Remember when TikTok was just teenagers doing dance routines in their bedrooms? Well, hasn’t that ship sailed! These days, TikTok has transformed into a proper marketing powerhouse that’s helping brands of all sizes get noticed – and I mean properly noticed, not just scrolled past.
Here at Essex Marketing, we’ve been helping local businesses navigate the wild and wonderful world of TikTok advertising – from Chelmsford boutiques to Southend restaurants. The results, quite frankly, have been eye-popping for even the most sceptical business owners.
So, brew yourself a cuppa and let’s dive into how those addictive little TikTok ads can catapult your brand awareness into the stratosphere.
Why TikTok? The Numbers That Make Marketers Sit Up Straight
First things first – is TikTok actually worth your marketing budget? The short answer is a resounding “crikey, yes!” But don’t just take my word for it:
- TikTok now has over 23 million monthly active users in the UK alone
- The average user spends a whopping 95 minutes per day on the platform (that’s more than an entire football match!)
- 67% of TikTok users say they’ve been inspired to shop even when they weren’t planning to
- Brand recall from TikTok ads is 27% higher than other social platforms
One Brentwood fashion retailer we work with was absolutely gobsmacked to discover that their target demographic (women 35-55) was actually more engaged on TikTok than on Facebook. They’d been pouring their entire budget into the wrong platform for months!
The Algorithm That Changes Everything
The magic of TikTok lies in its eerily effective algorithm. Unlike platforms where reach depends heavily on how many followers you have, TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) is a great equaliser.
A small Essex bakery can go viral just as easily as Greggs – it’s all about the content, not the size of your following. This means even brands just starting out can achieve remarkable awareness with the right approach.
One of our clients, a Romford-based hairdresser, reached over 400,000 views with their very first TikTok ad campaign highlighting their colour correction services. Their entire monthly marketing budget wouldn’t have got them a tenth of that reach on traditional platforms. Not too shabby, eh?
TikTok Ad Formats: Something for Every Awareness Goal
TikTok offers several ad formats, each with its own special sauce for boosting awareness:
In-Feed Ads
These blend seamlessly into the FYP, looking just like regular TikTok content. They’re less “ad-like” so users are more likely to watch rather than scroll past.
A Colchester café used in-feed ads showing their barista creating latte art. The casual, native feel led to a 43% higher view-through rate than their polished Facebook ads.
TopView Ads
These premium ads appear when users first open the app – they’re impossible to miss! Yes, they’re pricier, but talk about making an entrance.
An Essex county fair splashed out on a weekend of TopView ads and saw a 34% increase in ticket sales compared to the previous year. Sometimes you need to go big or go home!
Branded Hashtag Challenges
These are absolute gold for awareness. You create a challenge with a branded hashtag and watch as users create content around it. It’s essentially getting your audience to make ads for you – brilliant!
One Chelmsford gym created a simple fitness challenge hashtag that generated over 2,000 user videos and 1.2 million views. The cost per thousand impressions worked out at just 52p – try getting that value anywhere else!
Branded Effects
Custom stickers, filters, and special effects that users can add to their videos. One Essex restaurant created a filter that made it look like their signature cocktail was being poured over the user’s head – it was used over 15,000 times in a month!
The “Realness” Factor That Wins Every Time
Here’s something crucial to understand about TikTok – overly polished, corporate-looking content often bombs spectacularly. TikTok users have finely-tuned “marketing guff” detectors.
What works instead? Authentic, slightly rough-around-the-edges content that feels genuine. Think behind-the-scenes glimpses, staff doing challenges, or honest product demonstrations.
One Essex plumbing company gained thousands of followers simply by showing the truly horrifying things they find in blocked drains. Not pretty, but certainly memorable! Their brand awareness in their local area shot up, with “drain guys from TikTok” becoming how many people referred to them.
This “realness” factor is particularly brilliant for small businesses that don’t have massive production budgets. A smartphone camera, good lighting, and authentic personality will often outperform expensively produced content.
The Targeting That Gets You Noticed by the Right People
Like other digital platforms, TikTok offers sophisticated targeting options, but with some unique twists:
- Interest Targeting: Reach users based on the content they engage with
- Behaviour Targeting: Find people based on their in-app activities
- Custom Audiences: Upload your existing customer data to find similar users
- Contextual Targeting: Place your ads alongside specific types of content
One particularly clever TikTok feature is the ability to target users who have engaged with similar content creators. So if you’re a fitness brand, you can target users who watch lots of workout videos – common sense, but remarkably effective.
A Southend beauty clinic used this approach to target people who engaged with skincare content. Their brand awareness campaign reached 87% of their ideal local demographic in just two weeks. That’s the kind of focused awareness that actually translates to business!
Sound On, Please!
Unlike Facebook or Instagram where most people scroll with the sound off, a whopping 93% of TikTok users have their volume up. This is game-changing for brand awareness.
You can use catchy sounds, music, voiceovers, and audio hooks that simply wouldn’t land on other platforms. One of our Essex clients, a local music venue, used snippets of live performances in their ads to fantastic effect – something that would have been entirely lost on sound-off platforms.
The venue became known for their distinctive audio style, with people actually humming their jingle in local pubs. That’s the kind of brand awareness you simply can’t buy with traditional advertising!
Creating Content That Actually Builds Awareness
So what kind of TikTok ad content drives brand awareness? Based on our experience with Essex businesses, here are the winning approaches:
Trends With a Twist
Jumping on TikTok trends but adding your unique brand spin is like catching a wave that’s already gaining momentum. It shows you’re culturally relevant without trying too hard.
A Basildon jeweller jumped on the “Things That Just Make Sense” trend to showcase their workshop practices. The videos reached over 200,000 views and significantly boosted local recognition of their brand.
Educational Quick-Hits
“Did you know?” style content performs brilliantly. An Essex accountancy firm went viral with a series of “Tax facts they don’t teach you in school” videos. They became known as the “TikTok accountants” (in a good way!) and saw a 176% increase in website traffic.
Behind-the-Scenes Peeks
People love seeing how the sausage gets made (sometimes literally – a local butcher’s “how we make our award-winning sausages” series was a massive hit).
One Brentwood bakery showed the 4am starts and bread-making process in a series of TikTok ads. Six months later, market research showed their brand awareness had increased by 64% in their local area.
Day-in-the-Life Content
Following staff members or business owners throughout their day humanises your brand instantly. A Southend café owner’s morning routine videos created a queue of customers wanting to experience what they’d seen online.
The café became known as “the one from TikTok with the amazing breakfast prep” – that’s brand awareness gold!
The Duet and Stitch Features: Awareness Through Interaction
TikTok’s Duet and Stitch features allow users to create content that interacts with your ads, dramatically extending your reach through genuine engagement.
Smart brands are explicitly encouraging this interaction, creating “Duet with us” or “Stitch your reaction” calls to action in their ads.
One Essex hair extension specialist invited users to Duet with their transformation videos. The resulting user content generated an additional 340,000 video views beyond their original ad reach – essentially free brand awareness!
Measuring Awareness: Beyond the Views
How do you know if your TikTok ads are actually building brand awareness? Here are the metrics that matter:
- Video Views: The most basic awareness metric
- Watch Time: How much of your content people actually consume
- Follower Growth: Are people wanting to see more from you?
- Brand Lift Studies: TikTok offers tools to measure awareness increases
- Hashtag Usage: Are people using your branded hashtags?
- Search Volume: Are more people Googling your brand after campaigns?
One Harlow homeware store ran a month-long TikTok awareness campaign and tracked a 118% increase in brand name searches during that period. That’s tangible proof that TikTok was pushing people further down the marketing funnel.
Cost-Effective Awareness (Without Breaking the Bank)
Let’s talk numbers, shall we? How much does all this lovely awareness actually cost?
TikTok’s cost per mille (CPM) – the cost to reach 1,000 people – typically ranges from £3-£6 in the UK. This compares very favourably to other platforms, especially considering the engagement levels.
For local Essex businesses, we’ve found that even modest budgets of £300-500 per month can generate significant awareness when the content is spot-on. One Epping florist reached over 40,000 local users with a monthly budget of just £350.
The key is creating content that the algorithm rewards with organic reach beyond your paid promotion. When your ads resonate, TikTok essentially amplifies them for free.
Getting Started Without Getting Overwhelmed
Feeling a bit daunted by the whole TikTok universe? Here’s how to dip your toe in:
- Watch Before You Create: Spend at least a week on the platform understanding what content resonates
- Start Small: Test a modest ad budget (£10-15 per day) before scaling up
- Embrace Experimentation: Try different creative approaches to see what works for your brand
- Be Consistent: The algorithm rewards regular posting
- Use TikTok’s Creative Centre: They offer inspiration and trending content ideas
A Chelmsford optician followed exactly this approach, starting with just £300 spread over a month to test different ad concepts. They found that humorous “expectations vs reality” videos of glasses shopping performed best, and have now built their entire brand awareness strategy around this concept.
When TikTok Awareness Translates to Real Business
The million-pound question: does TikTok awareness actually translate to business results?
The data says yes, but often in ways that differ from traditional marketing:
- 67% of TikTok users say the platform inspires them to shop even when they weren’t planning to
- 37% have immediately purchased something they discovered on TikTok
- 29% have researched a brand or product they first saw on the platform
One Essex wedding venue created a series of TikTok ads showcasing their grounds and facilities. Within three months, 43% of their wedding fair attendees mentioned seeing them on TikTok first. Even more impressively, these TikTok-first leads had a 28% higher conversion rate than leads from other sources.
Is TikTok Right for Your Brand Awareness Goals?
While TikTok can work wonders for many businesses, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. It tends to be most effective for:
- Businesses with visual products or services
- Brands with personality that can be showcased
- Companies willing to be a bit playful and authentic
- Local businesses looking to build community awareness
It might be more challenging (though certainly not impossible) for:
- Very traditional B2B services
- Businesses targeting exclusively older demographics (though this is changing rapidly)
- Brands unwilling to adapt to TikTok’s informal style
The Bottom Line
In a world where traditional advertising is increasingly tuned out, TikTok offers something remarkable – an advertising platform where users actually enjoy engaging with brand content. That’s marketing gold dust!
The brands seeing the most success aren’t treating TikTok as just another advertising channel. They’re approaching it as a creative platform where they can showcase their personality, connect with audiences in authentic ways, and yes – significantly boost their brand awareness in the process.
Is creating TikTok content more time-intensive than running traditional ads? Perhaps. Does it require a different creative mindset? Absolutely. But is the potential awareness worth it? The numbers certainly suggest so.
For Essex businesses looking to get noticed in 2025 and beyond, TikTok offers that increasingly rare opportunity – the chance to get your brand in front of new eyes that are actually paying attention.
