How To Create A TikTok Influencer Marketing Campaign

If your brand isn’t already running TikTok influencer marketing campaigns, it’s time to jump on board. TikTok is an extremely popular platform, especially among the younger demographic of teens and young adults. With so many influencers making it big on this social media app, it only makes sense for your brand to partner with any celebrities and influencers who have a similar audience to yours. 

Get ahead of the game and invest in influencer marketing on TikTok while it’s on the rise. Here’s everything you need to know about TikTok influencer marketing — what it is, how it works, and how you can start your own campaign to increase both brand awareness and sales. 

What Is It and How Does It Work?

The idea behind an influencer campaign on TikTok is simple. It’s the same basic principle that drives influencer marketing on other platforms: Essentially, a brand partners with an influencer and that influencer creates relevant content to drive their followers back to the brand. 

What kind of content does that influencer create? Really, the sky’s the limit. Many influencers do dance videos, hopping on top of TikTok trends to make a promotional video. Challenge videos are also popular. Still other brands and influencers take advantage of TikTok’s Duet feature to make sure followers are highly engaged. 

The types of videos you decide to share will depend on your industry or niche, too. But whatever type of content the influencer creates, it’s always smart to think about what’s trending on TikTok at the moment and how you can spin those popular types of videos to make them be promotional.

Here’s a good example: popular TikTok creator Spencer Knight recently did a brand partnership with Uber Eats. Since Duets are a popular type of video on TikTok, he created a beatboxing video (his speciality) that his followers could duet. This branded video is a good example of using TikTok trends for marketing purposes.

Define Your Goals

When you’re ready to start your own influencer marketing campaign on TikTok, what KPIs (key performance indicators) should you track? Again, TikTok marketing isn’t that much different from marketing on Instagram or other social media platforms. Many of the metrics you need to track are metrics that are important to keep up with on other platforms, too:

• Total views
• Average watch time
• Reach
• Engagement rate (calculated using likes, comments, and shares)
• Virality
• Conversions
• Trending videos

TikTok’s analytics will show you the basic metrics like total video views, new follower count, or profile views. You can also use TikTok Influencer Insight to get a feel for what an influencer’s audience is like. 

How To Find TikTok Influencers To Work With

We’ve talked about why creating a TikTok influencer marketing campaign is such a good idea. But how can you find influencers to work with on TikTok? If you’ve never used the app, it might seem difficult to navigate. Use these insider strategies to find the influencers who are ideal for your brand.

Hashtags on TikTok

Most influencers include multiple hashtags on each of their TikTok posts. They’re trying to make your job as easy as possible — influencers want to work with you, so they want you to find them! You can search for hashtags on TikTok by opening the “Discover” page and typing a hashtag into the search bar. From there, you can scroll through popular posts with that hashtag.

It’s also a smart idea to search through industry-related hashtags. After all, you aren’t just looking for any influencer — you’re looking for an influencer that would be a good fit for your brand. If you’re in the fitness niche, try searching for general industry hashtags like #fitness or #fitspo. You can narrow your search even further than that depending on exactly what you do; a CrossFit brand might search #CrossFitathome to find potential influencers, while an allergy-friendly food brand could try #veganrecipes to find influencers who are already creating content in that space.

Use A TikTok Influencer Search Engine

An easy method of finding influencers on TikTok is to use a search engine that’s specifically made for that purpose, such as Influence Grid. You can search for influencers by typing in a keyword and/or by using the following parameters: 

• Location
• Number of followers (look for nano, micro, macro, or mega influencers)
• Median video views
• Engagement rate
• Is verified
• Also has Instagram and/or YouTube

Perform A Simple Google Search

You don’t have to search the TikTok app to find influencers. You can simply run a Google search, too. Type in simple keyword phrases to look for influencers, such as:

• TikTok influencers
• TikTok creator
• TikTok influencers list

Again, you can also narrow down your search according to your industry. Try phrases like “tiktok (specific niche) creator,” adding your industry or niche in the middle (“tiktok beauty creator”) to find the best influencers for you.

Cross-Check Influencers On Other Platforms

If you come across an influencer on another platform and think they’d be a good fit for your brand, head over to TikTok to see if they have a presence there. You can type their name and/or the username they use on other social media platforms into the TikTok search bar; if they don’t pop up, try looking on their website or link in bio to see if they have a complete list of their social media accounts.

If needed, you can complete this process in reverse, too. Wondering if a TikTok influencer has a committed, engaged presence on other social platforms? Take the time to look them up and check it out before reaching out to work with them.

Measure The Results

How can you measure the performance of your campaigns on TikTok? There are a few different ways you can measure and track a campaign depending on what your overall goal was with that campaign. For example, were you aiming to increase brand awareness or get more conversions? The method you’ll use to track your results will vary depending on your goal.

Different metrics may be more relevant to you based on your goals for a specific campaign. You might choose to keep a close eye on metrics such as views, likes, and overall engagement rate. Many influencer tools will help you track demographics information about an influencer’s followers and performance trends over time; these tools often provide analytics reports for each creator you work with. You can also use a third-party tool to track TikTok campaigns if you’re working with a smaller influencer and need to ensure you’re getting accurate numbers. 

Examples of TikTok Influencer Campaigns

Need some inspiration to start your own TikTok influencer campaign? Here are a few good examples of brand partnerships on TikTok.

David Dobrik and Little Caesar’s

David Dobrik recently helped promote Little Caesar’s #pieitforward campaign (where Little Caesar’s customers donated pizza to first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic). In a TikTok video posted on David’s account, David and his assistant Natalie showed viewers how to cook pizza lasagna using a Little Caesar’s pizza. The video ended in disaster with the fire alarm going off. David then quickly explained the concept of the #pieitforward campaign and concluded he’d stick to just eating the pizza. The video received 1.6 million views. 

Zach King and Video Leap

With 47.6 million followers, Zach King is one of the most popular and highest-earning creators on TikTok. Here, Zach gives his followers a glimpse behind the scenes, showing viewers how he used the Video Leap app to create one of his whimsical videos. His how-to video received 3.5 million views and hundreds of thousands of comments — equaling out to lots of visibility for Video Leap.

Loren Gray and Revlon

Loren Gray is an influencer who has achieved TikTok popularity through her singing career. In this video, Loren showed her followers how to use Revlon’s Wonder Woman palette to do their makeup around a mask. Loren and Revlon even created their own branded hashtag together: #RevlonxLoren.

Charlie Puth and Subway

Charlie Puth is another singer who has an enormous following on the TikTok app. He recently partnered with Subway, creating a jingle advertising Subway’s new deal — $5 footlong sandwiches. The video was a smart way to market to Charlie’s many followers, who love the singer’s ability to compose on the spot.

Cole LaBrant and Bounty

Influencer Cole LaBrant has seen huge popularity on both TikTok and YouTube, where he runs a family channel with his wife Savannah. On TikTok, Cole and Savannah recently partnered with Bounty to create a funny video. He used the branded hashtags #BountyPartner and #QuickerPickerUpper to let his followers find out more about the brand.

Get Started with TikTok Influencer Marketing

TikTok is an essential platform for any brand that’s looking to increase brand awareness and conversions. Use these tips and examples to help you get started with TikTok influencer marketing and reach more people with your brand. 

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