{"id":601045,"date":"2023-01-25T06:49:47","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T12:49:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/25\/marketing-briefing-tiktok-is-making-search-a-bigger-focus-but-marketers-agency-execs-say-its-early-days\/"},"modified":"2023-01-25T06:49:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T12:49:47","slug":"marketing-briefing-tiktok-is-making-search-a-bigger-focus-but-marketers-agency-execs-say-its-early-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/25\/marketing-briefing-tiktok-is-making-search-a-bigger-focus-but-marketers-agency-execs-say-its-early-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing Briefing: TikTok is making search a bigger focus, but marketers, agency execs say it\u2019s early days"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As some younger consumers are changing behavior and using TikTok as a search engine, marketers and agency execs say that it makes sense for brands to be early movers and find ways to stand out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Gen Z preferring TikTok to traditional search engines as their source for information gathering, brands are going to have to re-think their search strategies,\u201d said Amanda Shapiro, Deutsch LA senior vp, group strategy. \u201cIt\u2019s all about content discoverability, which needs to be a consideration from development through posting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brands tend to follow consumers wherever they go so doing so that makes sense. That said, how much investment or time spent on owning search on the platform, given it\u2019s still early days, will depend on the brand and its focus on the demo spending time there. It\u2019s unclear how much marketers are spending on paid search ads just yet though agency execs say it\u2019s a small percentage of clients are testing out right now and doing so as an experiment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe most exciting part about TikTok search for media buyers is finally seeing a legitimate disruptor to Google, at least among Gen Z,\u201d said Neil Sawhney, director of media, west at Pereira O\u2019Dell. \u201cThat demo\u2019s increasing preference for TikTok as a search engine is clear, so now it\u2019s up to brands to weigh what level of experimentation is justified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Agency execs say that while some brands are using TikTok\u2019s paid search ads, which have been in beta since last March, others are taking an organic, SEO-driven approach. By adjusting organic for search, some agency execs believe that marketers can test out how well search can work for their brand while the value of the paid search ads on the platform are still up for debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not enough placement wise to warrant much excitement,\u201d said David Herrmann, president of Herrmann Digital, when asked for his POV on TikTok search ads. \u201cIt\u2019s slowly coming along.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Herrmann continued: \u201cEssentially TikTok seems poised to compete with Google in this regard. They\u2019ve built it into their organic side with keywords. One of my brands owns a bunch of key terms organically on TikTok (they have five of the top eight most-watched videos in a popular category). For ads purposes we always include those key terms in our ads. That\u2019s the best way to do this. But still small potatoes right now with reach being very tiny.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That TikTok search is often used for \u201chow-to\u201d type content i.e. how to use a product or how to do something as well as recommendations, brands that are looking to do organic content as an approach to search are leaning into that type of content when doing so. As for brand categories, beauty brands, food brands and travel brands, among others, are those experimenting with search. <\/p>\n

Aaron Levy, Tinuiti\u2019s vp of paid search, noted that, \u201cWe\u2019re not viewing TikTok as a threat to Google Ads, but more an opportunity for horizontal expansion. [Cost-per-click]\u2019s on Google are increasing year-on-year and the market is becoming saturated \u2013 we view TikTok as a way to reach new users at a lower cost.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

How important search ads on TikTok will be for marketers is still unclear. \u201cThe story of \u2018search on TikTok\u2019 being a threat to Google is a bit overdone though,\u201d said Belsky. \u201cIt happens to be true in very visual categories like restaurants or recipe selection, but when you think about things like credit card or insurance research, this is just not true.\u00a0 Like most things in ad-land, the truth is more in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

3 Questions with Matt Leonard, CMO at Purple Carrot, a plant-based meal kit company\u00a0<\/h2>\n

The meal kit space took a hit after Covid restrictions ended and people ventured back out. How is Purple Carrot managing those changes?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The meal kit world was evolving in 2019. It was on the upswing a bit. Obviously, Covid came in and created very unnatural demands. For me coming in new, it\u2019s on the reset time, where the backdrop of that natural demand is not there. I won\u2019t say it\u2019s slowed down to perilous levels by any means. But it\u2019s not the organic demand, obviously, when people really didn\u2019t have many ways to actually eat food, to get the food. We will probably be biasing towards organic growth, strengthening the brands, focusing on conversion [and] building out our LTV [Life Time Value]. It\u2019ll be a mix of organic, local marketing. We\u2019ll be thinking about regions, very hyperlocal, that makes sense, where our product fits well for people, where there\u2019s a need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the current marketing mix to manage said changes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early on we\u2019ll still be in the demand capture stages. We\u2019re looking at ways to expand affiliate partnerships, things along those lines where our message gets out to a really relevant audience at a controlled [customer-acquisition-costs]. Maybe ballpark 20% of the mix could come from something like that. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see 20%-plus come from customer sharing. We\u2019re doing a lot of work on the virality side to really focus on what that factor looks like, how people share within their network, when they share, what the costs look like in that space. We probably have a 20% allocation from search. [For] programmatic paid social, the display channels, we\u2019ll throw in another 20% there. That left me with about another 20% to really start thinking about influencers, partnerships, developmental channels, CTV and different sorts of areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the social landscape changing so quickly, does that impact how Purple Carrot is thinking about marketing?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s harder than ever to track. It\u2019s harder than ever to target. When we think about those, and really what the cost is, there\u2019s the trade off of how good attribution is and how much you\u2019re willing to invest in a not perfectly tracked channel. [Where] media costs have gone to with the lack of tracking leaves us in a state where I think there\u2019s other ways to to deliver your message more effectively, or differently. \u2014 Kimeko McCoy<\/em><\/p>\n

By the numbers<\/h2>\n

Although once considered the future of shopping, social commerce and livestream shopping has yet to take off the way marketers predicted it would.\u00a0Facebook, Instagram and TikTok last year all took a step back from social commerce<\/a>, and apparently, so are shoppers,\u00a0according to new research from The Influencer Marketing Factory<\/a>. Find out how in the data points below:<\/p>\n