A short video that’s posted by the right TikTok influencer can help you grow your business. You just need to provide a content brief, sit back, and let the professional content creators handle the rest.
The results?
Increased brand awareness, a sales boost, and tons of interested customers.
But how do you know who the right creator for promoting your brand is?
Wonder no more!
We’re here to help you:
- Decide if your brand can benefit from TikTok marketing campaigns
- Understand why consumers trust influencers
- Figure out what influencer partnerships you should go for
Read on to find out everything about the glam, glitter, and glitz of social media personalities that have disrupted the advertising world as we know it.
Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of today 07/03/2022
What is a TikTok Influencer?
A TikTok influencer is a content creator with a large following who produces 15-60-second-long entertaining and/or promotional videos — similar to Vines, in terms of format — on the popular video-focused social networking platform, TikTok.
Some examples of TikTok content include dance videos, makeup tutorials, workout routines, nutrition and fitness tips, lifestyle videos, and comedy skits.
But how did TikTok become so relevant in the world of business?
And… is it relevant for your brand as well?
Let’s take a look at how TikTok managed to take over the mainstream world in such a short timespan:
- 2016: The Byte Dance app developer releases the Douyin app, competing with Musical.ly.
On both platforms, teens aged 13 to 18 were creating short lip-syncing videos, dancing clips, or singing video clips.
That was the main demographic of today's TikTok back in 2016.
No business opportunity there, right? Maybe if you sold slime...
- Things started to change for TikTok once they acquired Musical.ly in 2017.
That was the time when Douyin and Musical.ly merged to create this beautiful thing that can help you grow your business — TikTok.
- In 2018, shortly after the merger, TikTok surpassed Instagram on the Apple App Store.
- In 2019, the Google Play Store registered over 500 million TikTok downloads.
- Today, there are over 78 million U.S. users and TikTok is the most downloaded social media app in North America.
Quite impressive, wouldn't you say so?
And the most amazing thing about TikTok is not its growth, but the influencer marketing opportunities it created for all business sizes.
Yup, TikTok influencer marketing is gaining more and more traction in today’s business environment.
It doesn’t matter if you’re selling handmade hair scrunchies or if you’re a multi-billion dollar corporation.
TikTok has an influencer and an audience to match any business needs.
Let’s take for example the TikTok channel “moderndayesther”.
Esther is creating videos about beauty and makeup for over 30K followers.
The current follower count makes @moderndayesther a ‘micro influencer’.
The fanbase she built on her TikTok account allowed @moderndayesther to collaborate with brands such as Colourpop Cosmetics, Shop Miss A, Uoma Beauty, and Lavender Stardust.
Here’s an example of their sponsored TikTok videos for promoting a product collection from Colourpop Cosmetics.
Basically, sponsored TikTok content is a different and more efficient type of advertising.
You’ll see why we’re saying that in just a bit.
Why Does Your Brand Need TikTok Influencers?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely seen at least one influencer using a certain brand’s product.
Most likely, you’ve already heard about creators with massive following such as:
- Charlidamelio
- Loren Gray
- Addison Rae
- Baby Ariel
- Zach King
- Dixiedamelio
- The Dobretwins
- Gilmher Croes
- Jason Coffee
- Riyaz
- SpencerX
- Brent Rivera
- Gil Croes
- Justmaiko
And with Netflix airing a reality show about the Hype House, you can most certainly immerse yourself in the influencer culture even further.
In case you haven’t heard of it yet, the Hype House is a Los Angeles-based group of influential TikTok stars that produce viral content for their TikTok accounts and YouTube channels.
But what does your brand have to do with any of this?
Well, it’s important to get acquainted with the type of content there is on TikTok. It’s entertaining, relatable, and followed by millions of people.
For instance, the Hype House TikTok account is followed by 19.8 million people at the moment.
Wow! That’s a lot of followers. Does this mean that the Hype House would be the best collaborator for promoting your product?
Not necessarily.
As you know, quantity doesn’t equal quality. This also applies to the number of followers a content creator has.
To understand why that is, let’s analyze the audience demographics of the Hype House TikTok account using the HypeAuditor tool.
Now, we see that the 19.8 million followers are mostly teens aged 13-17 (50%) and young adults aged 18-24 (36%).
Assuming that teenagers and young adults are not your target audience, we need to look for other types of content creators to market your product to a more appropriate audience.
And, to get the best bang for your buck, we will look at specific content categories that have a well-targeted audience.
But is this really working?
Is TikTok advertising the promised land for small and medium-sized businesses?
Yes!
And we’re here to give you five compelling reasons to start investing in TikTok sponsorship videos.
Reason #1: The world is going mobile and so should your ads!
First, you need to be aware that more than half of global website traffic is currently generated by mobile devices; 54.4% to be exact. This means that most of today’s consumers interact with their favorite brands using their smartphones.
Moreover, Statista found that people spend, on average, 155 minutes on the internet each day while using their mobile devices.
On the other hand, desktop users spend around 37 minutes online per day using a PC or laptop.
So, it’s settled — mobile wins the race.
Now, let’s look at what people do on the internet.
Reason #2: Video is the way to go
According to The Mobile Internet Phenomena Report published by Sandvine in May 2021, video streaming accounts for the most internet traffic share.
“Video is now 48% of all traffic on mobile networks as short-form video grows in popularity.”
Reason #3: TikTok is the second most popular video-sharing app in the world!
The same report provides a global traffic share ranking where TikTok takes second place, falling just behind YouTube.
“Relationships are now being built and nurtured online, predominantly through video. It is therefore no surprise that Video Streaming continues to take the top traffic spot. YouTube and TikTok reign this category with tremendous growth in the past year.”
In other words, TikTok has become bigger than Facebook Videos, and even Instagram!
Have a look at the following graphic to get a visual overview of how much TikTok video content is watched by people in the context of global website traffic.
Reason #4: People trust TikTok content creators more than brands.
Now, do you see what we’re on about?
And if that’s not enough of a reason to jump on the TikTok influencer marketing trend, take a look at this:
- 67% of users agree that TikTok has inspired them to shop online while they weren’t looking to do so
- 74% of TikTok users say they are likely to research products or brands after watching a TikTok video
- 66% of TikTok account owners agree that they've decided what to buy based on what they saw in a TikTok video
- The average time spent on TikTok is 10.85 minutes per session which makes TikTok the most engaging social media app out there
- TikTok has seen a 1.5% increase in engagements in the U.S. between 2017 and September 2019. In comparison, Facebook saw a 26% decline in the same time span
But, who are these people?
Who uses TikTok?
Would they even fit your buyer persona?
Reason #5: TikTok users will surely fit your target audience.
According to a recent Statista report on TikTok user demographics in the United States, only 25% of the total users are aged under 19.
So, 75% of TikTok content consumers are aged between 20 and 50+.
Let’s have a deeper look at the demographics and their response to TikTok ads to better understand why influencer marketing campaigns work.
TikTok Creators Explained: According to 12 Stats
First, we need to understand who your TikTok ads can reach.
That’s why we’ve gathered relevant data from recent reports on TikTok U.S. demographics below:
- TikTok has an international audience with 1 billion active users. (Source: TikTok)
- The app is available in 141 countries. (Source: Apptrace)
- There were over 78 million TikTok users in the United States alone in 2021. And that number is projected to grow to 89.7 in 2023. (Source: Statista)
- Gen Z (ages 10–25) and Millenials (ages 26–41) account for almost 70% of the total U.S. TikTok users. (Source: Statista)
- The number of American adults using TikTok grew 5.5 times in 1.5 years. (Source: Backlinko)
- There are twice as many female users as male users in the U.S. (Source: Backlinko)
- The average amount of time U.S. adult TikTok users spend on the app is around 33 minutes per day. (Source: Backlinko)
Fine! But are these people interacting with the ads?
Yes!
TikTok ads appeal to the public. Here’s proof:
- TikTok TopView ads performed 40% better than TV ads in a Neuro-Insight study. (Source: TikTok)
- TikTok takes 1st place in Kantar's global ad equity rankings. In contrast, Instagram ranked 3rd in the same chart. (Source: Kantar)
- Over 90% of global users have taken further action after watching a TikTok video. (Source: TikTok)
- U.S. users aged 35-44 (37%) were more likely to make a purchase after watching an ad video created by a TikTok influencer. (Source: Retail Times)
- 23% of 16-44-year-old social media users reported that they trust the recommendation of a TikTok influencer over a friend's. (Source: Retail Times)
Now the TikTok marketing concept makes so much more sense, doesn’t it?
Next, we’re going to show you a few simple steps you can follow to find the right content creator to spread the word about your brand.
How to Find TikTok Influencers Using Insense
With Insense, you have two simple options when it comes to finding content creators to promote your brand.
The first one is by filling out a detailed brief of your campaign.
The whole process is very straightforward and easy to follow.
Here’s what you need to do:
Step #1: Create a new campaign brief
To make sure you fine-tune your creator-selection criteria and content requirements, you need to fill out a brief.
This way, you will be able to find exactly what you're looking for, faster.
To do so, you need to log into your Insense account, first.
Then, click on the “Fill out a Brief” button on the upper left-hand side of the dashboard page.
As soon as you do that, you will be instantly prompted to the “Campaigns” page where you can start filling out your information.
Let’s see how to go about doing that.
Step #2: Input your brand info
The first section you'll see on the "Campaigns" page is the "Brand Info" section.
Here, you need to provide an overview of what your brand stands for so that your future collaborators will know what content might best suit your business.
To input your brand information, click on the “Brand” field and select the “Add Brand” option from the dropdown menu.
Next, you will have to type in your brand name, website, and brand description. In the same pop-up window, you can also upload your logo.
After you’ve filled out the respective fields, click on the “Add brand” button, and you can move on to step number three.
Step #3: Fill out your campaign info
Here's where the fun begins.
But first thing first — fill in the “Campaign name” field and select the desired “Campaign privacy” option from the respective dropdown menu.
Next, you should absolutely create a fun campaign cover to attract creators' attention and make your campaign stand out.
On the right-hand side of the screen, you can always view what your campaign will look like on a mobile device as you fill in your information.
Isn’t that cool?
Back to the campaign info now.
You can start calibrating the following campaign details:
- Campaign type: Influencer partnership or custom content creation
- Social media platform: TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook
- Campaign objective: Lead generation, brand awareness, reach, traffic, engagement, app installs, etc.
- Payment method: Money or products
- The number of creators you need for this specific campaign
- Price per creator
- Campaign timing: Limited or unlimited
- Campaign schedule: Start date and end date
- The product delivery method you're offering
- Product description
And that’s about it.
Now you’re all set for the next and final step!
Step #4: Define your standards
Before posting your campaign, tell us who you’re looking for.
Who’s your brand’s perfect match?
Let us know by going to the "Desired creators profile" section and selecting the location, categories, gender, age, and other relevant details.
Here, you can also choose not to send the current brief to specific influencers you've had an unsatisfactory experience with.
After that, you only need to scroll down to the “Creative Asset” section and fill in any information you find relevant for the necessary campaign deliverables.
In this section, you can:
- Select the preferred image or video format
- Choose the desired placement of the asset (stories or feed)
- Specify the number of creatives needed for your project
- Provide a script for your video
- Input the necessary technical requirements
- Pinpoint do’s and don'ts
- Provide influencers with references and examples
Lastly, you can go to the “Optional” section and provide the creators with any other detail you think would be useful to ensure seamless collaboration and set things straight from the get-go.
Now, your campaign is ready to be published!
To achieve this, you simply need to scroll back up to the top of the page and click on the “Send to review” button.
Once your campaign is approved, you will start receiving creators’ proposals and applications.
After you start receiving proposals, you will be able to track the number of creators who are interested in working on your project, see creator bids placed, and view relevant stats.
Then, you can simply proceed to accept and reject applications or negotiate and request changes to creators' proposals.
Before getting into the TikTok influencer examples we’ve prepared for you, let’s quickly go over the second method you can use to find creators for your campaigns with Insense.
With Insense, you can also find creators manually.
To do so, go to “Find creators”.
After doing that, you will be directed to the marketplace where you can filter your search criteria to find the right creators using:
- Audience location, gender, and age
- Creators' ethnicity, gender, location, age, and price
- Social media platform
- Follower count
- Hashtags
Once Insense displays the results as per your selected filters, you can view creators’ profiles, portfolios, and relevant metrics from previous projects.
Now let’s go over some popular TikTok content categories and see some examples of social media stars and their TikTok marketing campaigns.
1. TikTok Fashion & Beauty Creators
To give you an idea of what influencers to look for when shaping together your marketing strategy, we’ve gathered a few examples of beauty, fashion, fitness, health, and food content creators.
Below, you will also find examples of sponsored videos for each social media influencer to get a better understanding of the content that can be produced to promote your product.
The first category we’ll discuss is fashion and beauty.
1. Sarah Novio: sarah_novio
Sarah Novio is a makeup influencer with a focus on skincare products for sensitive skin and viral beauty trends.
Sarah’s content revolves around:
- Beauty, makeup, hair, and skincare tips
- Comedy skits and lifestyle videos
- Fashion and styling ideas
She collaborates with a lot of beauty and skincare brands. For example, Sarah recently worked with SweetSpot Labs.
Number of Followers: 80.1K
Let’s have a look at another example of a beauty influencer, but with a smaller following.
2. Sarah Zap: sarahzapmakeup
Sarah Zap is a Toronto-based, makeup-focused content creator.
Sarah’s content includes short vlog videos on lifestyle, makeup product reviews, and makeup & hair tips.
She also posts videos with her pet dog, and — most recently — her pregnancy journey.
Her TikTok account promotes and reviews a lot of products from different brands. Take for example Sarah’s video on Trinny London’s eyeshadows.
Number of Followers: 48.1 K
The next creator has a smaller, but more defined following.
Let’s see why and how you can capitalize on that.
3. Ugh Kerria: ughkerria
Kerria is a fashion influencer with a taste for alternative clothing.
Her content is centered around alternative fashion outfit ideas, subculture aesthetics, thrift store hauls, vlogs, and styling tips.
Since her audience is very well defined, Ugh Kerria manages to collaborate with brands such as Disturbia Clothing, despite the small number of followers.
Here’s a screenshot of her video showcasing some Disturbia Clothing outfits.
Number of Followers: 5822
Even though micro-influencers (10K - 50K followers) are preferred by small to medium-sized businesses, some brands collaborate with content creators with a smaller fanbase — even those who have under 1K followers.
This is usually the case for niche marketing that targets a well-defined demographic segment, such as alternative fashion enthusiasts.
The following category is all about health and fitness, with many opportunities for activewear brands and other health-focused businesses.
2. TikTok Fitness, Health & Dance Creators
The next, equally popular TikTok content category is fitness and health, which has built a dynamic community of gym enthusiasts, nutrition specialists, and sports-loving people.
This is the category where supplements, activewear, gym gear, and the like are the most suitable products to be promoted.
Let’s have a look at some examples.
1. Cassidy Kmetz: cassidykmetz
As a gym enthusiast, Cassidy enjoys creating content for people who are seeking inspiration or motivation to reach their fitness goals.
Moreover, Cassidy Kmetz is passionate about health and fitness. She takes a holistic approach to living a healthy life.
Cassidy uses her TikTok account as a platform to provide workout ideas, promote gym wear products, and provide macronutrient-friendly meal suggestions.
Her latest TikTok marketing projects include a video where she presents to her followers the OWYN plant-based protein shakes that have helped her reach her fitness goals.
Number of Followers: 258.4K
Now, let’s switch to a smaller fanbase and see how brand collaborations go in that case.
2. Cache Melvin: cachemelvin24
Cache Melvin is a professional dancer and choreographer who creates TikTok dance videos using her live performances, original choreographies, and TikTok dance trends.
She mostly collaborates with activewear brands such as Puma, GymSharkm, and Nike. However, Cache also works with hair care, fashion, and other brands.
For instance, one of her recently uploaded videos promotes Willa, a payment request service for freelancers.
Number of Followers: 39.1K
Next, we have a fitness influencer with a considerably larger number of followers than both previous examples. This will enable us to see if there are any differences in the type of TikTok ads you can expect from different influencer follower tiers.
3. Ashley Rojas: 2sexyashley
Ashley Rojas is a fitness and beauty influencer who creates diverse videos about comedy, beauty, workouts, and lifestyle content.
Ashley collaborated with Honey (the shopping tool), Survival (game app), Skout (dating app), Sera Labs, and a lot of small businesses (beauty brands).
Her recent work includes a video promoting DTLEY contact lenses.
Number of Followers: 734.5K
Next, we’re going to explore the cooking and vegan categories and look at relevant content examples to pinpoint advertising opportunities for your brand.
3. TikTok Cooking & Vegan Creators
TikTok is filled to the brim with awesome food content.
People love to watch other people cook and enjoy culinary experiences.
They are looking perhaps for cooking tips, meal ideas, and, in some cases, guidance on how to switch to a vegan lifestyle.
Let’s see if you find opportunities for advertising your product within this content category.
1. Victoria Sizmur: plantedvic
Victoria Sizmur is a young vegan content creator.
She posts videos with vegan recipes, advice for maintaining a sustainable vegan diet, intuitive eating, and healthy lifestyle tips.
One of her recent collaborations is with Koia Plant where she promotes a plant-based protein shake product called Powered Protein Shakes.
Number of Followers: 14K
The next food influencer on our list has a larger following — just shy of 100K.
2. Morgan Raum: morgan.raum
Morgan Raum is a New York-based food writer, photographer, and content creator.
She creates video clips with restaurant reviews, recipes, desserts, plating ideas, and other food-related content.
Her TikTok partnerships include videos of her promoting Dave & Buster's arcade and reviewing the New York restaurant, Tacombi.
Number of Followers: 91K
Let’s see what our next influencer is up to in terms of collaborations.
3. Allie Eats: allie.eats
Allie Eats is a San Francisco-based cooking and travel-centered blogger and TikTok influencer.
Her content mostly documents her personal recipes and culinary journeys in Michelin-starred restaurants and favorite local food spots.
Allie’s sponsorships revolve around her passion for food and cooking. Take a look at her Ripen takeout charcuterie boards video as an example.
Number of Followers: 88.3K
Hopefully this section has shined some light on what type of content TikTok influencers can produce for your products.
Now Over to You
We’re sure you’re ready to create your first TikTok influencer marketing campaign with confidence now.
As you know, we can provide you with an easy-to-use tool to streamline the process.
Book a demo and let’s talk about it!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Do you still have questions about TikTok influencers?
You will probably find your answers in the FAQ below. If not, feel free to reach out to us and we’ll be more than happy to answer any questions you might still have around this topic.
Q1. How can I find TikTok influencers by location?
To find TikTok influencers by location, log into your Insense account, go to ‘Find Creators’, and apply the location filter to your search.
With Insense, you can find TikTok influencers by their personal or audience location. Adjust this depending on your marketing needs.
Q2. How much should you pay for TikTok influencers?
The budget you create for a collaboration with a TikTok influencer should reflect the complexity of your project and the influencer’s skills and fanbase.
Usually, influencers charge anywhere from $50 USD to thousands of U.S. dollars.
Q3. What types of content does well on TikTok?
The content types that usually go viral on TikTok include dance videos, Disney-themed videos, challenges, gymnastics clips, music videos, stunts, pet videos, funny skits, and any content that the audience can relate to.
Other content formats that appeal to the public also include product reviews and recommendations, tips and life hacks, and other videos that bring value to viewers.
