The Importance of TikTok for Attracting More Candidates
TikTok is one fo the most important social media platforms for Generation Z, its users spending an average 12.4 hours every week on it. Globally, young people turn to TikTok mostly for content presented by peers of their age group about fashion, food, politics, viral content of many kinds and relatable “story times”. But they also use it increasingly as a search tool, with nearly 40% of them using it instead of traditional search engines like Google.
Many top universities worldwide recognize the importance of TikTok and are actively engaging with students through this platform. Examples include the University of York, University of Liverpool, and others who use TikTok to create educational and engaging content that resonates with Generation Z. These universities leverage TikTok to promote public engagement, share research findings, and even debunk myths or conspiracy theories.
For Higher Education institutions aiming to attract more candidates, TikTok offers a unique opportunity to showcase campus life, academic offerings, and student experiences in an authentic and relatable manner. By focusing on fun and informative content creation, universities can effectively reach out to potential students and create a strong online presence that appeals to the younger demographic. One way to do this is by getting student ambassadors involved in creating content to provide an authentic view of university life and connect with potential students on a personal level.
It is important, though, that they adapt their content to fit TikTok’s short, snappy, and engaging format, as content that is too lengthy or lacks creativity may fail to resonate with the platform’s audience. TikTok is an ideal platform to share quick-fire campus tours, coverage of events like graduation, and interviews with students. Failing to highlight these aspects can result in missed opportunities to engage with potential candidates.
How to attract more candidates with TikTok Ads
Besides creating and publishing content on a TikTok page of their own, Higher Education institutions can effectively use TikTok Ads to attract many more candidates by leveraging the platform’s unique features and targeting capabilities.
TikTok ad campaigns can be tailored for video views, traffic (optimized for visits to a landing page, presumably that of a program page) or lead generation (optimized for form submissions or actual applications). Advertisers can target specific locations, genders, age groups, languages and even purchasing power depending on geographic region (this is not available in the European Union, for example).
If the college has a list of emails from prospective students who submitted this information via a form on their website, they can upload this list and ask TikTok to target its users whose profiles are attached to these emails. Irrespective of that, universities can specify that they want to target ads at TikTok users who show a particular interest in one or more topics. For example, young people between the ages of 13 and 17 with an interest in economics and finance could be targeted with an ad about a degree in management.
The ad budget will be whatever the institution sets: just €5, €50, €500, €5,000, €50,000 – it all depends on the size of the target audience they want to reach and, of course, on the budget they are willing to spend.
Three examples of the potential results of TikTok Ads
In a first example, a university in Barcelona wants to invest €500 in a video ad about a Master’s Degree in Marketing, aiming to secure candidates who are residents of Western and Central Europe, between the ages of 18 and 24, with a particular interest in the areas of marketing and management and frequent use of the English language on TikTok. In this case, TikTok says there is a target audience of between 3.3 million and 4.1 million people and suggests a cost per click / landing page visit of €1, but our suggestion is to set a maximum threshold of €0.5 per click, which may be subject to change if the ad is shown only a few times in the first few days or weeks.
In the second example, a Portuguese university wants to promote degrees in Computer Engineering, Telecommunications Engineering and Data Science to young people aged between 13 and 17 living in Portugal. It is possible to configure these, and even specify computers, engineering and data analysis as the general interests of the users to whom the ads will be shown, but TikTok, in compliance with European data protection directives, does not show predictions of the reach and results of ads configured for under-18s, so in this case the campaign will need to be managed and optimized on a regular basis.
In the third example, a global MBA alumni organization has €5,000 to invest in attracting members from the student population of 20 of the world’s leading MBAs. In this case, LinkedIn Ads would be a more interesting solution, as you can set up ads for profiles of people who have specific academic (or professional) status characteristics. In addition, LinkedIn allows you to target ads more finely geographically. In the case of TikTok Ads, locations such as Fontainebleau and Stanford, where two of the leading institutions in this field are located, cannot be reached. Others can: Barcelona, Paris, Copenhagen, Oxford, etc. When it comes to interests, “management skills” is perhaps the most appropriate. With these characteristics, says TikTok, there are 8,000 to 11,000 profiles of people between the ages of 18 and 34, reachable through ads. Ultimately, only around €1,000 should be used to reach this audience, with a view to spending €0.5 per click. The remaining €4000 should ideally be invested in LinkedIn Ads.