How to harness the shopping state of mind on TikTok

With millions of posts and counting, #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt is the commerce success story of the digital age, showing the power of TikTok to drive sell-out product discovery through relevant and entertaining content. And this phenomenon only continues to grow: we've seen a 107% increase in ecommerce conversations on our platform year on year [1].

TikTok is where entertainment, community and commerce intersect, fuelling the discovery and purchase of new products and brands at an unprecedented scale. This makes it the perfect place for brands to connect with shoppers, who, in the face of economic pressure, are forgoing brand loyalty for competitive offerings. In fact, 1 in 2 UK users say they frequently purchase products they've discovered on TikTok [2].

The TikTok community has a vast array of interests when it comes to purchasing products – from personal care and tech to clothing and fashion – and are heavy online shoppers, with 71% purchasing from pure players and 68% from omni-channel sites at least once a month [2]. As this community grows, so too does the opportunity for brands to connect with their own unique audiences and drive sales: 24% of online shoppers have discovered brands through ads on TikTok and 29% have bought from brands they've seen advertised [3].

Read on to learn how to connect with these shoppers and grow your brand.

Know your audience

TikTok has fundamentally changed how consumers make decisions about ecommerce products, turning the marketing funnel into an infinite flywheel that provides unlimited opportunities for brands to connect with TikTok users and drive results:

What this means for ecommerce brands

With 2 in 3 TikTok users discovering new products via viral videos, trending music and creator content, embracing the platform's authentic style, leveraging ad formats and utilising popular content formats are crucial strategies for ecommerce brands to achieve success on TikTok [2].

To stay top of mind, ecommerce brands should adopt an always-on strategy, posting organic beats and paid peaks to capture both last-minute and long-term planners. Here are four tips to help you craft the best campaigns to engage this audience.

1. Boost engagement with reviews and recommendations

Reviews are key for TikTok users when deciding on purchases: 3 in 4 TikTok users say that reviews or special offers help them to decide what to buy [2]. Ecommerce brands should consider servicing users with regular relatable content to reach these potential customers.

Encourage your users to interact with your brand by responding to comments, asking questions and commenting on other videos. To get started, explore our creative centre – you can utilise our keyword insight tool and review top ads or videos to gain inspiration and understand what resonates with the TikTok community.

2. Lean into authentic and entertaining messaging

As 74% of users look for new products to be high quality, ecommerce brands should consider leaning into messaging around quality in their TikTok content [2]. Similarly, for 75% of users, price is the most important factor when deciding which online retailer to purchase from, so brands looking to stand out should lead with competitive price messaging [2].

Entertaining ads on TikTok also help to guide users down the funnel; research shows that users exposed to high entertainment ads* rated 25% higher for brand love, 15% higher for purchase intent and 17% higher for likelihood to recommend [4].

To create entertaining content, check out our creative codebook or work with creative production experts using the TikTok Creative Exchange (TTCX), our one-stop solution that enables fast, scalable high-performing video production for TikTok.

3. Leverage the new source of influence

Brands can depend on creators to build trust and credibility with their audiences across different points on their path to purchase: 65% of TikTok users say they rely on sources like creator recommendations and reviews when deciding what to buy [5] and 62% of users also agree that TikTok creators make them more interested in trying a new product [6].

Leverage the TikTok Creator Marketplace (TTCM) to find the right creators for your brand and generate creative that really resonates.

4. Supercharge sales across your entire channel strategy

Our full-funnel solutions connect content, brands and community for a seamless shopping experience that delivers strong, measurable impact. We've found that businesses that adopt a full-funnel approach on TikTok, combining brand and performance objectives into single campaigns, see improved campaign performance compared to isolated single-objective campaigns [7]. We recommend bundling our innovative upper-funnel solutions such as TopView, TikTok Pulse and Focused View with our core conversion products, Web Conversion and Video Shopping Ads.

Advertisers can quantify the impact of upper-funnel campaigns using Brand Lift Study, which provides insights on metrics like ad recall, awareness, attitude, favourability and intent. Advertisers can also measure the incremental sales lift of in-person and online sales with Sales Lift Study (now available in UK, France, Germany and Spain). See how Coca-Cola uncovered a 7.88% lift in sales after their TikTok campaign.

Take your products from just out to sold out

Our community's desire for quality products continues to grow day by day. Tap into our platform by leveraging the above insights and guidance to develop an always-on full-funnel strategy that features both organic content and paid media to drive growth and boost conversions. For more on how TikTok works for ecommerce brands, discover how The Essence Vault used TikTok to boost complete payment events by 98%!

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*“High-entertainment” ads are ones that are relatable; make users feel uplifted/inspired; make them smile/laugh; or show them something they personally like