TikTok is undoubtedly the most popular social network, not only with GenZ, but also with a mature audience. Opening the application plunges you into what is known as the TikTok vortex. This is an ultra-engaging content feed, thanks in to its algorithm, which quickly understands what interests you.
On average, TikTok users spend more than 52 minutes a day on site. The application’s short, creative format and its authentic feel makes it a real pleasure to use a communication tool for brands. More interactive that other platforms, TikTok is also a way of bringing together a community and increasing contact with it.
In the same vein as the challenges on the app (creative challenges taken up by users), businesses can take advantage of the social network to enliven their audience with TikTok competitions. In this article, we share the 5 steps to organising a marketing game on TikTok and achieving your objectives.
1. Set yourself specific objectives
It may seem obvious, but identifying the marketing and commercial objectives of your TikTok competition will have a huge influence on its design and execution. For example, if a brand’s objective is to increase its number of subscribers, the game mechanics it chooses will be different from an animation whose aim is to generate sales.
To simplify:
- Visibility and awareness objectives require a TikTok competition mechanism based on sharing and virality. For example, a creative competition based around a choreography will encourage participants to share their own content and relay it on their account, boosting the campaign’s reach to a wider audience;
- The objectives of engaging and stimulating the community involve offering attractive prizes, to capture attention and make people want to take part in the competition. The more generous or original the prizes, the more likely the brands community will be to enter the competition;
- Sales generation and loyalty objectives require to choose a game mechanic that highlights the brands products or services. For example, this could involve the Memory, which is a good format for presenting the main features of your offer. It also permits helping people remember your sales arguments. The Chronoquiz is also a good way of reinforcing your audience’s knowledge and subtly underlining your proposition.
2. Understanding what content works on TikTok
Each social network has its own creative DNA. Content that works on a platform like Instagram won’t necessarily resonate in the same way with YouTube or Facebook users.
On TikTok, it’s all about authenticity and creativity. To generate engagement and land on the “For You” page of as many users as possible, brands need to respect TikTok’s codes. This often means breaking away from the smooth image they may have built up through other channels.
Video competitions, which permit to generate UGC organically (i.e content created and shared by users) is the format that works best on TikTok. Major brands such as Calvin Klein have understood this, with the famous campaign #onlyinmycalvins.
To sum up, a good competition on TikTok is based on:
- Personalised videos that convey a strong and recognisable brand identity;
- Organic content which doesn’t necessarily need a lot of work, resonates with users and fits naturally into their For You Page;
- An easily identifiable value proposition: a prize, brand recognition via a share on their account, etc.
3. Take care of the distribution strategy for your TikTok competition
TikTok competition distribution strategies is almost as important as the design phase. The aim is for the competition to be seen by a qualified audience, and that means multiplying the viral levers:
- Influence marketing. Influencers are excellent relays of visibility on TikTok. By collaborating with creators in their niche, brands can easily access a community of qualified prospects. Influencers are also more likely to understand and reproduce the platform’s codes, sharing content that will resonate easily with users. Content creators on TikTok will be able to redirect their audience to the game organised with the partner company with a link.
- TikTok’s advertising tools. The organic strategy is not the only one available to brands for effectively running a competition on TikTok. The social network offers a number of different advertising formats (search Ads for landing in search results, carousel ads for presenting your content in a more comprehensive way). From the ad network, you can also choose your campaign objectives (visibility, conversion, engagement) and precisely target your audience. So it’s important to get these details right if you want to keep your marketing budget under control and effectively boost the reach and performance of your TikTok competition.
4. Choose a winner
After promoting its TikTok competition, the brand will be able to finalise its campaign by selecting a winner. There is no dedicated tool on the platform. Nevertheless, Socialshaker makes the process easier by allowing brands to redirect their audience to a marketing game (such as Instant Win, for example) via a link. Brands can then:
- set up instant win prizes on the platform to manage the distribution of prizes easily
- manually select a winner (for creative competitions)
- or select a winner at random by drawing lots via the platform
The company will then be able to contact the lucky person. But it’s beneficial for the campaign to announce the winner directly on the account. They can share a video showing them receiving their prize or highlight the content related to the award. It’s also an opportunity to thank participants, tease a forthcoming TikTok competition, etc.
5. Measuring the results of your TikTok competition
This stage is linked to the objectives set at the start of the campaign. The platform enables pro accounts to consult their KPIs for their publications and advertising campaigns, including:
- The total number of views per video;
- The number of new subscribers (and their demographic);
- Engagement performance (comments, likes, shares, etc.).
These metrics are an initial mean of assessing the effectiveness of its TikTok competition and identifying areas for improvement for future campaigns. Thanks to Socialshaker, companies will also be able to refine their analysis. They will be able to access an enhanced statistical view of the competition itself. As well as being easier to read, the results and data collected can also be easily exported to a CRM database.
Organising a TikTok competition is now much easier with Socialshaker. All you have to do is choose the most relevant mechanism according to your objectives. Once you’ve set up your mechanic, you’ll get a URL to share directly on your TikTok account and a whole range of tools to boost its reach and make tracking easier!
