The Growth of TikTok
Since its emergence in 2017, TikTok has become the fifth-largest social media platform, with over 1 billion active users worldwide. Despite having just over one-third of the monthly active users of Facebook, TikTok users engage an average of 10 hours more per month.
In 2021, TikTok generated around $4.6 billion in revenue and had 1.2 billion monthly active users in Q4 2021. Despite only releasing in 2017, TikTok has been downloaded over three billion times. It's important to keep in mind that Facebook's statistics have been steadily declining while TikTok's continue to grow.
Why Sell Tickets Through TikTok?
Demographics
It's important to note that while TikTok initially seemed to appear as a craze among younger generations, that demographic has changed considerably over the past couple of years.
Although slightly more than half (53%) of TikTok's users are aged 20-39, the other half of users are split between the ages of 10-19 (28%) and 40-49+ (19%). This division means that the demographics are becoming increasingly broad and, therefore, more interesting when it comes to marketing to a range of age groups.
Interestingly, the young nature of TikTok's demographic range is more suited to the promotion of many types of events.
Algorithm
One thing that differentiates TikTok from other social media platforms is that TikTok makes it easier for you to reach new users organically. Whereas other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram restrict your trending posts for a short period, TikTok's algorithm keeps relevant videos up for much longer (up to 90 days). This algorithm means that up to 90 days after posting, certain older videos may still draw engagement.
Engagement
On average, users in the United States spend 33 minutes on TikTok daily, making it close to Facebook's average of 35 minutes. Interestingly, the average time spent on TikTok during a single session is around 10 minutes and 51 seconds, double the next-best contender Pinterest, which averages a single session of 5 minutes and 3 seconds. This means that users spend unusually long on the TikTok app browsing or creating video content.
How to Sell Tickets Through TikTok
As TikTok is primarily a video-based platform, there are currently no ways in which you can directly integrate your ticket shop. The only way you can currently sell tickets for your event through TikTok is by promoting your event on the platform through your organic reach or by paying for featured ads and linking to your ticket shop.
There are a variety of ad types that you can use to promote your event on TikTok:
• TopView
• Branded Hashtag Challenges
• Branded Effects
• In-Feed Ads
Of these, the TopView ads have the highest click-through rate for the call-to-action and the lowest skip rate. In-Feed Ads are also relatively effective and much cheaper to use.
TopView Ads
TopView ads allow you to capture the users' attention within the first moments of opening the TikTok app by showing a full-screen video ad of your product. The ad will transition seamlessly into the user's feed, and by tapping on the ad, the user will be taken to your landing page. TikTok claims that TopView ads grab 71% of users' attention and lead to 67% higher sales effectiveness.
Branded Hashtag Challenges
By creating a Branded Hashtag Challenge on TikTok, you can invite users to join you in creating content surrounding your event. You create a hashtag challenge, and users either stumble across your content organically through their 'Discover' tab or boosted ads surrounding your challenge. Branded Hashtag Challenges have an average engagement between 8% and 17% and can drastically increase awareness of your event.
Branded Effects
You can create sharable stickers, effects and filters representing or incorporating elements of your event. TikTok users can use these elements to create and enhance user-generated content, which will, in turn, boost user engagement.
In-Feed Ads
By taking advantage of in-feed ads, you can create content that will be included in users' 'For You' feeds. You can increase your brand awareness by creating ad content that aligns with the general range of content that TikTok users will appreciate. According to TikTok, 83% of their users claim to find In-Feed Ads on TikTok enjoyable.
Make TikToks Instead of Ads
TikTok is a video-based platform that thrives due to the amount of user-generated content being created.
Users aren't interested in having their experience interrupted by traditional ads trying to sell them something. In the world of TikTok, content truly is king. By creating fun content that engages with users and invites them to engage with it, you're more likely to grab users' attention and successfully promote your event on TikTok.
Boosting Your TikTok Posts with Hashtags
As you might expect, the most popular TikTok hashtags are trivial things such as #tiktok, #love, #funny, #cute etc. From a marketing perspective, it's best to steer clear of hashtags like these, as your content will likely get lost due to the sheer volume of posted videos.
Analyse Your Niche
Go through content relevant to your event and interests and keep track of the hashtags used for those posts. Also, check out your competitors' hashtags and how people respond to them or build on them. You can also build a hashtag to try and boost brand awareness, but remember that simple is better.
Category-Focused Hashtags
You can also look at using specific hashtags relevant to your post's category or the overarching theme of your event. For example, if you're promoting a food truck festival and want people to join in, you could ask different vendors to make a short video of how they make some of the recipes they'll be showcasing.
How to Use TikTok Creators to Your Advantage
TikTok is filled to the brim with very talented creatives who can help boost your brand recognition while increasing trust among your potential followers. At the end of the day, TikTok creatives are influencers, and influencer marketing has been shown to be effective time and time again.
For example, you could try approaching popular creators in your region and strike up a deal offering them access to your event in exchange for promoting your event, both before, during and after the event takes place.
Summary
TikTok offers a unique opportunity for event organizers to reach new audiences through its algorithm, diverse demographics, and high engagement rates. By creating authentic content, leveraging the right ad formats, and partnering with creators, you can significantly boost your ticket sales and event awareness.