If you have a business and you choose not to use TikTok for business, you’re actively sleeping on a goldmine. TikTok has a massive user base of over 1.69 billion (!!) monthly active users — and the number of Americans using TikTok weekly has quadrupled since 2021.
Let’s get rid of the top two objections before I tell you how to use TikTok for business.
👉 “TikTok is only for businesses who serve younger demographics.”
The audience demographics on TikTok are evolving, including older age groups. The social media site isn’t limited to younger users anymore. The latest U.S. TikTok report showed weekly TikTok users aged between 35-44 have only grown since 2022.
👉 “TikTok won’t help me increase the sales in my business.”
TikTok isn’t just for brand awareness and discovery. You should use TikTok to grow your business to get the most out of the platform. After all, 45 percent of users continued searching for more info about a product or service after discovering something on the TikTok app.
Not just this: Nearly 71 percent of TikTok Shop users have bought something from TikTok feed and 58.2 percent use the platform for shopping inspiration.
Plenty of small businesses have seen massive success in using TikTok for business. You could be one of them. This guide will share how.
The basics: How to create (and set up) your TikTok business account in 2 steps
There are two types of TikTok accounts: Personal/Creator and Business.
- A personal or creator account is best for users who just want to scroll the TikTok app and/or create content on the platform as a content creator.
- A TikTok business account is suitable for people using the TikTok app to promote their products or services. It has additional commercial features like the TikTok business center, advanced analytics, etc.
The only disadvantage of having a TikTok business account is you only have access to the commercial music library for your videos. This means you can only use the audios cleared for commercial use. Using any other audios (that you don’t own and aren’t approved by TikTok) can lead to copyright issues. You might miss out on using some trending TikTok sounds with the business account. But it’s a small price to pay for all the additional features you get.
How do you create and set up a TikTok business account? Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Step 1. Convert your personal account into a TikTok business account
Once you’ve created a TikTok account, follow the below steps to switch to business account:
1. Tap Profile icon at the bottom of your TikTok app
2. Click on “Menu” and go to “Settings and privacy”
3. Go to “Manage Account” and switch to a TikTok business account
4. Select the category that best describes your business
And voila! You now have a TikTok business account. But the set up’s not done yet.
Step 2. Optimize your TikTok profile
Converting your personal/creator account to a business one was only handling the technical side of using TikTok for business. You also need to check three other boxes to complete your switch to business account:
- Set a profile photo: Add the image of your logo if you’re a small business or a clear image of yourself if it’s your face people recognize. TikTok users will start associating you with your profile photo, so choose one that represents your brand well.
- Describe your business in your TikTok bio: A social media bio is your most precious real estate. Use it to tell your TikTok community about your company — mainly who you help and how.
- Add a URL to redirect TikTok users to your website or store: Add your website link or any specific landing page to your bio. Choose a link you want to redirect your TikTok followers to: How can they make a purchase? It can be a product page or some more info about your business.
A great example is Flora Flora’s TikTok bio. They have a clear image of their logo as the profile picture, a one-liner bio that shares their mission, and a special coupon code for their TikTok community.
It’s best to keep the usernames your business name to make your business easy to search. Use the same logo and username across social media platforms to improve your brand recall.
After publishing a few posts, I’d also recommend applying for the verified badge on TikTok. The blue tick adds extra credibility to your business and comes at no additional cost.
And that’s it! You’ve now completed the setup to switch to a business account on TikTok. But before we learn how you can create a wholesome TikTok strategy to actually use TikTok to grow your business, you might be wondering: Is it necessary to convert your personal TikTok account to a TikTok business account?
Do you need a business account to use TikTok for business?
Many companies take the shortcut of having a creator account to access the wide music library of trending sounds. It’s tempting: trending audios get more reach and are pushed by the algorithm.
But doing so violates TikTok’s terms of service. Litigation isn’t worth the risk for accessing a few trending sounds. And personal/creator accounts also don’t get access to the Business Center — which includes the ad manager, collaboration features, and downloadable analytics. These are a lot of powerful features!
TikTok discourages switching between personal/creator and business accounts frequently, so I’d advise you to make your choice once and stick to it. If you’re set on using a creator account as a business, assess your risks wisely and consult with your legal team.
How to use TikTok for business
There are two routes to using your TikTok business account to grow your small company:
- In the organic route, you create high quality content for your target audience and stick to a consistent posting schedule. The growth you’ll see here usually takes time, lots of effort, and a splash of luck. But you build an engaged and loyal TikTok community for the long-term.
- In the paid advertising route, you put money behind your TikTok content so the platform pushes it to potential buyers. This marketing strategy might provide better results in the short-term but needs to be supplemented with organic content to achieve best results over the long-term.
The best TikTok marketing strategy is combining organic and paid efforts. This will ensure you don’t have a one hit wonder with no sustainable growth. The next sections will cover the various facets of both organic and paid marketing strategies.
But before we cover the differences, here are some things that stay common in organic and paid TikTok content:
- Unpolished and engaging content: Your content needs to be engaging, regardless of whether you publish it organically or via the ads manager. TikTok’s culture thrives on authenticity. Don’t create overly polished content that looks and feels like ads, even if they are ads.
- Catering to your target audience’s interests: Speak the language of your target audience. Instead of taking a product-centric approach where you highlight the various features of your product or service, take a consumer-centric approach. What does your audience struggle with? Use the phrasing of your target audience in your TikTok videos to stop the scroll.
- Consistent brand voice: Your TikTok presence should feel unique to your brand, regardless of whether the TikTok video is organically posted or not. For instance, if someone comes across an ad from your TikTok account and checks your organic presence, it shouldn’t feel like an alien world. Your brand’s content should give off the same vibe.
To summarize, your TikTok content strategy should stay the same: Create helpful and entertaining videos for your target audience.
TikTok marketing: The organic way
The organic content strategy has four components:
1. The TikTok algorithm
2. TikTok SEO
3. Balancing trending and evergreen content
4. Posting consistently at the right time
Let’s tackle each of these one by one.
1. The TikTok algorithm
The algorithm decides what goes into a user’s For You page. The earlier your video appears in your target audience’s feed, the better. TikTok looks at the following components while deciding which videos to rank:
- Engagement: The more popular your video gets — aka the more likes, comments, and shares it receives — the more the chances of the algorithm pushing it to similar audiences.
- User interactions: TikTok monitors what its users are interested in and shows them relevant, fresh content catering to their interests from new creators.
- Video information: This includes details like whether a video was created natively on TikTok, caption information, etc.
- Device and account settings: The language preferences, location, and device also play a minor role in the algorithm.
The best way to get the algorithm on your side is to deeply understand your target audience. Creating content that uses your audience’s language and solves their problems is the best way to ensure you work with the algorithm instead of against it. For the other technical aspects, follow this checklist:
2. TikTok SEO
TikTok has started to function more and more like a search engine. This means you increase your chances of getting discovered by using the right keywords in your videos and captions.
TikTok SEO is also why I encouraged having a detailed social media bio that uses all the right keywords that your audience is using to search for brands like yours.
Acing search engine discovery starts by discovering the right keywords. What is your audience searching for? You can gain insights using tools like Answer the Public and SparkToro here.
Thankfully, TikTok’s SEO isn’t as advanced as Google’s yet. So you don’t need an extensive keyword strategy to ace TikTok SEO. Pay attention to what your audience asks in the comments, in private communities, and on other social media channels. Keeping your eyes and ears open (hello, social listening) can go a long, long way.
Once you have a list of keywords, start using them organically when you create videos. Don’t do keyword stuffing; add keywords where they fit naturally. Use hashtags and video captions to double down on your SEO efforts.
Smidge beauty often uses TikTok SEO to highlight their value points and use the right keywords like ‘biodegradable makeup’, ‘sustainable beauty’, and ‘small business’.
Create a simple Excel sheet of long-tail keywords you can’t use as often (such as ‘how to get rid of acne scars’) and shorter keywords you can spread out between your TikTok videos and use often (like ‘clear skin’).
3. Balancing trending and evergreen content
Content creation on TikTok can fall into two buckets:
- Evergreen content: This type of content has an almost endless shelf life. The things you’re saying/doing here aren’t time-sensitive. The content will be relevant even if someone discovers it years later. This TikTok video by YNAB about reducing overspending is a great example. The topic isn’t tied to a specific time or theme — it’s evergreen. (embed post)[Gray box] 💡 Read more: The Beginner's Guide to Creating Evergreen Content
- Trending content: This type of content has a short lifespan. TikTok trends can be platform-specific, time-specific, or industry-specific.
- Platform trends are challenges or themes that people are following specifically on TikTok — like the #wesanderson trend. Often, TikTok trends spread to other social channels, too.
- Industry trends are news pieces that are only relevant in your social media niche. Only people who are in the same clique might understand these trends.?
- Time-specific trends are tied to specific times of the year — like the holidays. For instance, YNAB created a video about sticking to a no buy year in 2025 that can only be relevant during the end of 2024. (embed video)
Trending content often gets more reach and views since the topic is time-sensitive. But, evergreen content builds trust and a loyal social media community. You need to create a content calendar that combines evergreen and trending content in equal measure to get the best of both worlds.
Keep a pulse of what’s going on in TikTok and your industry to create relevant, trending content. When you schedule posts on your TikTok business account, create content that’s evergreen but leave room for spontaneity to fill it with trending topics.
4. Post consistently at the right time
TikTok rewards consistency more than any other social media platform. Ideally, you should post at least one video a day. But if that’s not possible, post three to four times a week regularly and build up the content creation muscle before you start posting daily. If you’ve got a content library from other social media platforms, start cross-posting on TikTok, too.
The good thing is TikTok doesn’t require polished content, so you can spend less time perfecting every nook and cranny of your videos. And with Buffer, you don’t have to post your videos manually. Batch create content in advance (leaving some room for trending content!) and schedule them using Buffer.
And posting frequently is not enough: You need to post when your audience is online to increase the probability of getting higher up in their For You page. Your TikTok analytics can offer a lot of insight into when your content gets the most engagement.
However, if you’re new to TikTok, no analytics tools can share reliable insights about your specific audience. Until then, use our study’s findings: It shows the best time to post on TikTok is between 4-5 PM mid-week.
Growing your TikTok business account organically is a balancing act of all the above four factors. I’d recommend starting with the ads manager only after you’ve got the hang of how to use and grow on TikTok organically. This will help in creating video content for ads that are the right fit for the platform.
TikTok marketing: The paid way
In the paid methods, you can grow your TikTok business in three ways:
- TikTok ads
- TikTok Shop
- TikTok influencer marketing
The following sections will share how to begin dipping your toes and dollars into the TikTok world (safely!).
1. TikTok advertising
First things first: Using the ads manager requires you to have a TikTok business account. So, you can’t run ads if you’ve only got a personal account.
Secondly, a TikTok campaign is structured at three levels. The campaign level is the most zoomed-out version of your ad objectives. Then comes the ad groups where you can decide the placement of your ads, targeting, and budget. Finally comes the ad where you can minutely dictate how an ad appears.
You can choose where to place your ad — in-feed, at the top of your target audience’s For You Page (top view), etc. You need to spend at least $20 on every ad group in your campaign.
If you’re just getting started with ads on TikTok, I’d recommend experimenting with Promote from your business account first. This means you promote your best-performing organic posts on TikTok in a few simple clicks.
Using Promote first can help you understand how advertising works on TikTok and give you a chance to test the waters before you start creating a full-fledged campaign.
2. TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop allows you to create a storefront on the social media platform to sell your products directly using the TikTok app. Right now, these ads can be live, video, or product shopping ads.
I’ve classified TikTok shopping in the paid version because, like ads, it’s a direct line to your consumers (instead of a full funnel in organic content strategy).
Once you’ve set up your TikTok Shop (a step-by-step guide available here), you can add shoppable video posts to your TikTok business account.
Use the TikTok SEO principles while writing your product details to increase your discoverability on the platform. For example, this bag uses various keywords someone might use to search for a specific travel bag.
TikTok Shop is still relatively new among consumers. It’s still earning buyers' trust, so be strategic about how much time and energy you spend on it. The top reason consumers shop directly on TikTok is to get unique discount codes, so use them if you can.
You can also partner with affiliates and they can promote your products using a unique discount code. They get a commission if someone purchases using their code.
3. TikTok influencer marketing
Influencer collaborations are all the rage on TikTok. You can partner with relevant influencers to promote your products in exchange for a flat fee and/or affiliate commission. If you want (and both parties agree), you can also convert influencer content into spark ads to put money behind a successful influencer post.
TikTok influencers can help you reach new audiences and borrow the trust the creator has built with their followers. While follower count matters in how wide an influencer’s reach is, it’s essential to find creators whose followers overlap with your target buyers.
Take the collaboration between Suman and V&Co. Beauty. Suman has a dedicated following of people interested in wavy hair care. By partnering with her, the business communicated their product’s benefits (and “showed” it in action) via a trusted source.
@sumans.waves #vandcopartner Peptides play an important role in our hair’s health! @V&Co. Beauty hair products are made with a peptide blend that strengthens our scalp and hair. They help with split ends and breakage! You can find these products at @Walmart 🥰 #wavyhair #hairproducts
Many customers might also be creating videos using your product for their audiences. This is called user-generated content; you can also use it to get more conversions for your business. For example, if a consumer has posted an honest review of your product, you can reshare it with their permission and maybe even run it as an ad. In return, you can also offer their followers a discount code.
Worried about the impact of the TikTok ban?
Don't be. Many social media experts advise you continue posting to TikTok and building an audience there — while cross-posting to other channels and building on other video platforms.
The best part is that you can automate cross-platform posting. Work smart and use marketing tools like Buffer (for free!) to schedule content across different short-form video platforms.
If you're looking for other platforms to move to, we have just the article for you with 4 TikTok Alternatives to Consider.
