What is the TikTok Creative Center?

Breaking down the 3 most useful tools to leverage

ICYMI: Last week we highlighted the impact of the longstanding hashtag, #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt. Check it out here.

This week, we’ll be sharing:

• How to best navigate the TikTok Creative Center, and pointing out 3 key features to reference when looking to elevate your brand’s next batch of ad creative

• This week’s top trending sounds to latch onto for the opportunity to go viral

TikTok Creative Center

As more brands begin to explore the role TikTok can play in their acquisition strategy, media buyers, content teams, and founders alike are hungry for all the insights they can gather on how to run the most efficient ad campaigns. 

And with hardly any historical data to reference while getting acclimated to this very new platform, TikTok has been churning out its own professional resources, including case studies, getting started guides, and creative pointers to help inform eager partners through the onboarding process. But, it can seem that just as you’re starting to get a hang of what’s working for your account, TikTok launches another new ads manager feature to double down on.

Fortunately, this doesn’t have to feel as overwhelming as it sounds. As the ads dashboard itself has become more robust, so have the resources. Cue the TikTok Creative Center. TikTok For Business Creative Center has grown into a hub for discovering the latest trends, success stories, and tools to create the best performing TikTok ads. 

As a brand, here are the top 3 features we recommend you check out before planning your next ad campaign:

Trend Discovery

The Trend Discovery section displays trending user generated content relevant to the TikTok community in real time, broken down by three categories:

Trending Songs ranks the most popular audios on the app by pulling their usage data over the past 7 and 30 days and comparing those daily numbers to the peak of its popularity over all time. These insights are displayed on a graph to indicate whether a song appears to be trending up, down, or remaining steady in usage by creators. You can also take a look at the top videos featuring this audio and suggestions for similar music from the Commercial Audio Library, which have already been pre-cleared to use in ads.

Trending Hashtags are ranked in a similar fashion as songs are, by measuring popularity over time. In addition to exploring related hashtags and top videos featured under the hashtag, this section includes the ability to filter the trending list by industry.

Trending TikToks  popularity can be assessed by a few different metrics, including likes, comments, and shares. The section also allows you to check out what’s “hot,” which likely uses an undisclosed weighted average of all the video metrics to determine popularity. 

Top Ads

Arguably the most useful tool within the Creative Center, the Top Ads section is exactly what it sounds like, a collection of the  best performing ads currently running on the platform. Features within this section include: 

• The ability to filter out results by region, industry, campaign objective, source, duration, and format. You can then sort these results by reach, engagement, or 6s view rate

• Access to view the number of  likes, shares, and comments each top ad has acquired over the past 7 or 30 days.

• A timestamp for the most valuable frame within the ad. This is shown by a graph comparing the relative CTR (Click Through Rate) of each second of the video against the second with the highest CTR of the entire video. The CTR of a certain second equals the number of clicks divided by the number of viewers in that second.

• A list of recommended ads of a similar style to also check out

Creative Insights

Here you’ll find the most up to date best practices for creating videos optimized for KPIs such as impressions and conversions. These creative tips are generated by identifying certain creative attributes – like video duration or closed captioning. Then a performance ranking is assigned based on how important that attribute is to help a video reach a larger audience. 

Actionable stats include:

• High resolution content (720P and above) indicates a 312% lift in conversion compared to its lower resolution counterparts

• Videos with a duration between 21 to 34 seconds indicate a 280% lift in conversion and a 2% lift in impressions compared to videos with a duration shorter than 21 seconds and longer than 34 seconds.

• Adding a clear call to action indicates a 152% lift in conversion, compared to videos that don't clearly state a call to action.

Main Takeaways: 

• While the learning curve to getting acquainted with the TikTok ads center as a whole is inevitable, there is no shortage of resources to help you get started creating content that converts.

• By using the Creative Center tools to gather inspiration from top ads, discover a trending song or hashtag, and implement relevant best practices, you will be able to spin out plenty of ideas for ads to incorporate into your brand’s testing strategy.

• Need help scaling this operation? Send a message to hi@slope.agency 👋

🎵 Trending Sounds

Using trending sounds is key to growing on TikTok. Sounds help increase your chance for virality as well as increasing your video’s average watch time. Every week, we’ll round up a couple trending sounds that we think you should pay attention to, and how you can use them in your content. 

Reading Rainbow Theme Song

• What this sound is: The opening credits to a popular 1980’s kids TV show has been paired with the app’s space feature by creators to poke fun at an idea or express their shock from a random or hilarious experience via text overlay.

• How your brand can use it: Seeing that the filter used is a greenscreen background of the creator’s head floating through the Milky Way, your brand can easily hop on this trend by sharing a funny misconception about your industry, category, or product.

#JustABaby

• What this sound is: Whether it’s a video of a cute pet or wanting to stay on the family plan, this sound and hashtag combo has been used by creators to cover scenarios where they want to escape responsibility by reminding people they’re “just a baby.” 

• How your brand can use it: If your brand page includes behind the scenes or recruiting content, this sound can be used humorously to share over the top requests for potential applicants, interns, or new hires. Alternatively, the trend is an excellent excuse to show off the office pet!

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