TikTok Follows Facebook's Lead With Lead Gen Ads 

TikTok is at it again. Not content with its four new ad formats, the short-form video giant has announced another new update that’ll get brands and marketers excited.

Advertisers can now gain a clearer idea of their next customer via a Lead Generation ad option, which could lead to higher rates of organic engagement and increased revenue.

Lead Generation is being marketed at all business types and is designed to help convert potentials into paying customers. It will live within an in-feed video ad that is connected to an instant form.

Each video must include a call-to-action, and when that CTA is tapped, TikTok will pull up an instant form that will allow users to fill out their information.

TikTok for Business

“Lead Generation starts by making it easy for users to fill out a form and provide their information (e.g. Name, Email, Phone) in order to signal their interest in that particular product or service.

“Additionally, basic information that our users provide to TikTok can also be automatically populated for an efficient experience between the business and user.”

Information forms can be customised with a bespoke background imagine, profile image, and questions that will let brands stay on message and produce properly branded content.

Data is the cornerstone of intelligent marketing, and you’ll be able to get your mitts on all of the stuff you collect, thanks to the Lead Generation forms. When each one is filled out, the info is stored on TikTok and can be downloaded as needed.

Fully integrate with CRM

It could be integrated with your CRM and then used in a hundred different creative ways – if that’s how you want to roll with it.

This could also be a nifty little way to offset some of the damage that Apple’s iOS14.5 update will cause as this data will be collected directly and not via a third-party app.

Brands are experiencing success with this new tool

There are already a few examples of how brands have managed to use Lead Generation forms to benefit their business.

• Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Lazada managed to convert 47% of the leads it generated via TikTok’s new feature.
• Nina Ricci promoted its latest fragrance using Lead Generation to reach new customers and drive conversions. Nina Ricci allowed TikTok users to request a free sample of their new smell via a Lead Generation form. The campaign ran for one day and finished with a 41.85% conversion rate, a 1.5% click-through rate and an 83% reduction in cost per lead.

While these are only two success stories, there’s clearly some legs in this new ad format for brands who are willing to get creative and experiment a little bit. Plus, lead gen ads have been available in Facebook, YouTube & LinkedIn for some time and can work well at times, so the concept is hardly unique.

As always, the key to success on TikTok is to stay fun, snappy and shareable.

There’s a number of good things about this ad type:

• Built for mobile and users won’t have to leave TikTok to fill out the forms.
• Fields can be pre-populated based on the information TikTok already has on users.
• Forms are customisable.
• Data can be accessed instantly.
• These ads can be sent to a focused audience.

The feature can be applied differently across various industries. For example, entertainment companies could drive free trials or pre-sale tickets. Retailers could entice more people into their loyalty programs; education providers could share course information or drive traffic to a website, while vehicle salesrooms could sign people up for test drivers or events.

TikTok is now unavoidable

TikTok is huge, and businesses should be thinking hard about advertising on the platform. It topped the April 2021 download charts for non-games with around 59 million installs.

It’s continued to grow despite competition from clones such as YouTube’s Shorts, Snapchat’s Spotlight and Instagram’s Reels. TikTok is well placed to become a billion-user platform in 2021.

That’s a lot of potential leads.