How to grow your business with TikTok

TikTok has one goal: to connect community, entertainment and shopping. In fact, as we see with its recent updates, shopping is becoming more and more integrated into the app and the user's shopping experience is getting better and better. And considering it's a platform that has recently reached one billion monthly active users, how could you not be interested in growing your brand's sales with TikTok?

TikTok content pushes users from product awareness to action or conversion. In fact, according to a survey conducted by Material in August 2021, TikTok users are 1.7 times more likely to have purchased products through the app. In addition, the viralisation of hashtags where users share products they have discovered through TikTok such as #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, with over 5 billion views confirm that the user's buying process on the app is accelerated. So why not advertise your products on TikTok?

TikTok has recently added two advertising products to boost online shopping: Collection Ads and Dynamic Showcase Ads (DSAs). Before incorporating either of these options, you need to create and configure a product catalogue that allows you to store your brand's product information.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How to create and configure a product catalogue in TikTok
• Ad Formats to grow your sales with TikTok
• Conclusion

How to create and configure a product catalogue in TikTok

The use of a product catalogue is essential for any company looking to create and manage ads in an efficient way and that has a wide variety of products. As we explained in the previous point, the catalogue is a file that allows you to store information with which to automatically generate a wide variety of ads, in this case on TikTok. It is the way to keep your ads synchronised with the real information of each of your products, such as price, availability, sizes...

The first step is to create the product catalogue from the TikTok Business Manager. It is time to define the name of the catalogue, define the default currency and the targeting location.

The second step is to review the catalogue template. Before adding any product, review the related fields of the file in the catalogue template. There are 9 mandatory parameters to add a product to the catalogue and 35 optional parameters. The more information your catalogue includes, the more personalised products will be displayed in the ads.

The third step is to add products to your catalogue. In the Ads Manager, choose the method for adding products:

• Manually: Fill in a simple form for each product you want to add. Enter information in each field: title, product image, URL, SKU ID, price... Except for the "Video URL" field, the rest are all mandatory. Once you have added the product, click on import.

• Data Feed Schedule: Automatically add products from an online archive, according to the schedule you set. Add the name of your data source and the URL. If the document is protected, add access details as well. Select the frequency and method of upload (update or replace).

   

  Remember the Feed requirements in TikTok:
  Supported formats are .CSV, XML (RSS), XML (ATOM), ZIP and GZ. Add the name of the feed in the URL and make sure the file size is less than 50GB. There is also a limit of 20 million products.

• Upload a file: Use a template to upload product information. Enter a name for your Data Source and upload the information. Use the "Review documents" option to check that the formatting is correct. You can add as many product data sources as you need.

The fourth step is to create product sets. A product set allows you to group products according to their characteristics, which you can use to promote specific products in your campaigns with a Catalog Sales objective. To create these product sets, you can use filters or manually select the products you want to include.

The fifth step is to manage the catalogue rules. This step will allow you to automatically update the product information in your catalogue to match the TikTok catalogue template.
 

More details on how to create and manage catalogues can be found in the TikTok Business Help Center. If you have any technical challenges or questions, you can contact the Solutions Engineering team at Adsmurai. 

Ad Formats to grow your sales with TikTok

Once the catalogue is created, it's time to generate videos for the products in your catalogue, integrate the information collected by the TikTok Pixel events and publish the campaigns. 
 
When you create a campaign on TikTok, you have the possibility to choose from a wide variety of targets depending on the action you want your users to take when they see the ads.

Once you have chosen your campaign objective, it's time to choose your ad format. In-Feed ads that will allow your brand to achieve its marketing objectives throughout the funnel natively. They appear in the For You channel and are designed to capture the customer's attention. 
 
The two new ways to increase your brand's sales are formats included within In-Feed Ads: Collection Ads and Dynamic Showcase Ads (DSA).

Collection Ads

The aim of Collection Ads is to facilitate the purchase of relevant products. It is about making videos "more buyable", driving sales and increasing ROAS. It is a format mainly focused on mid-funnel strategies (discovery to purchase). 

It also allows brands to merge the product catalogue with branded videos. In this way, users have the opportunity to click on those products they have seen during the video. This new format includes customisable, swipeable product cards in In-Feed ads. 

These cards take the user to a "gallery" page where they can view other branded items and make purchases. Therefore, they can help drive traffic to the brand's website, introduce new collections, even promote limited offers!

Collection Ads are a statement of intent from TikTok, a bid to boost in-app purchases. On the one hand, they benefit users by facilitating the shopping experience and, on the other hand, they guarantee sellers better exposure for their products.

Dynamic Showcase Ads (DSA)

In this case, Dynamic Showcase Ads are a lower-funnel format focused on boosting conversion and customer loyalty. It is a format that allows us to reach both prospecting (incremental) and retargeting audiences.
 
Dynamic Showcase Ads allow brands to promote hundreds of products through personalised video ads. In addition, DSAs enable the generation of targeted video ads based on audience interests and behaviours. This information is facilitated by a successful implementation of the TikTok Pixel.

This is a format that is very well integrated with the platform because it offers highly personalised content. You can leverage that native value of Dynamic Showcase Ads (DSA) for the TikTok community with audio, text overlays and visually engaging clips that work together to tell an entertaining product story. 

Here are some recommendations for this type of ads from the TikTok expert team at Adsmurai

• Broaden the target audience and show each person the most appropriate product.
• Use creativity to attract attention.
• Always be active to get better results.
• Check that the measurement parameters are configured correctly (CTA, Pixel, UTM...).
• Avoid making changes to campaigns more than once a day.

Therefore, the effectiveness of this new format is based on two key aspects: personalised ads (delivery to users is based on their behaviour and interests). And it improves ROI, as it shows relevant products to users and that drives transactions.

For more information on how to create Dynamic Showcase Ads, don't miss this post from TikTok's Business Help Center.

Conclusion

With an incredible increase in the number of active users, the ability to reach large audiences and many other reasons, it makes sense that TikTok is an important place for your brand to increase sales. Especially now that the platform is establishing itself as an online shop...