Why some songs stick and others never click
I’m a social media marketer who runs an influencer marketing group, Thirteenth. Some of the TikTokers referenced are part of our team. Interested in a campaign? Let’s talk.
This is Part Two of a series on TikTok virality. You can catch up on Part One here.
Divine Timing
Ultradiox could not have had more opportune timing with his song, “Walked In.” Released a little over a month ago, the song starts: “Walked in the house, I got Fendi and Prada in my house” in a typical SoundCloud rap, Comethazine-esque cadence. With a combined 3,000 followers between Instagram and Spotify, Ultradiox is optically similar to that kid from high school that still hasn’t been convinced to put down the microphone. Yet, in just the last week, he’s received some of the biggest co-signs and earned a new viral dance on TikTok.
In the midst of a TikTok All-Star Weekend (or, was it the NBA’s?) that was filled with a storm of dance credit controversy, HypeHouse stars Charli D’Amelio and Addison Rae uploaded a few videos with America’s new TikTok darling, Jalaiah Harmon.
One of their videos was a dance to “Walked In”, with choreography inspired by Hunter Lassy who uploaded dances to the track as early as January 15th. They incorporated some new moves, and Addison performed it again with Charli to wrap up All-Star Weekend. The song had around 10,000 videos created to it at the time — nothing close to what I consider to be the 100,000-video-threshold to qualify a song as “TikTok viral”.
One week later, though, Addison has uploaded videos with Hype House roomies Lil Huddy and Jack Wright, then performed the dance on Entertainment Tonight’s TikTok Takeover. Popular creators like Sharlize True and Zoe Laverne showcased their versions as well, and the sound has rocketed to over 300,000 videos created and racked up nearly one million streams. The most popular rendition of the dance is, of course, Charli D’Amelio performing it in collaboration with Prada at Milan Fashion Week. Great lyric choice, Ultradiox!
What’s It Worth?
A Hype House sign-off is a crucial element to many (if not every) viral TikTok hits. Doja Cat’s “Say So”, choreographed by Haley Sharpe (@yodelinghaley), rocketed to 2.2 million videos after people like Charli, Ashely Tisdale, the GuessWho girls, and Emma Chamberlain performed it and attributed dance credit. More recently, HypeHouse has endorsed songs like My Heart Went Oops and Masego’s track “Tadow,’’ which took off partially thanks to a dance uploaded by Avani.
But what does it cost getting a HypeHouse creator to dance for your artist, hoping it can rocket them to fame? It’s impossible to determine whether or not any given song has that magical “it” factor, but it’s undeniable that visibility with the right influencers can be a shortcut to success — otherwise entirely dependent on compelling content and intimate knowledge of the platform. The Hype House kids are still in the midst of their TikTok World Tour — touring the country to make appearances at major cultural events from NBA games to fashion weeks — which means they probably aren’t interested in creating a dance for a mere $5,000 offer (or, whatever you think you can throw their way). Creators in the HypeHouse post an average of three to ten videos per day, which means that even if a marketing company was somehow able to contact Charli or her friends, they likely wouldn’t accept the offer. These kids don’t need the money, but they also don’t have the time.
Luckily, they don’t need to.
Have you noticed how none of these dances have actually been created by Hype House members? Usually, it’s a dance that already exists and gets edited with some new (sometimes literal) twists and turns that make it easily replicable. The final result is simplified, polished, and something that ends on every user’s For You page — TikTok’s algorithmic homepage.
To make a song viral, you need to pay creators who may not be the biggest influencers, but who still have influence — the creators that consistently get a viral video on the For You page. Creators that are friends with Hype House members and who can get on their feed, making it more likely for them to replicate your new dance for free.
But, Please, Not Another #Challenge…
If you want an example of what NOT to do, please direct your attention to Columbia Records’ multiple attempts at pushing Russ’s new album, Shake the Snow Globe. While Columbia previously had great success on TikTok with acts like Lil Nas X and Arizona Zervas, they’re wasting precious dollars with second-rate influencers and should readjust this campaign with whatever budget might be left.
The audience on TikTok is incredibly internet-savvy. They’re known to be wary of campaigns and marketing schemes, unless conducted creatively. Adding the word “Challenge” to a hashtag will not create a challenge if there’s not already traction behind the trend.
While Nessa Barrett is an incredibly popular TikToker, the “#Guesswhatchallenge” never had any legs, and this attempt at creating a dance was doomed from the beginning. The word “challenge” reads basically like “#ad” to anybody with cultural awareness (no shade to Nessa. Go get your bag, girl — this one is on the marketing team).
But it didn’t stop there. Hype House’s Lopez Brothers were likely overpaid for their attempts at launching a Guess What trend, seen here and here (rumored to be upwards of $3,000/ea for a music post). The idea itself wasn’t too bad, prompting creators to answer the repetitive lyric “Guess What”. However, having them film it in a salon while receiving celebrity influencer hairdresser treatment doesn’t really scream to the ordinary TikToker, “Hey, I can make a video like this, too!”
Understanding TikTok can certainly be a headache. A lot of marketers will outsource these tasks to “Music Marketing Agencies” who promise to help get you “massive reach” with huge influencers. Those are *sometimes* fine — but make sure you vet these companies and ask a few questions before handing over a budget. There’s no reason to pay a company who doesn’t have a direct relationship with talent already, and are going to probably go through another agency to find the talent for them. Now you’re paying through two different entities before even getting to the influencer — essentially blowing your budget. Also, justify every fee and shop around between talent. Don’t overpay for somebody that averages 10k-30k likes just because they have 2 million followers. You can probably find a middle schooler doing the same numbers and get them for $50. Spend time on TikTok to understand what good metrics look like — or be sure you’re working with someone who does.
And this is speaking from experience, considering I just received an email from a music marketing agency inquiring about two of our influencers performing a dance to Nighttime or joining the #AssholeChallenge — both new Russ songs.
I’m personally a huge Russ fan, but the asshole challenge? We can do better.
So, What Should I Do? When is TikTok Right for My Song?
The best time to jump on TikTok is when your song has traction. You have to pay attention to what’s happening on the app and know to spot an opportunity when you see one — like this Jhene Aiko + Big Sean track, with dance credits to Tatiana Lima.
It’s also important to talk to TikTok to make sure your name is on the music. This is crucial. This Brent Faiyaz song that hasn’t even been attributed to him on the platform yet has garnered nearly 95,000 videos. Sean Paul’s song “Get Busy” has 5.5 MILLION videos created with it — and without credit, he is unable to reap any of the benefits of attribution.
TikTok is psychological. The idea here is to influence a thousand people under the age of 20 to make a video based on what they see on their feeds, and hope that a few hundred thousand more follow suit.
The smart thing to do would be to blast it across their feeds — making them think it’s more popular than it actually may be.
Let’s say you have a $5,000 budget for a song. Take $1,000 and pay for an influencer like Jazlyn Robinson, Haley Sharpe, Lauren Kettering or somebody in the popular influencer circle to create a dance for it. Gone are the days of paying next to nothing for a #1 global hit to take off — if you want good results, you’ll pay for good results.
Now, 1/5th of your budget is gone, but you’ve got a dance created by someone other creators often look to for inspiration, or at least end up on everybody’s For You Page (FYP) routinely. Now, with the $4,000, you have some options:
- Pay 5–8 well-known creators $500-$800 to use the sound. By well-known, I mean roughly 1–4 million+ followers and have at least collaborated with people in Hype House, or are followed by them on TikTok/Instagram (tip: it’s a good idea to follow all of these TikTokers on IG and get a sense for who knows who as you peruse accounts).
Examples here: @ThreeDotCorey, @ThisAintJay, @MicahCow, @ReggieFisher15, @Jazlyn_Robinson, @YodelingHaley, @LaurenKettering, @LiyaPerez, @Muslimthicc, @Shreksdumpster, @Hannahryleee, @Thexhan
- Find 10–20 lowkey dancers/creators and pay them all $200-$400 to do the dance. For $200, you’ll have to send a lot of emails and really hunt people down. You’re probably going to get influencers in the range of 50,000 to 750,000 followers here. Most of them probably won’t go viral, but you might have one that really takes off and it will at least let other people know the dance is being done by a few people. It might take a month, but somebody big (read: Hype House) could pick up your dance down the road when they’re in a content bind and need something new to post.
Examples here: @TabithaSwatosh, @Rhondaqphan, @CamrynCordova, @JennaRenee, @ansleyminorr, @elizaminorr, @LilNectarine, @TaylorNunez5, @JadeJurgenss
- Split the $4k. For a viral TikTok song, you need a dance, but you also need to showcase other ways to use the sound. While it can be beneficial going heavy in either direction, you can split the budget and seed ideas on both sides of the spectrum — giving a chance for dances to catch on and also pushing content creation with the sound.
After this, analyze your results and see what progress has been made. If the budget allows, consider spending another $3,000-$5,000 for more popular co-signs to continue what traffic has been driven — and repeat until viral. Overall, though, I wouldn’t recommend routinely spending over $1,000 — $1,500 for a sound placement. If you’re paying that much for someone whose last name isn’t D’Amelio, you are being, what my generation likes to say, finessed.
Trouble getting started? Set-up your first TikTok campaign here.
