Wavo Labs: This series shares the results of our music marketing experiments and how they inform artist media strategy.

What We Tested

TikTok is growing at a rapid rate. In September 2021, the platform hit 1 billion monthly active users. This happened in about half the time it took Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to reach the same milestone.

While big brands struggled to grasp the quirky tone of TikTok at first, many are starting to see success by leaning into videos that feel less polished, more engaging, and personal compared to other platforms. 

We wanted to know, does this ring true for artists? So for this test, we used TikTok’s “Engagement - New Follower” objective to compare the performance of two popular styles of TikTok boosted post creatives: 

• Music Video Creatives, which are creatives that feature content cut from an artist's music video; and 

• Content Native to TikTok, which are creatives that feature videos that appear native to TikTok. For example, artist content or dances.

The Results

Here are the key takeaways from the test:

• Content that appears native to TikTok generated 43.6% more followers per dollar compared to music video content.

• This lift in metrics is due in part to a 27% reduced CPM (the cost for every 1000 impressions an ad receives). Lower costs allow content to serve more impressions, which generates more results.

• Content that appeared native to TikTok also created more profile visits, more views, and stronger view and engagement rates compared to music video creatives.

The Takeaway

We recommend that music marketers use content that appears organic to TikTok when seeking to drive new followers for their artist’s accounts.

Optimize Your Music Marketing Campaigns

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