AFFILIATE MARKETING
3 TikTok Trends Brands Must Pay Attention To
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
While there are mixed opinions about TikTok, there is no denying that it has earned a place among the top social media channels. Trends on TikTok shift quickly, but agile content creators can make money from their profiles.
Not only was TikTok the most downloaded app in 2022, but also kids spent 62% more time watching TikTok videos than they did YouTube. In addition, it’s noteworthy that Gen Z is the app’s largest demographic, with at least 45 million users in that age range accessing TikTok at least once per month.
At its current growth rate, TikTok has already surpassed Instagram in popularity and will also outstrip Snapchat. This means it’s essential for brands, content creators and marketers to stay on top of TikTok trends to monetize the roughly 95 minutes a day that the average TikTok user spends watching videos.
Here are a few trends to pay attention to:
Related: Looking for New Ecommerce Customers? TikTok Might Be the Best Place to Start.
1. The platform is becoming a sales hub for both brands and influencers
Research from ConvertSocial has found that sales through TikTok’s platform have increased by nearly 400%. One part of this massive surge in sales is because influencers are taking full advantage of advertising and sales opportunities, mainly where affiliate marketing and paid partnerships are concerned.
Additionally, small businesses have also jumped on TikTok as a way to actively establish sales chains that are targeted to younger audiences. These small businesses are creating strong presences, developing their brand identity based on what appeals to these younger users and leveraging that to expand their customer base.
One of the most important factors surrounding this impressive sales growth is that its primary user base has now aged into a bracket where it has considerable spending power. The 10-19 range makes up 32.5% of TikTok’s users, while those aged 20-39 comprise just under 46% of active users. This translates to more purchasing power and a greater interest in products and services with a higher ticket value.
2. Over half of TikTok’s users are women with substantial purchasing power
In a Statista survey as of January 2023, roughly 54% of the global TikTok user base identifies as female. With over a billion users and 670 million downloads in 2022, this is a huge market that most brands are leaving largely untapped.
Believe it or not, only about 18% of marketers fully utilize TikTok as an advertising channel. However, there is an impressive pool of talented social media influencers on the platform who are willing to collaborate with brands to launch successful marketing campaigns, so marketers need to start taking TikTok more seriously to generate revenue.
When you add that women either control or influence at least 85% of consumer spending and account for about $10 trillion of U.S. financial assets, brands should pay attention to what female TikTok consumers are interested in buying.
3. TikTok monetization has yet to hit the saturation point for influencers
Content creators and influencers are well-versed in using platforms like Instagram and YouTube for affiliate marketing and creating a sales funnel. These monetization methods have been done to death via webinars, blog posts, courses and how-to articles.
However, the same is not true for TikTok, partly because it is still a relatively new phenomenon and partly because influencers’ methods to make money are more complex than those of Instagram or YouTube.
For instance, most creators must either heavily promote their affiliate codes or frequently change a link in their profile to keep up with what they’re selling. On other platforms, there are more opportunities to place a clickable link somewhere, which makes the selling process more manageable.
This dovetails with another trend: brand partnerships. Recent ConvertSocial data shows that TikTok bloggers’ income from brand partnerships has grown by 58% in the past year, which proves that the platform’s influencers are figuring out that utilizing the power of a brand alongside traditional affiliate marketing mechanics is a winning strategy for them.
Related: Taco Bell Just Premiered ‘Mexican Pizza: The Musical’ on Tik Tok, Starring Dolly Parton and Doja Cat
Here’s the forecast for TikTok’s marketing prospects
In 2023, one of the best things a brand can do is take TikTok more seriously regarding its audience’s spending power. Most TikTok users can pay for goods and services they see on the platform, so brands can and should leverage this as a lucrative sales channel.
However, it would also be irresponsible not to mention the concerns about certain regulatory risks that some governments, particularly the United States, have raised because TikTok is a Chinese creation owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance. While this has yet to stop over a billion people worldwide from using the app, it is a good idea for companies to capitalize on TikTok’s popularity with eyes wide open and plenty of protections in place.
Overall, TikTok’s popularity is slated to continue its impressive rise, and the revenue-generating opportunities look pretty positive for the coming year. As the platform releases new advertising tools, influencers gain a stronger grasp of marketing mechanics, and more brands begin entering the space; tremendous opportunities await.
