Once an app where kids danced and lip-synced, TikTok has now grown into one of the most influential social networks and content platforms. If you're still unsure whether it's the right fit for your brand, our guide will walk you through everything that’s key to successful TikTok marketing in 2025.
*Last edit: April, 24, 2025
With 1.59 billion active users worldwide, TikTok is a vibrant space where people connect and have fun, explore and stay informed, discover new things, and shop every day. That’s why more and more businesses are incorporating TikTok marketing into their strategies, trying to master TikTok’s now-famous algorithm, break through to the For You pages, and create ads that don’t feel like ads.
From a marketing and business perspective, the platform is especially interesting because it has opened up an entire range of new and different opportunities for video production, content marketing, and advertising. You don’t need expensive equipment or a huge following to succeed on TikTok. But you do need plenty of creativity and a solid understanding of TikTok culture.
So let’s dive in – what is TikTok, how does it work, and how can you use it in marketing?
Table of Contents:
- What is TikTok
- How Does TikTok Work?
- Who Uses TikTok?
- Content Creators on TikTok
- TikTok Marketing: What Kind of Content Should You Post?
- TikTok Marketing: How to Advertise?
What is TikTok?
TikTok is a social media platform for creating, sharing, and discovering video content.
Its famous “For You” page delivers a never-ending stream of hyper-personalized, curated video content and user-generated TikTok trends to each user. Oftentimes, TikTok trends spill onto other social media platforms and into mainstream culture as well.
A Brief History of TikTok
If you’re looking at the number of active monthly users, TikTok currently ranks fifth on the most popular apps in the world list. The lead goes to much older global veterans: Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and Google’s YouTube.
TikTok started as Douyin, a mobile app launched by the Beijing-based company ByteDance in 2016. Buoyed up by Douyin’s immediate popularity in China, ByteDance began its global expansion soon after. In September 2017, it launched TikTok, a version of Douyin for the global market, while keeping Douyin as a separate app for the Chinese market. (Douyin is still one of the most popular social media platforms in China.)
Other Chinese apps, such as WeChat, have not been nearly as successful internationally as TikTok.
Its huge push on the global scale came after ByteDance purchased Musical.ly in November 2017. Musical.ly, as a social media platform, has been around since 2014 and was known mostly for its fun and short lip-sync videos (up to 15 seconds long) where users would pretend to sing popular songs – in other words, lip-sync.
In August 2018 ByteDance merged Musical.ly and TikTok and kept the name of the latter. And while Musical.ly virtually ceased to exist, its formula of fun, bite-sized videos successfully carried over to TikTok, and the audience, especially the younger generation, responded incredibly well to the new-yet-familiar app.
Today, TikTok is considered one of the fastest-growing apps in the world and almost every competing social media platform has tried to copy its formula in one way or another.
However, TikTok has faced and is still facing great challenges, from a complete ban in India to the latest attempts to ban it in the U.S. This remains a current issue for the app.
How Does TikTok work?
When you open up a TikTok account, the first thing you’ll see by default is your designated For You feed. It’s the app’s main page, TikTok’s ‘it factor’, and a reason why TikTokers spend hours on the platform.
Why?
Because no For You page is the same. Each one is personalized, completely unique to every individual user, tailored to their interests and preferences.
The Famous Algorithm
A For You feed reflects how TikTok’s algorithm works. It is a highly personalized content recommendation system. It collects various signals from each user when they interact with content on TikTok. Based on a particular user’s interactions, the algorithm can quickly predict what other content the user might be interested in.
There are many factors or signals that will determine what kind of content you will see on your For You page. The most important ones are:
- your interactions with the content, for example, what videos you liked, commented on, shared, and especially how much time you spent watching a video (did you complete and watched it more than once)
- negative interactions with the content, for example, if you checked “not interested” on a video, immediately skipped it, clicked on the “hide” option etc.
- information about the video itself, for example, what was the main topic of the video (TikTok’s algorithm looks for keywords in the caption, title, hashtags, and subtitles to categorize videos by topics)
- your location, language preferences as well as accounts that you follow
- audio and effects you used in your video (i.e., which trending audio or effects you used)
Don’t expect a super-personalized For You page right when you open a TikTok account. First, the app will serve you the most popular videos aimed at a broad audience, possibly narrowed down based on your language, region, and any interests you may have indicated during registration.
However, the more you watch the recommended content, the more the system will track your interactions/signals and begin learning about you. Over time, you’ll start to notice that it’s showing you content that is more and more relevant, and that it’s getting better at recommending videos and creators that match your taste.
The Thing That Makes All The Difference
With its For You page, TikTok shifted away from the traditional social media model. While platforms like Facebook and Instagram center around personal connections (whom you know and follow), TikTok prioritizes your interests. Instead of linking you with specific people (friends, family, colleagues, favorite influencers etc), it connects you with content based on your preferences.
In other words, it’s not so much about who posts the content as it is about what is posted.
That’s why the For You page is the default page on the app. In addition, TikTok users have two more (secondary) sections at their disposal.
The first one is the Following page (or Friends), on which they can see the videos posted by their friends and creators they follow. The second one is Explore, a page on which they can discover new creators, topics, and ideas.
The Road To Virality
Compared to other social media platforms, on TikTok you don’t necessarily need to have a lot of followers to organically reach a large audience. Going viral doesn’t even depend on the success of your previous videos.
TikTok is primarily an outreach platform and that means it will test each one of your videos again and again, regardless of whether you have 10 or 10,000 followers. That’s why every video you post is an opportunity to go viral. Provided, of course, that you create content that resonates with your TikTok audience.
If your audience does like your TikToks, they will give you more than just a like.
Compared to other social media platforms, TikTok users are more engaged – they comment on videos more often and share them with their friends (not just within the app, but also through Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp). This opens up even more opportunities for your content to go viral.
The Power of Trends
It is impossible to talk about TikTok without mentioning TikTok trends. The platform is synonymous with trends that quickly spread to other platforms and find their way into the wider cultural context.
A TikTok trend is any specific, fun, or interesting element that can be (easily) recreated or interpreted in your way (from dance moves to song clips, movie quotes, funny phrases, questions, hashtags, etc.).
In short, a TikTok trend is a common theme across a number of TikTok videos. For users, a trend can also serve as an information shortcut. As soon as they see a video that recreates a trend, they immediately recognize its context and know exactly what to expect.
Taking part in trends is a key part of the TikTok experience and increases your chances of organically appearing on the For You pages. It’s also an opportunity for users (and brands) to show their personality and embrace the fun side of the app – and of themselves.
A special story of their own, and a signature feature of TikTok, are the audio trends (e.g. clips of popular songs, quotes, and catchphrases). Let’s not forget – TikTok originally started as an audio-focused app (mainly for lip-syncing). Now, it’s a platform with incredible influence on the music industry, a synonym for music discovery, and a place where completely unknown artists can become hits literally overnight.
Communication on TikTok
New users and brands that are just starting on the app often find TikTok’s communication style challenging because it tends to be very specific and dominated by slang.
TikTok is a space in which qualities such as personality, accessibility, and humor are sought after. Simpler and more natural communication styles are rather appreciated and expected from everyone, including brands and businesses. Brands that leverage these ‘rules of the game’ and manage to humanize their brand by becoming more like “just one of us” are likely to gain the trust of their audience on TikTok.
Who Uses TikTok?
The platform is especially popular among younger audiences, with Gen Z and young Millennials at the forefront. According to data from January 2025, the average user age falls between 25 and 34 years old. Here’s the age breakdown of TikTok’s global audience:
- Ages 18–24: 30.7%
- Ages 25–34: 35.3%
- Ages 35–44: 16.4%
- Ages 45–54: 9.2%
- Ages 55 and over: 8.4%
And where is TikTok used the most?
The platform has a strong global reach, but its largest markets outside of China are the United States with 136 million active users, followed by Indonesia (108 million) and Brazil (91.7 million).
ByteDance took a major hit in 2020 when India – its second-largest market after China, with a staggering 190 million users – banned the app. In recent years, starting with the first Trump administration, TikTok has also faced ongoing threats of a ban in the U.S., with demands that ByteDance sell TikTok to an American company.
Content Creators on TikTok
Like any social network, TikTok wouldn’t make sense without the people who create and share content on it. From celebrities and influencers to brands, businesses, and individuals with all kinds of talents, it’s the content creators who fill the For You pages every day – and keep the platform alive.
They shape the content that attracts users, engages audiences, and expands the app’s reach. That’s why TikTok, like any platform aiming to grow, offers various monetization options to encourage creators to keep producing interesting and innovative videos – while also giving them a tangible incentive to do so.
Key monetization methods on TikTok in 2025 include:
- Creator Rewards Program – A reward program for creators who publish longer, high-quality videos (at least 1 minute long). It’s available in a limited number of countries (e.g. the U.S., UK, Germany, Brazil), and to qualify, creators need at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the past 30 days.
- TikTok Creator Marketplace – The official platform that connects brands with creators. Here, creators can earn through sponsored posts and collaborations, while brands gain new opportunities to connect with influencers and promote products to a targeted audience in a dynamic way. To access the Marketplace, you need 10,000 followers, at least 1,000 video views, and three posts in the last 30 days.
- Video Gifts – Under certain conditions, creators can receive virtual gifts (like “diamonds” that can be converted into real money) on regular videos or during live streams.
Beyond the direct ways to earn money on the platform, TikTok also opens doors for creators to land lucrative partnerships off-platform. The most followed and highest-paid TikTokers – such as Khaby Lame (162.5M followers), Charli D’Amelio (157.1M), Bella Poarch (94M), and Addison Rae (88.4M) – have used their TikTok fame to break into fashion, music, and film projects, as well as secure sponsorship deals with global brands.
TikTok Marketing: What Kind of Content Should You Post?
As stated in TikTok’s Creativity Program, the platform is looking to reward “high-quality” content.
What does high-quality content on TikTok mean?
It’s simple: posting just any video won’t mean anything except a waste of time and other resources. For a video to be considered high-quality by TikTok standards doesn’t mean it has to be fancy production. In fact, the more polished it looks, the less authentic it tends to feel to the TikTok audience.
Here, high-quality means it’s in the spirit of the platform’s unique culture and communication style – and based on a solid understanding of the expectations, habits, and interests of the target audience. That’s the only way content can spark curiosity and hold attention – by being genuinely relevant, entertaining, and useful.
The most successful, viral TikToks consistently show high engagement rates and strong watch-through rates. And when you break them down – whether they offer useful information, a quirky anecdote, a funny moment, or a relatable story – all of them share one essential ingredient for TikTok success: dynamic storytelling.
This is the daily challenge for TikTok content creators: how to keep finding new ways to tell a great story through video. And even more challenging – how to make someone stop scrolling and watch your video on their For You page. That’s where hooks come into play, which have become an art (and a science) in their own right.
Hooks on TikTok are usually short, descriptive text snippets placed at the top of the video that appear within the first three seconds. They hint at what’s coming and why it’s worth watching until the end. The hook pulls the viewer in – and dynamic storytelling is what keeps them watching all the way through.
Formats and Topics on TikTok
In its early days, TikTok only allowed short videos – up to 15 seconds long (vertical, full-screen on a phone), but over time, the platform not only extended the maximum video length, it also introduced new formats.
Now, you can record videos up to 10 minutes directly within the TikTok app, and upload videos up to 60 minutes long.
In addition to that, photo posts are now available, either as single images or photo galleries (carousels), along with Stories, which are visible for 24 hours.
When it comes to video posts (still the dominant format) TikTok offers a wide range of advanced yet user-friendly tools for creating and editing. These include features like Duets and Stitches, which allow for collaborations or combining your video with another creator’s content, plus a variety of effects, sounds, and other tools that make it easy to add narration, subtitles, and text.
Gen Z’s Favorite Search Engine
TikTok is also becoming an increasingly popular search engine among young people. Nearly 40% of Gen Z now prefers using TikTok (or Instagram) over Google when looking for things like restaurant recommendations or fashion inspiration.
That’s why TikTok SEO – optimizing your posts for better visibility in TikTok’s search – is key for brands looking to boost organic reach on the platform.
As for content themes, TikTok covers the full spectrum of human interests – from music, film, books, design, and art, to science, tech, finance, politics, and healthcare, all the way to comedy, pop culture, showbiz, cooking, makeup, and fashion. You’ll find all kinds of communities here – from BookTok, FashionTok, and TechTock, to FoodTok and even niche interests and highly specific subcultures.
In addition to entertainment, popular content categories on TikTok are educational and informative content. This is not surprising considering that TikTok is designed to be an ideal tool for learning, research, and discovery. At the palm of their hand, each user gets to see daily fresh content tailored to their specific interests.
In addition to entertainment, educational and informational content categories are also highly popular. That’s no surprise, given that TikTok is designed as an ideal tool for learning, exploring, and discovering. Every day, it delivers a fresh stream of content tailored to each user’s specific interests – right into the palm of their hand.
TikTok Marketing: How to Advertise?
TikTok is becoming increasingly important to people as a shopping tool – and for brands, it’s a powerful storefront. According to TikTok’s own data, 70% of users discover brands and products on the platform, 83% say TikTok influences their purchasing decisions, and 3 out of 4 are likely to make purchases while using the app.
This means the advertising potential is huge. However, as with everything else on TikTok, ads need to be seamlessly integrated into the standard user experience and showcase a more creative, approachable side of the business.
To do this, brands can leverage TikTok’s complex yet intuitive ad ecosystem, which combines high visibility, engagement, and growing e-commerce functionality.
Advertising on TikTok is done through TikTok Ads Manager, which offers a variety of ad formats. Among these are In-Feed ads, including TopView, a premium placement that shows video ads as soon as a user opens the app, and the Pulse suite, which places ads right after the most popular content on the platform – ideal for tapping into trends and reaching engaged audiences at the perfect moment.
There are also industry-specific solutions, like Showtimes for the film industry. This optimized bundle of promotional, native formats and tools helps movie studios showcase new titles, boost views, and drive audiences toward buying tickets. The solution is currently available in several countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and France.
Additionally, TikTok offers a Promote feature – a simple tool for quickly launching campaigns aimed at boosting traffic, gaining followers, or increasing sales (similar to Facebook’s boost option). There’s also TikTok Shop, which transforms a profile into a full-on storefront, handling everything from product showcasing to checkout. Shop functionality is currently only available in select countries, including the US, UK, Spain, Indonesia, and Singapore.
How to Get Started with TikTok Marketing?
TikTok is rapidly evolving into one of the most influential platforms for digital marketing, offering innovative formats and access to a highly engaged audience. But precisely because it offers such vast opportunities, simply “showing up” and posting as you would on other platforms is definitely not enough. TikTok demands a specific approach – a blend of deeper understanding of the platform’s dynamic culture and skillful storytelling.
That kind of approach requires a strategy. That’s why we always start with strategy when working with our clients. It’s the key to fluently translating the personality and goals of their brand and business into the language of TikTok. And our results?
The engagement rates on the videos we create are up to 50% higher than TikTok’s average – which is proof that we understand what our clients’ target audiences want, specifically on this platform.
If you’re interested in TikTok but you’re not quite sure how to integrate it into a broader vision for your business, check out our guide to social media marketing – or see how we can help you with it directly.
