Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok the short video app, proved itself in 2019. The only 3 years old app boomed in 2019 and reaches today 500 million monthly active users and 150 million daily active users. This app is considered to be one of the most efficient new ways to reach the nowadays youth since more than half of its users are under 24 years old and nearly 75% of them are aged between 20 and 34 years old.
It mainly gathers young people, including the Gen Z (born between 1995 and 2000s) and Millenials (born between 1980 and 1995). Knowing that half of Gen Z-ers and about the third of Millenials spent more than 50,000 RMB on shopping in 2017, Douyin is now a key actor in the Chinese marketing strategy of any brand that wants to reach Chinese youth.
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Why is Douyin an opportunity for your company?
- Booming app since the revenue from Apple and Android users were five times higher than in 2018.
- In-app sales and advertisers made TikTok earned about USD 177 million in 2019.
- China is the biggest TikTok market: considering only iOS users, Chinese users spent USD 122.9 million on TikTok while United States users only spent USD 36 million)
- With 740 million downloads, it was the second most downloaded app in 2019.
By reading these numbers, companies quickly understood that being present on Douyin may help them to reach their target and gain visibility in China, especially with young people.
Brands invest massively in Douyin Ads
For example, many luxury brands started to work with Douyin through ads.
The first was Michael Kors, followed by leader brands as Dior, BMW or Hugo Boss. Some other brands which are relatively new in China have the goal to get known and use platforms like Douyin to reach a large young public. And this is what Airbnb did!
Many other brands from a huge diversity of sectors (like KFC or Tesla) also worked with Douyin for their marketing campaign.
How to market your company/product with Douyin?
There are several ways to promote your company in Douyin:
Open Tik Tok / Douyin Verified account:
Having an official Douyin account is the first step to establish your fanbase on this platform and gather an important amount of followers to whom you will be able to spread content.
Setting up your business account (by providing business information such as name, promotion links, primary contact, tax information, payment method, …) is the prior thing to do.
Getting certified on Douyin is not compulsory, but really helpful for your business account! This little badge will make your account seen as authentic and reliable. Notice that there are some requirements to get a verified account: creating original content, having certain notoriety and also adheres and respect Douyin’s community guidelines and terms of service.
Engaging content is Critical on Douyin
Since Douyin is a short video app, your content format must fit the app and of course be attractive and adapted to the Chinese market.
Douyin Open-up display ads
Usually in China, an open-up ad appears when you open an app. You have the choice between a static ad or a dynamic ad. The static one is a poster that will be displayed for 3 seconds while the dynamic one is a video that will be displayed for a little bit longer (4-5 seconds).
Douyin Sticker ads
A MUST in Douyin. Companies and brands can create customized stickers that users will be able to add to their videos. Funny, stylish, beautiful or cute, stickers are very popular in the app.
Douyin Feed ads
The feed ad will be placed among the other entertaining videos the users will watch. In this way of promotion, users are more receptive to watch your ad with attention and less hostile about considering to buy a product. Feed ad allows you to promote your product/company in a very soft and enjoyable way for the app users.
Mini-Programs on Douyin?
Quite new in the app, Douyin made possible the link of Mini Programs in 2019 which has enforced the idea that Douyin is more and more becoming a social commerce solution for brands (just as WeChat, Weibo, or Xiaohongshu).
KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) marketing strategy
The MOST used (and certainly the most efficient) Douyin tool to promote your product. Choosing the right influencers, aiming at the right public, … Many strategies are possible in Douyin: you can choose to work with one single large influencer or several small to medium influencers. Select carefully your KOLs since each influencer’s visibility can vary a lot. Did they do any viral video? Do they have an engaged audience? Are they in line with your brand image? These are some of the questions you must think about your selection.
Also, top content creators can now (with fan bases of at least one million followers) to add links to Taobao and Tmall directly within the video post. This new feature is very good news and will help you increase your sales.
Including Douyin in your marketing strategy will allow you to reach a young audience that may be hard to reach if you were not present in the app. That is why we recommend you to add Douyin in your marketing strategy as soon as possible!
We can help you with Getting on Douyin
- Open and verified Douyin account
- Douyin PPC ads
- Douyin Kols
- Douyin eCommerce Store
- Douyin Live-streaming
- Video shooting and editing
