Alexis Kestler
Influencer marketing has become an essential pillar of digital strategies. And no platform offers more influencer marketing potential right now than TikTok.
With over 1 billion monthly active users – over half under age 30 – TikTok provides unmatched access to young audiences. What‘s more, users spend an average of 52 minutes per day on the app, making it one of the most engaging platforms.
For brands, partnering with TikTok influencers represents a major growth opportunity. The ability for creators to make short, entertaining videos with viral potential allows brands to tap into pop culture in an authentic way.
However, finding the right TikTok influencers that align with your niche and brand values can be challenging.
In this comprehensive guide as a social media marketing expert, I‘ll share:
- Key stats showcasing TikTok‘s influencer marketing opportunities
- My top tips for manually finding quality TikTok influencers
- The 5 best TikTok influencer marketing platforms
Let‘s dive in…
Why TikTok Influencer Marketing is Powerful
There are several key reasons why TikTok influencer marketing can be so impactful:
1. Massive Young User Base
As mentioned, over 50% of TikTok’s users are under 30 years old. This provides brands access to the highly sought-after Gen Z and young Millennial demographics.
Compare that to Facebook, where only 31% of users are aged 18-29. TikTok provides unmatched reach to young audiences.
And according to a GlobalWebIndex report, users also spend an average of 52 minutes per day on TikTok. This is higher than rivals like Instagram (30 mins/day) and Facebook (38 mins/day).
With a young, highly engaged audience, TikTok is capturing attention and eyeballs – making it attractive for brands.
2. Viral Content Potential
The short video format and sophisticated "For You" algorithm allow organic content to go viral exponentially faster than other platforms.
Hashtag challenges, reposting features and entertaining effects let influencer content be widely shared and seen by a massive audience.
This gives creators skilled at making thumb-stopping videos major influence over what trends and becomes pop culture.
Brands partnering with the right TikTok influencers are able tap into this viral potential. According to marketing firm Oberlo, the average sponsored TikTok video gets over 50,000 views. Compare that to just a few thousand views on average for sponsored Instagram posts.
Thisexponential reach makes influencer marketing extremely cost-efficient on TikTok compared to other platforms.
3. Authenticity Resonates
The genuine, raw content style on TikTok lends itself perfectly to authentic influencer marketing.
Viewers see influencers as more akin to "friends" than celebrities – establishing trust and connection. Creators often feel the same way, preferring to partner only with brands they actually use and believe in.
This leads to authentic branded content that entertains first while seamlessly integrating messaging – creating positive brand impressions and affinity.
4. Marketing Still In Its Infancy
As a relatively new platform, TikTok is still establishing its advertising products and capabilities. This leaves major gaps where influencer marketing can fill demand.
According to a recent poll by MarketingCharts, over 80% of marketers plan to leverage TikTok influencers more this year. And rightfully so – its proven to be one of the most cost-effective customer acquisition strategies on TikTok right now.
For startups and small brands especially, focusing efforts on influencer campaigns makes sense while paid advertising capabilities grow more robust.
Overall, various factors make TikTok influencer marketing an extremely valuable channel right now from audience reach to cost efficiencies.
Next, let‘s explore strategies for manually finding quality TikTok influencers.
7 Tactics for Finding TikTok Influencers
The following are my top 7 proven tactics for manually discovering and vetting TikTok influencers:
1. Target Related Hashtags and Keywords
One of the quickest ways to find niche-specific creators is searching directly for relevant hashtags and keywords.
For example, a jewelry brand could target keyword searches like:
- #jewelry
- #jewelrytiktok
- #jewelryinfluencer
Assess the engagement levels of videos and credibility of creators surfacing in the results. Make sure to click through to vet full profiles assessing followers, likes, shares and overall influence/authority on topics important to your brand.
2. Competitor Analysis
Research which influencers your competitors are actively partnering and collaborating with. Changes are these creators align closely with your brand as well.
Big brands often have public-facing “Creator Networks” showcasing the influencers they work with across social platforms like TikTok.
For example, here are the [official brand ambassadors for Tarte Cosmetics] on TikTok. Many beauty brands take this official ambassador approach, publicly aligning with creators.
Smaller brands may promote collaborations less publicly. However reviews of recent TikTok campaigns may indicate creators they’ve partnered with in recent months.
3. Emerging Micro Influencers
Pay attention to emerging influencers driving engagement even if they don’t yet have huge followings.
The TikTok algorithm makes it possible for nano and micro influencers to go viral and gain tens of thousands of engaged followers quickly.
See which middle-tier creators consistently get high comment sentiment and shares relative to their follower size. They likely have special ability to engage and connect with audiences primed for exponential growth.
While their followings remain "micro" for now, the TikTok algorithm could easily propel them into macro status soon. Smart brands get in early and become the first to partner while their rates remain affordable.
4. TikTok LIVE Creators
TikTok LIVE allows influencers to live stream themselves in real-time to followers.
The TikTok LIVE section makes it easy to see who is currently streaming in various categories. Tap into live streams relevant to your niche.
Assess the creator‘s authority and influence through measures like concurrent viewers, profile visits and viewer comments. Gauging real-time engagement provides unique insights versus simpler metrics like followers or video views alone.
5. Leverage Multi-Channel Creators
Relevant influencers on platforms like Instagram or YouTube likely also create TikTok content worth leveraging, especially if audiences overlap.
Repurpose existing YouTube videos as TikTok ads, reshare Instagram content or run integrated campaigns leveraging multiple channels.
According to Annalect data, [over 93% of creators are now multi-platform]. Ensure any influencer partnerships activate content across the channels your audience uses most.
6. Check Your Own Followers
Don’t forget to check if any of your own brand‘s existing TikTok followers have influencer potential themselves.
Sort your followers by engagement and loyalty. Any standouts likely also influence broader audiences. Explore if they might be a fit for influencer campaigns.
These followers-turned-brand-advocates can make great partners having already organically engaged with your content and offers.
7. Manual Competitive Content Research
My last tip is manually digging through niche or competitor hashtags assessing the types of videos performing best.
Sort TikTok search results by engagement and notice any distinct trends around video style, topics and angles that seem most engaging.
Research what specific creators in your niche have recently gone viral – assessing what about their content style, format or messaging aligned so strongly.
These insights allow informing influencer briefs and content direction to maximize engagement.
While manual research is possible, influencer marketing platforms automate discovery at scale using advanced filtering and matching. Let‘s explore the top platforms…
Top 5 TikTok Influencer Marketing Platforms
Here are the top influencer marketing platforms for easily discovering and activating TikTok influencers:
1. AspireIQ
[AspireIQ] is a dedicated TikTok influencer discovery platform using advanced matching and vetting technology. Just define your target demographics and campaign objectives. AspireIQ scans over 500k TikTok influencers using machine learning, instantly surfacing the best matches.Comprehensive analytics empower further filtering based on historical performance data and audience demographics. AspireIQ also provides collaboration tools for seamless relationship building, content approvals and post-campaign insights reporting.
For brands invested exclusively in TikTok, AspireIQ simplifies influencer discovery and campaign management.
2. Upfluence
[Upfluence] enables influencer discovery across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Twitch. It provides brands self-serve access to a managed network over 120k creators in almost every niche.Filters let you narrow options by audience demographics, content performance stats, location, language and more. Campaign management features help track ROI while building long-term creator relationships.
Upfluence empowers mid-market brands to quickly activate multi-platform influencer campaigns.
3. Impact
[Impact] is an enterprise-level influencer marketing solution focused on sophisticated matching tools and in-depth analytics.Impact scans profiles of over 5 million creators globally across platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. Detailed reporting and tracking help optimize budget allocation to best performing creators and content.
Robust workflows also facilitate workflows of gifting, content approvals and automated payments. Customized performance benchmarks can trigger bonuses or fees based on partner delivery.
For large brands managing sizable, multi-channel influencer investments, Impact is a top choice.
4. Grin
[Grin] takes an eCommerce-first approach – seamlessly integrating influencers into product gifting, affiliate and loyalty programs.It provides automated influencer matching backed by network of over 30 million creators. Campaign dashboards track referral sales, traffic and conversions by creator in real-time. Customizable payout models ensure creators earn commissions from sales directly driven.
For direct-to-consumer brands focused on performance marketing, Grin accelerates influencer partnerships and ROI.
5. Klear
[Klear] is a robust influencer marketing platform focused on in-depth data and analytics. Klear scans over 7 million influencer profiles assessing historical performance and audience quality to identity brand suitable partners.A client dashboard centralizesrelationship management, communication, content approvals and payments. Performance tracking provides impression and engagement data along with demographic reporting for optimizing spending.
For brands that prioritize data-driven decisions, Klear delivers unmatched campaign insights and transparency.
Key Takeaways
Here are the core points covered in this guide:
- TikTok provides unmatched access to young, highly engaged audiences – making influencer marketing extremely powerful
- Viral content potential on TikTok allows brands to tap into pop culture and trends through creator partnerships
- Manual influencer discovery takes significant time and effort; leveraging platforms scales the process
- AspireIQ and Upfluence simplify influencer discovery and campaign management specifically for TikTok
- For large multipal-channel programs, Impact and Klear provide in-depth analytics and data
In closing, TikTok’s meteoric rise presents amazing influencer-driven growth opportunities for brands. But pinpointing and partnering with suitable creators is critical to success.
This guide explored tailored strategies for research along with leading influencer marketing platforms built specifically to simplify discovery and activation at scale.
Now over to you – what‘s your experience leveraging TikTok influencers? Which strategies or tools seem most valuable? I‘d love to hear your thoughts and feedback in the comments below!
