Ever seen your favourite TikToker feature a product from a brand on their videos?
Well, it turns out that TikTok now allows advertisers for brands to use these videos as part of their ad campaigns on the app through Spark Ads!
Let’s dive deep into this new ad feature and explore how it benefits brands as well as affects creators.
How does it work?
Through TikTok’s new Spark Ad feature, brands can now officially identify with any existing organic videos that are relevant to their business and potentially fit their campaign, making it easier to leverage trending content.
For instance, if a famous TikTok skincare influencer (or “Skinfluencers” as they’re known) has showcased a skin product in his or her organic clips, without any affiliation or sponsorship from the brand, the brand may choose to sponsor their content for their campaigns in order to get associated with the post without having to create anything themselves, or even commission a creator.
Basically, brands can then reach out to TikTok creators and re-purpose their relevant clips for any paid campaigns.
Brands that have hopped onto the feature
Brands have already started adopting Spark Ads to reap the benefits of this new feature such as Vessi, a Vancouver-based direct-to-consumer waterproof sneaker brand; Lanslorand, a French online gaming app; and Kayo Sports, an Australian sports streaming service just to name a few.
One of the brands that stood out to us was Isle of Paradise, the beauty brand that created the world’s first 100% vegan, cruelty-free, color-correcting, self-tan with a goal to give a vibrant glow to all skin types and tones.
With these business values in mind, it was key for the brand to have a diverse set of creators to help bring its product story to life authentically on TikTok, so they reached out to creators to develop original content showing how they apply the product just before bed to reveal glowing skin by morning, and used the custom hashtag #WakeUpandGlow to drive brand awareness throughout the campaign.
The beauty brand used TikTok Ads Manager to launch Spark Ads featuring the original creator content and user-generated content within the campaign. This resulted in a 500% ROI, 45 million video views, 1.1% click-through rate, and a 68% increase in revenue per week compared to the prior nine weeks!
What does this mean for TikTok Creators?
Spark Ads allows a brand to use the ready-made content to attach their names or products to the work, allowing them to quickly hop on trending content just by seeking the creator’s approval directly from the app to sponsor the video, cutting out any middlemen- influencer and marketing agencies.
Brands can do so by creating a code through Ads Manager and setting an authorization approval period. Once the creator approves, the video becomes sponsored.
This sounds like a huge plus for brands but we’re not entirely sure how creators feel about it. On one hand, it provides creators the exposure they need. On the other hand, brands are not obligated to provide commission to creators. Plus, exposure doesn’t pay the bills.
But who knows? Maybe that will change to benefit creators better.
So far, we love how the new approach gives a whole new twist on how influencer partnered content or user-generated content is usually utilized.
It also proves that creator-generated content is one of the most effective ways that brands and marketers can tap to reach their consumers effectively!