Increasing engagement and discovering new audiences for Karate Combat with TikTok ads
Karate Combat is the first professional, full-contact Karate league. They blend all styles of Karate and host events that broadcast worldwide on channels such as ESPN, CBS Sports and Eurosport. Karate Combat has more than a million fans on other channels, and they wanted to expand their presence on TikTok to discover new audiences and drive awareness.
Karate Combat ran In-Feed Ads using the Engagement Objective and Lowest Cost Bidding Strategy. They targeted male users ages 25 and older and, with the help of TikTok's targeting recommendation, were able to reach an audience with a higher propensity to engage with their content. Karate Combat partnered with their agency, Brand Knew, to develop a diverse set of dynamic, scroll-stopping creative assets that featured fight highlights, behind-the-scenes footage, and Karate fighting tips from world renowned retired fighters Bas Rutten and Georges St-Pierre. By targeting broad audiences, Karate Combat allowed the TikTok algorithm to match each of their unique creative assets to the most relevant users. Users responded positively in the comments, leaving messages such as "This is the first ad I haven't actually skipped" and “I’ve watched this ad ten times willingly.”
In approximately one month, Karate Combat was able to grow their TikTok account by 96,000 followers, costing an average of $0.22 per follower. In fact, their very first engagement campaign generated 36,000 new followers, reached 392,000 users, and had an astounding 179,000 6-second video views.
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