Are You Looking To Promote a Song on TikTok?
With the ever-growing and ever-changing world of TikTok, it is vital for brands to stay in the know on all of the hottest new trends. While trends may shift, the one constant on the video-sharing app is music. No matter what the chart-topper may be that is blowing up on the social media app, brands and creators, alike, have used trending songs to showcase their talents.
Although songs on TikTok are usually utilized by content creators to create trending dances or catchy videos, more and more brands are getting in on the action by creating campaigns surrounding some of the coolest new song releases on the app. In this blog, Hollywood Branded will share 5 crucial steps that can lead to a successful song campaign on TikTok.
Find The Part of The Song With the Most Virality
As a social media veteran from Musical.ly, the app that became TikTok, I am no stranger to song campaigns. From Justin Bieber to Lizzo to up-and-coming artists, I have worked on every level of song campaigns on the TikTok app.
Whether it be a viral trend, dance, or a hodgepodge of different types of videos for the song, finding the 15-30 second segment of your song that inspires the most creativity is the first part of making your song go viral on TikTok. Make sure the song is distributed to TikTok, and make sure that the most potentially viral part of the song is the segment that appears on TikTok.
Lil Nas X's "Old Town Road" is a great example of TikTok absolutely launching an artist's career. "Old Town Road" went mega-viral on TikTok, and now it is the highest certified song in history by the Recording Industry Association of America, reaching 14-times platinum status in the U.S.
Build A Budget and Contract TikTok Creators
TikTok has helped a number of artists jumpstart their careers. Today, the #1 song on Spotify's "Today's Top Hits" is "abcdefu" by Gayle—a previously unknown artist. Her newfound popularity can be attributed to her successful TikTok song campaign, where influencers such as Dixie Damelio were contracted to create content to her tune. Over a million videos have now been made on the app, using Gayle's song. TikTok also pays out royalties when a song is used on its platform. While it is hard to track, TikTok views undoubtedly lead to Spotify and Apple Music streams! Billboard has found that songs going viral on TikTok are taking over the charts, cementing a role for themselves in the music industry. Rolling Stone also explained that "major labels are also flooding the platform with money, hoping to harness its power for their own purposes.”
The size of your budget decides how many creators you can contract and the size of creators you can utilize. To give you an idea of cost, influencer Charli D'Amelio (who is the most followed person on the app with over 133 million followers) reportedly charges $100,000 for one post. Different creators have different price points, so make sure to reach out to many creators about their rates and decide the best use of your budget to reach your maximum ROI.
Don't be afraid to build a working relationship with TikTokers and their management! A great working relationship allows for wiggle room in your budget with these influencers you want to contract. Utilizing the same influencers, again and again, may help bring the price point down.
Target Your Audience
While the size of your budget is really what dictates how much ROI you can achieve, finding influencers who fit the demographic that you want to reach and building a campaign geared towards that audience is the best use of your dollars. Contracting an influencer who mainly does dances to rap songs might not be the best fit for an indie rock song campaign. While rare, it is not unheard of for a song to go viral from one post.
Be creative! What creative visuals do you see when you're listening to the song you want to promote? What do you think your target demographic likes to see? Get in the headspace of the person you are trying to reach. What "side" of TikTok are they viewing? What does their For You page consist of? Understanding these key details can be the difference between a successful song campaign and one that fails to move the needle toward your KPIs.
Utilize Hashtags
Use hashtags intentionally. I don't mean a muddling hodgepodge of "#fyp #foryoupage #song + every trending hashtag ever", use intentional hashtags to match your KPIs. Do you want to bring more awareness to your artist? Have contracted influencers hashtag the artist's name. It's always a good idea to utilize an underutilized hashtag that fits your trend/campaign. If the song is called "Happy Hour" and you are having influencers do an original dance, a good idea would be for influencers to include #HappyHourDance in their caption. As shown below, the song campaign for Robyn's song "On My Own" utilized the hashtag #OnMyOwn for the challenge. Too many hashtags can be counterproductive, but utilizing one or a few purposeful hashtags can help your trend get off the ground as well as organize all the videos into one place that's not just the sound's page on TikTok.
Be Part Of The Community
The TikTok community rewards those in its community. If a celebrity or artist comes into the space and is just looking for a quick cash grab – to promote something and never use the app again – while making videos that show they don't consume the content on TikTok, users won't respond well. If it comes off inauthentic, it won't perform well.
Paid content should feel the same as the organic media consumers would naturally come across on the app. TikTok has a certain style to the way it presents any story. TikTok content is not the same as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, or Youtube content and it cannot be treated in the same way, and the only way to understand and be able to speak in the TikTok voice is to be part of the community.
Sofia Hernandez, TikTok's head of North American business marketing, says "There's an art and a science to advertising, and over the past decade, the industry has really started to move further and further toward the science with more programmatic and data-driven ads. We kind of forgot about the art. TikTok allows brands to lean back into creativity and engagement and they can finally be storytellers again."
Photo Credit: RecurPost
Give Direction on How Creators Can Make Content To The Song
You could promote a song with a dance, a makeup trend, or a transition. What will bring you the most virality and will make other users on the app genuinely want to use the song in their content as well? Coming up with an easy trend that can be replicated for the song you want to promote is the best way for users to want to genuinely try and recreate the content your contracted influencers are making. Consume the content on TikTok, find out what people are already making, then come up with a trend that is both digestible and easily recreated.
If you can't think of any trends that have viral potential, that could appeal to TikTok's primarily Gen-Z run algorithm, it might be best to hire a creator on the app as a consultant. Find a creator that has the audience you want to appeal to, and reach out to gain their insight. Large creators on TikTok are experts in the TikTok field and can help create a trend that will come off as authentic to the audience you are trying to target.
Photo Credit: Directive Consulting
Here's To A Successful Song Campaign
While there is not an exact science, these are tricks of the trade we have found work for us and for clients that want to utilize TikTok song campaigns in their marketing strategies.
We discuss the inner workings of Hollywood on our blog all the time! Check the blog posts out below to learn even more about all things pop-culture, marketing, celebrities, and TikTok
- 10 Viral TikTok Products
- Brand Guide To TikTok Star 'Tinx' Viral Products
- Charli D’Amelio’s 5 Most Recent Brand Partnerships On TikTok
- The Power Of TikTok
- The Rise of Advertainment in the Music Industry
There is an immense amount of power in a celebrity's face. Check out our e-book to learn how to leverage them for your brand's event!
