Over the years, we’ve seen a shift in how users consume content, with more users turning to short-form video content from TikTok for information and recommendations, instead of traditional search engines. But what does this mean for business, and how can you use TikTok marketing to promote your business? Continue reading to find out.
TikTok's Surge As A Search Platform
Since its introduction to the UK in 2018, TikTok has become a go-to platform, particularly for the younger generations, but it goes further than your traditional social media platform. Its unique search features like looking up hashtags, keywords, sounds and users makes it easy for TikTok users to find content on the platform that matches what they want to see.
56% of 13-43-year-olds have reportedly used TikTok as a search engine, making Gen Zers and millennials the biggest audiences to use TikTok to research things online.
Regardless of the size of your business, you can embrace the power of TikTok’s capabilities to promote your business in a way that is engaging and resonates with your audience. For example, if your business sells science materials and supplies, which is quite a niche industry, you could create a TikTok video explaining how your audience typically uses these materials in a fun and educational way. The opportunities are endless with TikTok’s search features.
How TikTok's Algorithm Fuels Search Capabilities
Using artificial intelligence (AI), TikTok’s algorithm recognises the type of content that individual users consume and engage with. For example, if they interact with videos about dogs, TikTok will show them more dog-related videos, giving them a more personalised online experience.
For businesses, TikTok is a fantastic way to promote your business’s products and services. Whether it’s a customer reviewing your product or creating your own videos to promote your business, TikTok is a fantastic way to increase your brand awareness for users who might be interested in what you can offer them.
TikTok vs Traditional Search Engines
Although TikTok is fantastic when it comes to showing users highly personalised and relevant content based on users, topics, sounds and hashtags that they engage with, it does differ from traditional search engines.
Take Google, for example. Google has been around for decades, showing users highly relevant content based on what the user is searching. With years of updates and algorithm improvements, Google has become extremely sophisticated at showing people what they want to see. TikTok, on the other hand, is still relatively new and sometimes shows users videos that users aren’t interested in.
Types Of Searches Dominating TikTok
TikTok shines when it comes to specific types of content that people search for on the platform. It allows users to search for specific video content around how-to videos, product reviews and travel tips, to name a few.
If you’re an eCommerce business, using TikTok to promote your business can be an invaluable asset to your marketing strategy. Whilst product reviews will benefit from coming directly from your customers, you could create short videos to explain the benefits of using the products that you sell and creative ways that you could use these products.
Take Crocs, for example. Whilst you may wonder how you could create enough video content about footwear to make TikTok worthwhile, Crocs have mastered their TikTok marketing. By using the hashtag #CrocTok, using colourful videos to reflect their brand and creating light-hearted dancing videos of people wearing Crocs, they have and continue to master the TikTok algorithm.
Depth Of Content: TikTok vs. Google
As we’ve previously mentioned, Google has been around for decades, whereas TikTok is relatively new. With billions of different websites and pages on each site, from categories to blog pages, Google has access to much more content than TikTok.
This allows Google, and any other traditional search engine, to serve users many more different content options that are specific to what they want to see. Users can even do a deep dive on certain topics because there’s simply more information for them to consume in the organic search. TikTok, on the other hand, focuses on short-form video content, so there is less opportunity to deep-dive into topics in one video.
Although short-form video content is typically easier for your audience to consume than longer written content, sometimes people want as much information as possible, especially when they’re considering making a purchase. For example, if someone was interested in buying a car, a short car tour on TikTok could be beneficial, but it can’t go into much detail about how the car performs and its features.
If you’re considering using TikTok for your business, we would recommend complementing your detailed, in-depth written content with related short-form videos that grab your audience’s attention and interest. You can then point them to the related content on your website to show what your business can offer them in more detail.
Advantages & Limitations Of Using TikTok For Searches
Although using TikTok for your business has many benefits, it does come with its limitations. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages and limitations that you need to know when considering using TikTok marketing for your business.
Advantages
One of the main benefits of using TikTok is that it caters to a younger demographic that may not know who your brand is. Thanks to its fun and interactive ways to find more content that they want to see, you can easily target this audience.
It also shows what’s trending in real time. Whether it’s through hashtags, your TikTok profile or popular music that you’re using, you can easily improve your chances of showing up on more user feeds. This is particularly useful if you want to gain brand awareness and recognition.
TikTok users also share their own experiences with a brand. It’s a great way for potential customers to get feedback from a real person outside of a brand to get a genuine opinion, which can seem more helpful and authentic than just a regular review.
Similarly, it allows users to give direct feedback and responses to your content, which is something that website content doesn’t easily allow you to do. By using user feedback, backed by analytics, you can tweak future content to show more of what your audience wants to see.
Limitations & Concerns
Although following trends is beneficial for businesses on TikTok, it also comes with its issues. As with any social media platform, there is a greater likelihood that trending topics could be based on misinformation. For businesses, even one negative review of a product that may not be true could significantly impact your business. Although search engines can contain false information, algorithm updates are more and more refined to be able to identify this false information and not show it in their index.
Unlike traditional search engines, TikTok is limited to platform-only queries, only showing TikTok videos. This puts more pressure on creating video content that will encourage users to view your website. However, TikTok is evolving, so who knows what its capabilities and search functions will look like years down the line?
It can also be very difficult to gain local visibility to attract foot traffic to your physical store. Whilst traditional search engines have maps to show the exact location of your business, TikTok currently doesn’t support this feature.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can TikTok Replace Traditional Search Engines For All Types Of Queries?
Despite its growing popularity and ability to personalise feeds for each user, we can’t see TikTok taking over major search engine functionalities any time soon. Although TikTok is good at driving awareness for your business, traditional search engine capabilities far surpass TikTok’s search ability to find detailed information from trusted sources.
How Can Businesses Advertise On TikTok?
Much like other social media platforms, there are many ways that you can advertise on TikTok. Depending on the audience you want to reach, there are many ways that you can effectively get your brand in front of the right audience. Here are some of the different ads that you could use on TikTok:
- Video ads: These appear in the TikTok users ‘For You Page’.
- Spark ads: Allows you to sponsor popular organic content related to your products.
- TopView ads: These ads are shown to users when they open the app and are effective at capturing users’ attention.
- Image ads: Image ads include a brand or app name and text.
- Carousel ads: These ads include up to 10 images and appear in TikTok’s news feed.
- Video shopping ads: These video ads have product tiles that allow people to click through to a shoppable instant gallery page without leaving the app.
- Branded elements: Your ads can also appear as branded stickers, filters and other AR content, so TikTok users can use them in their videos.
- Hashtags: Using hashtags helps users find your content in TikTok’s Discovery section.
- Playable ads: Designed for gaming companies, these interactive ads allow users to try out a game before downloading.
- Influencer marketing: This is a TikTok advertisement where you get your message across through sponsored content from an influential TikTok user.
How Can My Business Tap Into TikTok’s Influencer Marketing?
With thousands of influencers and content creators using TikTok on a regular basis, partnering with influencers is one of the easiest ways to get your business seen on TikTok. By sending creators your products to test and review, you have a better chance of your brand getting seen by more people online.
Plus, the content creators’ audience also has a level of trust that they wouldn’t promote a product that they didn’t like on their platform. In turn, their audience is more likely to consider the products that they’re reviewing or recommending.
Note: Consider who the influencer is and what they typically post. For example, an influencer who is a car enthusiast isn’t likely to review a makeup line as it doesn’t resonate with them or their audience.
How Effective Is Affiliate Marketing On TikTok?
TikTok is one of the fastest growing social media apps and has the highest engagement rate when compared to other social media platforms. TikTok influencers have an average engagement rate of 17.96%, whereas Instagram is only 3.86% and YouTube is only 1.63%, making TikTok highly effective for affiliate marketing.
How Can Businesses Optimise Their Content For TikTok Searches?
If you’re using TikTok or you’re considering using it as part of your marketing strategy, there are a few ways to get noticed in TikTok search results. Much like Google’s algorithm, it’s important to create valuable video content that captures the user’s attention, as well as ticking TikTok’s algorithm boxes. This means making videos that might not be directly about what you’re selling, but are still related somehow.
You can do this by creating various unique videos with your product (remember the Crocs example?), using trending or relevant hashtags and using analytics and other social media insights to understand what type of content your audience typically resonates with.
Ready to take your marketing to the next level?
TikTok has changed the way users consume content and is becoming an invaluable asset to any marketing strategy, but it’s important to not solely rely on it as a search engine. By using TikTok marketing to complement your overall content strategy, you can increase the chances of more people seeing your content.
If you’re interested in learning how you can embrace the power of TikTok marketing and SEO for long-term growth and success, drop us a line. Our team of specialists are on hand to help you get the most out of your online marketing.
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Henry Jones
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