๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿผ Viral TikTok And Ads Strategies ๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿผ

Whether you're looking to create organic content or utilize paid advertising, TikTok is a powerful platform for growing your business and influence. By understanding its unique features and leveraging targeted strategies, you can create viral TikToks and reach millions of engaged users. In this episode, Caleb Roberts dives deep into the world of TikTok marketing. Caleb, a TikTok influencer with over 85,000 followers, collaborated with the TikTok team to develop their ad platform. Caleb shares TikTok viral strategies and tips for businesses and individuals to grow their influence on the platform, both organically and through paid advertising. He discusses the importance of targeting and how to leverage the unique features of TikTok to create engaging content that resonates with your audience. If you're looking to harness the power of TikTok for your brand or business, this is an episode you won't want to miss. Let's get started! 

 

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๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿผ Viral TikTok And Ads Strategies ๐Ÿ’ƒ๐Ÿผ 

Are you wanting to grow your business, your brand and your influence by creating short-form video content, TikToks and reels? You are wondering how to break through and get started there either with organic content or even paid ads. You are in for a special treat in this episode because our guest grew a massive TikTok following during the 2020 pandemic and he was one of the first few people to work directly with the TikTok team in developing what their ad platform looks like. If you have ever wanted to use TikTok as a strategy, organic or paid, you are in for a special treat. Let's do this.  

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I am so excited and geeked out about this particular topic. I'm here with Caleb Roberts. In less than a year, he's leveraged his unique understanding of TikTok marketing to grow an account with over 85,000 followers and his videos have led to over 100 million views, which spawned dozens of marketing campaigns. 

This gets fascinating. He worked directly with TikTok to provide feedback and analysis on their ad platform. He's an insider for us. This is going to be huge. Caleb then pivoted his marketing skills and industry knowledge into a TikTok ad agency, which makes total sense. That's where he can use to help businesses and individuals grow on the platform. He works as a TikTok advertising consultant, where he helps organizations obtain measurable growth through strategically targeted content and ad placement. He's our TikTok Insider. I'm super excited about this. Welcome, Caleb. Thank you so much for joining us.  

I'm glad to be here. It's fun. I love going to these summits and talking with people like you. 

It is fun and especially the topic of TikTok is fun. I have to admit, during the pandemic when things started to go down, I became a TikTok addict. That's when I found TikTok and I fell in love with it. I love it and it's so much fun. I realized that Instagram Reels does a very similar thing but TikTok was the first. They are the OG. Itโ€™s what would you call little mini viral videos.  

TikTok Perfected What Vine Tried To Do 

It's short-form content. In the old days, there was Vine and TikTok perfected what Vine tried to do.  

TikTok Ads Best Strategy 

I love this topic and what I love about TikTok is it's bingeable and fun. There's not a lot of negativity there. There's only fun stuff. The platform and the way that you create content is so different so it's fascinating. I'm excited to dig in because people are seeing that this is taking off and I feel like there are two interesting mixes of people. 

There are the people who have seen it happening and they haven't gotten involved yet but they are watching it like, โ€œShould I do this whole TikTok thing?โ€ There are the people like me who have become addicts and are wondering, โ€œHow can I best utilize this for business?โ€ I'm excited to dig in but before we get into the meat and potatoes, can you tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey and how TikTok started to play such a starring role for you?  

I was 21 when I started my first business. It was a video production business. That was after I did a bunch of side hustles and random jobs. Video production was what skyrocketed my growth and that's been my job for the past years. Slowly when I started making videos for people, they would be like, โ€œI have the video but how do I get views?โ€ I was like, โ€œI don't know. I just make the video.โ€ 

I started to do more marketing on Facebook and learned about the backend of Facebook ads. I started offering ad agency services for Facebook on the side to slowly get into it because the two worlds are way different. Usually, an ad agency buys a video production company and they are like, โ€œJust make the videos because the real meat is in the ads.โ€ I was doing it the other way around. 

I also had a second company, which was most of our revenue which was a wedding video company. We had teams of videographers and photographers and a photo booth. We'd have weddings every week. We finished off our best year in 2019. We had built up a pretty good amount of money to start on our advertising. 

We went to a wedding expo. We had all these leads and then the Coronavirus hits and we get shut down. It becomes illegal to film a wedding because nobody wanted to follow the rules of only having fifteen people. You didn't want to waste two of those people with a photographer and a videographer. Everyone moved it back a year. Everyone's waiting for videographers and photographers. Usually, you are booked out a year in advance if you are pretty into the industry and everyone's left with a whole year's worth of empty bookings. 

I was like, โ€œI will try marketing.โ€ I started talking to more people and I got a few clients and then I was like, โ€œMaybe I will listen to Gary Vee about TikTok.โ€ I have been on it. I joined it right when Gary Vee told me to. I had been watching it when there were teens on there. There were a lot of Chinese people or Japanese people dancing. I liked that part of the app. I did. I thought it was fun. They put makeup over their lenses and do it in slow motion. I thought it was cool and I liked it a lot. It wasn't near as addicting as it is in 2023. 

TikTok is cool and likeable, but it wasnโ€™t near as addicting as it is now.  

Around the time of December of 2019 is when I noticed there was a shift and people were starting to do DIY or teaching people stuff on TikTok. I was like, โ€œMaybe I could make TikTok videos. Maybe I don't have to learn any dances.โ€ I thought about that. I made my goal at the start of the year and it made me do my goal. I had all this time to not film weddings and I was like, โ€œLet's just post on TikTok.โ€ 

I woke up from a nap and I always opened up TikTok at that point. I saw this guy giving horrible advice and I was like, โ€œI can give way better advice. I can tell people how to make money with a side hustle easily.โ€ I make a video about how you can make money as a real estate photographer or a 360 virtual tour photographer because it was easy at that time during the pandemic. 

I had already tried it out for fun. I had run ads and gotten clients. It was growing a lot bigger than I wanted it to because I didn't want to do that full-time. I showed people that you run an ad, get this camera and software and you are done. I got 100,000 views overnight on that video. I was like, โ€œWhat is going on?โ€ 

I continued making videos and then I eventually did a free download in detail of what I talked about in that video and how to make the ads. I got 3,000 downloads. All of a sudden, I'm at 7,000 followers and I'm like, โ€œThis needs to be a marketing case study. I need to keep on doing this. Maybe I can make videos about Facebook ads and then I will get Facebook ads clients.โ€ I did that for the next month. 

The story is fascinating and I want to hear the rest of the story. In terms of the content you were sharing, were you focused on different things that could help people earn money online or on social media?  

There's a whole side hustle niche on TikTok. Itโ€™s how to make $1,000 an hour. My hook is how to make $100 an hour during lockdown. That's what I said at the beginning and what hooked people into it and everything.  

Viral TikTok: There's a whole side hustle niche on TikTok.

You had immediately 100,000 views on a random video that you put out there. 

I have never posted a video on TikTok before.  

You then got 3,000 downloads on a resource. Continue.  

I was like, โ€œMaybe I can get ad agency clients from my Facebook ad agency.โ€ I start posting Facebook ad content and teaching people different stuff that most advertisers know. It all culminated a month later after posting those videos. I got four clients on the same day. It was around $50,000 in revenue over the next year that would come from those 4 clients. I got to this point where I only know so much about Facebook. I was not like any expert in Facebook ads but I was like, โ€œI have heard about TikTok ads. I know I could be the expert if I'm the first one on there.โ€ I'm going to go all-in on a TikTok ad agency so I start networking.  

You were still very much on the leading edge. TikTok was becoming. 

They hadn't even released their TikTok ad side yet. They were running webinars. To get into TikTok ads at that point, you had to be interviewed by them and send in a form. Right whenever self-serve ads came out, I was on it since day one. The day before, I was about to pay someone $5,000 to give me access to a TikTok ad account. 

I start playing with it and then making videos about TikTok ads. I start going to TikTok ad webinars and then the TikTok team starts noticing me. They told me that they are passing around my video since I was the only one making videos with that hashtag. I got to talk with them on Zoom. I started insulting TikTok ads because there are two account levels. I was like, โ€œWhy are all my ads being denied? What is going on? I have $3,000 in here that I want to spend but you guys won't let me.โ€ 

I start saying, โ€œHere's why TikTok ads suck.โ€ TikTok rep comes to me and he DMs. He's like, โ€œThere's this other account that will make it way easier for you so I'm going to give you that account.โ€ They gave me access to the higher-level account that you had to interview for and that's where I became an agency because it wasn't an agency-level account. I got access to beta tools and an account manager. I got a credit line. I got to meet weekly with my account manager and learn about what their plans were for the next quarter or the next three quarters. That's what started my TikTok ad journey.  

You got the attention of TikTok. You worked on the TikTok ads. We are binging your content because you were the only one making content about TikTok ads.  

I created the TikTok ads hashtag or something like that. I'm near the top on there. I was one of the first to post about it. What helped was whenever they had a webinar, I would put that link in my bio and tell everyone to go to it. They knew that most of the registrations were coming from me too. That's what helped them notice me also.  

Do you still have a connection with them? 

The Growth of TikTok Ads  

Yeah. TikTok ads have grown so much that I have been through five different account managers. The OGs that were the account managers keep on being promoted to team managers or heads of ads and stuff like that. I keep on getting regular account managers because they keep on hiring so many people. I also know a lot because I have seen them create rules and policies on different things. 

I have had some account managers tell me a lot more than they were allowed to at the time and others had to learn how to be tightlipped. I'm one of the most knowledgeable when it comes to the ad agency side of their systems because of how much 4 or 5 different people have told me about the ad side and how I have seen their growth in all aspects. Specifically with verification, I have seen them change how to get verified twenty different times and it's a new puzzle every time. It used to be super easy. 

It goes to show with any business. It could be TikTok, Facebook or your business in the audience that you are growing. Especially as you grow quickly, policies change quickly. If you truly want to be a master of your trade, you have to stay on top of the constantly changing policies with whatever tools you are using. How nice that you have this inside connection to be able to do that.  

It's fun and cool. I'm a super nerd about TikTok and how their stuff works. I love talking about it all the time. I remember that I was at a bar talking to people about what they do and they are like, โ€œI don't want to talk about my work.โ€ That's why I go to a bar and they are like, โ€œWhat do you do?โ€ I'm like, โ€œI'm a TikTok ad agency owner and I freaking love my job.โ€ I will talk about it all day leisure or work. I don't care because it's fun to talk about. 

When you love what you do, it never feels like work so you are a nerd. I'm a huge nerd too so you are in good company. Before we get in deep into the ad stuff, which is the fun stuff, there may be some people in the audience who are not super familiar with TikTok or they are but are having a hard time wrapping their minds around, โ€œHow do I use this for business?โ€ Let's talk a little bit about what makes TikTok as a platform unique and for business specifically. Can you give us the inside scoop on that?  

The way that I compare it is Reddit is a forum platform where you can ask and answer questions. There are sub-communities and communities. There are inside jokes for the whole platform. I wouldn't say a lot of people know about Reddit but it's the best place to ask a question. It's like what Yahoo! Answers want it to be in the early days. They are so tight-knit. 

Reddit is the best place to ask a question.

That's why we saw Wall Street bets go into the mainstream of how they changed the stock market because thereโ€™s a community-driven effort of what they did. They almost took down a whole hedge fund because they bought so many call options and it was crazy. That aspect of TikTok is community and then the other aspect is YouTube. 

YouTube is you binge content and learn stuff. There are influencers and people who make it their full-time job. That's what we usually know for a video platform but TikTok married both Reddit and YouTube into one where it's a community aspect and a video aspect. Back in the early days of YouTube, people made short-form content because they are like, โ€œI am tired of people making too long of videos. We need to get to the point.โ€ 

The longest video we can make on TikTok is three minutes. People see anywhere from 15 seconds to 1-minute-long videos. YouTube changed where they were like, โ€œIf you make it over ten minutes, then we will give you more spots for advertisers to put ad spaces.โ€ If we look at TikTok, you are more incentivized to get to the point than you are on YouTube, teach people faster and then create a community while you are at it.  

What makes TikTok different is it's such a connection-based platform. If we look at reels and TikTok in general, the people who go viral on reels are the same people who are mega influencers on Instagram. It's a manufactured reality. TikTok is the core reality of who you are. They don't care what you look like. They care more about what you have to say than what you look like. They embrace weird people and people who have opinions. 

It's a great platform for connecting with anyone. I have made most of my friends on TikTok. Everyone insults social media but TikTok is one of the only places where they are not hiding anything. They are showing you who they are. You are learning about someone and you are interested in their life as a mushroom farmer who works for farmer's markets. It's interesting and way easier to binge their content than five hours of stuff on YouTube.  

I have seen this too. Someone opens up a video. The minute it's more than six minutes, they are like, โ€œI'm out. I can't do this.โ€ I have seen those same people consume a 15-second TikTok, a 30-second and then a 1-minute. They will binge TikTok for an hour. They are not willing to watch one 6-minute video but they are willing to binge TikTok for 1 hour. It's a different form of content that's bingeable and that's why they call it TikTok. You get sucked in and you don't realize that clock is ticking in how much time. 

It has the highest user engagement by platform and the highest amount of times that people return to the app and the most time spent on any social networking app because of the way that the algorithm is with the endless scroll. It's not I pick and choose. TikTok knows exactly what you want to watch before you know what you want to watch and what your personality is. I have heard people say that TikTok knows you are gay before you do because you can tell it in the videos that you watch. 

I have noticed too on most social media platforms, they are not commenting a lot on a lot of content but on TikTok, people love watching the TikTok but they equally love reading through all the comments of how people are responding to the TikTok. I can't tell you how many times I have been on TikTok where someone went right to the comments loving this. 

We have been seeing TikTok people go to a viral video. They make a video about how funny the comments were on the viral video. On YouTube, it's toxic if you think about the comments section but on TikTok, it's like its own little community in the comments. There are all these comments where everyone knows that it's going to be a funny comment section so then they say, โ€œI broke my leg running to the comments.โ€ 

They all know someone has something to say about it. Sometimes it can be mean but most people are lighthearted on there. They will also give their opinion or tell a story. What you will also notice is some of the biggest YouTubers are replying to comments on TikTok because they know that it's an easier place to reply to people and their comments won't get lost either.  

It's unique in that way but for those in the audience who might be a little nervous to get started on TikTok, to be a creator, the way these videos come together and the way you splice in the audio, is different. Whenever there's something different that people don't know how to get started with, there's anxiety there. Can you talk a little bit about how different it is to create a TikTok and how some of these video and audio elements come together?  

You want to create your TikTok in the app because it makes it a lot easier and faster for you. If you work a long time on a video outside of the app and then you upload it, there's no telling what will happen but it's better if you have data on consistently making videos in the app. I'm pretty sure it helps with the algorithm too. They push out videos that are made in the app. 

There's no confirmation on there. That's my opinion on that. It's a mix between content creation and live editing. You are creating content for the edit. You have to push down on a button to start it and stop it so that way you don't have to trim it up later. Some of the easiest ways to get used to creating TikTok content are they are inside the app. You can choose the 15-second video option which will stop the video once you have hit 15 seconds. 

The most important thing about making a TikTok is having a good hook. Learn to make fifteen-second videos. You don't ever have to post them. You can practice all day long. That's what I used to practice making videos. If I see something and I don't want to post it, you can put it in the drafts and not post it at all. 

If you practice for 15 seconds making that template and fit your content into that template, then you are going to be a pro at making TikTok later on which is 1 minute long because you know how to get your point across faster. You know how to create a good hook within the first 2 to 3 seconds that will make people stay for longer.  

When it comes to what will people think, I'm a bigger guy. I thought I was terrified. People are going to insult me. I have seen the YouTube comments or how savage people are on the internet but I can of all the comments that I have ever gotten, I have probably gotten five that are truly rude in general or about anything rude to me. I wouldn't say that you have to worry about that. 

You are more likely to find someone that supports you and says, โ€œI like this content. Thank you for posting that. I would like you to make more content about this. Can you talk more about that?โ€ People are inquisitive and they want to learn and study what you have to say. Don't assume people are going to be rude. Assume that people are going to appreciate what you have to create before you assume that they don't appreciate it.  

Assume that people are going to appreciate what you have to create before you assume that they won't appreciate it.  

I have observed that about TikTok as well. If you are nervous about video in general and I know a lot of people are, it's natural. I get that. We are talking about t15 to 30 seconds of tiny videos. You don't have to be on video for long. I have also observed that the people on TikTok are very friendly and encouraging. They are creators and they like other creators. People are supportive. Only five comments out of how many thousands of comments are near negative. 

More than 10,000 or maybe 100,000 comments that were stuck with me too. There could have been more than 5 but there are 5 that I remember. I remember people making duets of me saying, โ€œThis guy is making a great video. I love this video. You got to listen to him.โ€ Those are the ones I remember twice as much as the bad comments.  

This is a tiny bit off-topic but I have to ask about that tiny little microphone that you hold. Is it functional? Does that thing work?  

It is functional. I started incorporating that in my videos because I wanted to sell it and then I forgot to sell it.  

You are having fun with the tiny mic. 

People need branding on TikTok in general. 

That tiny mic stood out to me. I was like, โ€œWhat is he doing with this tiny mic?โ€ 

I have massive hands. People always think it's funny. 

Let's dig into the ads side a little bit. We know TikTok. They are micro-content, bingeable and fun. The community is supportive. What's the best strategy for ads on TikTok? Maybe thereโ€™s this misconception that it's only for young people or even if older people are on there, no one buys anything. Can we displace some of these myths and talk about, are TikTok ads good for business, especially for the audience that's here are mostly coaches, course creators and network and affiliate marketers largely?  

Years ago, I wouldn't say that but now, I would. I'm seeing some of the biggest brands on TikTok. I'm seeing some of the biggest brands on Facebook come to me for TikTok because they know that their friends are running TikTok ads and they are seeing stuff. Years ago, TikTok even said to people, โ€œIt's best for people who have a $20 product and maybe you will get lucky with breaking even.โ€ 

Years ago, I was selling a $150 product and we were seeing 3X ROIs, which is Return On Investment. For every dollar we spent, we were making $3 back with a $150 product. We were targeting at that time 25 to 50-year-old men only. At that time, I'm sure that the audience was way smaller back then. Anything you have heard from anywhere, everyone needs to go into TikTok with a blank slate, especially TikTok ads. Their algorithm mixed with their ads is some of the best ad buying that you can do. I have seen ClickFunnels and course creators run ads there. 

I have not personally run ads for course creators. I mostly focus on eCommerce but the fact that course creators are on there and I have seen them with hundreds of thousands of likes. You don't do that. You can't get 100,000 likes on an ad unless it's being successful. You don't throw money at that unless you are making money. I research all the ads all the time. I save them and huge brands are making lots of money on there.  

Viral TikTok: You can't get 100,000 likes on an ad unless it's being successful. You don't throw money at that unless you are making money.

Huge brands but also little guys. Like you said, course creators. People selling eComm products like you can be successful. Do you need a certain type of TikTok account to place ads? 

No, you don't. It's like on Facebook how there's a backend if you go to the ads manager. There's a front end and a back end. If we go to our Facebook page, there's a trainee version of Facebook ads like if you go on your Instagram. You can promote posts. You can do the same thing on TikTok where you can promote a post. 

If you go to the backend of Facebook ads where you can run story ads, Instagram ads and Facebook ads, that's where you know you are able to do a lot more. That's the same thing with TikTok and you don't have to connect a TikTok account either. That's mostly what I'm able to do with my access but a regular account, whenever you make a TikTok ad, you are uploading it to the backend and then you are going to upload a fake profile picture.  

If they click on the profile picture, it's going to go to the website that you have in the call to action too. That's what a TikTok ad looks like and those still perform great. With mine, you are able to boost posts on the front end of TikTok and buy these coins. With the TikTok ad agency level account, when people give me a code, let's say that you post a video and it does well, I can get that code, put it into my account and then boost it on the backend. 

You can take an existing post and turn it into an ad or you can start from scratch and create the ad in the backend.  

That goes into what I would suggest. For any business owner, anyone who wants to run ads, the best thing that you can do to test out the audience and the data beforehand, before ever spending $1, is to create a business account and post videos. TikTok within 24 hours will tell you if it is good or bad. If you get 1,000 views and you have 1 follower or lower, then we know what's working better. If you get 100,000 views like my 1st video, I should probably run ads for it. I can download it and then re-upload it on the back end and run it differently too if I don't post again. 

It does sound like a business account would be the best account to get so that you can start getting analytics. 

Just so everyone knows, with the business account, you can put your link in your bio right away. If you do a regular account, you have to wait until you have 1,000 followers.  

I have noticed on a business account, they limit the audios that you can use.  

They do. I know. This isn't going to be an opinion. This is a freaking fact. People have told me that too. People have been like, โ€œYou can't go viral unless you have those sounds. You can't do this and that.โ€ I have grown 12 to 15 different accounts where I was the one posting the content. Most of the time, it'd be faceless and consistently over and over. 

I even did it with TikTokโ€™s business sounds. I create trends that get millions of views for my clients. I have created videos where I don't even show my face. I show a computer screen in the background. Music is what people aren't paying attention to but the subject matter of the video. It's not that trends make you go viral. If we think about it like this, if you see someone do something funny on video, you probably have to watch them 5 to 10 different times before you are going to give them a follow because it could be a one-hit-wonder.  

If I teach you one time why you should use TikTok ads and you think that's interesting, it only takes one video for them to follow me. That's what businesses should think about and what they are doing is what can convert them into a follower the fastest. Do I want cheap views or valuable views? You can make more money off of 1,000 people who think I'm good at making TikTok ads than 1,000 people would think I'm good at dancing. These people are going to convert way better. You don't need the audio for that and that's mostly what the audio is used for. I don't ever use background audio. I don't do that in general because it's not my style.  

Quality over quantity and don't get hung up on what's going viral or what's trending in terms of audio. Focus on what your content area is and provide real value there.  

There are way more trends that you can do that aren't even audio-based. There's some where it's the filter on your face. Apply it to your business in a different way and that's whenever a trend is worth it. You don't always need the sound. Sometimes it's people's voice that you can use their audio too.  

If you are placing an ad on TikTok, does it have to be flagged as sponsored in some way? What are the different ways they can come across in the feed?  

The only differences are that whenever you boost a post, the sponsored part is going to be smaller. Compared to whenever you upload a video and you run it as an ad, it's more obvious that it is an ad because the call to action and the sponsored part are going to be a little bit bigger. It's going to be right above the description of your video where the hashtags are. 

Have you found more success with one type over another?  

I would say boosting a post. They call it spark ads. There are different reasons why you want to do either one. If I do spark ads or I boost a post, that's better for gaining followers most of the time. Conversions, it's split to both of them. If you want to gain followers and boost engagement, that's what it's good for. 

Viral TikTok: If you do spark ads or boost a post, that's better for gaining followers and boosting engagement most of the time. 

My video where I launched my free download for how to do that side hustle would be a great one for conversions and getting followers. It's pretty much split in terms of conversions of how much money you can make with either one. Most people watching, if they are going to run an ad, are going to want to drive that traffic to some website somewhere where someone is signing up for something or purchasing something, whether it's a free sign-up or a paid purchase. It's sounding like conversion ads would be the best for that.  

You should view it more as boosted ads are going to help you get followers on top of conversions and there's no difference in conversions between the two.  

TikTok Targeting

Everything is relative and most people are familiar with Facebook because a lot of people place ads there. How would you compare the targeting capabilities on TikTok to the targeting capabilities of a Facebook ad? 

TikTokโ€™s targeting is nowhere near as robust as Facebook's. They have about 30 different categories that you can target specifically but I wouldn't say that they are pixels are that different though. Their pixel data and how to make lookalike audiences are about on the same level when I'm looking at it. It's harder to do cold traffic. 

TikTokโ€™s targeting is nowhere near as robust as Facebook's.

What would be an optimum position to be in is to install your TikTok pixel in the same place where your Facebook pixel is at. Get all that audience data so then you don't have to run cold traffic ever on TikTok. You are going to have better success on Facebook doing that going, โ€œI think this is my audience. This is going to work. I'm going to get a good cold audience off of this,โ€ but then we can retarget based on pixel data on TikTok with the data that you already ran on Facebook ads. 

In terms of CPMs, Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions, it's going to be way cheaper than Facebook too. TikTok, there are different ways people are doing it. If you want to build up your Facebook pixel alone and get a ton of traffic, then run it straight from TikTok and you are going to spend 1/3 of the amount that you would on Facebook because their traffic is way cheaper.  

People are still getting a return on that. You can still get a 3X or higher return. You should be able to break either. Early on when people are coming to me for consultations on how they could make their ads better, I found that people who would go through and read TikTokโ€™s frequently asked questions or watch their videos on how to make an ad were breaking even most of the time off of their most basic knowledge of TikTok ads.  

That's even without any guided help from an agency like you. The number one complaint I hear on Facebook is people place an ad and they lose money. They lose trust in the platform because they are like, โ€œThis doesn't work. They took my money.โ€ It sounded like on TikTok, even if you are brand-new and you are barely getting started, people are breaking even.  

The most common question I get asked is, โ€œI created a TikTok ad but it's not spending and overspending my money.โ€ The main problem is people can't scale fast enough like they want to on Facebook. The thing is that's because they don't want to be that type of ad platform. They want to make sure that people see a return on investment and good data. They are pretty stringent in how they handle things.  

Would you still consider it to be the leading edge of getting in on TikTok ads? 

Absolutely. You are still on the leading edge if you become a TikToker. There's no doubt about it. That's why I make crypto content because that's a new wave of TikTok. I still do TikTok ads stuff. I'm trying to learn more about the influencer side. I'm a crypto influencer and I was right. There are only twenty crypto creators on TikTok. Anyone gets into that. There are still sub-communities coming up and people who don't have enough knowledge. 

If you are going into affiliate marketing and dancing, that's where you are too late. Affiliate marketers have bled out TikTok in terms of how much money they can get. Too many people know them. If we think about it on Facebook, we have conditioned ourselves to scroll past ads. For every four posts, we see an ad. 

If we look at TikTok, the audience is brand new. They are not conditioned to anything and anything that they are not conditioned to is what you are able to go viral in because they are not used to it. You can do the same thing you do on Facebook but because these people are half your age or only on TikTok, you have as much chance of going viral.  

That's very encouraging. They are a blue ocean with tons of space to grow. Algorithms are hot and itโ€™s bingeable content. I love it. If people want to connect with you, follow you and learn more about TikTok ads, where's the best place they can find you? 

It would be on Facebook. I have a Facebook group called Profitable TikTok Ads. It's where a lot of advertisers are and where we talk about it if you are more interested in creating content and stuff like that. Earlier on in that group, we have still kept posts where it was initially how to teach creators and business owners how to make videos. It used to be called Profitable TikTok for Business or Profitable TikTok Business Secrets. I don't know what it was but it was mostly for business owners and how to create content so you can still find good content in that group.  

Thank you so much, Caleb, for sharing all of your knowledge with us. TikTok is a fun platform. There's a lot of potential that isn't on other platforms so we so appreciate your time and expertise. Thanks for being with us.  

No problem. Thank you for having me.  

 

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About Caleb Roberts

In less than a year, Caleb Roberts has leveraged his unique understanding of TikTok marketing into an account with 85,000 followers. His videos have led to over 100 million views which spawned dozens of flanks marketing campaigns. Caleb has worked directly with TikTok to provide feedback and analysis on their ad platform. Roberts pivoted his marketing skills and industry knowledge into a TikTok ad agency, where he continues to help businesses and individuals grow on the platform.

He currently works as a TikTok advertising consultant, where he helps organizations obtain measurable growth through strategic, targeted content and ad placement.