TikTok is without a doubt one of the most popular social media platforms in recent times. It’s very trendy and it’s capacity to generate memes is near record-breaking. In-line with its rise in both popularity and usage, TikTok has also sought to gradually expand economically, investing in new eCommerce initiatives and NFT collaborations. Recent developments in TikTok center around providing a stable monetization structure for the platform’s top creators in hopes of also increasing its revenue generation, much like its sister app, Douyin.
Given all its hype, can TikTok sell cars though? It may sound like a completely random question, but really, is there a place in TikTok for automotive ads? Is the platform a viable channel for auto marketers? Is there even enough car-related content circulating on TikTok to fuel such thought? Well, it turns out that the answer to all these questions is Yes. TikTok has just recently published its new ‘Auto Playbook 101’ – a 33-page marketing guide on how you can better sell automotives on TikTok.
The guide includes a range of key engagement trends and case studies, it’d be best to go over the full guide itself for specifics, but we’ll briefly go over the most notable key elements here.
Well If You Put It That Way…
Surprisingly, though probably unbeknownst to most, there’s a lot of auto-related content and interactions going on in TikTok, hence the thrust to publish an in-app auto-marketing guide. On that note, let’s take a look at some of the key elements mentioned:
- Accounts around 60B views for car related content – 60 billion views relating to anything about cars is equivalent to more than 7x the Earth’s population. That’s an awful lot of views; and to think that this was only during the 1st half of 2021.
- Observed key auto trend by car-type – Highlights an observation that indicates what kind of car/s TikTok users are most interested in. Good for product positioning.
- Identifies viable ad options – TikTok provides an overview on effective ad options best suited for auto-marketers and can help guide their processes.
- Presents important data from case studies – As mentioned earlier, the guide also takes from multiple conducted case studies, meaning that the data used has strong empirical and statistical foundation. Such information will provide invaluable insight and point marketers in the right direction, or at least in one that’s driven by numbers.
- Creative tips – It is a marketing guide, so this is more of an expected bonus. ‘Gotta get attention if you wanna’ close the deal!
The Wrap
For a TikTok guide, it’s definitely one of the better ones they’ve produced; even more so for an auto-marketing guide! In that regard, this is one very good example on how social media is able to virtually meld two otherwise different fronts into a single cohesive whole. You wouldn’t normally associate ‘selling cars’ with ‘sharing short-form videos’, yet here they are harmoniously co-existing – a testament to how effective social media integration can lead to brand growth.
As social media platforms continue to gradually permeate various sectors of society, we can only surmise that a social media-driven global economy is right around the corner. As brands get more inclusive and processes better adapt to the digital space, we can expect to see more of these kinds of collaborations. You can technically sell cars on TikTok now. Pretty soon, you might start seeing houses and real estate too. There’s already online real estate, so “TikTok Properties” won’t be too far behind”.
Subscribe to our ‘Bottoms Up!’ Newsletter. Get the latest social media news, strategies, updates and trends to take your business to the highest level.
Sources