As we touched on before, there are five (5) different TikTok ad formats for businesses to use, including:
1. TikTok In-Feed ads
TikTok In-Feed ads are videos that appear inside the native news feed as users scroll through the “For You Page”. They blend well with the TikTok feed, making it easy for users to quickly scroll past them. Creating a full-screen in-feed ad that is attractive will stop users from overlooking it. With In-Feed ads, users can interact with the video and like, comment and share it on social media. Here is an example of a TikTok In-Feed ad from Maybelline.
The beauty brand, seeking to increase its market share and brand recognition among young people, created an in-feed ad with catchy music.
2. TikTok Brand Takeover ads
Brand Takeover ads pop up as soon as users open the TikTok app, take over the screen for a few seconds, and then change into an In-feed video ad. They also show up on the “For You Page” as still images, videos, or gifs with clickable links that lead to landing pages within TikTok. It effectively creates mass awareness and drives sales since the ads show up in front of the right audience. You can also create and add your custom logos to stay in the mind of viewers better and make them remember your brand.
Brand Takeover ads are a great example of how to incorporate influencer marketing into your social media strategy. A successful example of this was Too Faced’s TikTok campaign, which generated 7.6 million impressions and 1.3 million clicks, delivering an 18.38% clickthrough rate as well as over 2 million video views.
3. TikTok Top View ads
TikTok’s top view ads are similar to other mobile app takeovers and aim to increase brand exposure. The difference is that TikTok’s takeovers do not cover the screen when users first sign in. Instead, they occupy the first In-feed post after 3 seconds. After that, it shows up to 60 seconds of full-screen video with autoplaying sound.
4. TikTok Branded Hashtag ads
TikTok, a short-video app owned by ByteDance, experienced great success with branded hashtags. A branded hashtag campaign involves encouraging users to videotape themselves performing something like a dance or doing something in line with the product and posting it with a defined hashtag. These videos appear at the top of the discovery page for that particular hashtag. When users click on the hashtags, it leads them to the landing pages on TikTok and a collection of other videos from the same hashtag challenge.
Here is an example of a TikTok branded hashtag ad from Mercedes Benz.
The company created the #MBStarChallenge to encourage users to create their own Mercedes Benz logo. This helped the company build brand awareness for Gen Z and millennials.
5. TikTok Branded Effects ads
TikTok allows businesses to design an ad with their own custom filter. The ad can last up to 10 days and is a great way to increase user engagement.
A good example of branded effect ads is Colgate’s #Colgatekiss campaign.
The brand created an aesthetic for its products in Thailand by sponsoring a clickable branded effect with a ‘kissy face’ that complemented its hashtag challenge.