TikTok Tests Ads Designed for Discovery and Decision-Making

Adhere to functional TikTok marketing ideas and strategies by incorporating new formats that will link viewers straight to entertainment shows, movies, and subscriptions.

The adjustments may be significant for marketers who are looking to make the case for short-form video investments in the context of their revenue objectives, such as subscriptions or ticket sales, that finance has a vested interest in. It has been difficult to establish that link on social media, where the number of people who can see your posts does not always lead to results.

They have added two new features: Streaming Ads and a feature they are calling New Title Launch. Both are targeted at the film studios and streaming services that wish to target audiences within the site’s existing entertainment consumption environment.

Unlike traditional in-feed ads, TikTok takes a different strategy. The new formats give advertisers the ability to offer several films or shows in a single ad experience, rather than having to rely on a single video inserted between users’ posts. One solution involves a carousel of up to four clips from a service’s catalogue. Another uses interactive media cards, which show several titles simultaneously.

The Significance of this Matter in the Current Era

The pressure has been on entertainment marketers to demonstrate the business value of their social media budgets. But it’s not just about views and engagement anymore, particularly with a declining subscriber base in certain segments of streaming and a growing need for attention.

TikTok is at the epicentre of this change. The platform hosts millions of videos on film and television on a daily basis, and many viewers claim to stumble upon new television shows and movies via short snippets uploaded by creators. This behaviour also impacts their selection of content to watch, not only their time spent scrolling on TikTok.

The problem for studios and streaming platforms is to get them to move forward from their discovery. The new ad formats are designed to simplify the path from interest to action – be it subscription sign-up, rental or ticket purchase.

How TikTok Streaming Ads operate

Streaming Ads use signals generated by users’ activity, such as viewing and engagement with entertainment content. The aim is to display ads that individuals are interested in rather than forcing one particular title on people.

It can be as simple as displaying multiple streams from a streaming service in a single ad, or categorising content by genre, allowing users to instantly discover what is offered. These formats allow entertainment marketers to display multiple movies or series within a single ad experience and impact how the teams plan their awareness and conversion campaigns without considering social video as a standalone channel.

The New Title Launch format is all about the timing. It’s designed for campaigns that are associated with a release window, such as a movie release weekend or launch of a new season. Marketers can target ads during key moments in time by matching dates and focus spending on those dates.

TikTok Ads can transform their Discovery into a Decision Journey

TikTok’s offering is one of the reasons it works so well, as it provides additional context prior to asking them to click. Rather than viewing just one trailer, the viewer can view a few options and make a choice. That’s important for entertainment brands because audiences choose from a variety of platforms and services.

It’s also an indication of the overall media landscape change in the perception of advertisers about social media. What used to be about reach, now is about better routes to conversion. The new formats on TikTok indicate it is looking to do more than just change where ads play; it’s also attempting to change how they play.

The Marketer’s Mark is the Real Test

With enterprise teams, the issue isn’t so much whether the formats are engaging, but whether they impact performance in a way that makes it worth continuing to spend money. Outcomes matter more to entertainment advertisers than clicks, and they are interested in things such as subscription starts, ticket sales, and retention.

As marketers are held under more scrutiny in terms of attribution, consistency and spend effectiveness at scale, they will need to monitor the click-through rates and conversion metrics to determine whether these formats are delivering on their promise. As campaigns grow beyond the test budget and into larger, repeatable campaigns, those pressures tend to grow.

A planning question is also included. Brands are already spending on social platforms like search, television and outdoor. The ad formats that TikTok offers are also being developed to help teams leverage the platform and will also need to be integrated into an existing media mix.

Open Questions for all Enterprise Teams

There are a few questions that we need to consider about this. If done properly, having more than one title in an ad can aid in discovery, but having too many titles can also lessen the focus. When multiple titles are in the same campaign, they’re going to perform differently, and measurement will play an important role.

Also, scale comes into play. Formats that work for one release can turn out to be different if implemented in a full catalogue or multiple regions. These tools will have to be evaluated for larger, more complex campaigns by Enterprise teams.

What TikTok Advertisements Convey Across Platforms

The combination of TikTok’s new ad formats suggests a new trend in social media. Platforms are being marketed as a way to deliver results beyond the metrics on a marketing dashboard, such as engagement.

In the words of entertainment brands, the takeaway isn’t so much about TikTok as it is about how social platforms are adapting in a budget-conscious world. For marketers, it will be up to them to evaluate which tools can go into long-term planning and which are still at the experimental stage, as discovery channels are expected to deliver more meaningful results.