To be honest with you, when I first heard about TikTok, I was 100% not excited about it. Rolling my eyes, I thought: "here we go again, another platform that'll flop in a year".

I, like a lot of people not in the Gen Z camp just didn't get any of the content. Wasn't it just teenagers dancing and lip-syncing to music? What on earth am I, a Marketer in my late 20s going to do with that?

The truth is that a lot of brands and marketing teams look at TikTok, see the type of content on there, and can't see themselves being able to do anything with it. That, my friend, is all about to change. 

Since the days of lipsyncing and dancing videos, TikTok has experienced explosive growth, and I'm personally astonished at all the opportunities that have popped up for brands to leverage. Let's dive into it.

Why should brands be on TikTok?

"Isn't TikTok just for Kids?"

First off, let's address the elephant. The common perception people have when it comes to TikTok is that it's just a lipsyncing app for kids, but that's actually a misconception. Yes, TikTok has now surpassed Instagram for popularity among Gen Z users (born between 1997 and 2012) in the United States, with 37.3 million compared to Instagram's 33.3 million.

But it's also making big gains in other age demographics: in the first quarter of 2021, 36% of TikTok users were between 35 and 54 years old, compared to 26% in 2020.

It's also worth noting that all the social platforms that are now the major players such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter started with younger demographics, and then aged-up. 

With hashtags spanning topics such as education, science, cars, gaming, financial advice, comedy, and many more, the perception that TikTok is just a lipsyncing app for kids no longer stands, but why else should brands be marketing on TikTok?

1. TikTok is exploding with users right now

There are 8 new users joining TikTok every second, with an average of 650,000 new users joining daily. With this level of growth, TikTok is expected to reach 1.5 billion users by the end of 2022. That's a lot of people.

2. The organic reach is just *chef's kiss*

Remember Instagram's organic reach in the early days? TikTok is kind of like that but better. You could have absolutely zero following when you post your first video, but TikTok will see what your video is about and show it to potentially thousands, if not millions of users interested in that topic.

A great example is Oreo's challenge campaign, which involved people putting an oreo on their forehead and without using their hands trying to manoeuvre the oreo into their mouths (a challenge I can personally get behind). This challenge influenced people to go to the shop, buy Oreos, and try the challenge themselves. 

But it doesn't stop there, oh no. Users ended up filming themselves attempting the challenge, meaning Oreo had millions of fans making marketing content for them. Delicious.

What people love about TikTok is that you get to see a whole different side to brands. It's an opportunity to show off your brand's personality. You know, be the fun uncle for once! It's a fun look for oreo, instead of your typical marketing. There's no hard sell, just people using Oreos for something fun. And this is really important for TikTok content to do well. I'll talk more about that in the "How Should TikTok ads look?" section below. 

3. TikTok is the most engaging of all social media apps

TikTok users like connecting with brands, with 73% reporting that they feel a deeper connection to companies they interact with on the platform.

And with an average user session of 10.85 minutes, TikTok's engagement is more than twice as long as the second-most engaging app, Pinterest, which clocks in at 5.06 minutes per session. It's also more than three times longer than users typically spend on Instagram, at 2.95 minutes per session.

Why? Simply, users have the opportunity to engage with others in a more enjoyable way than on other social platforms. Think about the kinds of engagement you can have on Instagram and Facebook, you can like a post, comment on a post, maybe share if you really like it, and send DMs. But on TikTok, you have the opportunity to duet with a brand's video, meaning you can easily create reaction videos and add something to their content. There's also the sound element of TikTok, which allows you to use another user's sound for your own video.

4. Yes, your audience is on there.

You'd be surprised about how many industries have found a foothold in the app with quality, TikTok-specific content.

For example, in 2021, Finance TikTok grew by 255%. TikTok's What's Next Report 2022 found that topics related to investing, cryptocurrency, and all things finance exploded this year. There's also an active and rapidly growing personal finance community on the app, helping folks use their cash wisely. 

Compared to 2020, views for videos tagged #NFT grew by a ridiculous 93,000%, and 1.9 billion videos were posted to the app under the #crypto hashtag. And if you think they're all your typical professional financial videos, you'd be wrong; financial topics are also subject to TikTok's weirdness, as shown beautifully by the hashtag #TikTokDogeCoinChallenge.

Even if your brand has nothing to do with finance, the growth of FinTok shows that any industry can find a foothold in the app if they're making quality content. Whatever your brand's niche, you can be certain your audience is on there.