It’s safe to say that TikTok has taken the world by storm. Given the video-sharing platform’s overwhelming popularity with teens and young adults, it has the potential to help colleges and universities make a lasting impression on prospective students.

Now, TikTok has made the advertising portion of the platform available to a select group of agencies, and Spark451 is proud to announce we’ve been invited to participate in this exclusive program. We are excited to help our college and university partners leverage the app to foster deeper connections with students.

Why Timely Marketing is Critical

Curious as to how hot TikTok actually is right now? With more than 63.3 million installs in August 2020 alone, TikTok was the most downloaded social media app (excluding games) that month, according to data from Sensor Tower.

According to Sensor Tower, TikTok was the most downloaded social media app (excluding games) in August 2020.

You might be wondering if your prospective student audience is giving TikTok enough attention to justify spending ad dollars on a new channel, and the answer is a resounding yes! Not only does Hootsuite show that 69% of the app’s monthly active users are between the ages of 13–24, but our own recent mini-research experiment showed that teens spend several hours per week on the platform.

We recently took a sampling of students’ screen times over the course of a week, and our findings confirmed that older teens and young adults are spending plenty of time on TikTok.

TikTok Tips

Interested in TikTok advertising? Here are a few things you need to know:

  1. TikTok is ideal for Gen Z: As mentioned above, the majority of TikTok users are under the age of 24, which makes the platform ideal for reaching prospective undergraduates, transfer students, or recent graduates who may be considering graduate school.
  2. TikTok is well-suited for branding efforts: TikTok is an upper-funnel method of advertising that can help you build brand awareness with your target audience.
  3. TikTok users are engaged: According to TikTok, the average user spends over 71 minutes a day on the app and opens it more than 14 times a day.
  4. Targeting is key: TikTok offers robust targeting opportunities, allowing us to reach users by demographic, interests, geographic location, and more. Additionally, we can leverage first– and third-party data, in addition to retargeting and lookalike audiences, to ensure you can deliver your content to users with whom it’s most likely to resonate.
  5. TikTok requires its own unique creative: Your ad creative on TikTok needs to be mobile-friendly video and appear to be native to the platform. Animation, music, and authenticity are key. Plus, TikTok ads need to be refreshed regularly to avoid ad fatigue within the quick-moving platform.

TikTok and Beyond

In addition to TikTok, Spark451 holds exclusive marketing partnerships with a variety of platforms, including Google, Facebook, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. When you partner with Spark451, our premier-level affiliations with these platforms mean you’ll have the most up-to-the minute access to the best strategies for making an impact on these ever-evolving platforms.

When you’re ready to discuss specific tactics for your institution, please reach out. Our digital media specialists and enrollment strategists will be happy to help you craft a budget-friendly digital communications plan.