TikTok has become one of the fastest growing and most popular social media platforms, with over 1 billion monthly active users as of 2023 according to Backlinko. Unlike other social platforms, TikTok is focused on short-form vertical videos, and its algorithm is exceptionally good at determining users’ interests and serving them relevant content. This has contributed majorly to TikTok’s explosive growth.
Having a business account on TikTok comes with several advantages, including access to powerful analytics about your content, the ability to use promotions and ads to reach new audiences, and tools to simplify managing multiple users on one account. For brands, creators and businesses looking to tap into TikTok’s highly engaged userbase, setting up a business profile is an important first step.
Create a TikTok Account
The first step in setting up a TikTok business account is to download the TikTok app and sign up for an account. TikTok is available for free download from the App Store for iOS devices and Google Play for Android devices.
When signing up for a new account, you’ll need to provide some basic information like your email address, phone number, and date of birth. You’ll also need to choose a unique username for your account. Your username will be part of your TikTok profile URL and is how other users will find your account, so make sure to choose something memorable (cite: https://www.adobe.com/express/learn/blog/tiktok-username-ideas).
Some tips for choosing a good TikTok username include:
- Using your business name or a variation of it
- Incorporating relevant keywords like your industry or location
- Keeping it short, simple, and easy to remember
- Adding creative numbers or words to make it unique
- Checking availability by searching for it on TikTok
Once you enter all your sign up information and agree to the TikTok terms of service, you’ll have a new personal TikTok account set up and ready to be converted into a business account.
Convert to a Business Account
To convert your personal TikTok account to a business account, first navigate to your profile page and tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper right corner. Select “Switch to Business Account” from the menu.
You’ll then be prompted to choose a category that best describes your business, such as retail, restaurant/cafe, education, or travel. This helps TikTok customize the account experience. Next, follow the on-screen prompts to complete the account setup process.
According to TikTok’s registration guidelines, you’ll need to provide business documentation like a business license, tax ID, or incorporation papers to verify your business identity (source). This is an important step to gain access to TikTok’s analytics, advertising tools, and other business features.
Customize Your Business Profile
After creating a business account, the next step is to customize your profile with important details about your business. Be sure to add your:
- Business name
- Category that describes your business
- Website URL
- Contact information
You’ll also want to write an engaging bio for your TikTok business profile. Your bio is limited to 80 characters, so make it short and catchy. Mention what your business does and any other unique or compelling details. Use emojis and hashtags if they fit within the character limit.
According to research from Vista Social, some effective bio ideas for businesses include:
- A funny or quirky saying related to your business
- Your business’s founding story or mission
- A call-to-action like “DM for collabs”
The goal is to make your bio engaging enough to encourage viewers to follow your account or learn more about your business.
Link Other Social Accounts
Connecting your TikTok to other social media accounts like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook allows you to cross-promote content and extend your reach. You can grow your following across multiple platforms by sharing TikTok videos to other sites.
Some benefits of cross-promotion between social platforms include:
- Reaching a more varied demographic and new audiences
- Increasing brand visibility and engagement
- Driving more traffic to your TikTok account
- Leveraging existing followers on other sites
To connect your other accounts, go to your TikTok profile and tap the three dot menu. Select “Link other accounts” and choose the platforms you want to connect. This allows easy cross-posting of videos directly within TikTok (Buffer).
You can also manually share TikTok videos to other social sites or use a social media management platform like Sprout Social to schedule and queue cross-platform posts. This streamlines the process so you can reuse content across multiple channels (Ambassify).
Analytics and Insights
Once you convert your account to a TikTok business account, you gain access to TikTok’s analytics tools. These provide detailed insights into your account’s growth and performance.
Under the “Analytics” section in your TikTok account, you can view key metrics like video views, likes, comments, shares, and more. You can filter analytics by date range to see trends over time. As this Hootsuite article explains, important metrics to analyze include:
- Video views
- Likes and comments
- Shares
- Follower growth
- Engagement rate
Analyzing these metrics can help identify your top performing content. For example, sorting videos by most views shows your viral hits. Studying engagement rates reveals what content resonates best with your audience. This enables data-driven decisions about what types of videos to create more of.
TikTok also provides demographic data on your audience and their interests. As outlined by Rival IQ, this allows tailoring content to your ideal viewers. Frequent analysis of TikTok analytics is crucial for growing a successful account.
Content Best Practices
One of the most important aspects of building an engaging TikTok presence is posting high-quality, creative videos consistently. You should aim to post at least a few times per week, if not daily. Consistency helps the TikTok algorithm understand your content and surface it to more potential viewers.
Make sure each video provides value to your viewers. Entertain them, educate them, or inspire them. High-quality videos filmed with good lighting and editing tend to perform better. Get creative with effects, text overlays, trends, and more to make your content stand out.
Leveraging relevant hashtags and joining in on trending challenges can help more people discover your TikTok account. Check what is currently trending and incorporate popular hashtags when appropriate. You can also start your own hashtag challenge to engage your audience.
According to research from Sprout Social, using hashtags and partaking in trends and viral challenges are some of the most effective tactics for TikTok marketing success.
Paid Advertising
Leverage TikTok’s built-in Ads Manager to create and optimize paid advertising campaigns that promote your business account and content. With a TikTok business account, you gain access to powerful targeting capabilities based on user demographics, interests, behaviors, and more.
According to Varos, the average cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) for TikTok ads is around $9.16 as of November 2023. However, costs can range from $0.50 to over $10 depending on factors like targeting, quality score, and competition.
To optimize your ad spend, Corkboard Concepts recommends testing different audiences, placements, bidding strategies, creatives, and calls-to-action. Analyze performance data in Ads Manager to identify top-converting segments and continuously improve your campaigns. With careful testing and optimization, you can achieve your promotion goals cost-effectively.
Measure Success
To track the success of your TikTok business profile, focus on key metrics like growth, engagement, and conversions. Continuously monitor these metrics to improve your content strategy over time.
Growth metrics show how your follower count and viewership are increasing. Look at follower growth rate week-over-week as well as views, likes, comments, and shares on your videos. Optimize your content to drive more followers and viewership. As your business profile grows, you’ll be able to reach a larger audience.
Engagement metrics like comments, shares, duets, and stitches indicate how well your audience is interacting with your videos. Higher engagement numbers relative to your follower count and views show your content is resonating. Pay attention to which types of videos generate the most engagement.
Conversion metrics allow you to track actions taken by viewers after seeing your TikTok videos, like visiting your website or making a purchase. Install pixels to measure website traffic referred from TikTok. Promote special offers or links to products to measure sales directly attributed to your TikTok presence.
Analyze all metrics regularly and experiment with different types of video content, captions, sounds, and effects to continuously improve. Look for opportunities to better engage your audience and convert viewers into customers.
Conclusion
Setting up and optimizing a TikTok business account is an important step for brands looking to effectively reach this rapidly growing audience. In this article, we covered the key steps to get started:
- Creating a TikTok account with a business email and phone number
- Converting your profile to a TikTok business account
- Customizing your business profile with branding elements and contact info
- Linking other social media accounts for cross-promotion
- Leveraging TikTok analytics to guide your content strategy and paid ads
- Creating engaging, trending video content that resonates with your target audience
- Running TikTok ads to expand your reach and conversions
- Measuring performance to optimize your approach over time
With over 1 billion monthly active users, TikTok represents an immense opportunity for businesses to connect with younger demographics. But an effective TikTok marketing strategy requires planning, high-quality content, and iterating based on data and insights. By setting up an optimized business profile and embracing best practices, brands can establish a presence and meaningfully engage the TikTok community.
