by Game Marketing Genie, on 05-Mar-2020 13:59:06
If your business isn't on social media, you're missing out on opportunities to attract, connect with and convert your audience into loyal brand advocates. Almost 4.41 billion people will be actively using social media by 2025 (source: Statista), and knowing the gaming audience, they'll be on there too.
The platforms you put your game on are dependent on what you want to achieve. Each social media platform has a different use, style, and audience. For instance, if you want to reach older players, you might be better off using Facebook over Instagram. Places like Reddit or YouTube might be more beneficial if you want a mix of ages. Knowing your audience is the key to deciding if a platform is right for you.
It's not uncommon for businesses to rush into new paid advertising platforms. But you must understand how and what you can use them for and if they'll work in your marketing strategy.
While TikTok has been up since 2017, it was only in mid-2019 that it released its paid ads service. This made it easier for businesses to start monetizing the audience captured there. But is it right for you? To answer this question, you'll first need to understand the service.
What Is TikTok Ads?
TikTok Ads spans several apps connected under TikTok's parent company, ByteDance. It allows users to produce and distribute ad campaigns to meet multiple goals, including reach and engagement.
Businesses can create campaigns within TikTok Ads and get creative control over their ads' direction. The service contains several valuable tools that facilitate campaign creation, including ad creation guides that allow users to create video ads by selecting a template, uploading assets, and allowing the platform to optimize the content.
Your ads can appear across the ByteDance apps if they're available in your country. TikTok is the most common — and the one with the most users. There are also several locations within these apps where your ad can appear, such as TopView, brand takeovers, in-feed videos, hashtag challenges, and branded video effects similar to Instagram or Snapchat.
You can track the reactions your ads get using the TikTok Pixel. Install this on your website to measure your ad's performance, automatically optimize them, and determine the demographics more likely to take action.
For more information, check out our blog post here: What Is Tiktok Ads, and How Can It Help Your Video Game?
The three questions you should ask yourself to understand if TikTok Ads is for you
It’s not enough to understand TikTok Ads; you must also know if it can help you achieve your business goals. Ask yourself the following questions to decide if it is right for you.
Who makes up your target audience?
TikTok attracts a specific audience, unlike other social media platforms. 41% of users are between 16 and 24 years old, and this audience suits the content that appears here. TikTok's growth in popularity means you need to start considering it for your marketing plans if its audience suits you. The user base is expected to reach 1.8 billion in 2023, so it's likely that your audience exists here, as there are many gamers in this age bracket.
But you still must research your potential players to understand if you would benefit from working with TikTok, as you'll need to be sure you will receive a positive ROI from your investment.
Start answering this question with more questions:
- What does my current audience look like?
- What demographic does my brand and product or service suit?
- Where can I reach these people?
- What type of content will be most useful in connecting with them?
- What is the value of my brand to these people?
- What do my competitors’ audiences look like?
- What type of advertising do they best respond to?
- Who has best responded to other companies’ marketing strategies with TikTok?
Knowing the psychology of your target audience and how they'll respond to your marketing is critical for a good marketing strategy. For TikTok, in particular, this rings true. You need to know what kind of content your audience best responds to.
In May 2019, American fast-food chain Chipotle launched a paid hashtag challenge on TikTok to promote a deal they had for Cinco De Mayo. And it went viral. It encouraged users to try and flip a lid onto a container and film themselves doing it. This worked because it created fun and lighthearted content that users resonated with.
This challenge culture is one of the biggest forms of content on TikTok. Users want to participate because they've seen friends and personalities doing it. If your audience responds well to this content, TikTok will work well for you.
How do you want to advertise?
The style of content on TikTok is not suitable for all businesses. TikTok primarily uses short-form videos casually focusing on comedy and talent.
You’ll want to create a fun, unique, and structured campaign for the platform to best connect with your audience. Like any other social media platform, you want them to engage with your content. But what you post on TikTok will not work the same way elsewhere.
Memes, comedy, and inspirational posts are best for the app’s audience. TikTok might not suit you if you aren’t uncomfortable associating this content with your brand image.
However, lighthearted and fun content is engaging and can represent your brand in a personal and audience-focused way. You want your audience to trust and view your business positively, and TikTok is one of the best ways to do this.
Look into your audience and see if this content style will work for them and you.
Do you have the budget to advertise on TikTok?
The TikTok Ads service can be slightly more expensive than other platforms. A campaign will cost you a minimum of 500 USD, with an average price of $10 for every 1000 clicks.
Hootsuite states that a social media ad's average CPM (cost per mille) was $9.13 in the fourth quarter of 2021. But this makes your investment in TikTok Ads valuable if you target it well.
As with any campaign you run, you need to consider your budget and how you can maximize it to achieve the best ROI. When creating a TikTok campaign, you can decide the spend you're willing to allocate to it.
But before you set your budget, you must understand where your money is going and what results you expect from completing your campaign. However, you can edit your allocated spend after setting it if you choose to. After the money you've designated has depleted, your campaign will conclude.
You’ve got three budget choices available.
- No Limit: you have no restrictions on your ad delivery, and your spend is determined by the budget you set.
- Daily Budget: your ad delivery is limited by the daily budget you set. Your ad spend for this campaign will not exceed this amount.
- Lifetime Budget: your ad delivery is limited by the lifetime budget you set. Your ad spend for this campaign will not exceed this amount.
If you’re willing to input the ad spend, and TikTok’s audience suits your brand and content, it might be one of the best ways for you to market your brand. And who knows, you might even go viral too! Learn more about their custom-made business suite in our blog here: What is TikTok for Business, and Why Does it Work?
Paid advertising for game devs
Organic marketing is great, but it won’t take you all the way to game marketing success! Don’t be afraid to invest in paid advertising, as it can help you generate the reach and engagement you need. Still not convinced? Check out The Complete Paid Marketing Guide for Video Games!
Big brands like Chipotle have already successfully used the app, but smaller businesses are still hesitant to jump on board.
Become an adopter and start considering the service for your future marketing plans. Keep your brand relevant, fresh and fun by distributing engaging content that connects with your audience.
Learning a new marketing platform can be difficult, especially when you’re unaware how to optimize it to get the best return. The team at Game Marketing Genie can create a TikTok social media marketing strategy that works for you, so focus on making the your brand the best it can be, and let the experts handle the rest.
Want to know more? Check out our social media marketing strategy page to find out how we can help you!
