High engagement and a new eCommerce marketplace make TikTok a must-have platform.
Over the past year, TikTok has further expanded its user base in the U.S. and rolled out an in-app eCommerce marketplace, offering new ways to capitalize on the most fruitful social media discovery algorithm for small businesses.
According to Capterra’s 2023 TikTok Marketing Survey* of 364 small to midsize retailers and restaurants, TikTok outperforms Meta apps (Facebook and Instagram) in terms of organic engagement. What’s more, over half of SMBs are seeing positive return on investment (ROI) from paid ads on TikTok even as ad returns dwindle with Meta.
If your business isn’t on TikTok in 2024, you’re not getting the most out of your marketing budget and potentially missing out on thousands of new customers. It’s time to explore what TikTok’s organic engagement, automated advertising options, and emerging eCommerce marketplace can do for you.
/ Key insights
Among SMBs that market on TikTok and at least one Meta platform, 96% say they get the most engagement on TikTok.
Among brands that run paid ads on TikTok, 51% have achieved positive ROI, and 45% are breaking even.
While many SMBs are already selling products through TikTok Shop, 45% say deriving ROI from TikTok’s eCommerce marketplace has been challenging.
Leveraging trends (53%), owning a niche (51%), and educating customers about your products and brand (51%) are key aspects of surveyed SMBs’ TikTok marketing strategies.
TikTok yields better engagement than Instagram and Facebook
As Meta’s biggest rival in the social media landscape, TikTok has steadily gained popularity in the U.S., particularly among Gen Z. SMBs are reaping the benefits of that surge and seeing engagement results above and beyond what they can get from Facebook and Instagram.
In fact, among SMBs that market themselves on TikTok and either Instagram, Facebook, or both, the vast majority (96%) say they get the most engagement on TikTok.
Furthermore, SMBs will prioritize TikTok in 2024 at Meta’s expense: 71% will increase their TikTok marketing spend next year, while 37% will spend less on Facebook and 32% will spend less on Instagram.
SMBs’ pivot away from Meta to TikTok underscores the reputation TikTok has built especially among younger shoppers as a destination for authentic, helpful, and entertaining content from a diversity of perspectives. Retailers should focus on building up a wealth of content that causes TikTok users to laugh, learn more about their interests, and discover their new favorite products.
TikTok engagement by the numbers
Here’s a data-driven look at how SMBs are winning on TikTok:
65% of surveyed SMBs on TikTok post content at least once per day.
On average, SMBs receive between 1,000 and 10,000 views per post.
The average follower count for SMBs on TikTok is between 10,000 and 25,000.
56% use generative AI to support their TikTok content strategy.
51% of SMBs that run paid ads on TikTok have achieved a positive return on ad spend, and 45% are breaking even.
Leaning on automation yields fast returns on ad spend
Another perk of using TikTok is the advertising suite, available to users with TikTok Business accounts. While running ads isn’t an absolute necessity for success on TikTok, the majority of SMBs say paid ads are equally as valuable as organic content. The return on investment and the sheer ease of leveraging TikTok’s automated targeting options make a compelling case for going the extra mile with TikTok ads.
TikTok advertising by the numbers
Among the 51% of SMBs we surveyed who have achieved a positive return on ad spend:
The average time to ROI was a lightning-fast five months.
77% of SMBs on TikTok say sales attributable to TikTok have increased in the past year, with 23% reporting a significant increase.
85% of these businesses will increase their TikTok advertising spend in 2024.
While you can manually customize your TikTok ad campaigns, successful businesses tend to opt for more automation and let TikTok’s ad engine do the bulk of the work of finding relevant audiences. Most surveyed SMBs say TikTok’s fully automated Smart Targeting option produces the most conversions.
A key differentiator between TikTok and other social media apps—and why TikTok ads are so effective—is that it encourages brands to create ads that closely resemble organic content. Conveniently, brands can repurpose organic content in a variety of TikTok ad formats, including In-Feed ads, Video ads, and Spark ads.
TikTok’s emerging eCommerce program offers opportunities—and challenges
Over the past year, TikTok expanded into eCommerce with TikTok Shop, which encompasses a suite of resources including a designated in-app shopping tab, official affiliate program, live stream shopping, and a burgeoning fulfillment network to rival Amazon and Temu. With shoppable posts from TikTok Shop, users can buy what they see with just a few clicks within TikTok, eliminating the friction of leaving the app to make a purchase.
So far, 72% of the SMBs we surveyed already sell products on TikTok Shop (which fully launched in the U.S. in September of 2023), and another 26% plan to do so in 2024.
However, two big problems with TikTok Shop leave doubt as to whether the app could become a major revenue stream for SMBs.
For one, the majority of the SMBs selling on TikTok Shop have experienced one or more challenges with the eCommerce program, most often with managing customer relationships (48%), meeting demand (45%), and syncing TikTok orders with their existing inventory and fulfillment channels (41%). Forty-five percent have struggled to derive ROI from adding TikTok Shop as a touchpoint.
Perhaps a larger problem is the backlash against an increasingly commercialized user experience, as TikTok’s algorithm surfaces more ad content, and even counterfeit products, at the expense of entertainment.[1] Given that a glut of sponsored content is what drove many users from Instagram to TikTok in the first place, it will be tricky for TikTok to preserve their image as an entertainment-focused app as TikTok Shop grows.
/ Key takeaways
TikTok offers brands more engagement than similar social media apps, and an opportunity to build brand awareness among Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers. Investing in organic content creation pays off on TikTok and helps small businesses distinguish themselves from a sea of eCommerce brands as authentic, helpful, and worth shopping with.
TikTok knows that when ads don’t look like ads, viewers are more likely to engage with them. Create ads with the look and feel of organic content and prioritize entertaining the viewer. By leveraging the candid feel of organic content, your ads will look less conspicuous as users scroll their content feed.
For now, it’s worth getting started with TikTok Shop. But you’ll need to double down on creating high-quality, entertaining organic content, so that users see more from you than just shoppable posts. As you onboard with TikTok Shop, anticipate inconsistencies with inventory management and fulfillment, and keep a close eye on customer feedback to quickly address issues with orders.
Trends, niche expertise, and candid product demos are key to high-performing organic TikTok content
Not sure where to start with your business’s TikTok content? Leveraging the discovery algorithm to get engagement is straightforward—all you have to do is support TikTok’s mission to “build a global community where you can create and share authentically, discover the world, and connect with others.”[2]
In other words, you’ll need to create a brand identity around a great product, genuine expertise, and friendly relatability, while staying on top of a trend landscape that evolves by the day. A look at SMBs’ organic content strategies illuminates four key guidelines for creating high-performing organic TikTok content.
Keep product demos casual and candid
As a retailer, your primary goal on any marketing channel is to drive conversions and educate potential customers about your product and brand. The best way to do this with a video-driven app like TikTok is to post plenty of product demos. Over one-third of SMBs say product demos lead to the most views for their organic content, making them an important asset in your TikTok content arsenal.
TikTok encourages brands to promote themselves and their products differently than on other digital marketing channels. Rather than inundating users with annoying, high-polish ads that offer zero entertainment value, TikTok keeps users engaged by encouraging businesses to create content users will actually want to watch.
In order for your product demos to blend in with entertainment content on TikTok, they need to be casual, fun, relatable, and trustworthy. It helps to put the focus of the video on something other than the product itself. For example, showing a micro-influencer using your product while taking viewers through the steps of a makeup tutorial for an exciting event will give the slice-of-life feel TikTok users want, rather than a pushy sales pitch.
The most effective product demos on TikTok take full advantage of the parasocial relationships facilitated by social media between consumers and influencers, particularly micro-influencers with small but dedicated followings. Users tend to put faith in product-driven content created with a one-two punch of “source credibility,” or a video that clearly shows what the product can do, created by a real person who only endorses products they know and love.[3]
In short, as a brand it’s important to amplify trustworthy voices, be truthful about what your products can and can’t do, and find creative ways to demonstrate all the different ways people can use your product.
Here are some ideas for keeping your audience interested in your brand and products with authenticity, variety, and visual interest:
The #getreadywithme hashtag is a great way to show how your product can fit into your customers’ skincare regimen, favorite lunch recipe, or go-to outfit, for example.
Showcase your products in different environments. Experiment with different lighting, and indoor and outdoor settings.
Show off your entire product line in an ASMR restocking video.
Give a video tour of your store so customers can preview what it’s like to visit in-person.
Let your employees’ personalities shine as the face of your business on TikTok. Let staff rave about their favorite products, show off interesting talents, or talk about something important to them that’s relevant to your TikTok audience.
Have fun with TikTok trends and entertainment content
The easiest way to create high-performing TikTok content is to jump on an existing trend. TikTok wants content creators to repurpose existing videos, sounds, hashtags, and memes, and rewards trending content with its algorithm. Leveraging TikTok trends is the number-one focus for brands on TikTok, with over half of survey respondents (53%) citing it as a priority in their TikTok content strategy.
TikTok trends are like iterable inside jokes—there are infinite ways to adapt any given trend to resonate with your audience and niche. The most common way to leverage a TikTok trend is to apply a viral “sound”— a snippet of a song or voiceover audio clip—as the soundtrack for your post. The key is to put a relevant spin on the trend that users will find clever and entertaining. Don’t just slap a trending sound onto content that has nothing to do with the trend’s topics and themes; get creative with visuals and storytelling to bring your brand’s unique angle to the conversation.
/ Pro tip
Search the word “viral” in TikTok’s in-app video editor to browse currently-trending sounds.
While leveraging trends is important, it’s not the only way to get noticed on TikTok. Creating share-worthy original content can yield results too. TikTok content is meant to be irreverent—it’s an opportunity to get silly and make your audience laugh. It’s okay if you can’t find a way to neatly tie in your product in every post. As your entertainment content gets shared and remixed by other content creators, it will build brand awareness as users see your handle credited either in the post itself or in the sound credit.
Only 34% of surveyed brands on TikTok said making their audience laugh was a priority in their TikTok content strategy. That’s far fewer than it should be, based on TikTok’s stated preference for genuinely entertaining content. Brands should strive for a balance between product-driven content and content created purely for entertainment, as it’s important for creating a brand voice that plays nice with TikTok’s discovery algorithm—i.e., one that isn’t overly polished or pushy.
Be a voice of authenticity in a niche community
TikTok encourages brands to get personal and vulnerable with their audience as a way to build trust, and 51% of surveyed SMBs say diving into a niche topic or interest is a priority for their organic content strategy. Combining these two goals allows brands to connect emotionally with potential customers and foster a sense of community that’s about more than spending money.
Get to know your target audience and create content that relates to their struggles. That way, you can show your products helping people like them toward a more desirable lifestyle, whether that means moving past significant life obstacles, clearing up a health issue, becoming more organized, or finding more day-to-day happiness.
Try creating content around the following:
Highlight the benefits your product can bring to customers’ lives. How can your product help someone quit a bad habit, explore a new hobby, grow their career, or meet great people?
Leverage hashtags related to wellness or self-improvement, such as #sobercurious or #acnejourney, to show how your product or brand mission fits into a healthy lifestyle.
Get candid and use your voice to push back on beauty standards, challenge stigmas, and celebrate the ups and downs of a wellness journey.
Treat TikTok as a search engine and own your keywords
TikTok users increasingly use the app as a search engine to discover new products to buy, find unbiased reviews, and watch tutorials on the best ways to use products. It’s not surprising, then, that 44% of SMBs on TikTok say content specifically related to product research generates the most views.
You can help your product show up in search results on TikTok by using SEO best practices in your captions and hashtags. Here are some tips on how to do that:
Find out what keywords and questions customers are likely to search when looking for the kinds of products you sell. Answer the questions with your content and incorporate those keywords in your post captions, voiceover captions, and hashtags.
Take advantage of the existing retail trend infrastructure on TikTok by using hashtags such as #TikTokmademebuyit, which was estimated to have garnered eight million views in early 2023.[4]
Enlist influencers to include your products in #haul videos, in which they demo your product and tell their audience what they love about it.
/ Key takeaway
TikTok users value the what-you-see-is-what-you-get feel of watching real people share their favorite products. Be truthful about how your product can fit into customers’ busy, imperfect lives, and get creative with trends that are relevant to your brand and audience. You don’t need a glossy studio shoot or an elaborate sales script to make great organic TikTok content—users want to see real people using your product in everyday scenarios.
Use the right tools to create winning TikTok content
The benefits of joining TikTok as an SMB are undeniable, and it’s important to get started on TikTok Shop as the eCommerce platform grows and evolves. If you’re part of a new business, it’s especially important to consider all marketing avenues to build your brand online.
It’s possible to create great TikTok content with just your phone camera and the TikTok app. But businesses should consider using software and other tools specifically designed to produce high-quality social media content. For example, 54% of SMBs support their TikTok strategy with third-party software for performance analytics, content creation, and SEO.
Finding ways to automate your social media marketing workflow can also help you keep up with TikTok’s rapid trend cycle. Currently, over half of SMBs on TikTok use generative AI to create on-trend marketing ideas faster.
For even more help getting started with TikTok marketing, check out Capterra’s list of top social media marketing agencies. With expertise in branding, graphic design, and marketing analytics, these agencies can put your business on the path to success on TikTok.