From fail-safe brand Tatcha to emerging indie Ourself, TikTok has become an increasingly lucrative platform for beauty. But, what’s driving the 10.2% MOM follower growth that brands are experiencing?
According to , brands are experiencing a consistent 12% monthly growth on Tiktok – that’s 181% higher than averages seen on Instagram. What’s more, the platform continues to offer unique opportunities when it comes to reach and engagement.
But first – if you’re as bamboozled as us by analytics lingo on socials – let’s unpick what engagement and reach really mean:
On Tiktok and Instagram, reach is the average number of unique accounts that see your post.
Engagement differs across the two platforms. On Tiktok, engagement comes from likes, comments, shares, and views. Whereas, likes, comments, and followers equals great engagement rate on Instagram.
With that cleared up, it’s time to take a deep dive on the trends characterising Tiktok over the last 12 months. According to Dash Hudson:
- TikTok and Youtube are the best platforms for brands that want to engage with scrollers – old and new. Tiktok’s engagement is 35% higher than on Instagram, however Reels result in more reach. So, if you want to hit the homescreen of unique visitors, Instagram’s for you.
- Usually, as brands’ followers increase on social media platforms, their engagement drops. However, TikTok bucks the trend – it is the only outlet where both grow together. So, if you are successful on TikTok, expect to see sustained growth across all performance indicators.
- In the last 12 months, TikTok’s follower growth rate is 20x higher than that on Instagram, and 6x higher than YouTube. However, engagement rates are continuing to drop as the channel continues to mature.
When it comes to category performance, beauty content has seen an overall drop in engagement of 0.4% on TikTok. It’s not all bad news, the industry is the second most engaged with industry, pipped to the post by media and publishing which takes the top spot.
Beauty has managed to keep a silver medal thanks to the increasing number of celebrity brands, which cultivate impressive engagement rates thanks to fan culture. Take Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, the brand has garnered close to 10 million followers across TikTok and Instagram. Upon its launch, the brand became the fastest growing beauty business on socials.
Which brands are mastering how to perform on TikTok?
Ourself has taken the US market by storm, with its bridging of topical skincare and biotechnology which brings treatments into the bathroom. Thanks to its techy product offering, the brand has leveraged high performing educational content to make it the highest engaged-with brand on TikTok over the last 12 months.
Both r.e.m beauty and florence by mills take top five spots in the ranking of most engaged with brands in light of their celebrity founders. But, both brands cater their content to specific audiences which means they support community development in the first instance, and unique visitors second.
The secret to Sigma’s success? Posting lots, often, consistently. The brand has one of the most stringent TikTok strategies seen on the platform, with the team creating up to nine new – never done before – assets a week. The brand’s social team really is flexing its muscles.
Want to learn more? Dash Hudson’s ‘2023 Cross-Channel Benchmark Report’ can be read .
