The second installment of TikTok’s Path-to-Purchase Report, a study that shows TikTok’s impact on consumers’ purchase journeys – from discovery to consideration to post-purchase evangelism – has been released.
The latest research offers several intriguing insights into how brands can use the platform to not only drive culturally relevant conversations but also boost sales.PO
Furthermore, the report demonstrates how TikTok’s platform and community can have an impact beyond impulse purchases.
Consumers are more likely to share happy content about big-ticket purchase items like vacations and new cars, which encourages other consumers to join in the conversation both on and off the platform.
TikTok has a powerful and positive impact throughout the purchase journey, according to the findings of the latest research. TikTok turns out to be a word-of-mouth marketplace driven by post-purchase actions, as users search for new products through brands, creators, and trending topics.
In reality:
- Users are more likely to feel joyful, excited, or happy about the products they’ve purchased, according to 50% of users.
- On the platform, 58 percent of TikTok users discover new brands and products.
- 44 percent found something they wanted to buy right away.
- TikTok has 1.1x the amount of discovery as other platforms.
It’s also worth noting that what happens on TikTok isn’t necessarily permanent.
Even for larger-ticket purchases like automobiles and travel, TikTok users are 56 percent more likely to research new brands or products on the platform than on other platforms.
Read When is the Best Time to Post on TikTok?
These TikTok-inclusive journeys, on the other hand, include:
- 65 percent of users are doing more research online.
- More information on where to buy products is sought by 57% of users.
- In addition to online research, 54% of users conduct in-person research.
Because of TikTok’s unique discovery patterns and strong engagement behavior during the research process, satisfied customers promote brands and products after they’ve purchased them, as evidenced by the following:
- 58 percent of TikTok users persuaded a friend to try a product.
- TikTok users recommend products to others who are shopping for them, with 49% recommending products to others who are shopping for them.
- TikTok users persuade 47% of their friends to buy products they saw on the platform.
In February, Matt Southern, a Senior News Writer for Search Engine Journal, covered the first part of TikTok’s global research study in an article titled “TikTok a Key Part of Consumers’ Path to Purchase.”
The path to purchase on TikTok appeared to be more like an “infinite loop” than the traditional path to purchase, according to the study.
In my article “The Future of SEO Lies in the “Messy Middle” of the Purchase Journey,” published in December 2020, Google’s consumer insights team in the UK discovered that consumers loop between exploring and evaluating the options available to them until they are ready to buy.
In my book, YouTube and Video Marketing, published in November 2011, I outlined a similar looping process for discovering new videos and sharing compelling content.
And reading about research done before I was born had inspired me to create this model of video search and sharing.
The People’s Choice, a study of the 1940 US Presidential election, was published in 1948 by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet.
They discovered a two-step communication flow. The first step involved information transfer from media sources to opinion leaders, but the second step involved interpersonal influence from opinion leaders to their followers.
I used the two-step flow model to explain how YouTube worked more than a decade ago.
Using this knowledge, creators and marketers were able to take advantage of YouTube’s unique position as the world’s largest video search engine and video sharing site.
As a result, TikTok’s latest research is backed up by a long line of similar findings spanning 80 years.
That means that whether you’re trying to raise brand awareness, generate qualified leads, increase traffic, or increase conversions, social video is more like word-of-mouth marketing than mass media marketing.
And understanding this is the first step toward developing digital marketing strategies that can take advantage of TikTok’s influence on consumer purchase journeys, from discovery to consideration to post-purchase evangelism.
Learn more from TikTok and read New TikTok Tool Surfaces Useful Insights For Marketers.
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