‘’TikTok’s website was visited last year more often than Google.’’ This is a big deal. Those of you working with Google advertising and aware of their power and influence in the digital media advertising landscape know exactly what this means. Working at a media agency, our job is to advise our clients on appropriate media channels and platforms so that they can reach their audience in the most effective way. The decision on which channel & platform should be part of their media plan is strongly driven by the size and the quality of the audience available.
Surpassing Google’s number of visitors puts social media’s TikTok platform in a very strong position and one to be recommended to our clients where there is relevance with products and audience profiles.
TikTok came to the market with an innovative technology that was extremely attractive for the younger demographic. However, over time, the TikTok platform has gained increasing levels of attention from older cohorts. The content is no longer simply focussed on dance and funny videos. More and more companies have expanded their social media presence to TikTok as they recognise the platform’s potential to tap into large audiences. Beyond the entertainment industry, some newspapers are now active on the platform and finding viewers for their news pieces. For example, the Washington Post has 1.5 million followers and 66 million likes.
One of the communities that is growing globally on TikTok is #BookTok. A community that encourages and inspires users to read literature. The community has over 85 billion views globally and its success has become the reason behind the launch of a new feature in partnership with Penguin Random House which allows users to link their favourite Penguin Random House books to their video content.
Various market analyses and statistics show that the average time spent on TikTok is increasing year on year, and the number of people who open TikTok accounts is also growing on an annual basis. As Google over the years established their brand as a verb in the English dictionary, we can expect to see TikTok becoming a new trendy verb in the near future.
As a brand you could be for or against the platform. However, as part of prioritising the success of your business, and where there is evidence that your target audience could be found on TikTok, we’d always recommend that you test the performance of this platform, compare it with the performance of other paid social media platforms, and let data drive your paid media strategy.