How Can Brands Make The Most Of Christmas on TikTok?

‘Tis the season to increase visibility, drive sales and boost seasonal content.

But in an ever-evolving digital landscape, where’s best to focus your efforts?

Emerging as a strong contender in recent years is TikTok. Its dynamic and engaging nature has taken social media by storm and there’s no reason why it can’t do the same to your Christmas content this year!

With a billion active users, TikTok offers an unmatched opportunity to connect with a diverse audience, ensuring your holiday campaigns resonate with potential customers from all walks of life. Not only this, but its unique format encourages user-generated content, allowing your brand to foster engagement, virality and authenticity through your Christmas marketing campaigns. 

Given that thousands of companies and advertisers will be running their Christmas marketing on TikTok this year, you’ll want to be on the lookout for any hidden gems in the form of platform features that your competitors may have missed, so as to increase your chances of standing out from the crowd. In addition, leveraging TikTok’s SEO capabilities to hyper-target the right audience is a crucial step in your marketing efforts this festive season. 

Read on as we walk you through how to leave a lasting impact this Christmas.

TYPES OF ADS SUPPORTED BY TIKTOK

Given that 55% of TikTok users have completed a purchase after seeing a brand on TikTok, it’s only right that you leverage the power of TikTok ads to run your promotional content. 

But what are your options? And how should you decide which ones to run?

In-feed ads

If it’s organic reach and increased visibility you’re after, then in-feed ads are your best friend. 

These ads appear as videos as a user scrolls through the videos on their FYP, perfectly integrating themselves in the natural functioning of TikTok.

In-feed ads can be 5-60 seconds long – though TikTok recommends 21-34 seconds – and are interactive, allowing users to like, comment and share. On the other hand, they are also entirely skippable. 

In-feed ads typically include a CTA button – such as “Shop Now” – which appears at the bottom of the ad a few seconds into its play time. These buttons, and in-feed ads in general, are a great way to drive traffic or sales from TikTok. 

The CPG brands looking to run their Christmas marketing on TikTok will greatly benefit from this ad type, as their visual nature allows you to show off your products in action. To keep it festive, consider adding Christmas-themed background music/sounds and ensure you are showing off products you’re looking to promote specifically for the holiday season. 

Remember, there is a high chance the user will scroll on by – as this is what the platform’s infinite feed naturally calls for – so ensure your in-feed ads are captivating from the off. Most captivating in-feed ads are often headed by a surprising image or sound, so consider harnessing the power of your editing skills to be in with a chance of hooking your audience. 

TopView ads

TopView ads are similar to in-feed ads, but differ in placement. They are usually the first TikTok ad users will see upon opening the app. 

Unlike the immediate ability to skip past an in-feed ad, TopView ads are unskippable for the first 3 seconds of run time. This gives brands at least 3 seconds of undivided attention, which means they have to get super creative in order to make such an impact in such little time. 

If you’re looking to run organic Christmas marketing on TikTok this festive season, TopView ads might not be your best bet, as they can potentially interrupt the user experience. However, find reassurance in the fact that 71% of users say this ad type grabs their attention, making it an ideal way to draw in your audience this Christmas. On top of this, TikTok notes that CPG brands experienced 67% higher sales effectiveness when running TopView ads. 

It all sounds great – undivided attention, higher sales effectiveness etc – but this all comes at a rather hefty price. 

Due to their in-your-face nature, TopView ads aren’t cheap to run. But while their cost per day is $65,000, they can help advertisers reach 7.4 million impressions. If this fits your Christmas marketing on TikTok budget, consider pulling out all the stops, as this is your one chance to have your promotional content viewed by all users in your country. 

Spark Ads

Want to push your viral content even further? Consider running Spark Ads as part of your Christmas marketing on TikTok. 

Like in-feed ads, these look and feel like organic content, but unlike in-feed ads they can link out to a TikTok account rather than just a landing page. Since these ads are attributed to a certain account or creator, all of the comments, views, likes, shares and follows gained through a Spark Ads promotion are the original creator’s very own. That being said, Spark Ads can still include a CTA button to direct viewers to a landing page rather than a creator’s account, but this isn’t commonplace.

Running Spark Ads as part of your Christmas marketing on TikTok is a great way to bulk out your seasonal content calendar, as they technically don’t require you to create brand new content. Instead you can select your top performing posts and run them as Spark Ads, in-feed. Consider selecting content showcasing the products you’re looking to promote this Christmas season or those that clearly convey your brand message. In the meantime, you can focus your efforts on other areas of your Christmas marketing on TikTok, knowing the Spark ads are generating engagement and, hopefully, sales.

OTHER PROMOTIONAL FEATURES

Promoting your Christmas marketing on TikTok can come in many different forms. Aside from TikTok’s effective ad options, it also runs several other ways to promote content. 

TikTok Promote

TikTok’s built-in Promote feature allows you to turn your existing videos into ads with just a few taps. The biggest difference between this and Spark ads is that Spark Ads lets you boost content that other TikTok users have created, whereas Promote is solely for your own. 

Promote is available to all TikTok users, meaning both established companies and small businesses can leverage the feature to increase the reach of their Christmas marketing on TikTok this year. 

And the perks don’t stop there.

The Promote feature can be tailored to your budget, timeline and target audience to help you gain views, traffic to your website or a bigger following. Once the promotion is over you have access to a whole host of exclusive analytics about how well the performance went. 

Here’s how to run it.

As you can see, leveraging the Promote feature can potentially come with a hefty price tag according to your goals. However, just like your goals, your Promote budget can also be tailored to suit your finances. Consider aiming for a single, achievable goal if you’re looking to bring the price down. This way you can save money to then go on to promote other video content instead of blowing the budget on just one piece.

For brands looking to leverage the Promote feature as part of their Christmas marketing on TikTok strategy, consider boosting content that either conveys your brand’s message this holiday season or visually promotes the product lines you’re aiming to drive sales for. 

Effect House

What’s a social media platform without filters?

TikTok’s Effect House feature allows the creation of branded effects, which brands can leverage to create their own shareable stickers, AR lenses or filters. The Christmas season is the perfect time to get creative and run fun marketing campaigns including these custom assets. This promotional avenue is also beneficial for those looking to generate UGC due to their invitation to interact. 

@effecthouse

PC creatives, you called us and we answered! Effect House is now available for @windows.

♬ original sound – Effect House

A great way to popularise your branded effects this festive season is by having a celebrity use it with a branded hashtag in the caption. This way users have several ways to engage with the content, either by using the filter itself or clicking on the hashtag to discover similar content. 

Companies with creative talent on-hand could design an on-brand, promotional filter or sticker to be shared along with all scheduled Christmas content. 

RUN A TIKTOK SEO STRATEGY

Regardless of which promotional tactics you’re using to circulate your Christmas marketing on TikTok, optimising it for TikTok SEO is crucial for reach and longevity. 

With 40% of consumers now taking to TikTok for information and 49% using the platform to help make a purchase decision, ensuring your content is front and centre will put you in good stead for “sleighing” the holiday season. 

But how do you implement a TikTok SEO strategy?

Through keywords.

Just like any other search engine, relevant keywords are ultimately responsible for getting your Christmas marketing on TikTok in front of its hyper-targeted audience. These keywords can be included in the caption, on-screen text, hashtags, automated speech captions or speech. 

Relevant keywords can be found through tools such as TikTok Insights and the TikTok Creative Centre, or by pulling them directly from the app’s search bar. 

Video engagement is a top ranking factor when it comes to successful Christmas marketing on TikTok, as it shows users that people are engaging with your content and, therefore, they must too. Appearing at the top of the TikTok search rankings will also increase your brand’s credibility, leading more and more users to consider you for Christmas purchases and other interactions. 

Final thoughts

Christmas is the perfect time to test your tried and true marketing strategies, as this is a time when many social media users are actively engaged. Additionally, the amount of time Christmas marketing efforts run for leaves ample opportunity to change things up if needs be. Moreover, the platform’s short-form video format is tailor-made for the holiday season, as it caters to short attention spans whilst delivering the festive spirit in a captivating way. 

If you’re thinking of running your Christmas marketing on TikTok, let this be your sign to start!

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