Aaron Conant  0:18

Happy Tuesday everybody. My name is Aaron Conant. I'm the co founder and managing director here at BWG Connect. We're a networking and knowledge sharing group of 1000s of brands who do exactly that we network and knowledge share together to stay on top of the newest trends, strategies, pain points, whatever it is that shaping digital, I'm talking to 30 brands plus a week to stay on top of those trends. We're not doing anything more than eight weeks out just so that we can stay incredibly relevant. So we encourage you to send in topics that you'd like that are of interest of you, that you to you that you'd like us to cover. Also, if you'd ever like to have a conversation, that's what I spend most of my time doing these just advising brands, we don't sell anything here, we're just a giant networking group. So more than happy to take any calls and set some aside of time to kind of give a rundown of the newest trends and strategies that are shaping the digital ecosystem. A couple of housekeeping items. As we get started here, we're kicking this off at three to four minutes after the hour. And just so everybody knows, we're going to wrap up with three to four minutes to go in the hour as well. The other thing is we want these to be as educational and informational as possible. So at any point in time, if you have any questions, drop into the chat, drop into the q&a section, or you can always email them to me, Aaron, aaron@bwgconnect.com. So as we kick off this conversation today, I don't think anybody is surprised that TikTok is one of the top things that people are talking about right now. But there's a lot of like, hey, everybody wants to be on TikTok. But how do you maximize the potential? What are the difference ins and outs? The strategy is, and I don't think it's necessarily been perfected yet. But there's so many questions on it. We thought we would, you know, have this event today. We've got some great friends, partners, supporters of the network for a long time now over at Blue Wheel Media, you're helping a ton of brands out in the network. And they sit on this cutting edge of performance marketing paid digital media, including the new ones that are popping up like a TikTok. And so we invited them on the line today. Again, ask as many questions as you'd like. We'll try to tackle as many as possible. But you know, Tayler, I'll kick it over to you. First, you want to do a brief intro on yourself in Blue Wheel that'd be awesome. We can kick it over to Ragen briefly. And we can jump into the content. So I'm good.

Tayler Carpenter  2:28

Yeah, sounds great. Um, hello, everyone. My name is Tayler Carpenter. I am the Senior Director of advertising at Blue Wheel. I've been here for about five years. And I have started the advertising department in that time. And so Blue Wheel, we are in the eCommerce space, we help brands all all over and we do 360 strategy. So anything from organic social to Amazon, to Walmart, Instacart, Google, Facebook, Tiktok, influencer creative everything, we do everything. And so we're excited to go over this today. And I'm gonna kick it over to Ragen, who will also be co presenting with me.

Ragen Cooper  3:05

Hi, everyone. My name is Ragen Cooper. I'm the paid social manager over here at Blue Wheel media. I was hired about four years ago when Tayler started the advertising department. And I've learned a lot of hats since. But most recently, I'm managing a team of paid social strategists and specialists who see out the pace also strategies for all of our clients and all the day to day work that goes within them. Like many of you who have joined, we have kind of been spinning our wheels, no pun intended on how to there it is on how to best use TikTok in our eCommerce strategy. So we hope you leave this presentation today with some insight or inspiration on how to do that.

Aaron Conant  3:44

You're awesome. So just a reminder, if you have questions, drop into the chat the q&a or email them to me Aaron aaron@bwgconnect.com. But one of the cool things and I know where you're getting some content here. So Tayler, if you want to pop up the the screenshare that'd be awesome. But the team at Blue Wheel has a unique perspective because they also have their own brands, their own website, but also their own TikTok channel. And so they sit in this unique spot where not only are they helping a ton of brands, but they can also bring in their own experience from what they're doing on their own. So anyways, I'll kind of kick it over to you, you know, Tayler, and Ragen to kind of jump into, you know, the content today. And we'll just ask questions as they pop up. Sounds good.

Tayler Carpenter  4:29

Sounds great. All right. Can everyone see my screen? You're going to virtually raise your hand? No. But are we going Aaron Can you see my screen?

Aaron Conant  4:38

We're good? Yeah,

Tayler Carpenter  4:39

perfect. Perfect. So we're excited. Today we're going to talk about you know, driving TikTok to Amazon and beyond. TikTok is one of those is that buzzword that everyone's talking about the channel that everyone wants to be on? It's the new kid on the block, essentially. So we're excited to kind of go over this and going in without further ado, we kind of introduced ourselves already. Hi, my name is Tayler Carpenter again. I'm the Senior Director of advertising at Blue Wheel. And I have Ragen Cooper here who is going to be co presenting this with me. Um, who is our paid social manager. She's been deep diving into TikTok. All of our brands are wanting to be on it. And we have some we have some really interesting some tidbits today. All right, Ragen, I'm gonna kick this over to you to go over our agenda.

Ragen Cooper  5:21

Yeah, so what are you guys gonna learn today? We're gonna learn is TikTok, right for your brand. What type of content creative you should have for TikTok. How important is an influencer strategy on TikTok. We'll be playing a little game of myth or fact TikTok edition. Aaron, we might tap you for that. And TikTok advertising 101. Cool, so kicking it off and myth or fact. TikTok users are only Gen Z and millennials. Aaron, what are your thoughts? Um,

Aaron Conant  5:52

no, I think it's, it's a myth. I think, you know, that TikTok launched at the perfect time. Actually, if I think back to conversations where the pandemic hits, bunch of college kids go home and high schools are spending more time with their parents and they anybody had ever planned on both sides. Yeah. You had a lot of either grandparents or parents or whoever sitting there saying, What are you laughing at what's so amusing? You know, I literally, I mean, people got the end of, you know, binge watching different shows. And so that like, so anyways, I'm saying it's a it's a myth. All right, let me see. You are correct.

Ragen Cooper  6:32

It's a myth. But it is a very common misconception, especially for brands. A lot of brands tend to think that they can't be on TikTok because their consumer product tends to skew older. But the reality is looking at this data here, here. 35% of users in the US are over the age of 35. So if your product tends to skew older, you shouldn't shy away from TikTok just because you don't think that somebody here is gonna buy because the reality is all ages are on TikTok. For example, my mom has been sending me puppy videos every single day, literally every single day, and she bought my nephew, a toy that she saw on TikTok itself. So they are here and they are ready to purchase

Tayler Carpenter  7:12

I was at I was at a Detroit Pistons game last week. And the gentleman sitting next to me who was over the age of 35, I can guarantee that he was actually making a TikTok while at the pistons game, which I thought was fascinating. So again, yes, you might think it's millennial and Gen Z, there's TikTok dances, but the demographic is there and TikTok is more than just a dance platform. There's a lot of education that goes on. There's a lot of really cool either cooking videos or, you know, Outfit of the Day videos or make up all of the things that you can think of TikTok has. So don't be fooled into thinking that it is just for Gen Z's or millennials. Alright, I believe we have another myth or fact Aaron for you. Here it is.

Ragen Cooper  7:58

TikTok has more active monthly users in Snapchat and Pinterest combined.

Aaron Conant  8:03

I think that is true. They're just some of the stats that I've been hearing and including the amount of time spent on TikTok is like 88 minutes a day on average or something like that, that I just think it's one of the most addictive platforms I'll say out there.

Tayler Carpenter  8:22

All right. Is that your final answer, Aaron?

Aaron Conant  8:25

That is my final master.

Ragen Cooper  8:26

All right, you are two for two. This is a fact I talked to a lot of people. Exactly. So as you can see here, TikTok has 1 billion active users monthly, just just behind Instagram, which is double Snapchat and more than double Pinterest and Twitter. So if you're trying to reach your reach your audience in a new way, it's time to get on TikTok because those users are actively using it every single day. Like Aaron said 88 minutes a day. Insane. Yeah,

Tayler Carpenter  8:56

so I think this is all run on new, a new evolution of just binging right because we would always just binge on the channels on Netflix. Now it's like what are you on TikTok for I am guilty of getting the even scrolling on TikTok TikTok too long messages. I get that every time I go on TikTok. But definitely, if you're looking for channel expansion, TikTok is definitely where your audience is probably also enjoying content. All right, another

Ragen Cooper  9:27

myth or fact. TikTok advertising is higher converting them Facebook and Instagram. All right, Aaron, are you gonna go three for three? I

Aaron Conant  9:38

don't know the answer this because everybody's trying to figure out TikTok advertising. But I will say fact right now, just because of everything that went on with iOS 14.5. So all

Tayler Carpenter  9:51

right, and the answer is it's actually a myth. Ah, it's okay. It's okay. You'll have a chance to redeem yourself too. All right, cool. So

Ragen Cooper  9:59

Bear with me this gets a little technical here. But the reality is TikTok is still very new. It doesn't have years and years and years of conversion data like Facebook or Pinterest and Snapchat. Therefore, it's not recommended to run conversion campaigns optimizing for purchases until you have unlocked that event. In other words, you need to have 50 conversions attributed to the campaign before it will properly optimize, you're probably probably familiar with the same learning phase ideas with Facebook or other platforms. But since Tiktok, doesn't have the same level of purchase data, your CPAs are going to be insanely high until you've reached those 50 conversions. The way to combat the high costs are to optimize for a higher upper funnel event like landing page views or adds to cart until and then watch for purchases. And once you get 50 purchases, then you can optimize towards that and see your CPAs go down. But the reality is it takes a lot of time and money to get there. So and transparently when we've gotten there for brands, we don't see the same level of return, as we see for ours we see on other platforms like Facebook, but we do see is we see lower CPCs, lower CPMs. And therefore tiktoks best place is going to be in more upper funnel campaign objectives like brand awareness, reach or traffic. And we'll talk about y'all go ahead, Aaron.

Aaron Conant  11:21

Yeah, just quick Chad came in was what would the 50 km y 50?

Tayler Carpenter  11:27

That's a great question. I think that's that's that's the question, we have to ask TikTokk but a lot of platforms like Facebook and Instagram, there's this 50 conversion threshold to get out of the learning phase. And it's typically 50 of those events to get out of that. So if it's, you know, if you're trying to or the learning phase, you're optimizing for purchases, you have to get 50. The thing about TikTok is that you have to unlock it, it's like a video game. So you can order the game optimize for like landing page views. And then once you get 50 of those, then you get the other events that you get access to. So why 50 They won't tell us but 50 is the magic number.

Aaron Conant  12:03

Okay, awesome. As you have questions, chat, q&a, email them to me, we'll get them

Tayler Carpenter  12:08

answered. And there are ways that you can use TikTok to become, you know, a converting channel for you. It's not going to convert like it will be Facebook or Instagram. And if you were to look at, you know, when we looked at Google Analytics, I mean, look at last click data, which, you know, is not especially in a post iOS world, as cookies are going away out of Chrome, you know, it's not the most relevant data. However, you can look at bounce rate. And even with TikTok, it's the same bounce rate that you would see on Snapchat, Pinterest, it's still incredibly high, because it's just not that conversion platform. Awesome. All right. Ragen, do you want to go over the Tiktok ad units? Absolutely.

Ragen Cooper  12:50

So there are a ton of different Tiktok ad units, there's self serve ad units, there's manage ad units, we want to focus on self serve here, because manage tend to be you know, that manage hashtag challenges and things like that, those tend to be pretty costly. So we're gonna talk about some of the different ad types that we have seen success with and the self serve platform. So we're gonna look at Spark ads, feed ads, and coupons. So the first one we're going to talk about my personal favorite and top recommendation are spark ads. If you're not familiar with what sparked ads are essentially the coolest thing about Tiktok, in my opinion, is that they have a native influencer whitelisting tool readily available in the platform itself. So if a creator posts about your brand or product, you can then reach out to them generate, have them generate a code, and then you can run their original post as an ad. The coolest thing about this is that it keeps the original engagement from the ad itself, or from the post itself. So if it's gone viral, or has the potential to you essentially, then can put ad dollars behind it and amplify it even more. Just just amazing to me. So you can see here in these examples, these are ads for grande cosmetics, and Andy Lee, and they're both coming from the influencer. The second ad here is just a feed ad, this is your typical ad that you would make the regular ad in the platform. The thing about these is that you shouldn't have a high production high quality video that you would run on like YouTube or something like that. These ads should be very native and authentic to the platform. And the best way to do it is just use the resources you already have. If you have an employee who's willing to do a TikTok trend with the product, or if you have the product or just do something silly in general, have them make a video and then posted as an ad. In this example, on the right, we have Brad Mondo, he's simply just coloring his hair with his hair color line, talking about the benefits of the hair color line, and then we're landing them on the hair color line page. And then we have coupons. This is considered an interactive add on which there's a handful of different interactive add ons that Tiktok has, but this is the one that we've been testing. We've seen our CPAs be lowered with this type of add on which helps us to get to the learning days and it's essentially as it sounds. It's Just a little pop up where it can give the user a code and a discount to go by. And in this example, we have an exclusive code and discount for Tiktok user. So it's Tiktok 20, for 20% off. And that way, we're able to check on the backend of the website, just how successful this campaign can be. So the one thing that all three of these types of ads have in common is that they're all native to the platform. They're very, they're raw, they're authentic, they are they look like TikToks. They seem like a TikTokk. That's the one thing that we hope you guys can take away from this presentation is that your ad should feel native, you don't need to go spend $300,000 on a video production shoot for Tiktok just use your resources that you already have, like influencers, employees, etc.

Aaron Conant  15:45

Yeah, I mean, that's one of the big things is the content generation, right? Because, like you're saying that YouTube repurposing, and this is what's weird, right is in the past, you've been able to repurpose, you know, even like B roll or anything like that, two different examples, but you can't hear no, no, it's sniffed out immediately. It's not absolutely authentic UGC.

Tayler Carpenter  16:09

Right. And the thing I really liked about Spark ads is, you know, we've had several brands where they're not paying a creator, an influencer. And just one day someone gets a product, whether it's from Amazon, or Sephora, or they're DSC. And then they just, the video just literally goes insane. And it gets 100,000 likes, and there's like millions and millions of views. And now you can reach out to them, have them generate that code, and then you can boost it as opposed to trying to replicate it, which I think this is one of the things that sets apart TikTok from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, you know, there's tools that allow you to connect and have like a whitelisting strategy on Facebook and Instagram, but TikTok does that for you. And I think that's just it's it's going to get bigger and bigger, I think as you know, as as Tiktok expands. Cool. So the big question that, you know, every brand asks for them is is TikTok right. For my brand it should I be on TikTok? We know the stats of demographics, and where, you know, I believe it's still primarily, what is it Ragen, it's still primarily female. But men have a very large, you know, chunk of time on TikTok as well. And we know that it might not, you know, we might see that 18 to 24 might be the highest usage rate, but 35% of people are over the age of 35. So we know that there's a large demographic range on TikTok. So the answer is if you are eCommerce, like a brand, yes, it's the place that you can engage with, you know, your your audience, it's you can promote your business, you can have awareness campaigns, you can talk about how you're on Amazon, how you're on DTC might be in different retailers. And the thing that you will hear a saying, we have already said is that your content has to be authentic. And Aaron was just talking about this, if you're flaunting, doing any sort of Spa encounter sponsored content, people are going to sniff that out. And it's going to have them go the complete opposite way. And that's why when you have native ads running, so native videos on the feet, it looks like you're just scrolling, you're learning about a product that might be an Alta or the you know, day in a life or something and your product is in there, that's going to do better than any sort of a brand editorial, clearly, you know, clearly some sort of a sponsored content thing. And we've tested this for our brands, we've tested doing editorial type videos versus a raw authentic video. And every single time the authentic has won. And that's just because of the platform itself. So, you know, we talked about how it's not necessarily a conversion driver from an advertising perspective. But what we like to talk about is how your organic and influential strategy when it comes to TikTok should be your number one priority, the goal is to get on as many for you pages as possible. And the algorithm is very different than what it is on Facebook and Instagram, where there's a concentrated amount of posts and it's going to come up based on your relevancy, TikTok, anything can show you like one video and maybe it's on it's about facts of of, you know, Sephora over the years. Well, as soon as you like that video, it's going to start populating with all of those different you know, all of the different in similar in related topics on that front, in your feed. If you comment on someone's post, then it's gonna say this person likes us. It just goes crazy and crazy and crazy. And so it's important to make sure that you have an organic presence and creators then that way you can show up on as many for you pages as possible. So I kind of just talked about all this. When you have consistent messaging that's kind of going out there, you're showing up, you're able to go and you're able to have educational content, you're gonna have conversational content, people can go to your TikTok to see oh, I just bought this product, this is how I use it. Or I'm looking for a new nighttime routine. Maybe you're a fan and you're on skincare Tiktok you get a video of that you posted, and maybe it was the founders get ready with me at night, they get that information. It's like, oh, I'm looking for this right now I'm gonna go to Amazon and look for it. The key is, again, to be raw and authentic. This is what your content needs to be. And it's important. And you can do this through different creators, you can do this through like, like Ragen had said, if there's an employee who wants to pose if you have an intern, if you have, maybe it's a family and friend that they want to help you out or something like that, like you don't have to put all this money into this crazy photoshoot to get TikTok content, and there's ways that you can do it. But the reason being is that, again, you want to get on as many for you pages as possible with your branded content going out there that you're posting, whether it's trends or whatever, or you have an ambassador army or you have a creator army and you're working with micro, nano and maybe macro influencers. As long as you're getting on feeds. This is how you're going to be able to drive sales, whether it's from Tiktok to Amazon, or DTC or maybe it's another retailer, it all works together. And so again, I think this is the 17th time we've said this in the last like 20 minutes. The key to TikTok, whether it's ads or organic is to have raw, authentic and native content. Again, this is the moment if you're taking notes, this needs to be the note. There has been time and time again when we get creative for TikTok and it is just editorial, or it was a photoshoot, or it was photoshopped. That is not what you are going to do well with, whether it's organic or when it comes to ads. And so I want to talk about Kanye and I don't know how many people are following Deanna giulietti. She is on TikTok. She is an actress in New York and she's always posting her her Get Ready With Me when it comes to an audition for a musical or a movie. She's also known for her Ooh Tada, which is outfit of the day. And she would post the glamorous dresses she was wearing during COVID Just to kind of walk around and kind of make COVID kind of spruce it up a little bit. So one day she was making a post about how she had to get, she had just gotten an audition and she had to go to it in like 30 minutes. But she didn't have a blowout. She wasn't really ready. So she showed how she used Conair he rollers in her hair to get this and she showed like a time lapse of putting her hair in the rollers how easy it was. And then her makeup routine, the dress she was wearing. She was answering texts, she was showing her get ready for the audition, she goes the audition. The next video she did, which is this one on the left talks about how she sold 15,000 units on Amazon of this Conair hair heat roller kit. There was no spawn con and if it was it was completely like it was all the smoke and mirrors in the world. But it was incredibly authentic. And she was just like I sold this out. She's like, I can't even buy it for myself. Now I need to get a new set. Her video has over 700,000 likes at this point. And it racked up 4.3 million views. She doesn't have that many followers. She has 1.7 million, but it was able to get into feeds on the for you page. And it was able to reach the people and then it drove traffic to Amazon, to Sephora, or to you know kind of your site to anywhere that these these heat rollers are sold for Con Air. She didn't say go to Amazon, she didn't say this, it just kind of naturally happened. This is pretty incredible. And this talks about the power of TikTok, you can't really go viral. And we're going to talk about this in a second. But you know, by having this Ambassador army and by having creators that you're working with, that doesn't need to be the macarons it doesn't have to be the Charlie Demetrios and Addison Reyes, it can be someone who has less followers, but as long as their content is engaging, and they're authentic, and on brand, that is what's going to work for you.

Aaron Conant  24:00

So a few questions that come in here. Yeah. And one is where you drive traffic to? Or do you not drive traffic, like in this case, where you're saying, you're just promoting and people are going to go find it? So do you really care if they buy it on Amazon erratic consumer site? I mean, some people do, but should you really, like include that in there or not?

Tayler Carpenter  24:20

I mean, that's right. Yeah. And that's where ads come in. Right? But when it comes to your organic strategy, you can mention, I got this on, like, you can say, like, oh, available here, but I mean, as long as you know, you know your margins better than anyone else. And if you're like, I need to pull some stuff or maybe your margins are better on, you know, your DTC than Amazon or vice versa, like you know, that and really, you know, people are gonna go find it and if it's sold on Amazon, they're gonna go to the next place, which might be your DTC and vice versa. So when it comes to this, this you know, she just she doesn't have a link in this either. She doesn't have a leg to buy or anything like that. She literally just posted this in a video and then just like blew up from there, right?

Aaron Conant  25:01

So next one, can you elaborate further on when it's okay in what kind of content to have the sponsored tag in the ends.

Tayler Carpenter  25:08

So that's, I mean, so if you're giving someone product for review, or you're paying someone for it, just like with Instagram, you know, having hashtag sponsor in their having hashtag isn't as important when it is an add on will automatically have like a little tag like you see on Facebook or even like on Google, it says add, but making sure that you're transparent about this. And again, what you'll find is a lot of these these videos that kind of just like take off or with, like she just posted, like, I'm getting ready like this, that wasn't an ad or sponsored. It was just her literally doing her get ready with me. But if you are with the act, like if you have the intention of paying someone and giving them product to promote, then that's when you should really have at least like hashtag ad or have some sort of a disclaimer with your influencers in there.

Aaron Conant  25:57

Awesome. Isn't the last one. How often should you post on on TikTok? And then we? I'm sure there'll be more that come in?

Tayler Carpenter  26:03

Yeah, yeah, great question. So consistency is key. You know, I don't know if there's necessarily a right number. I know some creators and some brands are posting like three times a day, which is just insane. We're actually going to talk about some things about Blue Wheel in a second. So I'm gonna pause this question. And we'll get to that in a little bit. If that works. Yes, that works just fine. Awesome. All right. So going on to the next spot. So I kind of hit on this, you know, everyone wants to go viral. That's the thing on TikTok, how do I crack the code? How do I hack the algorithm to make sure that my posts go viral no matter what. So just like the mid early, like mid 2000s, when people were going viral on YouTube, I think it was like, the one I remember is the wedding party coming into the chapel to like a song. And then that went viral. And then even like the office, put it in one of the episodes, when Jim and Pam get married, like everyone wants that viral success, you can't really do it just like you can't on YouTube, like you can try manufacturing it all you want. However, like at the end of the day, you're at the mercy of the algorithm and which has a ton of content on it. So really, consistency is key, just posting, even if it's once a day, just like Facebook and Instagram, and really Instagram, you're posting just to make sure that content is out there, you can be on trend, you know, you're working with creators, again, the more content you have out there, the more likely it is to show up on someone's for you page. And then that's how you're able to kind of go viral. So you know, again, consistency posting, let's say the goal is once a day, or maybe it's two to three times a week, maybe it's saying I'm going to work with a bunch of micro influencers or nano influencers, to be able to get a bunch of you know, good stuff out. And then that way, you know, you're going to be able to get more content. And the big thing too, is like being on trend is going to help you. So if there's a trend, I'm trying to think of one off the top of my head and naturally, I can't but if there was you know, there was like the transformation with like the Bibbity boppity boo music which was happening during COVID Anything where you can jump on like that and make like a 10 second clip that can then live on someone's for you page like that's going to help and again going back to Fenty Fenty beauty does is whenever there's a challenge, or a popular song or anything like that, they create a little video they put it in, and then it goes on someone's page. And that's that's important. It's less about how do I go viral? And more about, you know, how can I make sure that I'm having content out there? How can I get on the trends? And how can I stay ahead? And I will say I'm not gonna lie, I posted one video on TikTok, and Did I did I want it to go viral? Absolutely. It was just me watching my makeup brushes. So it wasn't even like engaging content, but it was a lot of fun. And now I'm like now I just want to keep posting and I haven't posted in three weeks. So I know I'm gonna have to post more. But just you know, the thrill. I think there's always the chase of like the viral, just do your thing, and it will probably just come naturally. So we have another myth or fact, Aaron, this is the last one I promise. All right. But you can achieve cheaper cost per follower metrics on TikTok, TikTok than Instagram. What do you think? I will say? Fact. I've no idea. Why? Well, I can tell you that you are correct. Yeah. And so bear with me here. We're going to kind of go a little bit around this and then I'll tell you why. So earlier in 2022, which was hard to believe the start of that was four months ago, we decided at Blue that we were going to create our own TikTok. Not only are we going to be able to advise clients on it, but we also are doing it and we're also practicing it ourselves. So we had two options. We could either focus on agency content so you know I'm talking about like marketing stats, or just what we're doing at the agency. Or we could go down our creative route and highlight our creative arm and our creative business. So spoiler alert, as I'm sure some of you have read, we went with the creative focus. And so what we choose to do is we do a lot of behind the scenes shoots, or shots from just like our photo shoots, we do some tips and tricks on how to get specific shots. So how to get let's say, you know, the product splashing in the water or something like that, then also kind of how to retouch and how to edit photos, what it looks like before, what it looks like, after all of these things. And it's really cool. And just to give you an example of what this looks like. So we actually have this ad on the very far left here, you can see and this is not photoshopped, I promise you, this ad, or this Tiktok right here has 122,000 likes on it. And we'll get back to this in a second. But it's a really cool video, that's just a behind the sheet scenes shot of showing how we're able to get product coming out of it almost melting over other products, we use a little blowtorch. It shows how long it took to do. It was about five minutes, it was really engaging, and it's just kind of gone viral. We also have on here, some behind the scenes for some of our brands. So one of our brands that we work with is called Pop funk. They sell licensed T shirts and apparel. And it was in what we did throughout the entire tic tac was show like how do brands show a t shirt, you know, flowing in the wind? Like how do you actually get that it shows the work that goes into steaming everything it goes into how we hang things like all of these things. It's very, very interesting. And this is what we find that a lot of people like the next one we have on here, this is my personal favorite. We actually built a mini wrestling ring and had like many wrestling matches between hot sauces for one of our brands was really cool. This video got 26,000 likes and has Have and Has like hundreds of 1000s of views. I'm a big wrestling fan. So again, this is my personal favorite. And then the last one is is kind of that how to sew how to get the perfect water droplets for a photo shoot. So this is Jackson, who is one of our creative directors. He's wonderful. And he was able to show you know how like, what are the ingredients you need for it? What are the different cheat sheets that you can use? Like, can you get product A in terms of like an acrylic case? And you put droplets on? And like how do you do all of that. This is the type of content that we're using. And we post a few times a week we get a lot of BTS footage from when we're shooting or photoshoots. And then we're able to kind of edit them put them out on Instagram or on TikTok, excuse me, and then we do a lot of again, the trending sounds. And this is one of the big thing too is you want to get on all the trends, whether it's a meme, or it's a challenge. And then staying on, on on theme with the the trending songs. And so this is what we do. So we come back to the question of how many times should be posting really consistency is key, so at least a few times a week. But really, if you want to get out there and get as much content is possible, you know, and you have someone on staff that you can do it, try every day, try every other day and see how that works for your brand. So let's go over the results next. So we were able to get in three months, 93,000 followers, 93,000 followers, which is insane, just in three months alone, we have over 200,000 posts likes, and our cost per follower is 19 cents. So we'll boost some posts just to see if we can get some additional engagement or just to see if we can get some comments coming in. And our cost per follower is literally 19 cents, you can't get that on a lot of other platforms. You can't get that anymore, Instagram and Facebook. The reason being is that everyone is doing that on those platforms. TikTok is so new still, but not everyone is on and not everyone is is taking advantage of what you can do from an organic perspective. So if you want to get on the ground floor of a platform Tiktok is it this is why we always recommend organic and influencer before your advertising strategy first, it's it's absolutely insane. And then we also had 1.2 million video views on just the one video, which was the one I was talking about. On this last slide here, which shows the product melting over the other product. And what's funny is people actually in the comments. There's several that talked about how it looks like nacho cheese. And now every time I see this video, all I can think about is that which is pretty cool. All right. So we have some summary. You know some do's and don'ts. There's a lot on TikTok I know we've talked about a lot in the last half hour. But Ragen, I'll let you do I'll let you go through some of these. Yeah,

Ragen Cooper  34:40

absolutely. So some summaries and do's and don'ts do begin advertising knowing that TikTok is still a new platform and the most cost effective way to invest in Upper funnel objectives landing on your DTC site or Amazon storefront. So again, we see way cheaper CPMs and cheaper CPC is on TikTok than any other platform. And so to advertise cost effectively is to be investing in those upper funnel objectives. Don't begin advertising with the assumption that you can start conversion only campaigns and expect a strong return. Again, it takes a lot of time and money to get out of that learning phase, and to be able to optimize for its purchases. And even when you do, it's not going to have the same return that a different platform would have. Awesome.

Tayler Carpenter  35:23

So we kind of talked about this, again, I think this is the 18th or 19th time, make sure that your creative is authentic to the platform by following along along with TikTok trends. Try spark ads, have an employee who has some free time have them shoot some native content, just make sure it's authentic to to the platform itself. Do not repurpose the same high production or editorial creative. Do not repurpose your Pinterest or Snapchat or Instagram creative is not going to work on TikTok

Ragen Cooper  35:56

do begin marketing on TikTok whether it would be with ads organically regardless of your demographic. Again, 35% of users on TikTok are over the age of 35. There are there's a wide range of demographics here. Do don't let your older skewing products hold you back. This platform is growing in age and you don't want to be behind here.

Tayler Carpenter  36:17

Do consider putting advertising dollars behind your organic presence to amplify engagement and followers. So instead of going all in on advertising, repurpose some of that budget to go you know to go towards boosting content or getting caught, you know, getting followers don't rely on organic tactics alone to increase your brand presence. There is so much content out there on TikTok and TikTok is a never ending scroll activity. So try doing that instead of going all in again on advertising, putting that towards your engagement campaigns or maybe you know, a follow up campaign, that's going to really help kind of make sure that you are showing up on other people's for you pages. And then that way that's going to help your organic and then it's going to help you go and get more for you pages. And it's going to be a nice little circle of just engagement for your brand and growing. Alright, that was it. I know there was a lot in there.

Aaron Conant  37:15

And there's a ton of questions that perfect.

Tayler Carpenter  37:19

Aaron, do you have any keep sharing my screen? Or do you want me to stop?

Aaron Conant  37:23

Me either way? I mean, it's it doesn't matter. Either way, if you want to drop it, you can but let's roll through it. So first one, Deana, the lady who had set done all the Con Air product, you know, is there an affiliate link set up? So she received revenue for a post? Is there a way to set that up?

Tayler Carpenter  37:45

I believe you're able to either do some sort of a code or some sort of affiliate tracking, it really just depends in the first one that she did, where she sold all those units. She didn't she did it. She literally just putting her, you know, doing her get ready with me. But there are ways that you are able with your influencers and creators to have some sort of an affiliate or some sort of a code that does allow them to kind of you know, I always see on my feed, like use code, you know, use code Tayler 20 at checkout or something like that.

Ragen Cooper  38:14

Yeah, and you can even use those coupon add ons like we talked about. So if you wanted to do a spark ad with an influencer, you could have you know, Tayler 20 be the code and that way you can track back to on the back end of your website if somebody purchased from that influencers post

Aaron Conant  38:28

so that leads into another question when you spark in organic posts, does it show a sponsor to the user? Is there a difference in how it shows up to the US does show as

Ragen Cooper  38:39

sponsored Yep, and it will in there also be a CTA of like shop now or learn more whatever you decide that would be so it does end up looking like an ad however, you know, the the copy and the sponsored is very discreet on TikTok versus other platforms where it's kind of front and center. So I wouldn't let that shy you away from giving it a try.

Aaron Conant  38:57

All right, is building a follower base important on TikTok? I might argue it is no longer important in other platforms.

Tayler Carpenter  39:06

I would say that in this kind of goes, you know from other platforms to is a lot of people use social, your social presence as proof for your brand. So are you a real brand because they might get you know, they might get a video and the for you page and it's like my favorite Amazon finds or my favorite skincare routine. And then they go through and they're like, Okay, all these brands they might not have heard of you before. So they'll go to either your TikTok profile, or they'll go to your Instagram account and say okay, so they have, you know, 100,000 followers, maybe they have 2000 followers, okay, they're a legit brand. I would say that it is important. Still, I think it just goes back to social proof versus kind of you know, people are they want to make sure that they're buying from a legitimate resource a lot of times awesome.

Aaron Conant  39:55

And we got still a ton to roll through here. We're trying to get to all of them. What are your thoughts? ads on driving to an Amazon brand store versus Amazon, you know, product detail page.

Tayler Carpenter  40:06

So it depends on your goal. So if your goal is to brand awareness and get them to go to your storefront, to just check out all the products you have, you can do that. But if you want to really move, maybe it's your, you know, your high velocity ASINs. Or maybe it's a new product you want people to try out, that's totally up to you. And you can tell people, you know, when it comes to ads, you can choose that landing page, when it's an organic perspective, you can't you're kind of at the mercy. So you can either in your bio, have the link to your storefront or to your PDP for that product. Or you can just kind of say, let's see what happens. And maybe you might find that people convert higher when they go to your storefront versus PDPs it's really just gonna it's really just going to depend on what your goals are at the end of the day.

Aaron Conant  40:52

All right. Are these companies offering influencers? To connect, you know, are influencers worth it? is kind of the question that comes in here.

Tayler Carpenter  41:04

That's a great question. Ragen, do you want to take that or do you want me to? Yeah,

Ragen Cooper  41:08

um, you know, I think influencers and UGC are key on this platform. It should feel native, it should feel like something you're seeing, you know, a post when you're viewing an ad, in terms of what we're you might be offering and influencers. I think that's totally up to the brand, whether it be in exchange, you're just going out reaching, reaching out to them and asking them, you know, for that spark code, or maybe you're offering them money, or exchange for product or something like that. But influencers are key when it comes to this platform.

Tayler Carpenter  41:34

And yeah, we've actually even tested it's interesting, we've actually tested the reverse of, we have content shot for TikTok and we use it on either Instagram or Facebook would because it's UGC and it's very interesting. We did this with make. Mikayla, who is like a huge makeup artist, influencer creator on TikTok, and we use it on Instagram and we ran those ads. And I don't know if it necessarily performed better than our other UGC. But UGC, at the end of the day, is a big part of social proof. We talked about the following. So I definitely think it's worth it. And like Ragen said, it's it's the big part of TikTok in general, so definitely worth it.

Aaron Conant  42:14

Yeah. So just in regards to that, for cosmetics, do trend videos or tutorial videos get more traction, using sounds versus creators speaking?

Tayler Carpenter  42:25

That's a good question. It really again, it really depends on what your goal is. So you can do a how to video and maybe that's up to, you know, if you have influencers that are posting that, but a lot of times what I found in like in my feed is that I'll get a creator who's posting a video like how to using like the products explaining it, and they're combining it with a top trending sound. So, you know, it's interesting kind of to see, you can kind of combine a lot of these tactics and see what works and necessarily works. And I think the big thing about TikTok is that it's still so knew there isn't a right or wrong way to do it the wrong way being if you don't use native content, but it's really just a combination of testing all of these different things to see like what is going to be because I've seen videos go viral with trending sound, I've seen videos go viral with just a how to, it really just depends on the 40 pages that you get on.

Aaron Conant  43:21

Awesome. So in regards to. So one other comment that comes in? Let's see here. I want to get into Amazon. Can you talk about driving? Like how do you go and talk more specifically about driving TikTok ads to Amazon, for example, a common issue for conversion? Is that links to the browser, not the app? And then the other question that goes along with it, how are you tracking conversions to Amazon? Yeah.

Tayler Carpenter  43:51

Great questions. Yeah. So in terms of, you know, I think a lot of times what I see a lot of brands do and what we've done is say, you know, we have like a little message like try, like get on Amazon. And then what you can do in the bio is have a link to your storefront or the high velocity again, the the, the asin, that you really want to promote, that's a good way to do that. In terms of tracking it. It's just like tracking off of any platform where Amazon doesn't allow you to see necessarily where it's coming from, what you should be looking at is just an overall lift in sales. Are you seeing that? Are you having a lot like, do you have influencers who are posting or careers posting, maybe it's over two weeks, analyze that two weeks, and then like the two weeks after and see how it compares to the previous four weeks, or you know, the previous eight weeks or anything like that. It's hard, especially in this cookieless world to be able to track one to one ratio of, oh, I'm running this ad and it you know, and it you know, I'm expecting to see this row as right now. It's going to help get people to your storefront and then you're going to have to rely on either sponsored display, or maybe DSP or just some other search, you know, search ads on Amazon To get them to convert, I would not expect immediately for conversion right out the gate. Again, TikTok is an awareness tool. It's not that that conversion driver and building up your organic presence so people continue to see you and your for you page, and then they go to convert later on.

Ragen Cooper  45:16

And the way you're gonna want to do that from like an ADS perspective is run a traffic objective, landing them either on the brand Details page or the product details page. And again, like Tayler said, looking at conversions from an overall standpoint.

Aaron Conant  45:28

Yeah, just Raphael sends in a note, you know, they had something similar to the Con Air case. And they sold out on Amazon, Walmart and CVS, they're seeing less of this phenomena non without paid and amplification. So another reason to be tracking, right, what's going on as a whole, is that something similar to what you've seen as well? Yeah, absolutely.

Tayler Carpenter  45:52

It's always keeping an eye on your overall sales to because you're not going to be able to know necessarily one to one, if someone saw it, and then immediately converted, because of, you know, tracking discrepancies and cookies going away. So that's definitely what we've seen. We've had brands just kind of like overnight go viral, and they weren't expecting to have a creator or someone who they've never even spoken to post a video that has like, you know, 300,000 likes on it. And then we look the next day. And we're like, Why was there this increase in scale in sales? And then we find out and we're like, Oh, someone posted a video, like, let's talk to them. Let's see if we can do more with them. But yeah, definitely.

Aaron Conant  46:30

So that leads into a comment that comes in what if I don't have a TikTok presence, but want to partner with influencers? You know, to be on the platform? You know, no, I don't really have time, you know, or a person to create a TikTok presence and keep it up, should I wait and not be on TikTok or is leveraging influencers to be on the platform enough?

Tayler Carpenter  46:52

I would say that leveraging is enough, but if you want to make it so your brand becomes, you know, to make your brand go to the next level, I would definitely say having that down the line should be the plan. We first started off recommending to brands, initially just doing influencers. And now we've kind of gone into also be there and be president and really just kind of, you know, based on the trends and how it's gone. I think I saw Rafael put hashtag TikTok made me buy it. Or maybe try it. That's one of the biggest things too. And so if you have an influencer, who uses that TikTok, or that hashtag, you can search the hashtags and kind of get an understanding on that. So yeah, definitely work with influencers, if you can't, just a little bit of presence is going to be, you know, good enough to get your foot in the door now versus just waiting until the right time, because there might not ever be a right time.

Aaron Conant  47:38

Yeah, I mean, that TikTok maybe by is it I agree, or I feel it is a phenomenon that is completely real. And a lot of people now are using that as product discovery. And just, it's 100% product discovery, you know, as a phenomenon that's happening right now and people love it. You get the validation of, you know, other people in the space, you know, maybe an influencer or micro influencer, you're following so now it's it's crazy. There's a question how to avoid being shadow banned on TikTok?

Tayler Carpenter  48:17

That's a really good question. I think everyone's still trying to find that out. You know, don't don't violate community guidelines. I know with ads, you can't use like, what is it reg and you can't use licensed music. Like you have to literally do you have to sell play by tiktoks books. And a lot of like, creators have been shadow banned for you know, what TikTok assumes they're breaking. But I know there's also sometimes no rhyme or reason based on what we've seen. So play that play by the books, you know, and just hopefully, it doesn't happen because I know it's been happening randomly at times.

Aaron Conant  48:53

Awesome. Should you use TikTok UGC, on Amazon? So I mean, is this platform where it's creating all this content around your brand? Right? Do you see brands using TikTok UGC? on Amazon? I mean, I agree that the quick follow up question is do you need to pay influencers to use their UGC on Amazon,

Tayler Carpenter  49:13

it's definitely going to be a usage rights thing. I think no matter what, like you can try to get away with it, but I feel like it always kind of comes out when people find it. So I haven't seen a ton of brands using the UGC like because typically, the UGC you get is going to be a video and so the format when it would come up on Amazon like on the same listing is going to look a little bit different. So maybe there's an opportunity for you to work with them and have them shoot something that's not going to be like in the typical format of TikTok, but maybe similar to it. Definitely something to test next you know try i know that it's one thing I've been seeing a lot more brands on you know promoting their Amazon whether it's through organic or ads on TikTok, but definitely something to try.

Aaron Conant  49:54

Awesome are there I'm a go back to key. mentioned the top three tips to start using TikTok for brands. Like the top three. Sure. So I would say, one, create

Tayler Carpenter  50:16

either a tic tac profile, or come up with a list of craters that you want to work with. definitely invest on that side of it, because then that will give you content, make sure you're getting the native content. And then from there, stay on top of the trends look, hot trending sounds, the top trending songs, if there's any sort of, you know, maybe there's a dance or like, A Day in the Life is a big trend that people still do. And it shows their day in the life, whether they work from home, or if they live in New York, just stay on top and stay in the know, because that's going to feed every single thing, because you're gonna get creators who are going to be staying on those trends, you're gonna want to make sure you have content that fits. And then, you know, you're gonna want to make sure that you're just staying ahead of the curve. I don't know where you going, if you have any others. Yeah, and

Ragen Cooper  51:05

just be consistent, you know, post regularly if you can advertise regularly, if you can, you want to get ahead right now.

Aaron Conant  51:14

Awesome. So time for a few more questions here. And then for everybody, you know, follow up. Tayler and Regan are fantastic partners in the network, they're more than happy to take a follow up conversation, you know, without, you know, without a sales pitch or anything like that. Obviously, if you need help in this space are paid media across the board, Amazon direct consumer, there fantastic. Income highly recommended from a ton of brands. So if we don't get to all these today, more than happy to connect you after the call as well. So a couple of what is there is there an ideal length of content? And then the other one is should we repost influencer content on our branded TikTok account?

Ragen Cooper  51:55

So TikTok recommends that from an ADS perspective that your ad is under 30 seconds, but ideally around 15 seconds. That is where you will see the left and most impressions and then I'm sorry, what was the second question?

Aaron Conant  52:08

Should we repost influencer content on our branded TikTok account? Yeah, I

Ragen Cooper  52:14

think you have the rights to absolutely,

Tayler Carpenter  52:17

yes, absolutely. Because again, it's going to help build the social proof on your feet, it's going to give you not just that Creator, who posted that, and it's going to show up on for you pages from there. But also your reposting that expanding your hopeful, you know, hopefully expanding your reach on for you pages. And then from an organic perspective on the first question, which was the ideal length? So a TikTok is it's a visual thing. And it's important to keep in mind that you want to grab someone's attention. So you, I think you can now go up to three minutes on a TikTok. And then the thing that I think people hate is, because I always see this as like, someone's like, Okay, go to part two. And everyone's like, no, like, you were just getting to the good stuff. You know,

Ragen Cooper  52:57

that's part two for three days. Yes, yeah.

Tayler Carpenter  53:00

So it's important, like if you want to keep people guessing you can do that. But you'll also probably aggravate them. But definitely go to that 15 to 30 seconds. Our attention spans, as humans are literally eight seconds long. So just kind of keep that in mind when you're doing it, like get to the good stuff. Like, if it's going to show before and after, like use that 15 seconds or 30 seconds. That would you know, just keep that in mind. Yeah,

Aaron Conant  53:25

awesome. Love it. So we're right here at time, a couple notes. Number one, we are going to make the recording of this available just ping us usually, we posted on the website, maybe three or four days out from now, more than happy to get anybody a link if they want to be able to request you know, a copy of everything that we covered today. Tayler, Ragen, thanks so much for your time today, you guys are awesome. I would encourage anybody, if you get a chance have a follow up conversation with with either and or both of them. They're crushing it across the board. They're leaders in this space. And they're constantly testing and learning. I don't think anybody's figured it out yet. But the the team that we we also had the pack and so 100% worth of follow up conversation. There's other there's other questions you have anything in digital, Mister, I spend a lot of my time is just connecting with brands, we don't sell anything. Here we're a networking group, we're going to do close to 300 virtual events like this 100 Plus in person events. So if you're in a tier one city, look for a follow up email from us. I'd love to have a conversation with you and get the topics for the next calls that we're doing. But but also give you a rundown if anybody needs help finding a service provider. That's a lot of what I spend my time doing as well as just, you know, wading through the Google results results that are out there. The network recommends the top service providers across the board. And that's everything from Amazon to direct consumer to drop shipping to international expansion, obviously the team here at Blue Wheel in that list. And with that, we're going to wrap it up. You know key takeaway Tayler before we go let everybody go

Ragen Cooper  55:02

oh, I think she she just jumped off but key takeaway make sure that your ads are native you're consistent and get those followers.

Aaron Conant  55:11

Awesome. Love it. Well everybody have a fantastic Tuesday take care, as they say, look forward to having you in a future event.