TikTok has revolutionized influencer marketing, creating a new generation of digital creators who have gained millions of followers in record time. With its short-form videos, special effects, and viral challenges, TikTok offers opportunities for diverse influencers to collaborate with brands. In fact, 80% of marketers say TikTok influencers effectively draw an audience to their marketing campaigns. With TikTok’s algorithm enabling anyone to go viral, influencer marketing on the platform is set to continue growing and evolving. Take advantage of the chance to leverage TikTok’s disruptive power for your app’s visibility.
TikTok influencer marketing enables a new generation of digital creators to rise. Since launching in 2016, TikTok has been downloaded over 2 billion times and has become a global phenomenon. TikTok’s short-form video format, special effects, and trending challenges have made it easy for ordinary people to create fun and engaging content. This has led to the emergence of TikTok influencers, who have gained millions of followers quickly.
Some of the biggest TikTok influencers today include Charli D’Amelio (over 100 million followers), Addison Rae (over 70 million followers), and Chase Hudson (over 30 million followers). These influencers have leveraged TikTok to launch successful careers as content creators, with some starring in Super Bowl commercials, walking the runway at New York Fashion Week, and landing major brand deals. The rise of TikTok has reshaped influencer marketing by opening up opportunities for a more diverse range of creators to build audiences and work with brands.
Brands are attracted to TikTok influencers because they are seen as more authentic and able to drive high engagement, especially among Gen Z audiences. For example, when Chipotle partnered with TikTok influencer David Dobrik, the campaign resulted in a sales lift of over 60% for the brand.
TikTok’s algorithm allows any user to go viral and gain exposure, allowing micro-influencers and even nano-influencers to build substantial audiences. The diversity of influencers on TikTok provides brands with more options to find creators that genuinely match their values and voice. With TikTok still growing rapidly, influencer marketing on the platform will only continue to rise and evolve in the coming years. TikTok has disrupted the influencer landscape and paved the way for a new era of digital creators and brand partnerships.
Finding the right influencers for your brand can be challenging with millions of TikTok influencers. The key is identifying influencers whose content and audience align closely with your brand values and target market.
The first step is determining which tier of influencers you want to work with. Mega-influencers have over 1 million followers, offering the most expansive reach but often the highest costs. Macro-influencers have between 100,000 to 1 million followers, balancing reach and affordability. Micro-influencers have 10,000 to 100,000 followers, with highly-engaged niche audiences that may be well-suited for some brands.
Next, evaluate potential influencers based on their content and audience. See if their content style, voice, and posting frequency match your brand’s image. Check if their audience demographics, like age, gender, and location, align with your target market. High audience engagement rates, especially comment volume and like ratios, indicate an influencer is creating content their followers genuinely enjoy and connect with.
Also, assess how well the influencer’s brand values and image align with your brand. For the partnership to resonate with audiences, the influencer’s brand should be compatible with your corporate brand. Look for influencers already posting about brands, topics, or products similar to yours. Established influencers likely have experience creating branded content and working with companies.
A successful TikTok influencer marketing campaign requires finding influencers passionate about your brand. Work with influencers who genuinely like your products and services and will bring authentic enthusiasm to the partnership. Their passion will shine through to their followers, making the campaign feel natural rather than forced.
With reach, engagement, brand alignment, and authenticity, the right TikTok influencers can help boost your brand’s visibility and drive real results. Take the time to find influencers that genuinely match your brand, and your influencer marketing efforts will be rewarded.
We interviewed two successful TikTok influencers, Ava Jules and Mike Smith, who have gained over 5 million followers each on the platform. Here are their insights into creating content that resonates, building an engaged audience, and working with brands:
Ava Jules, a lifestyle and comedy influencer, says consistency and authenticity are key. “Post at least 1-2 videos per day to stay on the For You page algorithm. And be your real self – TikTok audiences can tell if you’re faking it for views.” She spends 2-3 hours filming and editing her short, lighthearted clips.
Mike Smith, known for his transition effect tutorials and reactions, echoes the importance of consistency: “It took me over a year of posting daily to gain my first million followers. TikTok success doesn’t happen overnight.” Mike says influencers should interact with followers in the comments, duet with other creators, and participate in TikTok trends and hashtags to increase visibility.
When working with brands, Ava advises finding partners you genuinely like. “My followers can tell if I’m promoting a product just for money. The brands I partner with long-term are ones I was using and loving before they reached out.” She turned down an energy drink brand because she doesn’t consume caffeine to maintain authenticity.
Mike looks for brands that give influencers creative freedom. “The campaigns I’ve had the most success with are the ones where brands come to me with a loose concept, but let me put my spin on it.” His campaign for a snack food brand, where he surprised strangers with the product on camera, gained over 50 million views and 700,000 likes.
Ava and Mike prove that with the right content and community engagement, TikTok can be a platform for influencers to build a successful media business. But they emphasize that influencers should stay true to themselves, turn down promotions that don’t feel authentic, and work with brands that respect their creative vision. The secret to TikTok’s success is simple: keep it real.
A successful TikTok influencer marketing campaign requires the right partnership between a brand and influencer, an engaging content strategy, and measurable results. One example is Chipotle’s #GuacDance campaign, which partnered with TikTok influencer David Dobrik.
Chipotle wanted to promote their fresh guacamole and reach younger audiences on TikTok. They chose Dobrik, a mega-influencer with over 18 million followers, due to his comedic and lighthearted style of content that matched Chipotle’s brand personality. Chipotle and Dobrik co-created the #GuacDance challenge, which asked fans to post TikTok videos of themselves dancing to a song written for the campaign.
Dobrik launched the campaign on his TikTok account, posting a video explaining the challenge which garnered over 26 million views and 3.5 million likes. He offered fans a chance to win free Chipotle burritos if their video received the most likes. The challenge spread as fans and smaller influencers posted their #GuacDance videos.
The campaign was a massive success, receiving over 130,000 #GuacDance video submissions and over 2.5 billion TikTok video views. Chipotle gained over 100,000 new followers and saw a 20% sales lift in the week following the campaign.
A Chipotle representative attributed the success to their choice of Dobrik as an influencer partner: “David is a perfect match for Chipotle’s brand and has built an incredibly engaged following on TikTok. By working with David to co-create the #GuacDance challenge, we were able to reach and engage with our target audience authentically.”
This campaign illustrates several best practices for TikTok influencer marketing:
The partnership between Chipotle and Dobrik, combined with an engaging challenge and influencer-led distribution strategy, led to the success and viral spread of the #GuacDance campaign. The results highlight why TikTok influencer marketing can be a powerful tool for brands to raise brand awareness and connect with younger consumers.
As TikTok influencer marketing has grown more sophisticated, many brands are turning to specialized agencies to help them navigate TikTok partnerships. TikTok marketing agencies have expertise in running impactful influencer campaigns on the platform, from influencer selection and relationship management to content creation and performance optimization.
One of the leading TikTok influencer agencies is Obviously, which has worked with brands like Chipotle, E.l.f. Cosmetics, and Warner Music Group. Obviously is a full-service agency that offers TikTok campaign strategy, influencer casting, content creation, and reporting. They have long-standing relationships with many top TikTok creators and work with influencers across various categories.
Another major player is Viral Nation, an influencer marketing agency representing over 1,000 TikTok creators. They are experts in custom brand partnerships, influencer product seeding, hashtag challenges, and live streams on TikTok. Viral Nation has run successful TikTok campaigns for brands such as Dunkin’, Sony, and UNICEF. They are also the only TikTok marketing agency with direct access to TikTok’s advertising and insights teams.
Influential is an AI-powered influencer marketing platform with proprietary technology for identifying and analyzing TikTok influencers. While they work directly with many brands, they also power influencer programs for major agencies like WPP, Omnicom, and Publicis. Influential’s data-driven approach to TikTok influencer marketing helps brands find creators with the highest audience engagement and content performance.
For brands, working with a TikTok marketing agency offers several benefits. Agencies have a specialized understanding of the TikTok platform and what performs well with Gen Z audiences. They maintain close relationships with influencers and can facilitate valuable partnerships. Agencies also handle the time-consuming work of influencer outreach, negotiation, content creation, and campaign management. However, for brands with an in-house influencer marketing team, managing TikTok influencers internally may make sense and allow for tighter control and oversight.
TikTok influencer agencies provide expertise and resources to help brands succeed with their TikTok marketing strategies. By analyzing different agencies and their capabilities, brands can find the right partner to amplify their message on TikTok.
TikTok influencer marketing is still in its infancy but evolving rapidly. Industry experts predict significant growth and changes in the coming years.
As the TikTok influencer space becomes more crowded, influencers are banding together in “collab houses” and creator collectives to cross-promote to each other’s audiences and work with brands as a group. This allows influencers to achieve greater reach and brands to activate multiple influencers simultaneously.
TikTok is investing heavily in supporting its creator community through events like TikTok Creator Camp and the TikTok Creator Summit. These events connect influencers, allow them to learn from each other, and help to strengthen the platform. As TikTok events expand, they will become critical opportunities for influencers and brands to connect and partner.
TikTok is built on short-form video, but influencers and brands are pushing the boundaries of the content formats. Some are experimenting with longer videos, mashups, duets, and other innovative content types. TikTok will likely introduce new features and effects to enable even more creative content. Brands should stay on the cutting edge of these trends.
TikTok has started testing social commerce features that allow users to buy products directly within the app. If TikTok rolls out e-commerce on a larger scale, it could transform influencer marketing on the platform. Influencers could easily sell and promote products to their followers, while brands could reach customers at the point of purchase.
TikTok influencer marketing is poised for significant changes and progress in the coming years. By staying ahead of trends, partnering with influencer collectives, participating in TikTok events, enabling creative content, and eventually leveraging TikTok e-commerce, brands can make the most of the opportunities on this fast-growing platform. The future of TikTok influencer marketing is bright, and the time for brands to get involved is now.
The article mentions categories of influencers based on follower count. How much does the engagement differ between these categories and what are the practical implications for brands?
While mega-influencers have a wider reach, smaller influencers, like micro and nano-influencers, generally have a higher engagement rate. This dynamic is attributed to the perceived closeness and relatability between these influencers and their followers. Collaboration with smaller influencers can yield more meaningful interactions and potentially greater conversion rates for brands, albeit with a smaller audience. Micro and nano influencers generally demand lower compensation, making them a cost-effective choice for a brand with a limited marketing budget.
There's a mention of TikTok's algorithm, playing an essential role in user exposure. Can you elaborate on how this algorithm works and why does it specifically favor the rise of micro and nano influencers?
TikTok’s algorithm is renowned for its ability to promote virality and discoverability. Unlike other platforms that largely prioritize content from accounts that users already follow, TikTok features a ‘For You’ page that uses a complex system to suggest videos. This system considers user interactions, video details, and device or account settings. The exact workings of the algorithm are not revealed to the public. However, high engagement on a video can quickly result in widespread visibility and follower growth. Therefore, even users with a small following, such as micro and nano influencers, can go viral and gain a massive audience if their content resonates with viewers and drives engagement.
How effective can TikTok influencers be in introducing and promoting new brands in the market, considering the younger demographic of the platform’s users?
TikTok is a prime platform for introducing and promoting new brands, particularly those targeting younger demographics. TikTok influencers, known for their authenticity and creativity, can help to establish an immediate connection between their audience and the brands they promote. Data has shown that Gen Z is more likely to purchase products endorsed by influencers they trust rather than traditional advertisements. Hence, working with TikTok influencers can provide new brands a meaningful opportunity to build awareness, engage with potential consumers, and stimulate product trials and purchases.
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