In the early years of TikTok, the Chinese platform turned the heads of influencers because of its high virality potential; a video of a teenager sketching a few dance steps could reach a million views, even if the account only had a handful of subscribers. A bygone era?
Over the past year, brands have been given the signal to invest in the platform, with its promise of visibility. TikTok has evolved into a search engine and even a content aggregator, and now is the time to showcase your expertise.
And when brands are jostling for position on a platform, it’s usually at this point that the platform begins to “monetize” its users. And organic reach plummets. Welcome to paid advertising.
On legacy platforms such as Facebook and Google, the organic Klondike is long gone. Most companies are willing to pay for advertising on these giants. Is it time to do the same on TikTok? The debate has arisen in the Facebook group Professionnel.les des communications numériques du Québec. We bring you the perspective of the contributors to the debate, most of whom are social media managers.
Test first
Roxane Nadeau, digital marketing manager, says she has “mixed feelings”:
At the moment, it’s really affordable and reaches a target that’s hard to pin down. However, based on my experience and the testimonials I’ve received, it doesn’t convert many people. They say it helps build brand recognition so you can get better results elsewhere, for other marketing initiatives. But in reality, even if it does, how do you measure it? I’m still in test mode.
Gabrielle Palardy, Communications Consultant, is more enthusiastic:
I think it’s time to go for it! In our case, as far as hiring is concerned, it worked out pretty well… Personally, I think it’s part of an overall strategy on social networks, bearing in mind that on TikTok, you find people under 30. So, if the objective is to reach this demographic, I say yes!”
Just “no”
Jayson, a digital strategist, has a few reservations:
I’ve had nothing but bad feedback so far. It doesn’t look great yet. I think the ideal is still to do business with content creators who resemble the brand’s profile.”
For Alexandre Cloutier, Web content creator and customer experience manager, the question doesn’t even arise.
TikTok is instant swiping, no one watches the ads. If a company wants to invest in its brand, it’s better to make a good video and boost it. It’ll give the page visibility, but at least there won’t be the “AD” logo at the bottom of the page encouraging people to ‘swipe’. Obviously, it’s a bit of a compromise. Ultimately, we’d like the videos to go viral without being ‘boosted’. To each his own.
That’s the state of play. However, we’re betting that opinions could change quickly – if TikTok decides to press its algorithm to make it cough up more dollars!
