TikTok Issues Advertising How-to for Small Businesses

By Brittany Siminitz | October 30, 2023

Most retailers have their strategies for stocking inventory down pat in advance of the holiday season, and are turning their attention to advertising. TikTok is trying to make the case for why it should get companies’ marketing dollars, a good portion of which are now spent on social media.

The platform just published Part 1 (of two) of its “TikTok Fundamentals for Small Business: The E-Commerce Guide,” to help retailers find customers on TikTok and increase online sales. To download it, businesses must fill out a registration form with their company and contact name, email address, phone number, type of industry, and monthly ad budget.

The guide is only three pages long—infographic in style, and not a massive tome to read—but it does come with some useful information and checklists for recording progress. It features a five-step overview of advertising on TikTok, with a blurb from one of its case studies showing how a brand had success with the app’s ads program.

A thorough instructional for running a first ad campaign comes next: four main steps, each with a series of checklists, and additional tips for nurturing and building on the campaign.

The steps are TikTok-specific, but for those familiar with running ads on social media, the guide may serve to jog inspiration for this platform and elsewhere.

According to a survey reported by TikTok, 92% of users “take action” after watching a TikTok video, and 33% of users have purchased a product they saw on TikTok.

Let’s face it: TikTok seems like the perfect place for businesses looking to reach that Gen Z market. It’s got a huge product-driven culture and growing e-commerce capabilities. If a retailer has it in their holiday budget to jump into a campaign on the platform, there’s no better time to do it than now.