Roundup of New Features Announced at TikTok World
By: Tiffany Brandon, Social Media Manager
Get ready…there are some MAJOR updates coming to TikTok!
TikTok held its first ever TikTok World business showcase event, where it announced a range of new tools and options designed to help brands make the most of its platform, while also painting a clearer picture as to how TikTok will monetize its audience and help creators earn money for their efforts.
There were a ton of new features announced, prompting a broad range of new considerations for brands. Here’s a roundup of all the new features on the horizon:
#1 Creator Marketplace
The Creator Marketplace is a brand and creator connection platform that enables brands to find influencers in their niche who are open to working on business promotions. This platform includes more performance insights and better filtering tools. It will help brands find the right influencer for their efforts.
According to TikTok:
“TikTok Creator Marketplace provides discovery tools to match businesses with a diverse range of creators for every campaign, brand voice and budget. You can filter based on the type of content they post, where they’re located, their average views, and more.”
Another new element to this platform is the Open Application Campaigns, which will enable brands to list their campaigns for interested creators to self-apply.
As you can see here, when you run an Open Application campaign, creators will then be able to apply to your pitch, with a shortlist then presented in-stream, displaying audience reach metrics along with sample clips.
TikTok also announced a new Creator Marketplace API, which will enable third-party platforms to provide more insight into TikTok creator performance, and facilitate connection, while also outlining initial partnerships for the expansion. This will allow many more brands to connect with TikTok influencers, expanding opportunity for both creators and brands in its broader monetization efforts.
#2 Creative Exchange
Pairing brands with influencers isn’t the only matchmaking that TikTok is embarking on. It also launched a new initiative called TikTok Creative Exchange which is a self-serve portal that will match brands with vetted creative service providers to help them produce high-performing ads, suited to their brief and objectives.
“Through this portal, you can manage projects, feedback, approvals, and insights – all in a streamlined process designed to help you create impactful ads.”
#3 Creative Center
TikTok is launching a new feature called Creative Center, which is designed to help advertisers understand what’s working on the platform, in real time.
Brands will be able to explore a showcase of the top-performing ads, view details on the latest platform trends, and search through TikTok’s audio library to help inspire their creative process. This new feature will be a great way to identify key trends to help inform your own approach.
#4 Video Editor
TikTok is launching a new video editor which will help guide brands through the creation process including visual editing tools and copyrighted music. They will also be partnering with Vimeo Create to provide new video templates and tools to streamline content creation directly in the app.
#5 Dynamic Scene
Dynamic Scene will use machine learning to break your video down into multiple scenes. It will essentially create TikTok clips for you, based on your existing assets, which you can then test in the app, and promote the best performers.
#6 Partnerships
eCommerce is where the platform is set to see the most significant growth and what it particularly focused on in its latest announcements. As TikTok’s in-stream shopping tools continue to evolve, TikTok announced new partnerships with eCommerce platforms including Shopify, Square, Ecwid, PrestaShop, Wix, SHOPLINE, OpenCart, and BASE.
#7 Ads
TikTok is developing new product links to be inserted in video clips:
“TikTok Shopping merchants can choose to display a link to one or more products from their catalog in any videos containing those products. Users who see the video will be able to explore featured products easily without leaving the app. Product Links are a great tool for businesses to tap into the excitement of the For You page where users are primed for new discoveries.”
They also announced Collection Ads, which will enable brands to include product cards in their in-feed promotions. And for those eCommerce brands that don’t have ad creation expertise, Dynamic Showcase Ads will be a new option to enable brands to automatically promote their products, with ads aligned to specific user preferences and interests.
Reach and Frequency ad buying will be designed to help maximize brand awareness. Additionally, TikTok also announced new partnerships with Integral Ad Science and Zefr to provide more assurance on ad placement and performance.
#8 Customized Instant Pages
This new feature is a lightweight mobile landing page that loads at lightning speed – up to 11 times faster than standard mobile pages. This eliminates any wait time.
With TikTok just passing the billion-user milestone, you can bet that interest in these new features will be very high. Not all of these tools will be available to all brands as of yet, but the roadmap for TikTok is clear. eCommerce remains the key focus, facilitating monetization opportunities for both creators and brands, while improved brand/creator partnerships will also help maximize performance.
Sources: Social Media Today