TikTok has added several new features to its Promote advertising platform aimed at helping creators and small businesses more easily turn organic content into TikTok ads.
“With the new Promote features we’re introducing, small businesses and creators have more tools to target their desired communities and choose exactly how they can interact with their ads,” said the company in a blog announcing the updates. “We are committed to expanding our suite of features to empower advertisers of all sizes to grow and meet their goals, whether it’s to build your audience on TikTok or engage with potential customers.”
The new targeting and boosting features are designed to help users:
- Drive traffic back to their profiles — the new “more profile views” goal helps creators push ad traffic back to their TikTok page with a call to action driving them directly to the advertiser’s TikTok profile;
- Turn viewers into potential leads — the new “more messages” Promote goal allows SMBs that rely on interactions with customers to make their sales, including service businesses, B2B brands and businesses that take custom orders, to direct advertising traffic to their TikTok inbox;
- Amplify creator marketing budgets — businesses that work with creators now have the option to promote creators’ videos or live videos to help increase views to their target audience. Creators can also use the new “promote for others” tool to give a boost to the content, creators and businesses they want the world to see.
- Target audiences by location — audience targeting parameters within the tool have expanded from gender, age and interests to include physical location, allowing users to target their local communities.
The new advertising options come as TikTok and Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance face increasing pressure from lawmakers over privacy and security concerns. A number of states — including New Jersey, Ohio, Mississippi and most recently Texas — have banned the app from all government devices, and TikTok is currently working with the Biden administration to avoid a total U.S. ban. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23, 2023 to address the mounting concerns.
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But none of this is stopping advertisers from continuing to shift spend over to TikTok, aided by the fact that video advertising on the platform costs almost half what it does on Instagram Reels and 62% less than Snapchat.
