Return On Influence: How Creators and Creative Variety Can Spark Performance
Welcome to TikTok's Creative Impact Report!
This report aims to help brands and advertisers better understand TikTok’s creative ecosystem and leverage the right methodologies or tools to produce content that resonates and performs. TikTok's Return on Creative concept highlights the value of creative investment in today’s marketing landscape, emphasizing the importance of empathy and resonance to break through to audiences. It also touches on the need for more abundant, active, and connective content amplified through both organic and paid campaigns.
How to use TikTok's Creative Impact Report!
The key focus of this report is how strategic investment in creative and creator variety can help spark campaign performance. Each section has 'TikTok Insight' derived from an internal data analysis, along with a ‘How to take action’ conclusion to help guide you toward implementing new creative strategies. Our goal is to help you get the most out of creator collaborations with exclusive TikTok research, performance insights, and access to new creative solutions.
Section 1: Leverage TikTok's creator-brand synergy to build trust, inspire content variety, and optimize results
A new wave of varied and abundant content has taken over TikTok, as viewers are pivoting from passive to active, transforming into creators, and using technology to create and connect with one another. The lines are becoming blurred between creators and viewers across all content on TikTok, which further fuels the intrigue of TikTok's creativity engine. This has resulted in a more robust variety of authentic creator voices and perspectives that resonate with audiences, no matter the size of their following.
As more marketers realize the potential creators bring to their content variety and media mix, they're proactively enabling creators to produce innovative new content at scale. Effective creator partnerships require clear communication and well-structured briefs to ensure desired results, and marketers must speak the language of the creators to help maximize their return on creative [1]. By creating for their brand or product, creators sourced through TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions are often given the freedom to produce content aligned with their original style and unique tone of voice.
Additionally, marketers are determined to optimize creative campaign performance, starting with a sufficient number of varied creatives to prevent audience fatigue, add value, and maintain engagement with the TikTok creative community. While the number of varied creative assets per campaign is essential, strategically leveraging the right number of creators can also help to diversify content variety, improve creative quality, and enhance campaign performance. Creators have become trusted figures that add value to the lives of viewers while changing the meaning of what good creativity looks like, further bridging the gap between brands and audiences.
Section 1.A: TikTok's creative community emerges among viewers, brands and creators, fueling a variety of new ideas
TikTok fosters a strong sense of community among both viewers and creators that promotes brand awareness and engagement while inspiring a variety of new creative ideas, with 2 in 5 viewers feeling like part of the creator's and brand's communities after watching creator content on TikTok [2]. As for TikTok creators, 82% of them feel that the platform allows them to express themselves through collaboration, emphasizing the importance of shared ideas and collective creativity through community engagement [2].
For many brands and advertisers, the comments section has become a key tool for audience understanding, collaboration, and community building, as 76% of TikTok users agree that brands that post or reply to comments on TikTok feel like part of the community [3], while 72% of of TikTok users say the comment section is a way for brands to connect with their customers [4]. This sense of belonging further enhances the influence between users and creators, as 65% of users read video comments to gauge community opinions about a product or brand after watching a creator's ad [5]. This gives brands an opportunity to capitalize on the community-driven nature of TikTok by encouraging creators to galvanize inclusive, interactive communities around a brand's products and messages, enhancing the feeling of community participation through TikTok's collaborative environment.
TikTok Insight:
Assets produced by creators through TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions drove higher engagement, with an +84% increase in comments on brand ads and +165% increase in comments on performance ads, when compared with assets not created using these tools. [17] While this is true for both Spark Ads and performance campaigns, Sparks Ads drove significantly higher comment engagement than non-Spark Ads, or assets uploaded by the advertiser, indicating that content posted by a creator account gets more comment engagement than content posted by a brand account. [17]
How to take action:
1. Actively engage with viewers and creators in the comment sections to generate discussions, build trust or loyalty, and source new ideas to diversify your content variety.
2. Use TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions to source a variety of new creators to generate more comment engagement, audience listening, and creative idea variety.
3. Get creators to post content to their creator account to build community engagement. Amplify it with Spark Ads, then upload it to your brand account or TikTok Ads Manager.
Section 1.B: Everyone can be a creator on TikTok, providing ample opportunity for creator variety
The TikTok creative community has generated a strong inspiration loop on TikTok, where both creators and viewers feed off of one another's creativity. A significant majority of platform users (62%) and creators (82%) find inspiration to create content on TikTok off of one another's videos, indicating the platform's powerful role in influencing content creation behavior [6, 2].
This cycle enhances the platform's dynamic content creation ecosystem, while turning out a consistent variety of new organic and paid content that keeps viewers coming back for more. More importantly, it also provides ample opportunity for creator variety, as viewers who are inspired to make videos pivot from passive to active, and in turn become creators, broadening the pool of creator talent. Brands have an opportunity to amplify new creator-generated content through the use of Spark Ads.
TikTok Insight:
Using Spark Ads to "spark" user-generated (or creator-generated) content has shown a +30% completion rate, +142% engagement rate, and a +43% conversion rate compared to standard diversion in-feed ads. [7]
In fact, 87% of the top 200 high-spending Spark Ads involve creators. [7]
How to take action:
1. Engage with both creators and viewers to foster a collaborative and inspiring environment and encourage a greater variety of creator-generated content, perhaps by launching challenges, collaborations, or interactive campaigns that encourage participation and creativity from both viewers and creators.
2. Source high-performing organic creator content to leverage as Spark Ads, diversifying the variety of creators and creatives representing your brand or product.
Section 2: Harness creators to drive full-funnel metrics and engage diverse audiences with more varied quality content
Creative variety is the spice of life on TikTok, with both viewers and creators craving more content that speaks to a variety of niche interests, acting as a gateway to creative targeting. According to Morning Consult, "there isn’t one influencer for everyone! People are more likely to say they don’t have a favorite influencer than to agree on one," indicating an opportunity for brands to diversify the mix of creators they work with [8]. Creators are often inspired by TikTok's new and varied content [2], fueling their creativity, and motivating them to create a more expansive variety of content.
Knowing that there's an abundance of creative content being produced amongst viewers, creators, and brands, it's no surprise that a greater quantity and quality of creative assets is recommended for TikTok paid advertising campaigns. The secret to producing more creative assets to scale performance campaigns may lie in content diversification as a result of creator partnerships, acting as a creative supply chain for brands and advertisers.
Section 2.A: Creator partnerships are the key to diversifying your creative variety and increasing your creative quantity
TikTok creators frequently share their experiences with products and brands [9], with 87% of them agreeing that TikTok consistently offers new and diverse content [2]. This indicates that creators are motivated to produce a high volume of original creative content, especially as there are more than enough creators out there to speak to the unique and varied interests of audiences.
This continuous stream of originality keeps creators engaged, audiences entertained, and provides ample opportunities for brands to be featured authentically and organically. It also helps to support advertisers show up more for their audiences, as the more creatives (and creators) you have in quantity, the more opportunities you have to appear in front of the right audience.
TikTok Insight:
Using 5-7 creatives in a performance campaign can bring a 1.5x advantage to your creative performance on TikTok [10].
Volume of assets created using TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions had a 154% higher quantity than those who didn’t use these solutions when it came to paid performance ads (not Spark Ads) [17].
How To Take Action:
1. Increase the quantity of assets in your ad groups, balancing your brand-produced content with more creator-produced content to support quantity growth.
2. Use TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions to establish ongoing workflows with creators in an effort to increase your quantity (and variety) of assets.
Section 2.B: Introducing a variety of new creators and creative assets is the secret to refreshing and educational content
Audiences are always looking for something new, and TikTok is 1.8 times more effective than traditional social media in introducing viewers to new creators and online personalities [11]. Additionally, TikTok's creator content significantly influences viewers by introducing them to new information, products, and brands, with 2 in 3 viewers learning something new [6], and 1 in 3 discovering new products and brands [17].
Audiences are actively searching for more information after watching creator content, resulting in a demand for content variety. Creators may be the key to delivering responsive content that further elaborates on a topic to teach audiences something new while providing brands with a continuous stream of original content. More importantly, consistently delivering new streams of content and creators to your audience may help to alleviate creative fatigue, while maintaining or even increasing paid campaign performance.
TikTok Insight:
Campaigns with creative diversification show +13% increased CVR compared to ad groups that do not have similar budget utilization [18].
Advertisers who use more new creatives in their ad groups and refresh weekly tend to see better performance in the realm of +10-12% higher conversions. [12]
How to take action:
1. Diversify your creative assets by partnering with a wider variety of new creators, supporting audiences with a variety of new content from a mix of perspectives.
2. Leverage TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions to actively refresh and renew your campaign assets with new creators, expanding reach and visibility while diminishing creative fatigue.
Section 2.C: Creator-produced content variety enhances content quality
Knowing that good quality creative inclusive of empathy and resonance can help to fuel a 'return on creative' [1], creators can help bridge the gap between brands and audiences while producing a greater variety of high-quality creative assets. Creators bring a sense of authenticity and approachability to their content, which audiences find to be informative [5], believable, likable, funny, approachable, and entertaining [6].
Creators deliver a valuable variety of empathetic content that resonates with audiences, helping to define what good creative quality looks like. TikTok creators excel in producing high-quality content that resonates deeply with viewers, driven by their authenticity and relatability. Creator content tends to keep viewers watching for longer, which advertisers can analyze and measure more closely to help attribute campaign success to creator content quality.
TikTok Insight:
Studies show that 50% of a campaign's success can be attributed to the quality of a creative [13].
Creator Spark Ads produced through TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions saw 2% higher VTR than those not created using these tools. Non-Spark Ads assets made by TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions had 67% higher VTR than those not created using these tools. [17]
How To Take Action:
1. Improve your creative quality by capitalizing on creator authenticity, relatability, and entertainment value, giving creators the freedom and flexibility to be themselves.
2. Use TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions to partner with a variety of authentic and relatable creators that provide honest opinions and genuine interactions with your brand or product.
Section 3: Empower your TikTok strategy: utilize AI, engaged creators, and collaborative tools for seamless content variety
Collaborating with creators on TikTok is the easiest way to increase your creative variety to deliver new and entertaining content to audiences, while improving your creative quality to give them the best experience possible - both of which will keep viewers coming back for more. Creators believe it's easy to create and post on TikTok, while 81% enjoy the collaborative nature of TikTok's tools and templates [2], further validating the ease and importance of brand collaborations with creators as the most seamless way to scale creative campaigns.
Section 3.A: AI is enabling creators with a stronger variety of creative ideas and production capabilities
When it comes to which creative tools are currently helping to facilitate creativity for creators (and brands), AI has become a beacon of promise helping them at every step of the creative journey while speeding up workflows and providing a variety of creative opportunities — from ideation, all the way to execution.
Brands can partner with creators to produce Generative AI creative to enhance appeal, with 64% of users wanting to see AI content by creators, and 45% wanting to see AI content by brands [14]. That's why our new suite of creative solutions, TikTok Symphony, was designed to enhance every step of the TikTok content creation journey, enabling both brands, creators, and even users to elevate their creativity.
Symphony Creative Assistant / Script Generator:
Our generative AI tools are designed to address pain points, like needing a creator buddy to help brainstorm ideas, or a creative strategist to identify insight-led strategies. Many brands and creators may already be using other chatbots for this kind of support. But the beauty of Creative Assistant is that its insights are tailored specifically to TikTok.
Symphony Creative Studio:
Our AI-powered TikTok video generator creates TikTok-fit content in minutes from minimal inputs, helping to improve your creative variety, quantity, and quality. Try turning a product URL into a TikTok-style video, adding a digital avatar to deliver your voiceover, translating and dubbing existing creator videos into new languages, and more.
TikTok Insight:
Spark Ads assets supported by TikTok’s AI technology saw 132% higher completion rate, 53% higher CTR, and 48% higher CVR than non-AIGC assets [17].
How To Take Action:
1. Use Creative Assistant / Script Generator to come up with a variety of new ideas and strategies to partner with creators to produce.
2. Use Symphony Creative Studio to generate new TikTok-fit videos, or expand your creators' presence into a variety of new languages or markets by translating and dubbing.
Section 3.B: Organic and upper funnel campaign creative solutions for variety
TikTok offers a variety of solutions for partnering with viewers and creators to increase your creative quantity while improving creative quality to scale campaigns at any stage of the funnel. Many of these tools help to align brands with creators, whether it's to amplify an organic moment, or get more creative assets for organic and paid campaigns.
Step 1: Start with ideation
As always, it all starts with ideation for big creative ideas that are easy to execute using TikTok's creative product solutions and partners. TikTok Creative Center can help you find the best performing ads, viral videos, trending hashtags, and creators across regions and verticals to inspire you to improve your creative quality.
TikTok Insight:
Creative Center users have increased their number of effective creatives by +21% compared to non-users, indicating that TikTok's ideation and insights tools are effective in improving both quantity and quality to deliver more variety to audiences. [15]
How To Take Action:
Use TikTok Creative Center to source the latest trending hashtags, songs, and keywords to help fuel a variety of new ideas and diversify your creative content.
Step 2: Build out your organic and upper funnel strategies (then use Spark Ads)
Once ideas are outlined, it's important to remember that the combination of organic + paid helps to drive performance, and organic is a great place to start. From there, brands who want to scale their awareness with upper funnel paid campaigns can partner with creators using TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions.
Boost organic creator and user-generated content with Spark Ads:
Spark Ads is a native ad format that enables you to leverage organic TikTok posts and their features in your advertising. This unique format lets you publish ads using your own TikTok account's posts, or using organic posts made by other creators (or users) – with their authorization.
Creative a viral-like moment with Branded Mission:
Brands can connect with TikTok creators by offering them incentives to develop authentic video content. It enables advertisers to crowdsource authentic content from creators on TikTok, turn top-performing videos into ads and improve brand affinity with media impressions. This content is then posted organically by creators, though brands have the ability to give it a boost with the help of Spark Ads.
Select your favorite creators In TikTok Creator Marketplace:
Use the official platform for brand and creator collaborations on TikTok, allowing brands and agencies to connect with over 800,000 qualified creators across the globe. For brands and agencies, the Creator Marketplace enables instant and easy access to a diverse variety of creators, to deliver high-performing campaigns based on your brief.
Section 3.C: Take advantage of creative solutions for lower funnel performance campaigns
In addition to posting organically, sparking organic content, and running paid awareness campaigns, advertisers should supplement this with paid media performance campaigns, where they can use TikTok's creative product solutions to choose which videos to include, where the performance recommendation is 5-7 varied creatives plus weekly refreshes [10].
Step 3: Increase creative variety, quantity, and quality with creative solutions for performance campaigns
Get performance assets at scale with TikTok Creative Challenge:
This is a suitable option for both organic and upper or lower funnel campaigns. In the case of organic, Creative Challenge can supply brands with assets that they can post organically, or have creators post organically, which can then be boosted through Spark Ads. TTCC is also often used to develop new creative assets at scale, typically delivering up to 30 new videos. Advertisers who used more new creatives saw 29% lower CPA for Lowest Cost campaigns using TikTok Creative Challenge. [16]
Use TikTok Creative Exchange to partner with experts:
TikTok Creative Exchange helps advertisers connect with creative experts to create brand videos designed specifically for TikTok. With Creative Exchange, brands can receive "net new" assets from scratch, or "remixed" assets produced off of your existing videos. Advertisers who used more new creatives saw 12% lower CPA for Lowest Cost campaigns using TikTok Creative Exchange. [16]
This makes TikTok Creative Challenge and TikTok Creative Exchange valuable solutions for increasing creative quantity, while simultaneously improving creative quality through creator authenticity and creative expertise.
TikTok Insight:
An internal analysis proved that conversion rates were higher on assets made by TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions creators than those that weren’t. For Spark Ads, CVR was +9.7% higher, whereas the non-Spark Ads CVR was +5% higher. [17]
How to take action:
Use TikTok Creative Challenge and/or TikTok Creative Exchange to diversify your variety of creators and creative assets in an effort to improve creative campaign performance.
Section 3.D: A variety of TikTok creative solutions, all in one place
TikTok One will become a centralized destination for marketers to access our variety of creator marketing and creative product solutions, all in one place. Brands and advertisers will be able to tap into this one-stop-shop to access TikTok creators, production partners, and insights, including TikTok Creator Marketing Solutions like TikTok Creator Marketplace and TikTok Creative Challenge.
With TikTok One, advertisers will be able to access nearly 2 million creators, discover top agency partners and leverage our creative tools to implement and scale successful TikTok campaigns — all with a single log-in. Join the waitlist and learn more about how TikTok One's creative solutions will unlock the value of creative for you, or start today by using any variety of these tools:
- Spark Ads
- Branded Mission
- TikTok Creator Marketplace
- TikTok Creative Challenge
- TikTok Creative Exchange
- TikTok Symphony
Creative Conclusion
TikTok has continued to evolve into a creative ecosystem, where collaboration between brands, viewers, and creators can spark creativity and learning. Now is the time for marketers to team up with creators to generate engaging and innovative content, capitalizing on their authentic connection with audiences. Successful partnerships hinge on clear communication and strategic deployment of creative assets, utilizing TikTok’s tools like Spark Ads, Branded Mission, and TikTok Creator Marketplace or TikTok Creative Challenge. By building a strong sense of community and leveraging cutting-edge AI tools, brands can enhance content quality and variety, driving sustained audience engagement and stronger business results. Get started today to harness the power of creativity through creator partnerships on TikTok One!
Sources
[1] Source: TikTok x Ipsos Return on Creative: How Compelling Content Drives Business Results, 2024
[2] Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global Community and Self-Expression Study 2021 conducted by Flamingo (n=3,500)
[3] Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global The Science of the TikTok Comment Section Study
[4] Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global TikTok Comment Section via AYTM [US,UK,CA] April 2024
[5] Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global Creators Drive Commerce Study 2022 conducted by Material
[6] Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global Creators Like Me Study 2021 (Global Results) conducted by Hotspex (Influenced by a creator/influencer in some way, Gen X, n=1,455)
[7] SPARK ADS Source: Spark Ads performance comparison with Diversion In-Feed Ads, Q4 2020-Q2 2021, TikTok Internal Data
[8] Morning Consult, How Brands Can Succeed at Influencer Marketing, US, September 2023. TikTok's use of this data does not equate to an endorsement.
[9] Source: Global Marketing Insights, Creator BHT, conducted by Ipsos, Oct 2023
[10] Source: TikTok Marketing Science, CPG Sales Lift Meta-Analysis, 2021-2022. NCS Benchmark for Total CPG: $1.11; Campaigns included ran for ~8 weeks
[11] Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global Entertaining Ads Study 2022 conducted by Marketcast
[12] Source: TikTok Global Data Science - Performance Ads internal analysis, Jan 2024
[13] Source: Kantar 'Creative effectiveness: What we’ve learned from French Cannes winners', 2023
[14] Source: TikTok Marketing Science Global Gen AI Consumer Perceptions and Usage Survey [US, UK, ID] via AYTM, April 2024 Base: TikTok and non-TikTok, 18+ users [Q18] (n = 448)
[15] TikTok internal Creative Center study, Feb 2023
[16] TikTok Global Data Science - Performance Ads internal analysis, Jan 2024
[17] Tiktok Creative Experts Center / Creative Science - Spark Ads, Brand Ads, Performance Ads internal analysis on previous 6 months, July 2024
[18] TikTok Internal Data, 2023
