Your TikTok Questions Answered

TikTok is one of the world’s most popular social media apps and has over 1 billion users. Despite the app launching in 2016, it grew throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued to grow in popularity, with 40% of Gen Z spending 5+ hours a day watching social video content. 

The app is all about creating and sharing videos, and while the app has many built-in tools to make it easy, some aspects are more complex than others. So keep reading to get your TikTok questions answered. 

Here’s a summary of what we’ll cover:

• What is TikTok?
• What is the TikTok Demographic?
• How Do I Set Up a TikTok Account?
• How to Crop a Video on TikTok
• What are the Best Times to Post a TikTok?
• How to Schedule a TikTok
• How to Advertise on TikTok
• How to See Who Viewed Your TikTok?
• How to Save a TikTok Without Watermark

What is TikTok? 

TikTok is a video-sharing app that allows users to create videos up to 10 minutes long. Previously the app had a 60-second cap on videos before boosting it to 3 minutes in July 2021. The app is similar to Musical.ly but has a broader scope than lip-syncing. For example, various trending sounds and filters are used on videos. The app has also added a well-being feature alerting users when they’ve exceeded two hours on the app.

What is the TikTok Demographic? 

While TikTok heavily targets Gen Z, there is a broad demographic of active users. Below are some key demographic points: 

• Nearly half of all TikTok users are under 24 years old. 
• 56% of users are male and 44% are female. 
• The average time on the app is about an hour per day. 
• Around 90% of users use the app multiple times per day.

How Do I Set Up a TikTok Account?

TikTok has made setting up an account incredibly straightforward. For step-by-step instructions, see below: 

1. Download the app from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Open the app.
3. Tap Profile in the bottom-right. 
4. Choose a method to sign up;

It’s essential to ensure your email and phone number are correct in case you need to reset your password in the future.

How to Crop a Video on TikTok

The simple answer? You can’t since TikTok has no crop feature for content you have already shot. If you want an expert workaround, click here to jump to How to Save a TikTok Without Watermark.

What are the Best Times to Post a TikTok? 

Influencer Marketing Hub conducted a study where they analyzed over 10,000 posts to find the best engagement rates and found the following. Please note all times are EST. 

Monday: 6 a.m., 10 a.m., and 10 p.m.

Tuesday: 2 a.m., 4 a.m., and 9 a.m.

Wednesday: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 11 p.m.

Thursday: 9 a.m., 12 a.m., and 7 p.m.

Friday: 5 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m.

Saturday: 11 a.m., 7 p.m., and 8 p.m.

Sunday: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 4 p.m.

While these times were noted to be the most successful in the study, they may change depending on the specifics of your audience so prepare for trial and error. 

How To Schedule a TikTok

TikTok announced in March 2021 its video scheduler that allows Creators and Business Accounts to schedule posts from 15 minutes in advance to up to 10 days. To schedule TikToks, use the following steps: 

1. Log in on a web browser.
2. Make sure you have a Business or Creator account. 
   1. If you don’t, go to Settings > Account > Change Account Type. 
3. Edit and upload your video.
4. Toggle the Schedule button.
5. Select publishing date.
6. Schedule your post. 

Once you schedule your post, it will be visible alongside your drafts on your profile. Similar to traditional posting, you cannot edit the video itself or captions once the video is posted. You will then receive a notification once the video is live.

How to Advertise on TikTok

Before you start advertising on TikTok, you must understand the types of TikTok ads you can run on the platform. Not all ad types, however, are available in all areas. 

• In-Feed Ads: ads that you create yourself using the platform’s Ad Manager interface. 
• Image Ads: ads that only run in TikTok’s News Feed apps and include an image, brand or app name, and copy. 
• Video Ads: 5-60 second full-screen videos on users’ For You Page and include a video, display image, brand or app name, and copy. 
• Spark Ads: ads that allow you to boost organic content. Research shows that these ads have a 24% higher completion rate and 142% higher engagement than in-feed. 
• Pangle Ads: ads throughout the TikTok audience network, however, these are not for the U.S. 
• Carousel Ads: ads running in TikTok’s News Feed apps and include up to 10 images and copy. 

If you have a managed brand, meaning you work with a TikTok sales representative, you can also run the following ads: 

• TopView Ads: ads that appear as a full-screen take over for 5-60 seconds when users open the app. 
• Branded Hashtag Challenge: a 3-6 day ad campaign encouraging engagement. 
• Branded Effects: stickers, filters, and special effects branded to your company. 

Now that you know the types of ads you can run, see below to learn how to set up an ad campaign. 

1. Log into TikTok Ads Manager and click the Campaign button.
2. Select your objective. 
   1. Awareness: reach 
   2. Consideration: traffic, installs, views, lead generation
   3. Conversions: conversions, catalog sales
3. Name your campaign and set a budget.
4. Name your ad group and select placements.
5. Choose whether to use Automated Creative Optimization.
6. Target your audience.
7. Set your ad group budget and schedule.
8. Set your bidding strategy.
9. Create your ads. 

If you want to boost existing content, you do not need an Ads Manager account and can just use TikTok Promote. To use this feature, follow these steps: 

1. Go to your profile.
2. Tap the setting icon and go to realtor tools.
3. Select promote.
4. Choose the video you want to promote.
5. Choose your goal. 
6. Choose your audience.
7. Enter payment.
8. Start promotion.

To learn more about TikTok ad specs, download our whitepaper. 

How to See Who Viewed Your TikTok 

Unfortunately, you cannot see who viewed your TikTok. However, you can see who liked the video or your page in addition to who viewed your page. But, it’s important to note that you can only see who viewed your page if you allow people to know when you view theirs.

How to Save a TikTok Without Watermark

Since you can’t crop your TikTok, the best workaround is to save a TikTok video without a watermark (this can only be done before posting). To do so, all you have to do is follow these steps: 

1. Start a screen recording. 
2. Open the preview from the post screen.
3. Expand the preview to be full screen.
4. Let the video play a few times. 
5. Save the screen recording. 
6. Crop it. 
7. View your video without the watermark.

TikTok with Online Optimism

If you have more questions on optimizing your TikTok performance, contact us today and speak to one of our Optimists, subscribe to our podcast Online Offscript for the latest marketing trends, or follow us on TikTok.