Communicate spoke with Shant Okanayan, General Manager, Global Business Solutions, Middle East Africa Turkey, and Pakistan, TikTok, to learn more about Spark Ads, the company's latest launch.
Could you give an overview of how Spark Ads will help brands advertise better on TikTok?
Standing in between organic content and advertising, Spark Ads make up a hybrid format that delivers unique value to both businesses and users. The new native ad display enables brands and businesses to boost not only their own popular organic posts but also amplify relevant content shared by the community. For brands looking to build a robust content strategy, they can amplify original creative videos seamlessly through Spark Ads. Additionally, brands can keep the fun going with Stitch and Duet features enabled, making it easy for the community to reinterpret, reinvent, and build on the creativity.
What are the reasons behind introducing this initiative?
TikTok for Business wanted to expand the ways in which brands can build long-lasting connections with their audience in an authentic way that is rooted in the community. We believe that the new format provides multi-faceted content opportunities for ad managers, whilst also delivering sustainable and impactful business value.
How is it different from previous advertising initiatives introduced by the platform?
Spark Ads is a completely native ad solution that looks and feels just like a normal TikTok appearing on your For You Page. Spark Ads provide a better experience and trust through real accounts and offer multiple options for clicks and CTA’s, which can drive audiences to profile photos, landing pages and music pages. Already we are seeing an increase in all views and engagement metrics with SparkAds.
This teamed with our suite of ad products not only enables brands to tell their story in a way they can’t do anywhere else but delivers on improved campaign results rates with less cost.
You mentioned that brands will be able to amplify relevant content shared by the community. How does that work exactly? Could you share an example if possible?
The now famous Ocean Spray TikTok is a testament to the authentic and powerful engagement that brands can expect when partnering with the TikTok community. It only took one user to post a video featuring the company's product on a skateboard while singing a song for the brand to gauge millions of views on TikTok.
TikTok is a content-led platform and brands might have hundreds or even thousands of advocates whose messaging is creative, relevant, and on par with the brand's marketing goals. Spark Ads puts the power of content creation in the hands of those who know how to make TikTok's best, the TikTok community. Here's how this is executed:
Firstly, creators will need to turn on the ad authorization toggle on the TikTok app. Enabling ad authorization allows advertisers to feature their videos in ads on TikTok. Once they have done this they will need to authorize specific videos for promotional use. After creators authorize a video for promotional use, they will need to generate a video code that they can share with advertisers and select how long they authorize their post to be used. Once the Ads Manager has received a video code from a creator, they will need to enter that code on TikTok Ads Manager and can start publishing Spark Ads straight away.
Will Spark Ads play a role in harboring stronger connections between creators and brands? If so, how?
Absolutely! Not only does Spark Ads provide brands opportunities to drive deeper engagement and connection with their audience, it also allows them to build more relationships with creators by supporting their content. As Spark Ads provide more avenues for audiences to click-through to the creator’s pages, brands are able to put their weight behind the discovery of content and talent meaning that the entire community benefits from the native format. In fact, we have already seen this happening numerous times. For example, Justmop recently launched a campaign on TikTok for which the brand partnered with four local UAE-based content creators. They produced a total of 8 locally relevant, relatable & creative TikToks, which launched through Spark Ads. This enriched the connection between Justmop and its consumers and as a result, tripled the brand’s revenue on this campaign and improved on lower funnel success indicators. Overall, the campaign increased Installs for the Justmop app by seven times and a 54% lower CPI.
