6 Small Business TikTok Success Stories

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Wondering whether a TikTok marketing strategy is worthwhile? Get inspired by these TikTok success stories!

With around 1 billion active users worldwide, TikTok has grown to become the world’s sixth-largest social network ahead of Pinterest, Twitter, and Snapchat. Additionally, 41% of all users fall between the ages of 16-24. Still, the number of users over the age of 40 is on the rise, so even if your business’s target audience isn’t Gen Z, getting familiar with the platform is still a good idea.

A challenge for newcomers to TikTok is that the content that gets posted and goes viral on TikTok is very different compared to other social media platforms. This means that the social media content strategies that work on other platforms will not necessarily translate well to TikTok.

For small businesses, another challenge can be the cost of TikTok ad campaigns which start at $10 per CPM (cost per 1000 views) and require a minimum spend of $500. These costs increase depending on the ad format and targeting, with hashtag challenge TikTok contests, for example, costing $150,000 for the first six days along with promotional costs that exceed $100,000.

Still, many small businesses have been using TikTok effectively to create brand awareness, increase sales, and multiply their ROI. To help you understand how to market a small business on TikTok effectively, we’ve gathered six examples of small businesses doing just that! Check out our list below.

Small Business TikTok Success Stories:

  1. Slate & Tell
  2. Momentary Ink
  3. Princess Polly
  4. BM Collagen
  5. Tzuki
  6. Genify Studio

 

1. Slate & Tell

Slate & Tell is an independent jewelry brand that offers personalized jewelry such as rings, charms, necklaces, and bracelets, allowing you to tell meaningful and creative stories. The goal of their TikTok campaign was to build awareness and product consideration ahead of the holiday season. Their ultimate goal was to see 2X return on ad spend within six months.

For their spring promotion, Slate & Tell used TikTok For Business’s Smart Video Creative Tool to develop fun and engaging TikToks launched as In-Feed ads that appeared in users’ For You feed.

After optimizing their campaign to upper-funnel events, including add-to-cart and product page views, they saw increased performance and return on ad spend. The campaign reached 4 million users and resulted in 1,000 single session add-to-carts, hitting their 2x return on ad spend goal.

This is one of the best examples of successfully using TikTok for eCommerce marketing.

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2. Momentary Ink

Momentary Ink offers custom temporary tattoos that allow people to test-drive their ink before getting the real thing. In addition, the brand worked with TikTok and agency partners to create a strategy that would drive brand awareness among TikTok users and boost sales cost-effectively.

The solution was to create In-Feed ads that showed people testing Momentary Ink’s temporary tattoos and their amazement at how realistic they looked. Using auction ads with a conversion objective, the brand scaled its campaign to a broader audience. Along with that, it used the TikTok tracking pixel to determine that mid-funnel optimization events boosted effectiveness, allowing it to focus on when people clicked on “Place an Order.”

Momentary Ink sent a survey to their customers after purchase to determine how they found out about the brand to measure the campaign’s effectiveness further. The results showed the positive impact of TikTok and persuaded Momentary Ink to increase the percentage of TikTok spend in their overall media mix.

Through the use of In-Feed ads and bidding, Momentary Ink achieved 14 million video views, with its CPA for purchase being 22% more efficient than the benchmark in its category. The campaign also had a lasting impact on a new audience, with 60% of buyers saying that they discovered the brand on TikTok.

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3. Princess Polly

Australian online fashion retailer Princess Polly supplies apparel and accessories to customers both locally and internationally. Featuring products inspired by the latest trends in fashion, street style, and pop culture, it is the go-to place for the fashionista looking for the freshest looks.

Aligned with youth culture, employing a no photoshop policy, and emphasizing ethical, sustainable fashion, the brand was looking to drive online sales among a new audience and to measure the impact of their ad spend.

Princess Polly ran a discount code campaign using auction ads with a traffic objective to achieve its goal. This campaign aimed to engage a wider audience, drive traffic to their online store, and attribute sales to their TikTok campaign using the discount code.

The fun and real ad aligned with the personality of Princess Polly as well as that of the TikTok community. This allowed the brand to connect with Gen Z and Millennials in a way that is unique to the platform. The campaign generated over 9 million impressions, a 1.05% click-through rate, and a 15X return on ad spend.

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4. BM Collagen

BM Collagen is a skincare company operating in Thailand’s highly competitive beauty industry. While the company has relied on a strong social media presence in the past, it noticed that its existing strategy was no longer working and needed to rethink its approach. With TikTok’s growing popularity in Thailand, the platform was a natural choice for the company.

BM Collagen’s In-Feed ad campaign was authentic and personal. To create the ads, the brand encouraged users to share videos of them opening and using BM Collagen’s beauty supplements. Including them in the campaign gave followers a personal stake in the memorable and shareable brand. The brand also included footage of their supplements being unboxed by a follower.

Using a simple but eye-catching creative that included video filters and filming outdoors showcased BM Collagen’s pastel brand identity and fun approach, allowing them to reach a wider audience easily. Thanks to the included UGC content, they could easily and quickly create new ads that kept the campaign fresh and engaging.

Within two months of running the campaign, BM Collagen saw sales grow by almost 200%, and received 361,000 clicks and 57 million impressions.

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5. Tzuki

Tzuki is an Indonesian soap company founded in 2020 whose goal is to become the country’s leading natural soap brand, a challenge in an already saturated market. Since launching, the company’s focus has been on building its profile on social media, and once it had established a presence on other platforms, it decided to take on TikTok.

Since product videos, customer reviews, and recommendations help create brand trust in the beauty industry, Tzuki decided to launch a campaign that featured people using its products and working with popular creators to review their products.

Leveraging TikTok’s Smart Video tool to create engaging ads with music, Tzuki generated 27 million impressions, 189,000 clicks to its website, and a sales surge between 300% and 400%.

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6. Genify Studio

Vietnamese game developer Genify Studio is a well-established producer of hyper-casual mobile games, with their game Meow.io – Cat Fighter having reached more than 10 million installations. Although already popular, the studio wanted to broaden its audience further and increase in-game purchases. To drive new sign-ups, they decide to target Vietnam as well as other international markets.

Using In-Feed ads, Genify Studio was able to show the fun that users had when playing their games. To save costs, the studio used screen recordings of users playing their games. With TikTok’s Creative Tools, they could quickly and easily add effects, background music, and optimized creative, while using Automated Creative Optimization to change and mix their content for different international audiences.

The campaign gave Genify Studio great engagement, with a conversion rate of 30.85%. The campaign also achieved 6 million impressions and 275,000 clicks. The studio has also expanded to 5 new international markets.

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Wrapping Up

As you can see, you don’t have to be a big brand with a huge advertising budget to run effective marketing campaigns on TikTok. Through the use of engaging, honest, and personal In-Feed ads, it’s possible for your business to reach a new audience, drive traffic to your website, and increase sales.

You can use a number of strategies to achieve this that include utilizing fun and engaging TikToks like Slate & Tell, showing your products in use like Momentary Ink, BM Collagen, Tzuki, and Genify Studio, and running a discount campaign like Princess Polly.

Have you marketed on TikTok? Which strategy did you use, and how effective was it? Let me know below.

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