TikTok users are rapidly advancing the platform from what was once primarily a source of entertainment into a powerful way to shop, find restaurants, and gather information on products and services. According to a recent survey of more than 1,800 U.S. college students, 74% of the respondents attested to using TikTok for searches, with an astounding 51% choosing the platform over Google as a news source, to find products, view relevant content, and discover local businesses with maps.
Marketers need to understand the impact that the evolution of TikTok into a search engine is having on how Gen Z shops. They are exploring new ways to incorporate user-generated content (UGC) and influencer content to attract followers and adapting their SEO and other promotion strategies to capitalize on its phenomenal growth and opportunities.
TikTok had more than 1.5 billion users in 2023, a number expected to grow to 2 billion by the end of 2024, and is the 4th largest social media platform in the world in terms of monthly active users. While Google is still the unquestioned source for searches, the increasing reliance of younger audiences on TikTok, as well as other social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and SnapChat for discovery and information cannot be ignored. According to Google’s own data, nearly 40% of Gen Z prefer to make web searches via Instagram or TikTok instead of Google.
For many marketers, this will necessitate new or some tweaking to existing ways of distributing and sharing content and measuring success beyond recording impressions and engagements. With TikTok, creativity and community matter, and content is rewarded for its entertainment value as much as the information it provides. Like other social media, to get the best results marketers should coordinate organic with paid advertising. In TikTok’s case, the platform offers the ability for long-form story-telling with short, attention-grabbing content, and TikTok’s Duet feature allows creators to invite viewers to post alongside their own on a split screen. These features add to the effectiveness of brand influencers and empowers followers to create engaging, user-generated content that can take on a life of its own around your brand.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies must evolve to not only achieve high page rankings for TikTok posts on traditional SERPs, but also have results appear first on the user’s TikTok ‘For You Page’ or display prominently on the search screen. In terms of paid advertising, TikTok allows you to create ad campaigns and display them in a variety of ad types that include brand takeovers, in-feed ads, and hashtag challenges to accommodate any budget.
Marketers will require a deep understanding of the how TikTok’s AI-driven algorithm delivers search results faster and personalized to the tastes and preferences of the user. Businesses that recognize the growing importance of TikTok as a search have a future that looks promising. A recent study found that nearly three-quarters of the Gen Z respondents purchased a product after seeing it on TikTok.
TikTok’s meteoric rise in importance both as a social media platform and a search engine to rival Google can be traced in part to the short-form video content created and shared on the platform that users find authentic, organic, and honest. The videos themselves don’t have to look perfect or require high production values to be effective and garner attention.
The important factors are that TikTok posts grab attention quickly and be entertaining. Research has found that the Gen Z attention span is only 8 seconds, which places an emphasis on getting to the point quickly and relying on visuals and a compelling story to keep the user engaged.
TikTok appeals to younger audiences for the following reasons:
TikTok has done a good job protecting exactly how their unique and powerful AI-driven algorithm works, but they have shared the dynamics that go into delivering fast and personalized content through searches performed on the platform. They are:
Businesses can capitalize on the emergence of TikTok as a preferred search engine with search strategies that integrate organic, paid, and influencer content and promotions.
TikTok does not take the numbers of followers into consideration with its SEO ranking algorithm. This means every brand stands an equal chance of landing a video in a ‘For You Page’ as any other. This places a premium on the content created, and an understanding of the best TikTok SEO strategies to get results in order to become the next big viral success story.
Fortunately, creating a strategy to get noticed on TikTok does not involve re-inventing the wheel. TikTok organic search strategies involve most of the same elements deployed in traditional SEO practices insofar as finding keywords that audiences use in searches and embedding them into the content. In TikTok’s case this means both with text and speech. In terms of content creation, like Google, TikTok finds and promotes posts that establish authority, have fresh and unique content, and provide expertise. And as is always the case with any marketing channel, a clear understanding of the user greatly improves the odds for success and the ability of TikTok to push the content shown in the For You Page.
According to a recent survey by Adobe, on average, business owners allocated 15% of their marketing budget for TikTok content creation for 2024. The most searched-for content types include:
TikTok also has paid advertising options. Costs vary, but businesses can integrate affordable paid ads into the TikTok marketing to capture interest. The five most common include:
Influencers have played a large role in making TikTok so successful and, as the platform continues to grow, they are gaining even greater importance. Social media has always benefited from the contributions of influencers, but their impact is more profound on TikTok. It’s vital for businesses to find the right influencer to promote their brand. According to the Small Business Blog, TikTok micro-influencers have an engagement rate of 18% as opposed to Instagram’s micro-influencer engagement rate of 3.86%.
TikTok influencers can be categorized by the number of followers they have. The six most common influencer types are:
TikTok influencers can also be categorized based by the target niche of their expertise and fame. These include gamers, sports and fitness experts, bloggers, photographers, travel guides, and beauty and fashion gurus. Regardless of the size of their following or area of knowledge, marketers can capitalize on the high esteem by which influencers are held on TikTok. A recent study found that 61% of Gen Z trust influencers and brands more than family or friends for recommendations.
TikTok’s growing influence as a search engine for Gen Z marks a momentous change in the way marketers sell products and services on social media. It reflects the emphasis this age group places on short, entertaining video as their preferred means of gathering information, staying on top of trends, and forming communities. Marketing.com can help you connect the dots to find ways to harness the importance younger shoppers are placing on TikTok and take advantage of the opportunities it offers.