Remember Vine? Despite its tremendous initial growth, Twitter discontinued the six-second looping video app in 2016— just four years after its launch.
We've seen apps such as Snapchat and TikTok fill the void of Vine since then. They allow users to express their imagination while promoting short mobile videos and have drawn audiences of Gen Z and the millennial. We also sound more non-traditional and niche than older sites, such as Facebook or Twitter.
User Behaviour
All apps have one primary objective: to keep the users amused as long as possible on their respective platforms. And guess what, based on the figures of TikTok and Snapchat, these apps do keep users engaged!
Snapchat users spend an average of 26 minutes per day on the device, generating an average of 2.1 million snaps per minute for users. Furthermore, in more than once a day, TikTok users spend an average of 52 minutes on the app every day as 90 per cent of their user base logs.
When it comes to product-and ad-related behaviour, TikTok and Snapchat user bases both differ.
While Snapchat is an app that encourages friends to connect, more and more users are beginning to use it as part of their shopping process.
Snapchat users are 35 percent more interested in their buyer's journey than Twitter, 46 percent more than Instagram and 58 percent more than Facebook, according to a 2019 Snapchat study. The report also claims that there is a 7x return on in-store sales from Snapchat ads. It means that— while viewers with Snapchat are highly connected to the internet and mobile devices— many of them will actually enter the physical store of the advertiser to purchase a product.
Because TikTok hopes to attract more advertisers, you will expect to see more information coming soon about how advertisers communicate with users. In fact, much of the data we have from TikTok stems from a recently leaked pitch deck created for marketers by the app company.
Which user base is better for marketers?
Although Gen Z flocks to TikTok, Snapchat has a wider age group of both Gen Z and Millennials.
It's easy to tell when looking at the survey in the intro that the general population logs into Snapchat more often than TikTok does. Although users spend more time on TikTok, Snapchat is also used as a utility app for communicating with friends and logging in multiple times a day. This could mean people see value in the app, other than entertainment, which is TikTok's platform's pure purpose. This interest from users, through TikTok could still be just a viral phenomenon, could result in it being more stable and successful in the long run.
Marketing Opportunities
Snapchat and TikTok are both trying to make their apps more appealing to advertisers. Because of their pricing and specifications, the two apps currently have products that appeal more to bigger brands but it seems they each have exclusive offerings that can still be used by smaller brands. Here's an individual breakdown.
Snapchat:
At this very moment, on Snapchat, there are only two marketing choices for brands and both are more available to mid-sized or big firms than to smaller ones. Advertising is the first, and probably the most lucrative. It has been shown that snapchat ads offers ROI related to both in-store and online purchases.
Snapchat ads also allow you to display your advertising, similar to branded publishers, in Snapchat's Discover. Unlike Snapchat Discover publishers, however, you can connect advertising or paid mini-stories to your website which might help your traffic or conversions online.
The other choice is to post Stories as publisher on Snapchat Discover. However, in order to become a publisher you need to have a clear contract with Snapchat instead of just signing up online. You also need to create original Story-styled content that really inspires users. Discover publishing is also intended to hold users in the app, so you won't be able to insert links into this form of content.
TikTok:
TikTok only launched in 2017, but its advertisement options are already expanding. We also take action to boost the brand-friendliness of content development in the app. It even allowed some platform accounts to start placing links to e-commerce sites in their videos, most recently.
Nevertheless, advertising on TikTok is incredibly expensive, and requires a large budget, according to recent reports. It has even been referred to by some media as "the wild west." So this may not be particularly open to smaller brands.
Nevertheless, TikTok brands can still create content, increase their followers, have their accounts checked and start placing links in the bio section of their advertising or profile page. That means TikTok has a slightly greater branded content capacity than Snapchat.
Which is more brand-friendly?
Now, advertisers interested in branded content should look into or play with TikTok. It's free to produce this content and since the app is so young there are less guidelines related to what content is engaging and what isn't. This means that it is a great place to explore and test the waters, particularly if you want to interact with teenagers or young adults.
Although Snapchat still lacks marketing tools for smaller brands when it comes to free content creation, the company has introduced more advertising options and now claims to have "every business" offers.
And, as already mentioned, Snapchat ads allow you to connect to your website or online store, while only a few content creators on TikTok are allowed to put links in their content. This alone means that Snapchat ads are better than general TikTok strategies if you want your marketing efforts to result in traffic or conversions.
Weighing Snapchat and TikTok
Furthermore, by comparing Snapchat and TikTok, Snapchat is even more popular and used by the general population than TikTok. Snapchat advertisements also have a track record of generating ROI and the company continues to increase advertisement options to make the platform more brand-friendly.
Although Snapchat and social apps like Instagram may be better suited for your strategy right now, don't forget TikTok. The massive growth of this app and its push to be more brand-friendly shows it's positioning itself to be more than just a viral phenomenon.
If you're more interested in marketing to professionals or those in B2B industries, table these platforms and focus on the more traditional social media networks.
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