. Select audience
   6. Establishing a budget
   7. Upload media: here you can upload images and videos up to 60 seconds, links and the call to action button.
   8. Add a payment method: payment that can be made by credit card, debit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express or JCB) and PayPal.

Conclusion

In conclusion, TikTok has become one of the most effective and profitable marketing channels for performance marketers.
Due to its high visibility, user engagement, and personalization capabilities, campaigns on TikTok can provide significant ROI and broad visibility for businesses. Article written in partnership with JECatt – Junior Enterprise of Catholic University.