From discovery to purchase: How to activate the full funnel on TikTok
The online world has never been more saturated with brands selling products. And with consumers making purchasing decisions across multiple touchpoints, advertisers need to meet them across the entire marketing funnel to really drive impact and significant business results.
TikTok's unique placement at the intersection of entertainment and commerce is transforming how brands connect with their audiences. Let's rewind a few years, where we saw the sell-out success of products like Ocean Spray and Little Moons. Since then, we've seen the exponential growth of #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, proving that the platform has revolutionised the way consumers discover products and the way they shop – playing a valuable role in all stages of the purchase journey. In fact, 65% of TikTok users are likely to buy a product, that they previously saw on TikTok, in the future[1] and 61% of users have made a purchase either directly on TikTok, or online after seeing an ad on TikTok [2].
Crafting full-funnel strategies with TikTok can enable your brand to unlock its full potential by improving marketing efficiency, agility and driving brand salience. Want to find out how? We've broken down the key elements of three common marketing scenarios – launching a product, implementing an always-on strategy, and capturing peak season sales – and used brand examples to show you how you can effectively consolidate multiple ad formats and objectives into single campaigns to drive demand and action.
Take your products from just out to sold out: see how Sephora did it
Sephora implemented a full-funnel strategy on TikTok to generate brand awareness and increase online sales for their new line in Spain. 60% of their budget for this campaign was allocated to increasing reach, with a first phase focusing on TikTok's Top Feed Ad product, which was enhanced using the Pop Out Showcase Interactive Add-On. This was followed by a consideration phase, which featured In-Feed Ads optimised for video views and landing page views objectives supported by TikTok's Display Card Add-On.
The campaign's final phase focused on conversions and utilised TikTok's newest conversion product, Video Shopping Ads. The brand optimised its ads towards high purchase intent and directed their target audience directly to the product catalogue to encourage purchasing.
Thanks to this strategy, Sephora's campaign achieved their best ROAS results to date. The total number of complete payments increased by 40% when compared to similar campaigns run by the brand, and there was a 29% decrease in cost-per-action.
Brand takeaway:
Bundle multiple ad formats to drive impact
Use premium placements such as Top View & Pulse to maximise awareness on launch day
Leverage Reach & Frequency buying to deliver maximum reach and awareness
Get game-changing results with an always-on strategy: see how PureGym did it
PureGym wanted to increase consumer consideration and grow its member base, all while reducing its cost per acquisition. Knowing that the most successful content on TikTok is content that is created specifically for the platform, the brand utilised the TikTok Creative Exchange Programme to develop 20 pieces of creator-led content that leveraged trending sounds, special effects and Interactive Add-Ons. The brand then developed a full-funnel always-on strategy consisting of reach, traffic and conversion campaigns that utilised a suite of ad solutions including In-Feed Ads and Spark Ads.
The campaign reached more than 10.9 million people in the UK, delivering over 173 million video views and over 26,000 new joiners to the gym, and as a direct result of their test-and-learn approach, PureGym reduced their cost-per-completed-payment by 77%. PureGym proved that an always-on approach and the right mix of ad formats are key to driving long-term success on the platform and real business results.
Brand takeaway:
Run campaigns for longer periods to see the best results
Utilise a nurture strategy, rather than optimising directly for conversions
Scale budgets over time as performance improves
Harness the seasonal shopping state of mind: see how ghd did it
ghd France wanted to capitalise on the holiday season and drive qualified traffic and sales to their website. The brand initially implemented a nurturing phase in order to gain awareness on their special offer using TikTok's In-Feed Ad solution.
Once this top-funnel phase was over, ghd France utilised Video Shopping Ads (VSA) with an efficient retargeting system to pinpoint users who had visited the ghd France website and/or added a product to their basket. The VSA format includes a CTA on the creatives that either leads users to the advertiser's website or to their product catalog. By doing this, advertisers significantly improve the quality and speed of the shopping experience and are more likely to drive sales.
This campaign was a success for ghd France, driving a 4.88x increase in conversions, an 80% reduction in cost per acquisition and an impressive return on ad spend of 23x.
Brand takeaway:
Build audiences in advance, giving them time to scale
Start campaigns early, to pick up on demand
Incorporate learnings from past campaigns
There's a TikTok solution for every objective
Our solutions enable brands to combine creative entertainment and commerce across the entire marketing funnel, powering a seamless customer journey from discovery to purchase and beyond. Find the solutions that work for your campaign here.
To read more about the impact short-form video platforms like TikTok have across the marketing funnel, dive into this report from research organisation WARC.