According to the latest findings from Insider Intelligence (formerly eMarketer), TikTok is on track to triple its ad revenue this year, surpassing the revenue of Twitter and Snap combined,

TikTok’s ad revenue is expected to triple to $11.64 billion from $3.88 billion in 2021, dwarfing Twitter and Snapchat at $5.58 billion and $4.86 billion, respectively. Insider Intelligence forecasts TikTok’s worldwide ad revenue could hit $23.58 billion by 2024.

Debra Aho Williamson, Insider Intelligence principal analyst via The Wrap

“It has moved well beyond its roots as a lip-syncing and dancing app; it creates trends and fosters deep connections with creators that keep users engaged, video after video. Advertisers want to reach a passionate, dedicated audience, and TikTok can deliver that”

As stated by Insider Intelligence, TikTok’s unique role in trend-making is a crucial part of its secret sauce. Rather excitingly for advertisers, TikTok is now opening this up with its latest ad release TikTok Pulse.

What is TikTok Pulse?

TikTok Pulse lets marketers place ads next to top-performing content in the For You Feed and be a part of the videos and movements that have made TikTok such an attractive place for over a billion users.

TikTok Newsroom

“TikTok Pulse places brands at the heart of TikTok communities and alongside the trending content that is driving conversation and action.

“On TikTok, moments lead to movements, and brands can now tap into these moments as they happen on the platform.”

Place your brand next to top content

At the most basic level, businesses will be able to place ads next to the top 4% of all videos on TikTok and use that exposure to drive engagement and actions with these communities.

That will mean every ad is almost guaranteed to get maximum views because it will appear next to trending, popular content.

There are 12 categories of Pulse to which brands can place ads, ranging from beauty and fashion to cooking and gaming.

With a wide range of categories available to marketers, brands will be able to take advantage of “an unparalleled opportunity to engage with the communities that matter most to brands,” says TikTok.

A serious monetisation pathway

Despite dominating total time spent metrics, TikTok is falling behind on content monetisation.

Pulse is designed to provide new revenue-share opportunities for its creators, who currently have to organise separate deals for themselves.

TikTok Newsroom

“With TikTok Pulse, we will begin exploring our first advertising revenue share program with creators, public figures and media publishers. Creators and publishers with at least 100k followers will be eligible in the initial stage of this program.

We’re focused on developing monetisation solutions in available markets so that creators feel valued and rewarded on TikTok.”

Revenue will be shared 50/50 with creators, so there could be some decent wedge to be made here.

Paying high performing creators more will increase the chance they stay with the app instead of drifting off to its rivals. That will keep audiences coming back, which will pull brands and advertising dollars with it.

Brand benefits

With 12 categories, the chances are you’ll find a place to put your ads that resonates with the intended audience and lets you hit your goals.

However, TikTok is playing it a little cool with its brand categories. Despite announcing 12 categories, TikTok only named five:

• Beauty and personal care.
• Fashion.
• Gaming.
• Automotive.
• Cooking and Baking.

So it’ll be up to marketers to look into Pulse to see how suitable it would be for them, or perhaps TikTok will let us know what the rest of the categories are in due course.

How about brand safety?

Brand safety questions should be top-of-mind for any marketer looking to invest in social media ads, and TikTok has moved to address concerns early.

It says there’s a range of measures designed to stop brand content from appearing next to anything unsavoury. A proprietary inventory filter stops TikTok Pulse ads from running next to content that could damage your reputation. At the same time, post-campaign measurement tools like third party brand suitability and viewability verification let marketers analyse and dig deeper into the impact of campaigns.

To be fair, all social networks claim to offer this kind of protection, yet bad inventory always manages to slip through. Therefore, as always, brand safety is something that cannot be left to platforms only; the buck ultimately stops with brands themselves. Sadly.