TikTok Isn’t Meta How to Create Platform Native Ads That Actually Perform

All right, Creative Con. Let's be honest here. Too many brands are still treating Tik Tok like it's meta, but just with trending sounds. You've seen the playbook.

Grab your best on Facebook ad, add a caption, maybe a trending audio, hit upload, and then you know, you're left wondering why your latest ad just tanked. Our next speaker is here to set the record straight. She's the VP of social commerce over at Instant Hydration, where she's helping turning platform native creative into some serious performance. Phoenix has seen firsthand what separates the brands that fade into the feed from the ones that, you know, actually stand out.

She's here to teach you how to create ads that actually belong on Tik Tok. So, if you're ready to stop copy and pasting and start creating with intent, this session is for you. Welcome to the Creative Con stage, Phoenix. Ha.

Hey guys, I am so excited to be here to talk about Tik Tok, what's working, what isn't working, and the biggest misconception that meta and Tik Tok are the same thing. And if you did media buying in meta, you're probably going to succeed in Tik Tok. Let's just really just unveil that curtain together. But I am so so pumped to dive right in.

First, I think it's pretty important to know who's talking to you. So again, I'm Phoenix. Um I have a pretty eclectic background in marketing. It actually first started in modeling where I learned more about supply chain and just the business in general, as well as runway and print, but then dove in during a very interesting and unique era of creative marketing and creative agencies.

So PR, experiential marketing, influencer marketing. I dove right in and launched brands like Impossible Foods and worked with like Nike, Keen, and it was so much fun cuz we were brokering deals with influencers and those brands and really growing them from the ground up until I went to Supra and I was learning so much about in-house in brand, how it worked, managing budgets and getting really scrappy of how to bring brand awareness to the table without spending an enormous amount of money. In doing so, we sold out collaborations pretty quickly with brands like Disney and Modell and small influencers to large collaborators, but then dove into the agency world. Became the director of paid media.

I became obsessive with data and learned how to read data, how to analyze it. And in that director paid media role was able to scale brands like Brixton, Safari Land, Foresight Sports, and so many more to incredible new heights just based off of paid media. So taking that creative background, mixing it with data was intoxicating. But what was crazy is iOS 14.5 had hit and we had to scramble.

So in such a weird and fun turn of events, I co-founded a platform called Ad Beacon, which is a first-party data tracking platform. Recently just joined Instant Hydration as the VP of social commerce. They are the fastest growing hydration product on the market and it is so exciting to be on board. As you can see, I'm creatively driven, but has to be proven by data.

And today we're going to talk about Tik Tok because I'm growing that side of the business, but also it all started with me actually being a creator. And I love to start with a little bit of story time. So this video speaks to the first viral video I ever did on Tik Tok as a user under Phoenix Haw. I literally was just talking about lemons.

And at the time during COVID, right, we had these lemons on the wall during CO like we couldn't speak to our neighbors. We had just moved in and our neighbors put lemons on the wall and I thought that was so sweet. So, I pulled the grapefruit off, sent it, and I thought, "This is like the most garbage piece of content I've ever done." And it hit 1.1 million views. If you're confused, don't worry.

I'm confused as well. But I wanted to like know why this happened. And my media buyer brain just kind of started going. And if you know anything about content, you know, series content does very well, especially on TikTok.

And therefore, the lemon saga commenced. So you see here we created five videos talking about lemons, different variations, me hopping the fence, grabbing the lemons, making lemon tarts, getting to know them. They ended up actually giving me a piano. It's like a whole thing, guys.

But it was so much fun. And doing that, yeah, it didn't create conversions, but I knew there was something here. So why didn't we start thinking about it with a media buyer brand? Why didn't we start doing hooks?

So I started AB testing like nobody's business. These are just a few videos that went viral on my platform. And keep in mind, my Tik Tok account did not go viral for being a specific persona or the girl that discovers things or Phoenix hot. No one knows who I am on this platform.

It shows and is a testament that the platform is primed for you to go viral in many different verticals. It does not hit the same rules as I would say Instagram does. Right? Instagram, we were known that you post X amount of times a day.

It has to be a specific niche. It has to be very aesthetically pleasing. Tik Tok is not like that. Tik Tok is a discovery app.

People want to feel like they discovered something on the platform. Whether it be a product, a service, a thought process, a trend, that's what they want. So with that mindset, this is what we built. On the lefth hand side is a a co video of just me testing.

Then we talk about a couple different videos here on products, services, etc. I want to show you what actually converted. Even though these went viral, so many converted. The ones that don't have the X's converted and had similar hooks.

So, I think it's important to dive in as to why. And I want you to think about why. If you want to know what these hooks are a little bit more in depth, at the end of my presentation, I have actually tagged myself. My entire TikTok is a case study on how to go viral, why I don't matter, and how interesting it is.

So, if you look at this one with me in a hat, it talks about how my tattoo artist was super kind to me because I bled on his chair. So, I have endometriosis, which is a condition that a lot of women, one in 10, go through, and we bleed excessively, right? Maybe a little too much information, but I think it's important to note that even that type of content hits because there's a demographic for it. And when we spoke about it, it went viral because it spoke to how caring he was, how kind he was, but then again, the series content because if you go on the second row, we talked about it again and he was booked out for 6 months.

Now, if you look up top with the jar, we'll talk about this one a little bit more in depth as I would say like the case study to focus on, but the hook for this is you can only have two scoops of this and good luck because it's so powerful. First of all, why can I only have two scoops of a yogurt? That's crazy. And what why is it so powerful?

What what is this? So, I don't actually go in depth to the science behind the yogurt. I don't go in depth with anything. I just say it tastes good, that I'm lactose intolerant, and it's great and it's alive.

That's coconut and it's made from coconut. That fascination drove the comment section to have interactions with each other, ask questions, and then I looped into the coconut yogurt team to be able to answer those questions, right? Because now it's an engaging dialogue. The next one over is just about alcoholic popsicles.

And just keep in mind, have you noticed that none of these videos have me full makeup and glam? I look busted. I look homeless. I look raw.

I look real. And that's something for you to understand is that Tik Tok again is a discovery app. You need to make it as seamless and easy as possible. Tik Tok shops been a little bit different, right?

And I'm speaking specifically to organic. Organic is discovery. Now people know ads are coming and they're a little bit more engaging. But if you want to go viral, if you really want to see how things work right off the bat before you start spending, really press into organic because that's how you learn how to win at the lowest cost possible.

So let's talk about why these wouldn't work as ads. So, first there's no CTA. There's no call to action, right? You know that the ethos behind an ad is a call to action.

But also, these ad markers for authenticity. So, if they see that it's an ad, they usually skip through it. They don't want to see it. So, again, that organic aspect of discovery and then there's no context.

So, if you threw this into meta, right, there'd be no context. They wouldn't know what you're talking about. They wouldn't care. This is native to Tik Tok.

And this is so important to know. So, if we dive in here, here's a little video about how the owner of the Coconut Colt is trying to keep up with all of the orders. >> Has been a whirlwind week here at the Coconut Colt. We have seen so many orders come in.

We are exhausted, but we are doing our best to keep up. We are making so much yogurt. It is exciting. Thank you for being so understanding.

We are trying to get all of your orders out as fast as we can. We are trying to get all of these Whole Foods and other grocery stores restocked as soon as we can. We're thrilled. >> You can see the date that I posted this and how it went viral with over 3 million views and only 7 days later they're trying to keep up with orders.

Again, this happens. This is a trickle effect. When one creator talks about a product that's hot, multiple creators start talking about that product and then it's just a snowball effect. That's the cool thing about Tik Tok.

People don't realize is when one person talks, multiple people talk, and then they learn hooks from others. This is so important. Start with organic. See what hits.

see what people are doing across the platform. Now, if you're trying to dive into Tik Tok, I think it's important to note that having a media buyer brain, understanding hooks is really going to help you, but you need to have somebody who's native to the platform that understands be effortlessly natural because that way you can double down on the organic side of things as well as what's trending on the platform. Instagram is so different than Tik Tok, right? And you have to remember that every step of the way.

Remember, content creators are not focused on metrics that we as media buyers are focused on. Content creators care about engagement, community, likes, follows, saves. They don't understand performance metrics, but they are still very important in the mix here. So, you need to be able to delve into content creators, but also the media buyer brain is extremely important.

They're driven by performance, revenue, profit margin, core, myrrh, CPC, CPM, CPAs, rorowaz. All of these live performance metrics are extremely important, but you need a hybrid of both. And this is, like I said, this is like a perfect depiction of how those two worlds merge together in order to ensure success. So, let me talk about meta and Tik Tok and how they're not the same.

I think many of you are going to go, "Yeah, Phoenix, that's obvious. Duh. I know this." But do you know this? Because I think having a visual of how different they are will give you the aha before you start spending money and thinking you're going to get a return.

If you are penny pinching every dollar, you have to understand why Tik Tok is an investment, but it has a huge amount of potential for footprint for long-term success. So, let's talk about the Meta ecosystem first and foremost. And mind you, don't forget I bought media off Meta for many, many years. So, this is like my bread and butter.

This is what I feel comfortable with and I'm still figuring out Tik Tok of like what is this? The first step is ads manager. So you know you have ads manager, you're sending traffic to the site. You can have static assets, video assets, carousel assets and usually they perform.

Back in the day you could throw some terrible creative up there and it would still get a return. But as time is going on and as consumers are smarter and smarter every day, they're not just going to take whatever ad comes their way. meta. You're starting to see CPMs rise.

You're starting to see CPCs rise. In this day and age of media buying, we know that LTV is king. We know that acquiring customers costs way more money and the content we put out has to hit. So, just having anything out there is not going to cut it anymore.

And then you have the organic social component. But Instagram and Facebook aren't what they used to be, right? You can still kind of go viral here and there, but it's all about aesthetics. It's not the same as it used to be.

the algorithm is continuously changing, not in our favor. So, you just have to remember that these are the two main aspects that you're thinking about when it comes to media buying or meta in general. But now, let's talk about the Tik Tok ecosystem. And this is something that I want you to buckle up for that I don't think many people realize in terms of complexity, and you have to prepare yourself.

So, yeah, there's organic social, which we just spoke to, but again, that algorithm is primed for you to go viral. I have so many different verticals in my Tik Tok account. Let's talk about this. I have housekeeper talk, probiotic talk, I have relationship talk with my husband and I.

I have book talk. So all these books that I'm discovering and again all these things about the Bachelor of the Bachelorette and no one knows who I am. There are hooks and different ways to go viral and that is something we need to go while the iron is hot strike. Then you've got the ads manager.

I mean yeah the ads manager is just like meta but it's so much more complex than you think. You can send traffic over to your site. Absolutely. It could be lead genen, it can be conversion campaigns, but what you're not accounting for is GMV Max.

GMV Max is going to be another arm of the ads manager. You can't create campaigns anymore in the ads manager directing traffic to your Tik Tok shop. That's all going to be GMV Max. And what GMV Max is is purely AI.

It's going to pull all the content, organic content, all the stuff that you put out there. People are talking about you and you they've authorized you to use as ads. It'll pull it and it'll start spending based off of what metrics you want. Think of it like the ASC of meta to Tik Tok, but so much different as it's userenerated content that's tagged and it's all algorithm based in terms of organic.

Tik Tok shop is its own ecosystem, guys. It is not what you would think of like a meta shops. No, no, no. Not even close.

It is so much more complex. product listings, how you showcase those products. You are going to get penalized based off of how well or how poorly it does in terms of engagement. You're going to get penalized based off of reviews.

You're going to get penalized based off of anything and under the sun because they want consumers to have the best experience possible. The first thought most people have when they think about Tik Tok shop is like teu, right? They think that it's like a sketchy platform. They don't feel confident to buy.

So Tik Tok's working very hard to be able to make people feel trustworthy on the platform and that they're looking out for the consumer. So don't look at Tik Tok shop as an easy win. It is not an easy win, but it has a lot of reward. Now here's another component we don't think about the affiliate hub.

Have you ever seen those ads that have the little orange shopping cart in the lefthand corner where it tells you to shop, to buy, etc.? Now think about this. Instead of paying retainers, which in some degrees you can, imagine just gifting your product to all these creators, having a set aside budget for this, have them talk about it, and now you have content all across the platform talking your brand, and they can pay. There's commission structures, there's gamification.

There's so much to this. This is like a community manager. It's not that simple, but again, people are going to talk about you. And if more creators see that other creators are making money, naturally, they want to make money as well.

So, they're going to hop on board. They want to test your product. They want to get a free sample. This is probably one of the most important parts of Tik Tok shop people don't think about.

They think they can just dump money towards the biggest creators and call it a day. No, no. The microcreators, there's gold in here. And you need to be able to find the right ratio between GMBB Max, Ads Manager, and also the affiliate hub.

And this is another side I don't think many people realize is there are subscription capabilities, sure, in Tik Tok shop if you qualify, but also there's marketing automation. Now think about email. The idea of email and SMS in Tik Tok shop. They have segments already prepared in there for you to engage with existing customers or customers that haven't bought or high intent customers etc.

You can DM them and it's free. It's not an extra cost. You can create systems and flows to be able to re-engage with these people for lowhanging fruit. That is crazy.

I have never seen that before. And in doing so, you're going to be able to pick up the pieces where you left off at a much cheaper cost to yourself. Again, Tik Tok wants to incentivize us to spend. And the last component that people don't think about is customer support.

So customer support is not just like answering DMs. You are graded on SEAT scores. Just like your website, just just like any other platform that has heavy weight behind it. If you have poor reviews, your listing could be taken down or penalized.

If you don't respond within a certain amount of time, you will be penalized. And when you're penalized, capabilities and viewership and engagement of your product listing will go down. You will get you will get hurt. So unless you're able to fulfill, unless you're able to support the side of it, it is just as important as any other side of the business.

I had to learn the hard way for everybody. I'm just telling you right now that these six components in Tik Tok shop are things to consider aside from what you would normally do in Meta. So would you approach this the same way? I am going to beat this drum until I am blew in the face.

But it is so important because I want to make sure that you guys are set up for success. Prepare to spend. Prepare to spend quite a bit of money. It's not an easy lift.

It takes a lot of time to get through it. But think about the brand awareness and the halo effect it could potentially have to Amazon, to your website, to everything. I talked about LTV being what hits the hardest and how brand notoriety and brand loyalty is the most important thing. And if you can make it win on Tik Tok, you're setting yourself for long-term success and not just short-term profitability.

The next thing is prepare a content flow. If you're thinking of posting once a week, this is not the platform for you. You need as much content as possible and you need to take over. If you're ready for that, again, reap the rewards.

But it's so important to know what you're getting yourself into. And when we're analyzing what works and what doesn't work, prepare for that flow. All right, guys. We went over a lot today.

and we went over a lot of what works, what probably doesn't work, and hopefully you have enough takeaways to just at least get started. I put together my LinkedIn, my Twitter and or ex handles, as well as my Tik Tok handle, which is that case study. I hope this was helpful. It has been a blast being here.

Have a great rest of your week,