TikTok
Putting the Art in Artificial Intelligence
TikTok has not disclosed the “goal” the AI has been trained on, it could be to keep the user watching for as long as possible - or it could be to keep the user watching the right order of videos such that the ad is placed at the most opportune time.
If the former, there is a common thought experiment where the algorithm could, in theory, kill someone. It could keep the user watching videos such that the user no longer eats food, but instead gorges on an all-you-can-eat video buffet.
However, this is highly unlikely unless perhaps if the algorithm was also creating the content itself. In this case, it could in theory take a user down a conspiratorial journey where the user felt like it had to keep watching - or otherwise something dramatic, painful or world ending would happen.
That’s just a thought experiment for now, thankfully. But one that sharpens the mind to understand what is really going on with this new(ish) social network and how radically different it is when compared to incumbents.
TikTok is AI applied to social media. Gone is the hard labour of following the right people to see the right content. Or having lots of followers in order for your content to be seen. Instead we have a content meritocracy, highly optimised to your implicit preferences.
In theory, you could imagine a browser which anticipates what content to show you based on what you’ve consumed to date. Rather than you having to search for everything you need or scroll a newsfeed of people you have painstakingly suggested you’d like to hear more from.
Every time I go online and type www.blahblahblah.com and “surf” the web page by page - I feel like I’m using a computer from the past. AI will serve us content we need at the right time, even if we didn’t know we needed it. Whether that’s a good or bad thing for humanity is questionable.
And how long until the content itself becomes AI-generated? It’s happening now. For example, Dalle-E 2 (images), GPT-3 (Text) and so on.
This piece won an art competition recently, and there was a huge backlash because it was produced by an AI. But what of the human who ran the programme through multiple “generations” in order to get it to a place where it produced this?
Just like the camera, video recorder and other technology mediums that initially were considered the death of art - this may well spawn a new genre.
I hope that when millennials (most MPs are 50-59 years old) are the predominant generation in government we will see more proactive regulation in order to prevent the less desirable outcomes play out when AI algorithms are allowed to run wild by owning both the distribution and production of our media.
Organic
Instead of waiting to “go viral” (we’ve had enough pandemics for now), I’ve seen people have better results by focusing on dominating a particular niche (eg. PlantTok, BookTok etc). Start up a fresh account, search your niche and watch all the videos from the top 10 creators in that niche. They will all have a certain shared, creative style or storytelling format. Borrow from this creative direction and then post consistently until you are part of that cohort. Dominating a niche should be your goal. It gives you converting traffic, a creative platform from which you can expand - and pre-loved content for which you can tweak up for paid ads.
Paid
On the paid advertising side, TikTok has been slower to get the ad product up to spec compared with Meta. That said, some consumer companies I work with are seeing the same CPA as Facebook / Instagram ads - albeit at a lower (but growing spend). 25-35 year olds are clicking on ads and buying, a large and growing segment of users - it’s not just for kids. That’s the same thing they said about Facebook all those years ago, now my feed is just my nan and aunty arguing over Brexit.
The TikTok ad tracking pixel has been weaker, with a short conversion window on the pixel itself - but you can check the homework on the pixel using (eg. for a consumer brand) the post checkout attribution survey (How did you hear about us?). This will often give you a better picture of the activity than just looking at the pixel in isolation.
Much of the creative that is working on “traditional” social media channels right now is characterised by having a TikTok style, that is: a rougher, user-generated, talking-to-camera video ad. An increase in authenticity and a decrease in IG polish, which is in line with the overall Gen Z design aesthetic. Millennials are no longer cool - Gen Z set the pace.
TikTok Agencies
I’ve been saying to people recently that there are a limited number of mature TikTok agencies, especially in the UK. For decent logical reasons, a lot of performance marketing agencies and creative agencies have been unwilling to jump into this space.
For many performance agencies, they are willing to deploy the budget but don’t want to do the upfront heavy lifting on strategy and creative.
For many creative agencies, TikTok seems like the death of creativity itself. The billboard or TV ad are often seen as the peak creative formats. Having to condense that into the algorithm mud pit of TikTok doesn't seem like a brief that will win awards or be fun to work on.
But there are specialist TikTok agencies out there, doing great work. Let me indulge myself with a quick plug if you don’t mind.
*Puffs chest and puts on the pitch voice* This year I set up a new business called Grwth Club, which matches startups with the right marketing agencies - no fee, no hassle.
The team has relationships with over 500 marketing agencies and advisors, once you tell us about your challenges and you'll be introduced to a curated list of partners that meet your brief. We cover everything from performance marketing, SEO, PR, offline media buying - all the way through to brand and creative.
Grwth Club is also helping companies with their fundraising efforts, either by matching them with the right investors or making investments ourselves -> something we’ll talk about more in the future.
In this way, if you need help finding the right partners for exploring TikTok as a channel or anything else, then the Grwth Club team can help - just submit your brief here.
… I’m writing again - so send your mates here to sign up :)