TikTok is tapping video delivery platform Vimeo to help small businesses make content for the platform. The new integration will connect Vimeo’s video creation tools with TikTok Ads Manager, allowing Vimeo users to drop their own branding into TikTok-ready templates.
“Vimeo and TikTok are solving one of the most significant pain points for small and mid-sized businesses in reaching customers — how to easily and affordably create professional-quality content at scale,” Richard Bloom, senior VP, business development, Vimeo, said in a statement.
The two companies also developed custom video templates exclusively available in Vimeo Create and optimized for the TikTok platform. Users will be able to choose a template, and then add their own branding and assets, or pull from Vimeo’s stock library of videos, photos, and commercially licensed music.
The new integration makes Vimeo the first video software company in TikTok’s Marketing Partner Program, and will be available to Vimeo’s 200 million global users.
This isn’t the first time TikTok has aimed to help small and mid-sized businesses on the platform. For National Small Business Week in May, TikTok launched the #SupportSmallBusiness hashtag to boost SMBs on the platform. Throughout the pandemic, some small businesses were able to stay afloat by driving sales from their TikTok content. But not every SMB has the bandwidth (or know-how) to create videos. And keeping up with the app can be time consuming, especially because TikTok recommends that businesses test new TikTok ads on a bi-weekly basis and that they post new organic TikTok videos multiple times a week - if not every day.
Still, the wide reach of the app is appealing. TikTok recently broke 3 million global downloads, according to Sensor Tower, a market intelligence and analytics firm for the mobile app economy. That user base has small and mid-sized businesses wanting to learn more about how to be present on the app to connect with potential customers. Ninety-six percent of consumers have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service, and 84% of consumers say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video, according to Wyzowl’s State of Video Marketing 2021 report.
“If you have customers between 18 and 40, you should have a presence on TikTok,” said Anders Piiparinen, CEO of Wallaroo Media, a digital marketing agency. “Now's probably the best time and chance you'll have to get incredible reach for little to no dollars.”
One of the dozen small and mid-sized businesses testers for the new integration was NaturalAnnie Essentials, a family-run, Bridgeport, Conn.-based soy candle company. The company has 4,000 TikTok followers and offers a 25% off TikTok discount. They saw a 5.5 times increase in conversion rate within the first two weeks of the test campaign, compared with other forms of online advertising.
“We’ve saved thousands of dollars, the stress of shipping candles to a production studio, and lots of headaches by using Vimeo for our TikTok ads,” said Annya White-Brown, CEO of NaturalAnnie Essentials. “Vimeo Create made it super easy— it was as simple as adding your assets to the templates to fit your brand. Now we create anywhere from 30-75 videos per month.”
