TikTok Marketing in 2025: Tips, Examples (+ Downloadable Guide)

TikTok is a unique social channel embraced across generations, with over 955 million monthly active users in 2025. Usage is expected to grow by 98% within the next four years, reaching a projected global total of 1.9 billion by 2029. While Gen Z is the most active on TikTok, brands can use TikTok marketing to interact with and hook all types of demographics.

Despite its immense potential for enhancing brand visibility, driving web traffic and increasing sales, it's worth noting that, as of 2024, only 28% of marketers worldwide are incorporating the platform into their marketing strategy.

TikTok's rapid growth makes it a game-changing opportunity in digital marketing. Read on to gain a deeper understanding of the platform and learn how to craft a TikTok marketing strategy that can boost brand awareness and drive sales.

TikTok marketing involves strategically using the platform to promote your brand through engaging short-form videos, paid advertising, influencer campaigns, user-generated content and integrating e-commerce strategies. TikTok is a powerful marketing tool for brands, influencers and creators alike. It offers a dynamic way to reach younger, highly engaged audiences while showcasing brand personality and creativity. 

Successful marketing on TikTok starts with knowing the platform inside and out — from how users interact to the trends and culture that shape its content.

The benefits and opportunities TikTok poses to brands go above and beyond the above mentioned tactics. Let’s dive deeper into some additional benefits of marketing on TikTok that you may not have considered before.

• Massive global reach: TikTok is one of the most widely used apps in the entire world, meaning it allows you to reach a global audience, target various demographics and, most importantly, build on and expand your community. 
• Easier content and product discovery: Compared to other channels like Instagram or Facebook, TikTok emphasizes easier content and product discovery by acting almost as a search engine and having the capability to direct sales through e-commerce features like TikTok Shop. 
•  Virality potential: TikTok's sheer virality and trend-driven nature make it an excellent opportunity for brands to try out authentic, creative and relatable content. The kind they may not typically share on other platforms or that doesn’t alig​​n with more traditional strategies. 
• Diverse marketing options: One of the best things about TikTok is that there’s no single formula for success. This makes the platform the perfect playground for brands and allows them to test out different types of content to see what sticks. 
• Cost-effective growth: TikTok is a highly cost-effective social media platform, thanks to the strong performance of both organic and paid content. Specifically, organic reach and creator partnerships are no-to-low budget tactics that continue to see results on the platform. 

The rapid-paced, entertainment-focused content on TikTok is redefining what users want to see from brands. Brands can showcase a different side of themselves on TikTok compared to their portrayal on other socials like Instagram. These benefits and more make TikTok marketing a valuable and necessary tool for enhancing brand visibility and increasing sales. 

To kick off your marketing on TikTok efforts, your brand needs a Business or Creator account. But which one should you choose? It’s pretty straightforward: Business accounts are for brands and organizations, while Creator accounts are for individuals and influencers. If you’re reading this, chances are a TikTok Business account is the right fit for you. Luckily, setting up your new Business account is one of the most manageable parts of TikTok marketing. Here’s how to get started, step-by-step: 

• Step 1: Download the TikTok app
• Step 2: Create or log into your account and go to your profile
• Step 3: Open Settings and Privacy and go to to 'Account'
• Step 4: Click 'Switch to Business Account'
• Step 5: Choose a business category and fill in the necessary fields

Congratulations! With your new TikTok Business account set up, your brand is officially ready to execute the perfect TikTok marketing strategy.

Leveraging TikTok to drive brand engagement and growth is a powerful strategy for both established brands and those just starting out. With the right approach, your growth on TikTok can be both impactful and rewarding, especially when you consider the following factors while shaping your strategy.

1. Define Your Purpose and Research Your Audience

First and foremost, think about your ‘why’ for showing up on TikTok. Audiences flock to short-form video to see their favorite creators and brands showcase authentic, inspiring, educational and funny content. It’s important to determine which types of content you want to create, and knowing your audience will help you do exactly that. Look into what kinds of content land with your target audience. You can do this in a few different ways. Still, performing a competitive analysis remains the most powerful way to see how various types of content work for competitors with similar audiences. These competitive insights will help you get a starting point for what works and what doesn’t.

2. Lean Into Trends (But Make Them Your Own)

Jumping on trends and contributing to the conversation is one of the most important things to pay attention to when figuring out how to market on TikTok and building your strategy. Keep a close eye on what’s trending on the For You and Discovery pages and tailor content to fit your brand identity. There’s always an opportunity to boost your reach; it's all about tapping into trends creatively and authentically. This could be as simple as doing a stitch or a duet of a popular video.

3. Use Captions and On-Screen Text

While it may seem obvious, captions and on-screen text are extremely important elements of a successful TikTok marketing strategy, and for good reason. First, they improve social media accessibility, ensuring your content can be understood by a broader audience, including those with hearing impairments or watching without sound. Second, they offer a way to add context or clarify messaging without overwhelming the visuals or pacing of your video. This is especially useful when aiming to make a short, entertaining video and don’t want your content bogged down with distracting details or lengthy explanations.

4. Keep It Short and Snappy - Hook Viewers in the First 3 Seconds

TikTok is designed around scrolling from video to video; you only have a few seconds to make a first impression on your viewer. Your content needs to be front-loaded with entertainment to stop people from scrolling past and keep them focused on your brand.‍

Be strategic when filming or creating content, knowing that the first couple of seconds must have some element of surprise, a compelling question or even a strong visual to keep users engaged and from just scrolling past.  

5. Showcase Real People and UGC

Leverage TikTok to grow your brand voice through authentic product reviews and user-generated content (UGC). There is no better way to garner engagement and skyrocket content performance than featuring the very people you’re targeting. UGC works because it’s real. Viewers love content that’s relatable, attainable and created by people like them. It shows that your brand is listening and values its community. On TikTok, that kind of authenticity and appreciation go a long way. 

6. Post Consistently

Consistency is key to success on TikTok. But what are you supposed to post? When considering short-form videos, the focus should be on audience enjoyment. This means you have the opportunity to experiment, take risks and have fun with new types of videos you’ve never made before. Some content that is known to be top-performing includes footage of campaign shoots, influencers unboxing products, lip-syncing to relatable sounds and employees having fun on the job. Lo-fi content is a perfect opportunity to show your audience what goes into building your brand. Offer behind-the-scenes impressions of what your brand and its projects are like; this type of content will always be a hit.

If you need some more inspiration, video editing apps like TikTok's own video editing tool have many native effects that you can use to enhance your content and make it more attractive to audiences. Have fun with stickers or emojis to create fun and trendy videos or describe what’s going on with text. Experiment with the effects to see what resonates most with your audience and drives the highest engagement for your brand.

7. Use Hashtags Strategically

Gone are the days when you try to fit as many hashtags into a caption as you can. Overloading posts with too many hashtags not only looks spammy, it can actually hurt your chances of reaching the right audience. Instead, use highly specific hashtags that relate directly to your brand and content. Brands should also use TikTok SEO strategies to optimize their content with hashtags, encouraging users to find their account and increase the chances it appears on the For You Page. And while we’re on the topic of the FYP, using #FYP (or any other variation of the term) does not increase your chances of landing on it, no matter how many times you use it, so it's better to omit it altogether. 

8. Utilize TikTok Advertising 

One of the most effective ways for brands to elevate their TikTok marketing strategy is by leveraging TikTok advertising. With TikTok’s massive and highly engaged user base, the potential to connect with the right audience is virtually limitless. In-feed ads are simply TikTok ads that appear as users scroll through the app — you can enhance these with interactive add-ons, like stickers or pop-ups. In contrast, Branded Mission ads let you harness your creator partnerships and efficiently work with influencers to produce videos your brand can use to promote branded hashtags, campaigns and more. TopView, Spark, Branded Effect and Promote ads are just a few of the versatile ad formats available on TikTok to target your audience in different and unique ways. 

9. Test and Learn with Analytics

Creating beautiful content that gets you noticed is the goal, but it’s the data that lets you know how it landed. By regularly reviewing your TikTok analytics, you can identify which posts are driving the most reach, views and shares. With a Business account, you also gain access to deeper insights like engagement metrics, helping you understand what truly resonates with your audience. Analytics can also help inform the best time to post on TikTok, so you can figure out when audiences will engage with your content the most. Look for patterns among your top-performing posts to help inform your strategy for curating a high-performing and visually pleasing feed.

10. Collaborate with Creators

Influencer marketing has evolved into a creator-driven space, and consumers are now looking for content on TikTok that entertains and educates from their favorite influencers. Your brand should reinvigorate its TikTok influencer strategy by working with creators who can bring your message to life in meaningful ways. Just as you would with any other channel, segment your TikTok creator content to see which influencers drive the best results and ROI.

While some people learn by doing, others learn by seeing. And there is no better way to learn how to market on TikTok than through some of the brands that are doing it the best. Here are a few of our favorite examples to inspire your own strategy. 

BÉIS

Founded in 2018 by Shay Mitchell, BÉIS is one of the most popular brands on TikTok. The brand's feed is full of trending sounds, product demos, launch announcements and so much more. Designed to keep their audience hooked and engaged, BÉIS unlocked the secret to success on TikTok by keeping a close eye on their competitors with Dash Social’s Competitive Insights. The brand knows it must stay on top of industry trends and benchmark its performance against the best of the best in order to come out on top on TikTok. 

Learn more about how BÉIS uses competitor data and its TikTok strategy

eos

Eos has been a pillar in the skin and body care industry for decades, so it’s no surprise their TikTok is locked and loaded with the exact content their users want to see, whether it be product comparisons or funny meme content. The brand's particular focus on community building is what has allowed them to have products go viral and, more importantly, has shown them where they need to focus and optimize their TikTok campaigns. The brand uses data from Dash Social’s Community Manager feature to drive sales, boost brand visibility and identify niche communities. 

Read how eos uses community insights to harness their TikTok audience

Urban Outfitters 

Urban Outfitters is the type of brand that has always been ahead of the curve, both with its products and its approach to marketing on TikTok. While at first glance, their feed may seem unassuming, it’s meticulously planned to break through the algorithm with clothing try-ons, exclusive behind the scenes and popular creators in just about every post. UO leverages Dash Social’s TikTok UGC to ensure they never miss a post or an opportunity to show the TikTok algorithm who’s boss. 

Discover how Urban Outfitters uses the TikTok algorithm to their advantage

Having the right tool can make marketing on TikTok that much easier. Here are three top-rated tools that thousands of social media managers use for TikTok marketing every day. 

Dash Social

Dash Social offers an all-in-one TikTok Insights solution that houses a suite of features to simplify understanding your audience and marketing on TikTok. Brands can expect a top-notch link-in-bio, Scheduler (with the best time to post), content calendar, performance predictions and Competitive Insights. Additionally, brands have access to features like Trending Sounds, which is regularly updated to help brands stay on top of what’s trending, and the aforementioned TikTok UGC feature, which allows brands to quickly and easily source UGC, measure impact and increase engagement. 

With an unlimited number of users, teams of any size can use Dash Social’s TikTok Insights to access elevated reporting and exclusive solutions to inform and monetize your TikTok marketing strategy and campaigns.

TikTok Business Center

TikTok Business Center is TikTok’s in-house management tool. Within the platform, brands can manage and access their advertising efforts, creator partnerships and commerce functionalities. The TikTok Business Center is built to be a collaborative space for teams, allowing them to create, share, track the performance of and optimize campaigns all in one place. TikTok Creator Marketplace and TikTok Promote are other tools available within the platform to help brands excel at marketing on TikTok. 

Iconosquare 

Iconosquare lets brands manage multiple TikTok accounts, analyze content performance, generate reports, engage with their audience and collaborate with their team. Iconosquare can be used to schedule TikTok posts, identify optimal posting times and overall enhance your TikTok strategy with access to over 30 different types of performance metrics.

How long should a TikTok video be?

TikTok videos can be between 1 second and 3 minutes long; however, they should typically be between 10 and 15 seconds long for optimal performance. Ideally, you want your videos to reach the point quickly to stop viewers from moving on to the next.

How often should I post on TikTok?

Similar to other social media platforms, TikTok recommends posting 3-5 times per week. Posting at a cadence less than that makes it difficult for your brand to be discovered in the TikTok algorithm. Posting more than five times per week may be too much for some followers. If you want your content seen by more people, consider investing in TikTok ads.

How many hashtags should I use on TikTok?

According to TikTok, sticking to 2-3 hashtags helps your posts perform best, and no, using #fyp won’t increase your chances of hitting the For You Page. The TikTok algorithm is difficult to predict, but you’re better off using hashtags more relevant to your post to find your ideal target audience.

What aspect ratio should TikTok videos be?

Your TikTok videos should have 9:16 dimensions and a full-screen, vertical, 1920 x 1080 crop. You can play around with the size, but your video will either not take up the whole screen or the top and bottom will get cut off, so it’s best to stick with the aspect ratio native to the channel during video editing.