TikTok marketing at your bakery

As TikTok rises in popularity among consumers, there’s good reason for small businesses to pay attention to the hype, according to Capterra’s TikTok Marketing Survey. The survey found that 78% of small businesses that run ads on TikTok have already realized a positive ROI–the majority within just six months.

Roz Rabbani’s Los Angeles-based bakery business Roz Got Cake has received more than 3 million likes and 73,000 followers on TikTok. Her cake decorating videos regularly rack up tens of thousands of views.

“You never know what's going to go viral. I'll make a whole cake video I've spent so much time on and it looks amazing, and then it'll get a thousand views. And then on my For You page there'll be a video of someone who's never made a cake before, they're barely putting effort into their video and it gets a million views. But once you see that anything can go viral, it's like, ‘just post!’” says Roz Rabbani, owner and founder of Roz Got Cake.

Vertical video is here to stay

Lately, every tech company is trying to copy TikTok’s signature vertical video format. YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram have all launched content to compete with TikTok. That’s great news for marketers because it’s easier than ever to repurpose social content across multiple platforms.

Cross-posting TikTok content to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts can help users locate your account across different apps, boost your engagement, and increase the likelihood of conversion. The vast majority (82%) of businesses using TikTok cross-post their content to other social platforms.

Just remember that in order to succeed on TikTok, your content needs to suit the candid, authentic vibe users prefer.

Rabbani saw a huge spike in engagement on TikTok when a cake she was commissioned to make for Kris Jenner appeared on the celebrity’s Instagram story.

Advertising returns aside, businesses tend to invest more heavily in, and derive more value from, their organic content.

On average, TikTok marketers put 11 to 20% of their overall marketing budget toward TikTok, with an emphasis on organic content.

More than three-quarters of businesses that use TikTok post organic content, while less than two-thirds run ads on the platform (some only use TikTok to discover trends or keep an eye on their competitors). Among businesses that post both organic and sponsored content, 72% say organic TikTok content is extremely valuable to their company’s overall marketing performance, while 55% say the same for ads.

Creating organic content requires few resources for most SMBs, so it’s easy to get into a consistent posting schedule. Most businesses spend less than two hours creating a single organic post, and 61% post at least weekly. Over a quarter post on the app daily.

Leaning into your brand’s unique voice will help you get the most out of your TikTok content, whether it’s organic or sponsored. Find whatever makes your business stand out from the sea of generic calls-to-action, be it an unconventional use for your product, slick tutorial content, or your marketing team’s wicked sense of humor.

Anything can go viral on TikTok

According to our data, at least one in 10 small businesses using TikTok has gone viral on the app. Millions of views are within reach for businesses with great content.

Whereas Instagram’s content suggestion algorithm can feel like an oligarchy dominated by legacy brands and Hollywood celebrities, TikTok’s "For You" page has been characterized as a meritocracy. Tiktok’s algorithm suggests posts that are likely to appeal to users’ unique interests and behaviors, rather than preferentially pushing posts created by accounts that are already popular.

Topics and themes

TikTok also seeks to present a variety of topics and themes as users scroll its seemingly bottomless content recommendations, so it’s constantly looking for fresh posts. If yours can hook viewers in the first few seconds of play, it has a decent chance of doing numbers.

While there’s no magic recipe for creating viral TikTok content, you can follow a few best practices to hook viewers:

Prioritize video quality. Businesses marketing on TikTok say a post’s image quality and aesthetic appeal is the most important performance determinant. Attractive visuals will help keep viewers engaged.

Set the mood. Over half of businesses stick to content that’s either humorous, energizing, or educational. Ambient or calming videos are best left to other platforms.

Offer a unique perspective: 66% of businesses say their best-performing organic content is original and not inspired by trends, beating out posts based on viral sounds (44%) or hashtags (38%).

TikTok marketing yields undeniable power, especially with Gen Z. More and more consumers are turning to TikTok search over Google to find their next local boutique or restaurant. With Google and Meta’s advertising dominance fading, TikTok is becoming more advantageous for small and midsize businesses. In fact, one in ten surveyed businesses have gone viral on TikTok organically, indicating a level playing field that's not dominated by large name brands.

TikTok helps mitigate choice paralysis by giving users immersive, vertical videos that take them inside a business instantly, rather than sifting through text-heavy review sites like Google or Yelp. Given its success rate, 52% of TikTok marketers surveyed plan to spend more money on the platform in 2023. And only 18% of businesses not currently using it say they have concerns over its data practices.

“In response to Gen Z’s preference for TikTok as a search engine over Google Maps, Google plans to launch augmented search functions to rival TikTok reviews’ immersive, authentic qualities,” says Molly Burke, senior retail analyst at Capterra. “Users like TikTok because its seemingly endless content feels authentic and unfussy; videos made by real people, for real people. Creating ads that capture the candid nature of organic TikTok content helps businesses blend in and profit.”

“While other platforms' content suggestion algorithms can feel like an oligarchy dominated by legacy brands and Hollywood celebrities, TikTok’s ‘For You’ page has been characterized as a meritocracy where small businesses can reap rewards from both paid and organic content,” says Burke.

Businesses looking for tools to start creating TikTok content can check out Capterra’s list of the best social media management software or our recommendations for video marketing software.

Positive results

TikTok marketing yields overwhelmingly positive results: Among small businesses that run ads on TikTok, 78% say they’ve realized a positive ROI; the majority within 6 months.

Most SMBs using TikTok will increase their marketing spend: 52% of SMBs marketing themselves on TikTok plan to spend more money on TikTok marketing in 2023.

Organic content rules: While the majority of SMBs say both organic and sponsored content is extremely valuable to their overall marketing strategy, they tend to derive more value from their organic content.

TikTok ads provide quick ROI

From a budget perspective, TikTok provides a serious bang for your buck: 78% of SMB marketers that run ads on TikTok have achieved a positive ROI. Among that group, nearly three-quarters saw returns within six months.

Users like TikTok because its seemingly endless content feels authentic and unfussy—videos made by real people, for real people. Creating ads that capture the candid nature of organic TikTok content helps businesses blend in.

According to 60% of SMBs currently running ads on TikTok, In-Feed ads are the most effective in terms of conversions. In-feed ads resemble organic content so closely that the two are virtually indistinguishable. When ads don’t look like ads, viewers are more likely to engage with your content rather than instantly scrolling past it.

Advertising returns aside, businesses tend to invest more heavily in, and derive more value from, their organic content.

On average, TikTok marketers put 11 to 20% of their overall marketing budget toward TikTok, with an emphasis on organic content.