TikTok Search Optimization: An Opportunity for Marketers to Reach Their Target Audience

TikTok has quickly become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, attracting billions of users every day. For marketers, this is not only a chance to reach a huge audience but also raises an important question: How do you stand out in a sea of people and make sure your content can be found?

In this article, we will explore a key aspect of marketing campaigns on TikTok: TikTok Search optimization. It not only helps you reach a larger audience, but also helps you create content that has a chance of appearing in TikTok Search results. Let’s look at how optimizing for TikTok Search can boost your marketing campaigns and bring you closer to your goals on this platform.

Why Should Marketers Focus on TikTok Search?

TikTok has become a phenomenon in recent years and has quickly climbed to the top spot among social media platforms. On average, TikTok has 1.1 billion monthly users worldwide, equivalent to 25% of all active internet users. The audience is growing significantly, creating a big opportunity for businesses to reach new audiences and build awareness of their brands.

At the same time, the way consumers search for and discover information is changing. They are using TikTok Search as a search engine. Pioneering brands have recognized this and are shifting their attention away from traditional linear channels like TV and Google Search toward TikTok Search.

For example, if you want to find information about hotels in Bali, you might type “Bali hotels” into the Google search box. The search results will show sponsored ads and a few articles from websites such as CNN, Forbes, or TripAdvisor. However, these articles often contain information that may be outdated, along with elaborately edited images. The reason they often appear at the top of the results is that they have used search engine optimization techniques.

When you search TikTok for hotels in Bali, though, you get a completely different experience. TikTok Search’s algorithm differs from many other social media platforms; it learns about your interests and creates a personalized, unfiltered stream of videos from real travelers sharing their hotel rooms and views.

From a consumer’s perspective, you probably trust content on TikTok Search more than content from Google search results. Your customers will too, partly because they can comment on TikTok videos to ask questions and get answers from real people. Another benefit of TikTok videos is that anyone can save a video to a personal collection to watch again later!

For example, a video from Luxury Escapes shares three great activities in Bali. It has 180 comments and has been liked more than 18,000 times. This clearly shows how much real research users are doing.

Creating and optimizing TikTok videos specifically for TikTok Search and discovery helps your brand develop video campaigns that deliver results, while reaching consumers who are searching TikTok for the products or services your business offers.

How to Create and Optimize Videos for TikTok Search

Define Your Content Topics

The first step in optimizing your TikTok videos to rank high in TikTok Search results and reach a wider audience is to define your content pillars – the themes and topics your videos will focus on.

Avoid limiting these topics to your products alone, because no one wants to chat with someone who only promotes products. Take some time to develop topics that match the interests and search needs of your target audience.

This helps you stay focused on engaging your target viewers.

See more: Social Selling: Optimizing Business Results in the Digital Environment

Conduct TikTok Video Research

After defining your content pillars, do some research to find video topics and angles that deliver value to viewers based on their interests and TikTok Search queries.

Search for Keywords and Phrases in the TikTok Search Box: First, enter a keyword or phrase into the TikTok Search box and study the top videos in your field. Identify trends you can learn from and pay attention to high-performing videos that attract strong engagement and shares. There is no need to copy these videos directly, but use them as inspiration for your own content.

Look at the “Others searched for” results, an important section of the TikTok Search results page that helps you discover more related keywords that TikTok users commonly search for.

Check TikTok Business Suite: If you already have a business account on TikTok, you get free access to insights on other businesses’ popular videos, from trending keywords to hashtags.

Based on what you learn from this research, identify gaps in content that you can fill and find ways to make your brand more distinctive.

How does this help you? Take the example of Oysterly, which partnered with RMIT Training to identify key content topics and develop a content strategy. When they searched TikTok for terms like “international students Melbourne,” they discovered that people interested in studying in Australia also wanted to know about activities around Melbourne.

By leveraging the uniqueness of Australian wildlife, they produced a video with a creator showing kangaroos and koalas at an animal sanctuary near Melbourne. As a result, the video attracted 1.9 million views, compared with their previous best of only 200 views.

Create TikTok Videos for Maximum Discoverability

Next, apply this tactic to structure your video for maximum reach and broader brand awareness.

In the first few seconds of the video, state the topic clearly or share an interesting fact related to your topic to capture and hold viewers’ attention. The beginning of the video is a good place to use keywords. You are telling viewers what the video is about, but you are also telling the TikTok algorithm what the video is about and who it is meant for.

The body of the video: This is where you deliver value to viewers. The more value you provide, the stronger the trust you build with viewers. If you are sharing tips, count down to the final tip to keep viewers engaged longer.

Your goal is to keep viewers watching until the end of the video, because this signals to TikTok that it should push your video to more people. So deliver value carefully, but don’t drag it out. Focus on value rather than a specific length. Plenty of 30-second videos perform well by providing useful information without running too long.

End with a Call to Action (CTA). Sometimes: About half of your videos should include a Call to Action (CTA). Keeping this figure at 50% prevents your content from looking like a shopping ad. For each video designed to help you reach a specific goal, tell viewers what you want them to do with a clear CTA at the end of the video. For example, “Follow us for more tips,” “Save this video so you can find it later,” or “Share this with your friends!”

Your CTA line doesn’t always have to be an invitation to buy. Sharing and/or saving your video sends signals to the TikTok algorithm that can lead to greater discoverability.

Optimize Videos for TikTok Search

Finally, optimize your newly created videos for TikTok Search by following these best practices:

Add On-Screen Text Titles: Consider your keywords to reinforce the hook, and add a keyword-focused title at the start of your video, for example, “3 Tips for Raising a 5-Year-Old.” Then optimize by setting the on-screen text to display for about 4-5 seconds so viewers have enough time to read and remember it.

Add a Title to the Description: The description written under your video is another opportunity to convey the video’s topic to viewers and the algorithm. Use engaging keywords, add emojis to catch attention, and strategically capitalize words like “BEST” to make them stand out.

Include Hashtags: Try to add 4-6 relevant hashtags in your description, making sure the first hashtag is strongly related to your video’s topic. Fill in the remaining hashtags, and make sure at least one is your brand’s hashtag so that people who search TikTok for your brand can see your video.

Pay Attention to Subtitles and Closed Captions: Starting October 17, 2023, all newly uploaded TikTok videos will have automatic captions. You can edit these captions, but you can’t turn them off.

Optimize Videos You Have Already Posted

Sometimes videos are held back by the smallest details. If a video isn’t performing well, you can update the title, description, and hashtags without uploading a new version.

But what if you want to edit the video or repurpose it? Using an editing tool like CapCut lets you store the original files. You can then easily create a new version of the video.

Here are some adjustments you can try:

• Change the on-screen text
• Adjust the description title
• Try different hashtags
• Speed up the voiceover

Even one of these small changes can significantly increase views and make your video easier to discover.

Conclusion

The article “TikTok Search Optimization: An Opportunity for Marketers to Reach Their Target Audience” has presented key strategies marketers can use to work effectively on TikTok to build brand awareness and reach their target audience. TikTok has become one of the most popular social media platforms, and taking advantage of its search capabilities can help businesses reach a large number of potential customers.

The strategies presented include defining content pillars, researching TikTok videos, using appropriate keywords and hashtags, creating searchable videos, and optimizing previously posted videos. By taking these steps, marketers can create effective video campaigns and optimize discoverability on TikTok.

Keep up with the trends and practices mentioned in this article to make sure you always seize optimization opportunities on TikTok and achieve engagement and reach with the target audience for your business.