How to use TikTok for business

TikTok which launched on September 2016, became in global craze in 2018 and hence never seen a down-graph. It became a global sensation and the most successful video marketing platform on the world, transforming from a platform primarily known for lip-syncing videos to one of the most influential digital marketing tools available. Since its launch, the platform has attracted over one billion monthly active users worldwide, with a substantial portion of its user base residing in the UK. In 2023, Tiktok reported 23 million active users in the UK. In 2024, 76% of online users aged 15 to 24 were active on TikTok, and 25% of its users were between the ages of 10 and 19. The second-largest age group on the platform was those between 25 and 34 years old. 

TikTok’s unique approach to content marketing, through short-form, highly engaging videos, has made it particularly popular with Gen Z and Millennials. For businesses aiming to increase brand visibility, engage with younger audiences, and drive tangible sales, TikTok offers unparalleled opportunities.

TikTok’s Reach Among Gen Z and Millennials

TikTok’s appeal to younger demographics is one of its most defining characteristics. Around 60% of TikTok users are under the age of 30, making it a key platform for brands targeting Gen Z and Millennials. TikTok’s algorithm, which promotes personalised content discovery, helps businesses engage with these younger groups more effectively than many other platforms. For example, companies like Gymshark, Crocs and Chipotle have demonstrated how using TikTok to tap into trends, participate in challenges, and create shareable, authentic content can significantly increase engagement and brand loyalty among younger audiences. TikTok’s emphasis on creative expression resonates with these generations, leading to higher engagement rates and a unique opportunity for brands to establish authenticity.
 

Why Use TikTok for Business?

High Engagement Rates

TikTok boasts impressive engagement rates, with the average user spending around 52 minutes daily on the app. Videos on TikTok have high interaction levels, from likes and comments to shares, making it an ideal platform for creating viral content. According to recent data, TikTok’s engagement rate outperforms other major social media platforms, with users more likely to interact with content organically rather than simply scrolling past it. For businesses, this means an enhanced chance to capture attention and foster customer relationships.

Viral Potential

TikTok’s unique algorithm is designed to promote content discovery, making it easier for videos to go viral. Unlike many platforms where reach depends heavily on follower count, TikTok’s “For You Page” (FYP) showcases content based on user interest and engagement rather than simply existing connections. This structure levels the playing field for businesses, allowing even small brands to achieve significant exposure through creative and well-executed content.

Affordable Advertising Options

TikTok offers a variety of advertising options at competitive prices, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes. From In-Feed ads to TopView ads and Branded Hashtag Challenges, TikTok’s advertising platform provides businesses with a range of targeting options to reach specific audiences based on factors like location, interests, and behaviour. This flexibility allows businesses to create custom campaigns that align with their budgets and objectives, providing substantial returns on investment.

E-commerce Integration

With the launch of TikTok Shop, the platform has made it easier than ever for businesses to connect with potential customers directly through the app. TikTok Shop allows users to browse and purchase products without leaving the platform, simplifying the customer journey and creating more opportunities for businesses to drive sales. This e-commerce integration is especially beneficial for small businesses and direct-to-consumer brands, as it combines TikTok’s engaging format with a seamless shopping experience.

Getting Started on TikTok

Create a TikTok Business Account

To begin using TikTok for business, setting up a dedicated business account is essential. This type of account provides access to valuable tools, such as analytics and performance insights, that help businesses understand how their content is performing.

1. Download and Install TikTok: Ensure you have the latest version of the TikTok app installed.
2. Sign Up or Log In: You can sign up with an email, phone number, or existing social media account.
3. Switch to a Business Account: Navigate to ‘Manage Account’ and select ‘Switch to Business Account’ to access tools designed specifically for business users.

Benefits of a business account include access to TikTok’s Analytics feature, which provides insights into follower demographics, content performance, and engagement metrics—critical data for shaping an effective TikTok strategy.

Understand Your Audience

Researching your target audience is a critical first step for success on TikTok. Knowing what resonates with your demographic can help you tailor your content and drive higher engagement. TikTok provides insights into user demographics, such as age and location, enabling businesses to fine-tune their strategies.

Tips for Engaging with the TikTok Community:

• Observe Competitors: See what similar businesses are doing on the platform and identify gaps in their content strategies.
• Engage with Users: Reply to comments, acknowledge feedback, and participate in trends to create a sense of community and connection.

Set Clear Objectives

Defining your business goals on TikTok is essential to measure success. Objectives could range from increasing brand awareness and engagement to driving direct sales or encouraging website visits.

• Brand Awareness: For businesses looking to increase visibility, focusing on engaging, shareable content is key.
• Engagement: If engagement is the priority, leveraging trending challenges and interactive content can help.
• Conversions: For businesses focused on sales, aligning content with product showcases and influencer partnerships can be effective.

Developing Your Content Strategy

To succeed on TikTok, developing a well-planned content strategy and content marketing that reflects your brand’s personality while engaging the audience is essential. TikTok’s users respond well to creativity, authenticity, and a sense of fun, so brands that adopt these qualities in their content are more likely to see positive engagement.

Content Creation Tips

Creating content that resonates with TikTok audiences involves more than traditional advertisements. Here are some effective types of content for businesses:

1. Challenges: TikTok users love challenges, and brands can use these to encourage user-generated content. For instance, Chipotle’s #GuacDance challenge inspired fans to show off their dance moves, generating over 111,000 video submissions.
2. Tutorials and How-Tos: Educational content performs well, and short tutorials or “how-to” videos help establish your brand as an authority while engaging viewers. This approach works for a range of industries, from beauty to fitness to food.
3. Behind-the-Scenes: Content that offers a look behind the curtain into your business creates a sense of transparency, fostering trust and authenticity. Whether it’s showing the production process or featuring employee stories, these insights make brands more relatable.
4. Entertaining Content: Humour and storytelling are central to TikTok’s culture. Brands that incorporate humour or compelling stories in their videos often see high engagement.

Utilising Trends and Hashtags

Trends and hashtags are at the core of TikTok’s content discovery. To expand reach and gain visibility, businesses need to stay on top of popular trends and use hashtags effectively.

• Stay Updated with Trends: Keeping an eye on trending sounds, filters, and challenges will help your brand appear current and relevant. By participating in trending challenges, businesses can gain exposure and engage with the platform’s larger community.
• Effective Hashtag Use: Using relevant hashtags can significantly increase the chances of your videos reaching the right audience. General tags like #foryou or #fyp can be useful, but adding niche-specific hashtags relevant to your brand or industry (e.g., #foodie for a restaurant) can help target specific audiences more accurately.

Case Studies: Successful Brands on TikTok

To further understand the platform’s potential, here are some brands that have leveraged TikTok successfully to increase engagement and drive sales.

Chipotle

Chipotle used TikTok’s viral potential by creating challenges that encouraged user participation. The #GuacDance challenge, which invited guacamole enthusiasts to share dance moves celebrating avocados, launched last week and gathered 250,000 video submissions along with 430 million video views over a six-day period, according to reports.

Read full case study here

Image: Chipotle Tik Tok Campaign (GuacDance)

Gymshark

Fitness apparel brand Gymshark reached 2 million followers in just six months by utilising influencer marketing and engaging fitness content.  “66 Days | Change Your Life” challenge. This campaign was launched by Gymshark in January 2019 and encouraged participants to set a fitness goal, document their progress, and share before-and-after photos using the hashtag #Gymshark66. The campaign garnered over 193 million views and involved collaborations with several fitness influencers to amplify its reach and impact

Read the full case study here

Image:  “66 Days | Change Your Life” challenge (GymShark)

Crocs

Crocs launched the #StrapBack campaign to promote their collaboration with Afterpay and to celebrate Croc Day 2020. Crocs ran a successful TikTok campaign with the hashtag #StrapBack, amassing 6.8 billion views and an impressive 18.5% engagement rate. The brand leveraged the platform to connect with its audience, highlighting its playful and laid-back personality and introducing its own challenges to boost user engagement.

Read full case study here

Image: #StrapBack Campaign (Crocs)

Leveraging Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing on TikTok is a powerful tool for reaching new audiences, as influencers typically have highly engaged followers who trust their recommendations. Collaborating with the right influencers can amplify your brand’s message, drive traffic, and even increase sales.

Collaborate with Influencers

Partnering with influencers allows brands to reach a wider audience quickly. With TikTok’s creator-friendly algorithm, influencers can help brands gain visibility in ways that traditional ads often cannot.

Benefits of Partnering with TikTok Influencers:

• Credibility: Influencers bring credibility to your brand, as followers often trust their recommendations.
• Expanded Reach: TikTok influencers have loyal followings, and their endorsement can expose your brand to new audiences.
• Creative Content: Influencers know what type of content resonates with their followers, and collaborating with them can bring new creative perspectives to your brand.

Tips for Finding the Right Influencers

Finding the right influencer for your brand involves more than just selecting a popular account. Here are some tips for finding the best fit:

1. Relevance: Ensure the influencer’s content aligns with your brand’s values and resonates with your target audience.
2. Engagement Rate: Instead of just focusing on follower count, check engagement rates. An influencer with high engagement and a smaller following may deliver better results than one with a larger but less engaged audience.
3. Authenticity: TikTok users value authenticity. Look for influencers who create genuine, relatable content, as their followers are more likely to trust recommendations that don’t feel overtly promotional.

Advertising on TikTok

TikTok’s advertising options provide businesses with a range of formats designed to suit various marketing goals, from increasing brand awareness to driving conversions. Each ad format offers unique features that help brands engage effectively with their target audience. Here’s a look at some of TikTok’s primary ad formats and tips for setting up a campaign.

Overview of Ad Formats

1. In-Feed Ads: These ads appear within users’ For You Pages as they scroll, making them feel like a natural part of the feed. In-Feed Ads allow brands to add a clickable call-to-action (CTA), like “Shop Now” or “Learn More,” leading users directly to a website or landing page.
2. TopView Ads: This format ensures maximum visibility, as TopView Ads are displayed to users as soon as they open the app. Given its premium placement, TopView Ads are ideal for brands seeking extensive reach and higher engagement.
3. Branded Hashtag Challenges: One of TikTok’s most unique offerings, Branded Hashtag Challenges, allows businesses to encourage user participation by creating a branded hashtag and challenge. This format has a high potential for viral reach as users actively engage by creating their own content related to the challenge.
4. Branded Effects: Brands can design custom stickers, filters, or AR effects that users can add to their videos. This interactive format is highly effective for engaging users and building brand affinity as they use your branded effects in their own content.

Setting Up Your First Campaign

To set up an ad campaign on TikTok, businesses need to follow these steps:

1. Access the Ads Manager: Start by visiting the TikTok Ads Manager and setting up an account if you haven’t already.
2. Choose a Campaign Objective: Objectives can range from reach and traffic to app installs and conversions. Selecting a clear objective helps TikTok’s algorithm optimise your campaign to meet specific goals.
3. Set Your Budget: TikTok offers both daily and lifetime budget options, allowing flexibility based on how long you want the campaign to run and your budget constraints.
4. Create Your Ad Group: Select your target audience based on demographics, interests, and behaviours. TikTok’s targeting options also allow for location-based targeting, enabling local businesses to reach nearby customers.
5. Launch and Monitor: Once everything is set, launch the campaign and monitor its performance using TikTok’s analytics dashboard, which provides insights into views, clicks, and engagement metrics.

Budgeting Tips and Measuring ROI

Budgeting for TikTok ads varies depending on the ad format and your campaign goals. Start with a modest budget, test different formats, and use TikTok’s bidding options to manage costs. Measuring ROI on TikTok involves tracking metrics such as cost per thousand impressions (CPM), engagement rate, and conversion rate, allowing you to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaign and adjust accordingly.

Analysing Performance

Understanding how your TikTok content performs is essential for refining your strategy and optimising future content. TikTok’s analytics tools provide data on views, engagement, audience demographics, and more, helping businesses assess what works and what needs improvement.

Understanding TikTok Analytics

TikTok’s analytics platform provides a comprehensive breakdown of key metrics, which are vital for understanding user behaviour and content performance.

1. Overview Tab: This provides a summary of follower count, video views, and profile views, giving a quick snapshot of your account’s growth.
2. Content Tab: The content tab offers insights into each post’s performance, including views, likes, comments, and shares. This helps you assess which types of videos are most effective at engaging your audience.
3. Followers Tab: TikTok provides details on follower demographics, such as location, gender, and peak activity times. This is invaluable for scheduling posts to reach your audience when they’re most active.

Key Metrics to Track

• Views and Engagement Rates: Views indicate the reach of your videos, while engagement rates (likes, shares, and comments) show how well your content resonates with viewers.
• Follower Growth: Steady follower growth suggests successful content, while sudden spikes or drops can provide insights into what’s working or areas for improvement.
• Traffic and Conversions: For e-commerce and website-driven campaigns, monitoring click-through rates (CTR) and conversions helps measure the effectiveness of CTAs and overall ad performance.

Tools Available for Measuring Success

Beyond TikTok’s built-in analytics, several third-party tools, such as Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Later, provide additional data on social media performance. These tools help businesses track TikTok analytics alongside other social media platforms, offering a holistic view of brand performance across channels.

Best Practices for Success

While TikTok offers immense potential for businesses, achieving sustained success on the platform requires consistent effort and adaptability. Here are some best practices that can help your business maximise its TikTok presence:

Consistency in Posting

Consistency is crucial on TikTok. Posting regularly keeps your brand visible and helps establish a routine that followers can engage with. Although the optimal posting frequency can vary, most businesses find that uploading content 3–5 times a week yields positive engagement. Posting at peak times when your audience is most active—based on TikTok’s analytics insights—can also improve visibility and interactions.

Engaging with Comments and Community Feedback

TikTok is highly interactive, and engaging with your audience in the comments can foster a sense of community. Responding to comments, acknowledging feedback, and even creating follow-up videos based on popular questions or requests can boost engagement and show your brand’s personable side.

Experimenting with Different Content Types and Formats

TikTok thrives on variety, and experimenting with different content types—such as challenges, tutorials, product showcases, and influencer partnerships—can reveal what resonates best with your audience. Trialling new formats, adjusting based on performance data, and adapting to audience interests will help keep your content fresh and engaging.

As more businesses tap into TikTok’s potential, those who consistently deliver authentic, engaging, and trend-aware content will stand out. If you’re ready to explore TikTok’s business opportunities, start by creating a strategy that aligns with your brand and dive into this exciting platform with confidence.

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